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Entry 10: Publishing...

A project log for Aiie! - an embedded Apple //e emulator

A Teensy 4.1 running as an Apple //e

jorj-bauerJorj Bauer 06/24/2017 at 21:510 Comments

Several people are interested in building these. Interested more than is probably healthy, which also describes me in my initial build for this thing too. And then there's the pile of hoops I'm jumping through to publish this and build a better prototype, which is *definitely* not healthy. :)

And step 1 of that would be to draw up the schematic.

I've not really used Eagle in years. I've made several small devices, used BatchPCB (when it existed) and OSH Park to manufacture them, and enjoyed the results. All except the part where EAGLE is designed for engineers, by engineers, without any serious thought about UI. It's truly one of the most awful UI experiences - second only, I think, to AutoCAD. So when I read that EAGLE had in fact been bought by AutoDesk, I knew I was in for a world of hurt.

Well, maybe I didn't give them enough credit. They fixed a really annoying UI problem with trackpad zooming from Eagle 7. So that's an improvement. And many of the icons no longer look like they were drawn in MacPaint in 1990. But then we get in to this modern trend of "let's charge a monthly subscription fee! That's better for the consumer!" bullshit.

I want to buy a piece of software and use it until it no longer meets my needs. I mean that either there's a new version that does something better, which I explicitly want; or it doesn't run under the OS that I'm running on my machine, because I decided to upgrade my OS. I'm still using Lightroom 4, for example. It meets my needs, it runs fine on my machine, and I have no interest in upgrading. Yes, there are new features in Lightroom 5 that are fantastic. Yes, Lightroom 6 probably improves on that a lot. I don't want those things yet.

So why, then, would I want to pay a monthly subscription to be able to use software? What if I'm on vacation and decide I want to noodle around with schematics while I'm on a plane and disconnected from the Internet? What if my interests have bounced away from software X this month, and to software Y? How much of my life do I now need to spend managing which licenses I've paid for this month, and what that does to my saved files when I accidentally open them or forget to renew a subscription?

Or a more real possibility: what if I'm up at 3 AM and decide I want to design a PCB that's roughly 7" x 4"? I need to buy an upgraded license for Eagle 8, and then WAIT THREE DAYS FOR THEM TO FIGURE OUT WHY MY CLOUD ACCOUNT DOESN'T SHOW THE UPGRADED LICENSE.

Thanks, chuckleheads. I appreciate that your cloud service saved me absolutely no time. Your model is not what I want, and is not better for me. It's more frustrating.

But at least it's going to save me some money. Maybe.

I was ready to shell out the Pro license fee for a full upgrade of EAGLE. But now I can pay $70 for a single month, design this thing, and drop the license, reverting to the educational license that I get because I work at a University. Maybe. We'll see if they're able to do that without the license manager barfing again.

Okay, rant over - I've got a first draft of the Aiie! schematic. It's a doozy; I've drawn it without using bus simplifications...

The Teensy 3.6 has been replaced with the Teensy 3.6 on a breakout board from Tall Dog on Tindie. This was something that a very devoted Apple fan brought to my attention because she'd found them and was planning to use one for her own build. (Thanks, Jennifer!) It saves folks the trouble of soldering the pins on the back of the Teensy, at the cost of an extra $15 or so and a serious lift in board space required. Meh, good enough for now.

There are probably mistakes in my drawing. I haven't yet validated this. I'm pretty sure I mixed up the joystick X and Y axes, at least.

The aforementioned Jennifer is wiring up one by hand; assuming she gets good results, I'll submit the PCB to OSH Park and do another build myself to see how it works.

At a cost of $125. Just for the PCBs.

Yep, this board is not a teeny little thing. It costs a bundle to have fabricated as a one-off. Or, more accurately, a three-off; that's the minimum order over at OSH Park. Previous experience tells me they'll be awesome, assuming that I've gotten the schematic right.

Now: a quick word about changes from the first prototype.

I'm sticking the Teensy behind the display. And it doesn't really fit there well; which means the display will probably need to be further raised off of the main PCB. I think it will be a cleaner build this way, without the Teensy and display fouling the joystick's path of motion.

... but I'm guessing about that. The joystick is also still on its original Parallax board here, meaning it can be raised further relatively easily if it needs clearance.

The biggest compromise, however, is that I let the autorouter do absolutely all of the wiring here. I've run out of patience with EAGLE. Here's hoping that it didn't totally break, for example, the ground connection through the 3 screw holes for the display. (The fourth hole seemed ill placed because of the battery, so I decided to drop it.)

Time will tell! Here's hoping that Jennifer's attempt lights up her LCD with some Apple //e booting screen goodness, and then I'll submit these PCBs to OSH Park for some more testing...

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