Arduino and SP0256A-AL2 – Part 2

After getting the Arduino and SP0256A-AL2 working I wondered if I could repeat the trick from the Arduino and AY-3-8910 and have the Arduino generate the required clock signal for the SP0256A-AL2. This post starts to look at that question. Part 1 - Basic introduction and getting started Part 2 - Arduino programmable clock Part 3 - … Continue reading Arduino and SP0256A-AL2 – Part 2 →

Arduino and SP0256A-AL2

Having had a bit of a play with the SP0256A-AL2 Speech Synthesis chip, this post looks at how to drive it directly from an Arduino. Part 1 - Basic introduction and getting started Part 2 - Arduino programmable clock Part 3 - Using a Raspberry Pi Pico as a programmable clock Part 4 - Using a HC4046 PLL … Continue reading Arduino and SP0256A-AL2 →

Arduino with Multiple Displays – Part 2

As I mentioned in my last post on Arduino with Multiple Displays I'm going to look at other microcontrollers too. This post takes a wander through my Waveshare Zero and similar format boards that each support one of the RP2040, ESP32-C3 or ESP32-S3. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. … Continue reading Arduino with Multiple Displays – Part 2 →

Arduino with Multiple Displays

A while back I tried to use several SSD1306 displays with an Arduino (see OLED MIDI Display – Part 2) and got into trouble with memory. I have another need for multiple displays coming up, so thought I'd revisit the idea to see what could be done. This shows use to use several cheap SPI-based displays … Continue reading Arduino with Multiple Displays →

Arduino Atari MIDI Keypad

This uses my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB and a pair of Atari 2600 keypad controllers to see if they can be used as some kind of MIDI controller. https://makertube.net/w/7VoDLuAWbiHuMr21XszyD4 Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to expensive instruments! These are … Continue reading Arduino Atari MIDI Keypad →

Arduino MIDI Atari Paddles

Finally, I get to the point where I can do something vaguely musical with my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB. This turns it into a simple MIDI CC controller using the Atari paddles. https://makertube.net/w/dgK7y73KfC1SWc5z2wsJ6x Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment for your experiments. I am not responsible for any damage to … Continue reading Arduino MIDI Atari Paddles →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3

Following on from Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2 someone on Mastodon made the point that the reason they tended to use RC circuits to read paddles "back in the day" was due to the expense of ADCs. Which triggered a bit of an "oh yeah" moment. The whole point was not to … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3 →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2

This has another look at my updated Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB in order to attempt to read all four paddle controllers a bit more accurately and efficiently. Update: A much simpler approach is now described in Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 3. Warning! I strongly recommend using old or second hand equipment … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited – Part 2 →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited

As previously mentioned in my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide the PCB doesn't work so well with paddle controllers due to the way they are wired up. This is an update to the PCB to allow the paddles to be used in a very similar way to the original Atari 2600. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited →

Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide

Here are the build notes for my Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Design. Recall from my design notes that this version doesn't deal with paddles very well Here is an updated version that supports paddles better, but at the expense of requiring more complex code to read them: Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Revisited. Warning! I strongly … Continue reading Atari 2600 Controller Shield PCB Build Guide →