Pi1541 in 1541 Case & Tapuino – Part 3 : Schematics and a bit

I wanted to post the final Schematics for the Pi1541 Option B+SRQ and Bare Tapuino here.

Gerber Files for the board can be downloaded from here:

https://github.com/Markeno76/CommodorePiTap

Below is the Bare Tapuino schematic. It is basically a Tapuino using a bare ATMEGA328 instead of an Arduino Nano etc as the base. The ATMEGA is burned with the Arduino Uno boot loader. It can be programmed by pulling it or on the board. The required connections are available on the board by the Reset pin plus and other headers. That is why the Reset pin is there, to make that easier. I didn’t route a regular ICSP header though. It was hard enough to route this board for me, and I believe the other header with the required pins would have had to been unplugged for it to succeed. There has not been any firmware update for the Tapuino in a good while either. The design is a combination of the schematics from the Tapuino Github. The C2CON header is for the secondary Cassette for recording from it. I did not use that, although I do have the header in there on my board I have no connector anywhere to accomplish it. Because I am not using that feature, I really don’t need the 4052N on my board. That is what it is for. The 4052N can be bypassed by putting two jumpers in its place. The first jumper goes from Pin1 to Pin3 on it (Write Signal). The second bypass jumper goes from Pin12 to Pin13 (Read Signal). The Tapuino is a Tapuino 1.5 plus the Read and Write LEDs from the Tapuino Mini 1.02, and then using a bare Atmega instead of a Arduino Nano or Mini etc. I could not find schematics for the later Tapuino versions, I guess someone else made them to sell and has not released them. I didn’t care for a buzzer or speaker attached to hear the playback, so I was fine without that. I really do not have the Read or Write LEDs on my board at this time as they were added later. I might add them, but I am not sure it is worth the trouble. I would have to take my control panel apart to get them installed, my thought is to place some surface mount LEDs just behind the mesh. The other thing I would like is there was another firmware out there that had some “graphical” look to the Tapuino LCD display, I would really prefer that. I can’t find it anywhere, it was posted on a German blog I believe, but only pictures of it, no code etc.

The other note on the 4052N is that the 74HTC4052N does not work, but a 74HC4052N does work on the Tapuino.

Being a “Bareduino” base, there are other components on the schematic that are not typically on a Tapuino. That is because most are based on using one of the Arduino boards as a base. It was a good excuse for me to make a Bareduino.. I figured why waste an Arduino Nano or something like that if I was making a board anyways.

Pi5141 Option B + SRQ and TFT LCD Passthrough header.

The above is the Pi1541 Schematic. It is Option B plus with the addition of including the SRQ signals. They will be required for some updates to the firmware to take advantage of.

The TFT LCD Passthrough is probably less useful to most, it is actually a traditional Mini Din PS/2 Port. That is what my little 7″ Composite LCD came with as a connector. I decided to put it into the Tapuino. It was originally for use on my workbench to test my Commodore 64. It supports 2 inputs, the default is the one connected to the Pi’s Composite video output. The second input is out the back of the 1541 case and can be connected to the Commodore 64 Composite Video output. The board footprint and setup is actually setup so as to allow putting a Second Serial Din port side by side with the first one. If that was the case, then the TFTLCD header would be wired over to the back of the Serial port and the Serial Din would be installed instead of the PS/2 style Mini Din.

The 7″ LCD though lets me use this device as a stand alone device with the Pi, or with the Commodore as a reasonably portable LCD. There is also a jack on the back of the 1541 for an Audio Input with a switch beside it. If the switch is flipped toward the jack it will output the audio from the external jack to the internal amp and speakers, if it is switched the away from it then the audio is connected to the Pi’s audio output instead. This lets me play the Pi sounds through the internal speakers. The speakers are actually Mono, the rear jack is mono too. The Pi audio output is mixed down to mono with a resistor to prevent them back feeding into each other and damaging the Pi’s audio output. The alternate is that I can again connect up the Commodore 64’s Audio Output to the internal speakers.

The MicroSD Cards are both accessible from the front, the one on the left being the Pi’s card slot, which is extended with a MicroSD extender. The one on the right being the Tapuino’s card. This lets me remove them to add or remove files easily. The other thing it allows me is to swap the card in the Pi. I can then use the Pi for more things like running Raspbian on it, I can then output that to the internal speaker and the 7″ LCD. It can alternately access the HDMI Port on the side of the case (again with an extension going to the Pi itself). I can also put in a card with RetroPi on it, which again can run on the internal speaker and 7″ LCD or alternately output through the HDMI. I can then connect up controllers to the USB ports that are accessible on the side as well.

There are plenty of variations on the design possible. My point was to reuse this case I couldn’t otherwise make use of due to the failed read write head on the unit. The transformer I had left was for 220Volt input, so that wouldn’t have been of use to me either. I wanted to do something with it that would fit in with my C64, and there was just way to much extra space to not make more use of it. I liked the idea of doing a Bareduino project as well.

The Cassette cable worked out really well to. It is basically wired up as a passthrough Pin 1 to Pin 1 from the Din to the Card Edge connector. The Card Edge end is bolted into a DB15 (Gameport type not HD15 VGA (which is DB9 sized)) shell. I later painted it with a Green “Top” mark and lines and a Red “Bottom” mark so that I know which side should be up. I also inserted a bit of plastic to work as a Key into the slot in the connector. I had done that before and it fell out, so i wanted to have a visible mark as well. The wire is part of a very flexible Cat5 cable (yes old Cat5 not Cat5e) that I came across, I pulled out the extra 2 wires to make it more flexible as well. The ends have some heat shrink on them to build them up slightly and provide some strait relief.

Above you can see both the 7″ LCD and the little OLED on the drive face both display the Pi1541 output. So it can be used with or without the 7″ attached. The Pi controls are there on the left side, the 3 buttons and the 2 way momentary toggle switch. The Red LED is the Pi1541 activity light. The Green led on the left in the factory location is the Pi1541 power LED, it lets you know the Pi’s power is turned on. The other Green LED on the front panel is actually the Power LED for the internal audio amp. The Red tipped knob is the volume control and On/Off for the Audio Amp. The 4 buttons on the right are the Tapuino controls with the small LCD on the right being the Tapuino display. The Tapuino is powered completely by the Commodore 64 Cassette port. So the main power for the Pi does not need to be on for the Tapuino to work. That is partly why there are 2 schematics. There are two 5Volt power sources, the one that Pi uses is the internal Meanwell power supply where the Tapuino section receives the power it uses from the Cassette port, they are not wired together. They do share a common ground, which they share through Serial connection anyways.

I have used this unit for Raspbian as well as Retro Pie as well. My general intention is to use it just as a Pi1541 though most of the time. Originally I figured I would use it for Retro Pie a bit as well, but I have since built a Bartop Arcade to run Retro Pie instead. I really didn’t feel like disconnecting it from the Commodore desk and moving it to the living room to connect to the TV and such just to play some old games (other than Commodore games that is).

I have been thinking of putting a button on GPIO3 for a safe shutdown and startup button for the Pi when using Raspbian or Retropie like I did with my Bartop Arcade build. I just don’t at this time know where I would want to put the physical button. I could reuse one of the Pi1541 buttons, I could assign Safe Shutdown to another GPIO Pin that they happen to already be connected to. Still that would then not work as a wake up button as GPIO3 is the only one that will wake it.

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