Sounds like the most sensible option to avoid too much feature creep! Perhaps the ESP32 part could work as a second screen tape selector for the rpi pico emulator? (Like a Playchoice / Megaplay)
It is in my evaluation essentiel that HDMI is supported so you can have an experience like captured - and Manic Miner would in fact be my first game to play 🙃
video output would be great. Ideally DP over Usb-C (same socket as for power). There are tons of USB-C monitors these days and having just a single cable to connect both power and video is the way to go.
It is soooooo tempting to say just add the Pico as a co-processor. There would be sooooooo many benefits to that. Especially putting the Pico in front of a GPIO field of pins.
I'd pay for it, but perhaps I'm an audience of one.
At a minimum, I would personally greatly appreciate a GPIO port that enables this (and other) functionality. And it would be keeping in the spirit of the original ZX80's edge connector.
But.... you've got to do another round of prototypes for the connector, right? Granted, a connector is pretty easy and it is unlikely it will get cocked up... but... it seems to me you can drop down a minimal RP2040 pretty safely, too.
Not trying to be adverse here... and it is YOUR investment, not mine, so I'm definitely not even in a position to play contrarian here!
I'm hoping the connector is pretty much done on the version that's being manufactured. Should have everything that's needed for a board to plugin and take over everything. But the temptation is strong...
That expansion card future add-on would be great!
I think so too. Really need to keep control of the desire to add more and more...
Definitely a must-have add-on in order to handle the ever tired eyes and getting more people involved with the Speccy heritage.
Lovely idea
Sounds like the most sensible option to avoid too much feature creep! Perhaps the ESP32 part could work as a second screen tape selector for the rpi pico emulator? (Like a Playchoice / Megaplay)
Yeah, I think there's a lot of options. I like the idea of using it as a secondary display. That would be very cool.
It is in my evaluation essentiel that HDMI is supported so you can have an experience like captured - and Manic Miner would in fact be my first game to play 🙃
A +1 for a HDMI output
Personally, I’d rather a hdmi than an onboard screen… quite simply my eyes aren’t what they used to be!
Would it be too complicated to offer a screen version AND a hdmi output version?
HDMI - I'm hoping to add that via the "expansion" header.
video output would be great. Ideally DP over Usb-C (same socket as for power). There are tons of USB-C monitors these days and having just a single cable to connect both power and video is the way to go.
That would be very cool. It's not quite possible yet - both the ESP32 and the RP2040 only support USB 1.1. Even doing HDMI is really pushing it.
Something for the future though as you are right, having only one cable is brilliant.
It is soooooo tempting to say just add the Pico as a co-processor. There would be sooooooo many benefits to that. Especially putting the Pico in front of a GPIO field of pins.
I'd pay for it, but perhaps I'm an audience of one.
At a minimum, I would personally greatly appreciate a GPIO port that enables this (and other) functionality. And it would be keeping in the spirit of the original ZX80's edge connector.
Yep, that's my thinking with the expansion port - opens up lots of possibilities.
It's very tempting to just put a pico on the board, but that would mean another round of prototypes and potential cock ups :)
But.... you've got to do another round of prototypes for the connector, right? Granted, a connector is pretty easy and it is unlikely it will get cocked up... but... it seems to me you can drop down a minimal RP2040 pretty safely, too.
Not trying to be adverse here... and it is YOUR investment, not mine, so I'm definitely not even in a position to play contrarian here!
I'm hoping the connector is pretty much done on the version that's being manufactured. Should have everything that's needed for a board to plugin and take over everything. But the temptation is strong...
I will do a very small run of the final final final version. Just to make sure...
Ah, well, if that’s the case I withdraw my suggestion.