Minimig laptop - Portable Amiga console

[XCVG]

Pretty nice. Though, I almost missed it entirely with it being in Development Center for some reason...

Yeah, I think the modding section needs to be COMPLETELY reorganized. Maybe by generation?

8-bit consoles (Atari/NES/Master System/anything old)
16-bit consoles (SNES/Genesis/TG16)
5th Gen (N64/PSOne/Saturn)
6th Gen (DC/GC/XBOX/PS2)
7th Gen (Wii/360/PS3)
Handhelds
Computer Hacking (PC/Amiga/C64/Atari Computers)
Misc. Hacking

Also, the reference stuff should GO IN REFERENCE, EVEN IF IT IS ALREADY IN A FORUM!

But I'm getting off topic.

Nice mod.

[MegatronUK]

Yeah, the problem being that if you don't fit in the existing console categories, where do posts like this go?

[bicostp]

Tech Q&A is the general catch-all for miscellaneous projects.

NOT the Development forum, that's for software.

[MegatronUK]

It's bizarre that a project is in the 'Q&A' section. But oh well....

Hacked up SNES controller:





I've had to raise the height of the 'pads' on the back of the d-pad itself in order to clear the thickness of the case - they're slightly below the height of the case in real SNES controllers. Seems to have actually improved the feel of the controller somewhat too, which is an unexpected bonus.

Haven't done any wiring of the controller yet, as I'm trying to find a definitive pinout for Amiga joysticks - the 'standard' is U/D/L/R and 1 fire button, but 2 buttons *do* seem to be supported, so I want to make sure it's wired up to be as flexbile as possible.

[MegatronUK]

Touchpad is wired up and working.



The wiring is trivial - 4 wires to a PS2 connector (+5v, Ground, PS2 Data, PS2 Clock), and another 3 to my seperate mouse buttons (Ground, button1, button 2). I'm using 2 of the 4 SNES fire buttons for the mouse because, well, they were there!

All the standard touchpad features (double tap to press button 1, tap and hold to drag) are working without any modification whatsoever in the Amiga Workbench.

[Life of Brian]

You're my hero. Just wanted to let you know that

Keep it up! So far, so good!

[OhSnap!]

does it fel strange to have the trackpad above the keyboard? i wouls have thought the standard laptop setout would have worked better. but totally wicked portable man!!!!

[MegatronUK]

Not really - the controls are at the top primarily because when you hold the case in your hands they naturally rest about half way up the sides - with your thumbs pointing inwards towards the bottom of the screen. There just isn't the room to have a touchpad/trackball at the bottom, the keyboard in the middle and joypad controls at the top.

Besides, there's not too many games I'd play (apart from maybe Lemmings, The Settlers and some adventures) that use a mouse; they're virtually all blasters or platformers. The only other time you'd use it is to load a game when in Workbench (there's an additional microcontroller board coming some for the Minimig that emulates a hard disk interface, so it means all the games can be installed to a virtual hard drive rather than loading from emulated floppy drives).

[MegatronUK]

Got a few more bits and pieces done. Also made a list of the outstanding jobs; completed a few of them today:

Code: Select all

1 Support for front right of keyboard - DONE
2 right angle connector for minimig dc input
3 right angle connector for minimig stereo out - DONE
4 screw in d-pad to case cover - DONE
5 sand and smooth case cover
6 paint case cover
7 glue touchpad to case cover
8 buy battery protection circuits
9 batteries to protection circuit wiring
10 protection circuit to dual/single cell toggle switch
11 dc input and toggle switch to battery/off/dc switch - DONE
12 cut-outs for volume/brightness control
13 DB9 to lithium charger cable
14 cut out in case for sd card slot - DONE

I've also done a block diagram so that I know in the future how it all hangs together:



Yep, the single/dual battery switch is wrong, it's three pole (2 batteries and output, 1 battery output, none)

[samjc3]

wow! epic laptop is epic.

[MegatronUK]

Got the keyboard cover/controller mounting surface finished and painted - just drying now, I'll give it another coat after lunch and put it together this afternoon for some pictures and to do the final mounting of the touchpad. It's looking really good now

Everything is done except the battery circuit - I need to find some reasonably priced protection circuits - so it all works, but only via the dc-in jack.

[MegatronUK]

Keyboard/controller cover fitted, all controls attached and trial fitted to the case:



Just need to make up a patch lead from the joystick and buttons to the pcb, touchpad and keyboard are already done.
I'll probably do a trial run this afternoon and stick another video up on youtube.

[Life of Brian]

I love it!

[Shakespeare]

That thing is absolutely amazing. It's so tiny, too!

[MegatronUK]

Hmm... after putting everything together to test it again I'm finding the screen is doing weird things. Even without the RGB input from the Minimig connected up it's got a strange interference on the screen (everything tinged grey), and the OSD images flicker green and grey, rather than being solid green.

Can't figure out what I've done to it that would have caused the problem. I'll have to pull it apart this weekend and test the screen more thoroughly.