Re: ZVG firmware / the future of ZVG

I used a Pentium 4 Gateway to build mine - still real easy to buy cheap
on eBay. Video of the details at:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL51665B28C8D84DA5&feature=plcp

Just sayin'

-Al-

On 4/16/2012 7:04 PM, Gary McTaggart wrote:
> I'm not too deep on this, but I've heard from coworkers that have done
> some general latency testing (not related to ZVG) that USB can
> introduce quite a bit of latency compared to even an add-on parallel
> port, although a lot of the newer add-on parallel ports can be
> terrible too. They takeaway they had from these tests is that anyone
> that really wants low latency should buy an ancient PC. :(
>
> Gary
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:59 PM, Jeremy Abel <jeremyabel@gmail.com
> <mailto:jeremyabel@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Well crap, there goes that idea. I'm going to call Zonn, see if
> he's into me redesigning and recoding the zvg for usb. That's
> pretty much the only option at this point, assuming he set the
> lock bits (although I never have for any of my projects...)
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:39 PM, GamingDevices
> <gamingdevices@tx.rr.com <mailto:gamingdevices@tx.rr.com>> wrote:
>
> The Atmel ATmega16 & ATtiny2313 devices used in the ZVG have
> lock bits, so I doubt that you can just read the part.
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>
> On 4/16/2012 4:59 PM, Jeremy Abel wrote:
>> Hello all!
>>
>> So, I've got my vector monitor (or at least the post office
>> does; I have to go pick it up), and I've been investigating
>> ways to control it. So far, the ZVG seems like the best /
>> only option. However, they seem to be hard to come by, and a
>> bit out of my price range, not to mention the fact that they
>> just aren't being made anymore. Making it even more
>> complicated, I don't even have a PC with a parallel port
>> (only a macbook). Instead, I've come up with several other
>> options, which I will talk about below.
>>
>> Using the schematic that's available online, I've managed to
>> re-enter the whole thing into EagleCAD, and have begun to
>> design my own board for it, using only through-hole parts
>> (because I don't have the patience / skill to solder
>> SMDs). So far, only the power supply area is done, because I
>> don't want to put too much effort into it before getting some
>> more information about the whole thing. I'm doing this only
>> because it would cost me $100 to print the board, and then
>> $50 in parts, which is about $100 less than I'd end up paying
>> for an original ZVG. There is one snag though: basically, I
>> need the firmware that goes on the two Atmel chips. Without
>> that, I might as well not even bother. So, I've come up with
>> some solutions to that problem. Here's what I've been thinking:
>>
>> *Option 1: *I somehow manage to get ahold of Zonn (no luck
>> with that so far), and somehow convince him to open-source
>> the firmware (something he talked about here
>> <http://www.ukvac.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=328991&PID=752487&SID=5dbcd2zb-da95-5c822ae9-cezbbae5-3z84c2e1&title=zektor-zvg-limited-run-hurry#752487>,
>> about a year ago). With access to the actual code, I could
>> pretty easily convert it to communicate over USB. With Zonn's
>> permission, I would then open source the entire thing, and
>> thus you all would have a lovely new open-source USB-enabled
>> ZVG. This, I think, is the best option, as I don't need
>> anyone to dump the firmware for me, I don't need to logic
>> probe the thing and figure out what's being sent over the
>> parallel port, and I don't need to program an interpreter to
>> convert the thing into USB.
>>
>> *Option 2*: Someone with a ZVG solders up headers to J5 and
>> J6, and uses an AVR programmer to read off the firmware and
>> sends it to me as a hex file. I can then use this to program
>> my own atmel chips, and proceed. However, this will make it
>> difficult for me to get around the parallel port problem
>> without a large amount of logic-probing and then adding
>> another microcontroller to convert the signals being sent to
>> the parallel port into signals I can send over USB. In order
>> to keep Zonn's IP safe, I'd keep the whole thing to myself.
>> Still, this feels shady.
>>
>> *Option 3: *I buy a ZVG from someone, dump the firmware
>> myself, then sell it back to someone else. This feels just as
>> shady, maybe more, than option 2.
>>
>> What do you all think about all of this? I'd love to get the
>> ball rolling on this, preferably on option 1 if anyone knows
>> how to get ahold of Zonn.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> ~Jeremy
>
>
>

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Received on Mon Apr 16 19:22:01 2012