Turbo Everdrive v2

elmer · 05/20/2015, 10:28 PM

It just went on sale in krikzz's online store a few hours ago.

Looks like he's still doing his 20% off for wholsesale orders ($800 or more).

Wasn't there a group buy of the previous model? If so, how did it work out?

Does anyone think that would that be a good idea for the new one?

Flare65 · 05/20/2015, 10:31 PM

Link?

CGQuarterly · 05/20/2015, 10:36 PM

http://shop.krikzz.com/Turbo-EverDrive-v2-TBEDV2.htm

Edit: Not really seeing a reason to upgrade from a v1, there.

NightWolve · 05/20/2015, 10:43 PM

Ah, it's here finally. Hm, does the 4MB of RAM allow for Arcade game support like he pondered doing ?? Doesn't say outright but I take it RAM will be useful to homebrew/hacks, etc.

elmer · 05/20/2015, 10:47 PM

Quote from: guest on 05/20/2015, 10:36 PMBoo... I see no mention of backup ram. Are my dreams of pulling savegames to my computer as files going to remain dreams?

If so, I feel bad for everyone who sold off their everdrive. Instant loading is not enough to make it worth replacing my v1 everdrive, imo.

From his forum, it sounds like it may support saving cart RAM contents to SD card when you hit the reset button.

That could allow a Tennokoe Bank HuCard image to do your saving for you.

The "instant loading" is the least interesting part of it for me.

It's supposed to have 4MB of CPU-writable RAM, and be able to run a System Card 3.0 image ... all together with a built-in USB port.

That makes it a rather nice target for fan translations and developers.

BTW ... there's no technical reason that I can see why some friendly developer couldn't actually just write a ROM that would work on either the old or new TED to do your backup saving.

EvilEvoIX · 05/20/2015, 10:50 PM

can it emulate a Version 2 card so I can play altered beast?

elmer · 05/20/2015, 10:52 PM

Quote from: NightWolve on 05/20/2015, 10:43 PMAh, it's here finally. Hm, does the 4MB of RAM allow for Arcade game support like he pondered doing ?? Doesn't say outright but I take it RAM will be useful to homebrew/hacks, etc.

Arcade Support is highly unlikely. It was requested a number of times on his forum, but it was never in his original design plans for the TED2, so it's very unlikely that it made it in.

But he did confirm that homebrew developers will be able to access the whole 4MB of writable RAM after a HuCard image is loaded.

elmer · 05/20/2015, 10:59 PM

Quote from: EvilEvoIX on 05/20/2015, 10:50 PMcan it emulate a Version 2 card so I can play altered beast?

Isn't a System Card 2.0 (and a System Card 1.0) just ROM? I thought that the 64KB of new RAM was in the CD interface itself?

If so, then I'd have thought that you could run a System Card 2.0 image on either the old TED or the new TED.

Perhaps someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.

NightWolve · 05/20/2015, 10:59 PM

Ah, bummer.

Looks like he was "right there" if he had learned how to implement the Arcade memory mapping. Anyway, still good to have 4MB of working RAM - what Bonknuts wanted and I guess it eliminates the need of the Stupid Card someone here was working on. Now for me to rebuy this. Dunno if jtucci is up to manage another group buy, but I'm in.

elmer · 05/20/2015, 11:51 PM

Quote from: guest on 05/20/2015, 11:02 PM
Quote from: elmer on 05/20/2015, 10:47 PMBTW ... there's no technical reason that I can see why some friendly developer couldn't actually just write a ROM that would work on either the old or new TED to do your backup saving.
As things are, megatronuk started work on such a project but has been MIA for many moons.

I was following his work and he seemed to get busy with something else.

There's already fully tested and working open-source 'C' code for full FAT32 file access on low-memory embedded systems ... like the PCE.

http://ultra-embedded.com/fat_filelib

I never got around to asking if he'd tried to use that.

Perhaps it gets back to the whole discussion of whether the PCE could use a better C compiler ... like one that can actually compile modern code.

SamIAm · 05/21/2015, 12:13 AM

Quote from: elmer on 05/20/2015, 10:59 PM
Quote from: EvilEvoIX on 05/20/2015, 10:50 PMcan it emulate a Version 2 card so I can play altered beast?
Isn't a System Card 2.0 (and a System Card 1.0) just ROM? I thought that the 64KB of new RAM was in the CD interface itself?

If so, then I'd have thought that you could run a System Card 2.0 image on either the old TED or the new TED.

Perhaps someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong.

That works, though I haven't tried it personally. Even a Duo, with its built-in 3.0 system, will defer to any system card you put in the hucard slot.

CrackTiger · 05/21/2015, 07:38 AM

Quote from: EvilEvoIX on 05/20/2015, 10:50 PMcan it emulate a Version 2 card so I can play altered beast?

Altered Beast only runs properly using a 1.0 card rom, which requires no additional ram.

DragonmasterDan · 05/21/2015, 10:18 AM

Quote from: CGQuarterly on 05/20/2015, 10:36 PMhttp://shop.krikzz.com/Turbo-EverDrive-v2-TBEDV2.htm

Edit: Not really seeing a reason to upgrade from a v1, there.

Agreed, if it had arcade card support it would be a whole nother ball game.

EvilEvoIX · 05/21/2015, 10:27 AM

Quote from: guest on 05/21/2015, 07:38 AM
Quote from: EvilEvoIX on 05/20/2015, 10:50 PMcan it emulate a Version 2 card so I can play altered beast?
Altered Beast only runs properly using a 1.0 card rom, which requires no additional ram.

Yeah I need one to play Altered beast on my DUO-R

NecroPhile · 05/21/2015, 10:38 AM

Any flashcart can emulate 1.0 or 2.0 system cards on a Duo; I've done it many times with my neoflash to play Altered Beast and to check out some error screens.

As for the new ED, I'd only want it for homebrew / translation stuff that uses the 4mb. It's not like Arcade Cards are hard to find or particularly expensive (not the Duo ones anyway), so I don't give much of a shit about that feature one way or the other.

cjameslv · 05/21/2015, 11:23 AM

Quote from: NightWolve on 05/20/2015, 10:59 PMAh, bummer. Looks like he was "right there" if he had learned how to implement the Arcade memory mapping. Anyway, still good to have 4MB of working RAM - what Bonknuts wanted and I guess it eliminates the need of the Stupid Card someone here was working on. Now for me to rebuy this. Dunno if jtucci is up to manage another group buy, but I'm in.

I'm in as well. If jtucci gets this going great or if he doesn't have the time, i will get this ball rolling. I'll send him a pm today.

CrackTiger · 05/21/2015, 11:38 AM

What I'm most interested to know about the new model, is if current TE shells will snap onto it.

Jinxed · 05/21/2015, 11:46 AM

Nice, i have been waiting for v2 to come out. I hope there are some left when i get home from work today.

elmer · 05/21/2015, 11:46 AM

Quote from: cjameslv on 05/21/2015, 11:23 AMI'm in as well. If jtucci gets this going great or if he doesn't have the time, i will get this ball rolling. I'll send him a pm today.

I'm up for 1 with USB, and probably 2 (will know in a day or so).

Quote from: guest on 05/21/2015, 11:38 AMWhat I'm most interested to know about the new model, is if current TE shells will snap onto it.

It definitely won't if you go for the USB option ... he's moved it to the center of the card so that you can use it on a SuperGrafx.

I suspect that that means that the reset button got bumped over, too.

jtucci31 · 05/21/2015, 11:58 AM

Interesting. I guessential the only difference with this one is the 4mb ram? Which is used for what exactly? Could someone explain that for me please.

With that being said I have no interest in busing the new version for myself. But I guess I wouldn't mind doing another group buy if enough people are interested. I got your PM cjames. It's the beginning of summer and I hardly have anything to do anyway.

I guess I'd have to just wait to see just how many people are interested, since the minimum is 10 for the discount to happen. I'd say my cutoff would be around 15 or 16 this time. I managed 20 but doing a few less thing time would make it easier for my side of things.

Quote from: elmer on 05/21/2015, 11:46 AM
Quote from: cjameslv on 05/21/2015, 11:23 AMI'm in as well. If jtucci gets this going great or if he doesn't have the time, i will get this ball rolling. I'll send him a pm today.
I'm up for 1 with USB, and probably 2 (will know in a day or so).

If we do a group buy, last time I ordered all the same which was without the usb thing. I could look into having only 1 or a few of the orders being the usb, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, just a heads up.

elmer · 05/21/2015, 12:30 PM

Quote from: guest on 05/21/2015, 11:58 AMInteresting. I guessential the only difference with this one is the 4mb ram? Which is used for what exactly? Could someone explain that for me please.

The 4MB (megabyte) RAM completely replaces the 8MB (megabyte) flash on the TurboEd V1.

The theoretical advantage is that starting a new game is almost instant in comparison to the V1's delay to write the flash.

You also won't have to worry about the flash wearing out (which is pretty unlikely, anyway).

That's the big change ... it means that the TED2 can now run Populous, and probably also Tennokoe Bank.

Not a major improvement for current game players ... but it's a pretty big thing for homebrew and translation developers. It wouldn't surprise me to see either the TED2 or the Stupid Card begin to be required for some future SuperCD translations.

Moving the USB port to the center of the card is great for anyone wanting to do SuperGrafx homebrew.

It krikzz's first card to use a new modern low-power 3.3 volt FPGA architecture.

He's already warned that the "Cart may not work properly with region modded systems".

That's probably because of the same signal delay issue that TailChao has reported during his Stupid Card development.

QuoteIf we do a group buy, last time I ordered all the same which was without the usb thing. I could look into having only 1 or a few of the orders being the usb, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem, just a heads up.

It looks like he doesn't care exactly which combination of products you order ... just as long as you get over the dollar amount.

mickcris · 05/21/2015, 01:04 PM

It also loads the roms instantly now. So you dont have to wait for it to write it like the V1.

cjameslv · 05/21/2015, 01:21 PM

Quote from: guest on 05/21/2015, 11:38 AMWhat I'm most interested to know about the new model, is if current TE shells will snap onto it.

If not we can design one and i'll print them out. I got in a bunch filament in pla & abs with alot of colors now too.

Pokun · 05/21/2015, 07:04 PM

I waited for this!

Too bad about the Arcade Card. Now I have to buy Arcade Card Duo AND an Everdrive.

crazydean · 05/21/2015, 08:16 PM

For those of you who already have a V1, how big of a microSD card do you have?

SamIAm · 05/21/2015, 08:22 PM

1 GB is plenty for this system. Every version of every rom ever dumped fits with hundreds of megabytes to spare, IIRC.

DragonmasterDan · 05/22/2015, 04:09 AM

Quote from: crazydean on 05/21/2015, 08:16 PMFor those of you who already have a V1, how big of a microSD card do you have?

For the Turbo Everdrive I'm using a 4GB which was about the cheapest possible one I could find.

kosko99 · 05/22/2015, 08:46 AM

I didn't have an everdrive yet... this might be a nice chance to get one.

crazydean · 05/22/2015, 11:16 AM

Thanks guys. I found a 4GB in the US for less than five bucks.

CrackTiger · 05/22/2015, 11:56 AM

Something to watch out for with Everdrive and other flash carts is the memory card size limit.

elmer · 05/22/2015, 06:30 PM

Continued on from the group-buy thread, since this doesn't strictly belong there ...

Quote from: NightWolve on 05/22/2015, 12:50 PMGood work including Bonknuts guys! I wonder if he could work on the Arcade memory mapping and either upgrade the TE's OS or with a hacked System 3 ROM to do it! I was gonna ask him about it - something tells me it's not too late to implement. I saw krik's mapper "C" code for SFII, only a few lines... So, you've got the needed RAM here and the cart is fully interfaced, I think Arcade support should still be possible with a software upgrade - hacked ROM or OS upgrade.

That would be really wonderful!

The idea of field-upgrading the TED2 hardware to add Arcade Card support ... or anything else that's fun (SuperFX-chip functionality for StarFox-PCE!) sounds way cool.

But wouldn't the Arcade Card functionality need at least some hardware support in the FPGA? I find it hard to believe that it would be possible to do it just with ROM changes.

When it comes to changes in the FPGA itself, well ... I just read the data sheet for the chip that KRIKzz is using.

It doesn't look like there's room for a separate chip on the TED2 to store the FPGA configuration ... so it is almost certainly using the configuration memory that's built into that particular FPGA chip.

That built-in configuration memory is only programmable once ... i.e. when KRIKzz manufactures the card.

Which I think means ... that we're not going to see any significant upgrades to the TED2's basic capabilities without doing some serious hardware-hacking and adding a new configuration chip to the board.

Now it looks like it may be possible to do that with the pins that are brought available on the top-left of the new TED2.

That looks like a programming-port to me, and the on-board configuration is written in a very similar way to how you'd hack it if you added a PIC chip or something in there afterwards.

But without seeing a board, and without a lot more hardware skill than I have, that's just idle speculation.

So OS-level changes (like saving backup RAM) ... "yes".

Activating stuff that's built-in-but-experimental ... "yes".

New stuff (Arcade Card???) ... "unlikely", i.e. don't buy a TED2 and get pissed if it doesn't happen.

BTW, if anyone is curious ...

iCE40 LP/HX FPGA Family Data Sheet
http://www.latticesemi.com/view_document?document_id=49312

iCE40 Programming and Configuration
http://www.latticesemi.com/view_document?document_id=46502

NightWolve · 05/22/2015, 10:39 PM

I was thinking of asking you as well. I know he has a way to update the OS. It's plain with the SD2SNES since you must copy it to the microSD card or it won't work. Well, I was hoping the hardware is there and it's a matter of implementing the memory mapping, software changes, but you would know better. If there's zero chance, that's too bad... :/

elmer · 05/22/2015, 11:54 PM

Quote from: NightWolve on 05/22/2015, 10:39 PMI was thinking of asking you as well. I know he has a way to update the OS. It's plain with the SD2SNES since you must copy it to the microSD card or it won't work. Well, I was hoping the hardware is there and it's a matter of implementing the memory mapping, software changes, but you would know better. If there's zero chance, that's too bad... :/

Haha ... I'm still new here, I have a LONG way to go before my opinion has any weight next to someone like Bonknuts!

And the reality of this situation, is that Bonknuts has an infinitely better idea of the Arcade Card's subtleties than I do ... and TailChao has an infinitely better handle on the practicalities of using an FPGA like the TED2's iCE40HX1K.

I'm still a newbie to both.

But the basic hardware details of both are pretty easy to understand ... and I'm used to ferreting out the implications of design choices.

I can imagine a way of wiring up the TED2's FPGA so that the PCE's CPU could upload a new configuration to it after the TED2 boots up ... and KRIKzz may have done something like that ... but it would be a significant effort, and would probably require a bunch of extra components on the TED2 ... and I just can't see why he would bother to do so.

I'd be really happy to be wrong on that.

We won't know until we actually get hold of the boards, and then someone with more skill than I have actually looks at them.

I'm not "in-the-know" here, I'm just trying to keep all our hopes within the bounds of reasonable plausibility.

Now ... the TED2 OS is a different issue. That's just booted off the SD card once the hardware itself has been configured from it's internal "program". That's trivial to change (unless KRIKzz has encrypted it).

As for the SD2SNES ... that's not KRIKzz's design (not that that makes any difference) ... and AFAIK the FPGA on that is configured by a separate microcontroller, a PIC chip.

To the best of my knowledge, the PIC chip loads up the FPGA configuration from SD card, and then programs the FPGA to emulate different SNES mapper chips.

That is very different from the TED2, and takes a lot more hardware ... thus explaining it's high price in comparison to the TED2.

If we attached a PIC chip (or an ATMEL chip) to the TED2's programming port, we could probably achieve something similar. But that's where you need someone like TailChao to wade in.

Again ... this is all deep technical stuff. What I'm trying to say is ... take the TED2 for what it is right now, and if that's not enough for you, then don't buy it.

Keith Courage · 05/26/2015, 09:45 PM

Quote from: mickcris on 05/21/2015, 01:04 PMIt also loads the roms instantly now. So you dont have to wait for it to write it like the V1.

I bet this will fix the issues V1 had with some types of region modifications.

SmokeMonster · 05/27/2015, 03:38 PM

Krikzz has confirmed that most v1 3D shells should fit v2. The mounting holes are the same at least.

Digi.k · 05/27/2015, 06:06 PM

think I am gonna look into getting one of these.

geise · 05/28/2015, 04:30 PM

If this does Games Express support I'm in.

Pokun · 05/28/2015, 07:46 PM

Should work with any PC Engine/Turbo model.

CrackTiger · 05/28/2015, 09:07 PM

Quote from: geise on 05/28/2015, 04:30 PMIf this does Games Express support I'm in.

Don't other flashcards already run Games Express system card roms? I thought that they didn't have any ram in them. Were you trying to run a game made for Duo/SCD systems on an IFU?

Pokun · 05/29/2015, 08:28 AM

Ah I read it as GT! lol

Yes no RAM so I think Game Express already runs on Everdrive v1 and other flashcarts (as long as you have Super CD-ROM² or equivalent). Will try it when I receive my Everdrive.

geise · 05/29/2015, 09:45 AM

Quote from: guest on 05/28/2015, 09:07 PM
Quote from: geise on 05/28/2015, 04:30 PMIf this does Games Express support I'm in.
Don't other flashcards already run Games Express system card roms? I thought that they didn't have any ram in them. Were you trying to run a game made for Duo/SCD systems on an IFU?

Yeah it does. I was just making a silly comment since people were asking if it supports (insert system card here)

mickcris · 06/02/2015, 05:36 PM

Got mine today (actually came yesterday, but i was not available to sign for it). I had ordered before the group buy was set up.

The instant loading now is great! Just hoping the old shells still fit as it looks a bit naked. I dont want to remove the one from my v1 to see if it will fit as i put a bit of silicone on it when i installed it.

Jinxed · 06/02/2015, 11:45 PM

Nice, i hope mine arrives soon. I cant wait!

CrackTiger · 06/03/2015, 06:36 PM

Quote from: Jinxed on 06/02/2015, 11:45 PMNice, i hope mine arrives soon. I cant wait!

You just jinxed it.

Jinxed · 06/03/2015, 06:38 PM

Damn it!!

mickcris · 06/27/2015, 06:14 AM

Quote from: Keith Courage on 05/26/2015, 09:45 PM
Quote from: mickcris on 05/21/2015, 01:04 PMIt also loads the roms instantly now. So you dont have to wait for it to write it like the V1.
I bet this will fix the issues V1 had with some types of region modifications.

I just put a region mod in a Turbo Duo for seieienbu and it would not work with the Everdrive v1. It was giving a black screen after loading a few roms I tested and Keith Courage would give a black screen after pressing run. The v2 runs with no issues though.
This is the circuit I used, which worked fine with the v1 the other couple times I used it so far:
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=8732.msg170853#msg170853