http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWro-RsDG8s
Here is a short video that shows my test of a new product in development called the ENIO (Extended NES I/O). One of its abilities allows you to connect Famicom peripherals that use the expansion port to the NES expansion port.
Being the Famicom/NES geek that I am I think this is really interesting, and great to see the NES expansion port get some real use. I can't wait to see what comes about next.
You can visit the projects main page at http://enio.chykn.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Pretty cool, I wanna buy one if the price is right.
Pretty cool indeed! Hope there'll be a Famicom version. Of course the famicom exp part is not necessary for Famicom but the other stuff I mean.
Thanks for the interest! I've posted the ENIO EXP boards in the FS section over at NA...
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=81020 (http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=6&threadid=81020)
What famicom only peripherals would take advantage of this?
That's what Xious and I were looking into. Before, you know.... he disappeared. Nice work!
Quote from: RGB_Gamer on August 09, 2012, 11:43:56 am
What famicom only peripherals would take advantage of this?
I'm not sure what other devices plug into the 15-pin FC EXP port, but the one I had in mind was the FC keyboard. Mainly because it requires most of the signals on the port which made it a good test.
Quote from: RGB_Gamer on August 09, 2012, 11:43:56 am
What famicom only peripherals would take advantage of this?
3rd party controllers.
Most Famicom peripherals are extra controllers (often with turbo), the light gun, Family Trainer mat and other things that there already exists NES versions for. But there are a few interesting ones with no NES equivalent besides the keyboard and also a lot of weird ones. There was a cool Japanese site with reviews of lots of obscure famicom controllers but I can't find the URL.
EDIT: Found it: http://www.ne.jp/asahi/oroti/famicom/cont00.htm
If you wanna play Japanese 3- or 4 player games then you need to use the Famicom expansion port for the extra controllers, neither Four Score nor NES Satelite will work. I guess that's another use for the ENIO.
BTW what happened to the network and USB keyboard capabilities? It would be interesting if you could somehow use a USB keyboard with Famicom basic, then more people could start using it and homebrew that makes use of the keyboard would maybe show up.
Quote from: P on August 09, 2012, 04:49:51 pm
BTW what happened to the network and USB keyboard capabilities? It would be interesting if you could somehow use a USB keyboard with Famicom basic, then more people could start using it and homebrew that makes use of the keyboard would maybe show up.
Good point. If you look at the project page, there are two boards. One is the ENIO EXP board and the other is the ENIO CPU board. The CPU board does indeed have the ethernet and USB capabilities as well as a Xilinx CPLD. It is possible to reprogram the CPLD to emulate a Famicom keyboard. The PIC32 would grab the state of the USB KB and push the input to a buffer in the CPLD. The CPLD would then deliver the data when polled by the NES.
I haven't really advertised the CPU board because it's not 100% ready. Still have to finish adding the MicroSD card bootloader and CPLD reprogramming functions to the firmware. I've seen enough vaporware to know you usually end up looking like an a$$ if you advertise a product that's not ready to ship. :P
This sure is an awesome project! Board looks great, although some cover would be nice, but that's just nitpicking ;D
Anyway please keep us updated (not just NA) on the CPU board which is definitely more interesting for Famicom owners!
Quote from: 80sFREAK on August 09, 2012, 06:39:09 pm
2 Chykn how much is the "fish"?
Quote from: Chykn @ NintendoAgeSelling for $20/each plus $5 shipping via USPS Priority Mail.
Quote from: 80sFREAK on August 10, 2012, 04:29:38 am
$20 for... ???
It's $20 for the ENIO EXP board and 15-pin FC EXP header cable (available now). The CPU board (ethernet, USB, MicroSD) will be no more than $60. It will be lower if I can get a large enough batch in the first production run. Someone asked if there will be a bundle deal - yes. Anyone who buys both (or buys an EXP board before the CPU board is ready) will get $10 off the pair.
Post Merge: August 14, 2012, 06:31:07 pm
Quote from: jpx72 on August 09, 2012, 09:45:26 pm
This sure is an awesome project! Board looks great, although some cover would be nice, but that's just nitpicking ;D
Good point. How's this?
(http://www.chykn.com/ENIO-CPU-InCase.jpg)
Looking good. Any chance for a shell for the EXP board?
I can see what the USB and micro SD could be used for but I'm not sure what the ethernet could be used for. Homebrew that needs internet connection for some reason? Anyway it looks great! And if I ever buy a NES again I will be intrested in the EXP board as well.
Quote from: P on August 16, 2012, 01:40:29 am
I can see what the USB and micro SD could be used for but I'm not sure what the ethernet could be used for. Homebrew that needs internet connection for some reason? Anyway it looks great! And if I ever buy a NES again I will be intrested in the EXP board as well.
The ethernet connection would be good for one of two things. Either a homebrew as you mentioned or for a dev cart that had the ability to load ROMs over a network.
Finished building and testing the last of the 5 CPU boards. Everything works great. The CPLD reprogramming function is finally working, just need to add the SD bootloader.
(http://www.chykn.com/ENIO-CPU-First-5.jpg)
My mouth waters at that picture for unknown reason....
you are the most awesome person on earth (at least in the section of expanding nes abilities).
the only thing missing for now is:
1. nes googlemaps, that would be a nice add on and i actually can imagine how this could be done :D
2. nes mmorpg (not sure if nes can handle that much input but i also have an idea for this one)or a game that connects you to atleast another person on the world that you can play with/against ;D
if the cpu board, the one that features the ethernet connection, is ready to use, i would be pleased to buy one^^
YES! make the google april fools joke a reality!
Quote from: YoshiFan501 on August 21, 2012, 04:13:37 pm
YES! make the google april fools joke a reality!
Quote from: Kyon on August 21, 2012, 01:38:27 pm
1. nes googlemaps, that would be a nice add on and i actually can imagine how this could be done :D
2. nes mmorpg (not sure if nes can handle that much input but i also have an idea for this one)or a game that connects you to atleast another person on the world that you can play with/against ;D
Someone mentioned making a Google Maps NES version on my Youtube post and I thought "what is this guy smoking?" Then I saw the video he was talking about. It would not only be a wicked demo, but it would also play into making the RPG. But a Google Maps RPG - wouldn't that be funny?
I asked about an ASCII API here, but didn't get very far. If there were an API that a host could use to render the map data to ASCII, it wouldn't be too hard to work it into the existing map engine.
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/maps/UFG-J1eO0cQ/KMQG8NTVYHUJ (http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/maps/UFG-J1eO0cQ/KMQG8NTVYHUJ)
can you make it so we can load roms to the ENIO?
Quote from: YoshiFan501 on August 22, 2012, 03:57:48 pm
can you make it so we can load roms to the ENIO?
This would be ideal, since you could load FDS images and games with expanded audio easily.
Quote from: YoshiFan501 on August 22, 2012, 03:57:48 pm
can you make it so we can load roms to the ENIO?
If you're asking about using the ENIO as a storage repository for ROMs, the answer is yes. A homebrew will be able to perform basic file functions against the ENIO's MicroSD. List, read and write files. This will be defined as part of the CGP protocol. For instance, someone could make a relatively cheap SRAM cart with a two stage bootloader. The first stage, the boot ROM on the cart, would copy a second stage boot file from the ENIO MicroSD to SRAM then jump to that code. The second stage could then display a menu and allow a user to select a game to play. Sounds like a pain, but it allows you to have a very flexible SRAM cart. Updating the second stage would be as easy as updating a file on the MicroSD. Of course that's just one approach; I'm sure there are plenty of better ways to accomplish this.
ill take that! if i can have a way to just stick a microsd card on my nes for loading fds roms, im ok!
Quote from: 80sFREAK on August 22, 2012, 08:51:02 pm
Quote from: Duke.Togo on August 22, 2012, 04:28:42 pm
This would be ideal, since you could load FDS images and games with expanded audio easily.
So the answer is "NO"
Quote from: YoshiFan501 on August 23, 2012, 05:54:52 am
ill take that! if i can have a way to just stick a microsd card on my nes for loading fds roms, im ok!
I apologize for any confusion. If you're talking about running FDS images directly from the ENIO, I'm going to agree with 80sFREAK. The ENIO cannot emulate the FDS. If you had a cart that could emulate the FDS and run FDS images, the ENIO could be used as a source for FDS images. Just like the PowerPak. If my understanding is correct, the PowerPak does not execute ROMs directly from the CF card. It copies the ROM from a file on the CF card to the onboard SRAM for execution. To use the ENIO as an FDS image repository, you would first need a cart that was capable of emulating the FDS.
......or the FDS RAM Adapter itself maybe.
But since the CPU board connects to the expansion port on the NES that the Famicom doesn't have, is it possible to make a Famicom version?
Quote from: P on August 23, 2012, 10:03:50 am
......or the FDS RAM Adapter itself maybe.
But since the CPU board connects to the expansion port on the NES that the Famicom doesn't have, is it possible to make a Famicom version?
Yeah, you're right. You'd probably have to have a cart capable of emulating the functions of the FDS RAM adapter and the FDS itself. Unfortunately I've never dealt with it so anything else I say about it would be pure speculation.
Sounds like a massive undertaking, though. Has anyone ever tried emulating either one in hardware?EDIT: If I'd done more than one search on the interwebs I would have found that the PowerPak does support loading FDS images. Doh!Yes, the CPU board can work with the Famicom one of two ways. Either make a custom 60-pin cart that can feed the necessary signals to the CPU board or use a PowerPak with a 60 to 72 pin adapter and wire one end of the ENIO's 26-pin cable to the necessary signals on the 60 to 72 pin adapter. One of the reasons I went with a two board solution (instead of having everything on the EXP board) was so that the CPU board could work with other systems. The CPU board is absolutely not NES specific. As long as a 5v or 3.3v system can provide the following lines, it can talk to the CPU board without updating the CPLD...
- 5V
- GND
- Data 0
- Data 1
- Data 2
- Data 3
- Data 4
- Data 5
- Data 6
- Data 7
- /CE *
- R/W
That's assuming you stick with the current CPLD firmware. Keep this in mind though. Of the 26 pins on the CPU board's header, 22 of them go straight to the CPLD. If you know Verilog or VHDL you could update the CPLD to do whatever. It's a Xilinx XC9572XL. It's primary purpose in the ENIO is to act as a two byte bidirectional register. NES sends a byte, the PIC32 gets an interrupt and picks it up. PIC32 sends a byte and the NES gets it according to whatever logic you put in a homebrew. The NES IRQ line is run to the CPLD, but not currently used.
*
The /CE signal is active low if the ROM accesses a specific memory location, $4700. The PowerPak can handle this with a mapper update, but a custom 60 pin cart would have to have the logic necessary to send the /CE signal when accessing $4700. You could do this with an existing cart (Famicom or NES) by wiring a 74HC688 comparator to A8-A14 & PRG /CE. This is how my SN-ROM dev cart activates the CPU board.
Quote from: Chykn on August 23, 2012, 11:10:21 am
EDIT: If I'd done more than one search on the interwebs I would have found that the PowerPak does support loading FDS images. Doh!
The powerpak has some basic FDS emulation, but it doesn't support multi-disk games. I also heard that the emulation of the FDS sound-chip is of questionable quality.
If a PC counts as hardware then there's also "fdsloadr".
For anyone who is interested I put up a Youtube video. It's pretty much all information that's already been presented, but for those who want a quick recap...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBSdktDG_tk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBSdktDG_tk)
Over the next week or two I'll try to put up another one that goes into the details of how the CPU board works. Mostly information that is already up on the project page.
Would be neat to see someone try hooking up a Famicom Data Recorder to a Famicom Keyboard to a NES through this device, and see if the save and load features on the NES version of Excitebike work.
"[...] programmed in for potential product developments" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitebike#Modes) indeed - it only took 27 years! ;D
The Japanese and US versions of Excitebike are identical, so I don't see why it wouldn't work (aside from issues with the ENIO).
Quote from: 80sFREAK on September 22, 2012, 03:21:26 pm
Quote from: shybry on September 22, 2012, 03:03:34 pm
Would be neat to see someone try hooking up a Famicom Data Recorder to a Famicom Keyboard to a NES through this device, and see if the save and load features on the NES version of Excitebike work.
"[...] programmed in for potential product developments" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitebike#Modes) indeed - it only took 27 years! ;D
It was somewhere on the web - Famicom keyboard connected to the NES. Directly.
Well hopefully i can show a nice little video of this very thing very soon, once a package from 80's Freak arrives at my house ;D
But PAL versions and Japanese versions isn't identical so that might be more interesting to check. I doubt they took the feature out though, and the Swedish manual also states that the Save and Load functions is in there for a possible future use.
I'd be happy to test PAL versions also if anyone wants to send me a copy ;)
Quote from: Duke.Togo on September 22, 2012, 09:15:41 pm
Well hopefully i can show a nice little video of this very thing very soon, once a package from 80's Freak arrives at my house ;D
Wow - I feel pretty foolish right now. You'll need to make one minor change to the ENIO EXP board to make this work. When I was designing the board, I kept seeing "AUDIO" on the FC EXP pinout and thought it was for input. After going through the documentation on the Famicom Data Recorder I realized that the AUDIO signal was actually used to output audio data through the keyboard to the FDR.
The fix is pretty simple. Remove R2 and solder a wire from the J6 Audio In pin to the J5 Audio pin. No need to cut traces or anything. Sorry for the goof.
Time for version 1.3 then ;)
I can imagine a version of this that fits flush with the bottom of the nes and has it all built in