ArcadeMini build-up

Because there are often questions like: "What do I need beside of StefanSchuermans's board to build up an ArcadeMini?", "How much does everything cost?" or "Where do I get the components from?" and because I enjoy building it, I will detailly log the building-up of my ArcadeMini with component-list, costs, experiences and pictures here.

The ArcadeMini was faszinating me right from the beginning. Therefor I was the lucky one, who was first on the waiting list and got handed out my board from the developer himself at the EasterHack. After that I surfed the net shopping. Because I wanted 2 LEDs per window, to get the original format, I needed to buy more than 1040 LEDs. As the registers at the ArcadeMini PCB can't operate big wattage (10 mA), it have to be low current LEDs, because I didn't want to build an additional boosting circuit (who wants to do that, the circuit diagram is available at the ArcadeMini website in the docu area). I decided for the green ones. So I asked for some offers and the company Börsig GmbH was with almost 56 ¤ for 1100 LEDs (L-53LGD - Kingbright, 5mm, low-current, 2mA, green) and dispatch inclusive, the cheapest one.

Then I surfed to Reichelts website to order the remaining components. In my shopping cart were 8 pushbutton and the fitting 10k ohmic resistances, 26 resistances for columns 10 ohm, a 64 MB CF-Card, a 5 meter long USB cable and a 500 mA plug power adaptor. From Aldi I got a Card Reader/Writer (6 in 1) for 9,99 ¤.

After that was cleared, I drove to the next DIY superstore. At Hornbach I found immediatly what I was searching for and ordered the hard-foam-board, which StefanSchuermans recommended me. It was 25x50cm large and 3mm thick. The nice uncle from the wood-customization was sawing it for me to a size of 21x31cm, so now the drilling template fits perfectly.

StefanSchuermans's "Open Source" drilling templates:

• drilling template-1040.tif
• drilling template-1040-half.tif

The first includes a template with all 1040 holes, but you can't print it on a normal A4 printer, thats why he made a half version. This one you print out twice and stick it together at the line. Put the template on the material, where you like to drill the holes into, take a needle or a dart to put marks for the holes before. Then put away the template and start drilling.

component list:

What?	Where from?	name	cost
ArcadeMini PCB	StefanSchuermans	ArcadeMini PCB	069,00 ¤
ArcadeMini Porto + VP*			007,00 ¤
1100 Low Current LEDs	Börsig	53LGD	055,68 ¤
8 pushbuttons	Reichelt	TASTER 9141 GN	010,40 ¤
8 resistance 10k ohm	Reichelt	1/4W 10K	000,80 ¤
26 resistance 10 ohm	Reichelt	1/4W 10	002,60 ¤
64 MB CF-Card	Reichelt	CF-CARD 064MB	017,90 ¤
USB cable (A/B)	Reichelt	AK 672/2-5,0	000,92 ¤
power adaptor 500 mA	Reichelt	MW 17-GS/6	002,65 ¤
Reichelt Porto + VP**			003,87 ¤
Card Reader/Writer	Aldi	Tevion (6 in 1)	009,99 ¤
hard-foam-board	Hornbach	Art.Nr.: 370061	002,49 ¤
sum			181,53 ¤

* injured post packet
** incl. dispatch-insurance (0,27 ¤)

components for building up an ArcadeMini with 1040 pixels.

To raise pleasant anticipation, while you are waiting for the components, you can connect the ArcadeMini PCB to an USB port and have a look what happens. I tried it out with Windows, and what a wonder, it has been recognized.

• who gets displayed this version, should do a firmware upgrade,
  which you can find under https://arcademini.schuermans.info/downloads.html
  -- StefanSchuermans - 2004-05-02

This advise is convenient, so I will try the firmware-update yet. Furthermore Windows driver are available for ArcadeMini now, which I want to test, too. To set up the new ArcadeMini firmware I have to write it in raw format, that means without file system, on the Compact Flash. That can be done either with Windows or with Linux.

firmware-update with Windows

The tools, which you will need, as well as a description, can be found at the ArcadeMini website. Aditionally the programm dd will be used for writing and reading, and for sure you need the latest firmware. It is understood that CF card and CF card reader/writer be in function.

First I have to test, which physical device is the CF card. With the command:

dd if=\\.\PhysicalDrive3 of=delete.me

will be read from physical drive 3 and written into delete.me file. PhysicalDrive0 or PhysicalDrive1 are hard disks in general. I proceed cautiously and test from top to bottom:

dd if=\\.\PhysicalDrive3 of=delete.me

rawwrite dd for windows version 0.2. Written by John Newbigin
This program is covered by the GPL. See copying.txt for details
Error reading file: 21 device is unready
0+0 records in
0+0 records out

That failed. The device PhysicalDrive3 is not existing.

Continuing with: dd if=\\.\PhysicalDrive2 of=delete.me

Only output is:

rawwrite dd for windows version 0.2. Written by John Newbigin
This program is covered by the GPL. See copying.txt for details

and the LED at the CF card reader/writer is busy blinking. I don't want to wait until the whole CF id written into the file delete.me, thats why I abort with [Ctrl] + [C] and delete the delete.me right after. At my system the CF card is obvious PhysicalDrive2. When you are sure that you found the correct device name, you can start writing the firmware to the CF.

Attention: If you write on the wrong device, i.e. the hard disk, the data on the hard disk will be lost!

With the following command I will write the firmware-update am-fw-1.2.3_2004-06-15.cf to the CF.

dd if=am-fw-1.2.3_2004-06-15.cf of=\\.\PhysicalDrive2

Output:

rawwrite dd for windows version 0.2. Written by John Newbigin
This program is covered by the GPL. See copying.txt for details
65+0 records in
65+0 records out

It seems to worked out. Now I put the CF into the ArcadeMini and the ArcadeMini at the USB port. The following should happen:

• ArcadeMini will not be recognized by the PC yet
• ArcadeMini updates firmware (around. 2 min.)
• ArcadeMini will be recognized with new firmware by the PC

firmware-update with Linux

The procedure is the same as with Windows, thats why I will not describe everything in detail again. Only the commands are a little bit different:

reading CF:

dd if=/dev/sda of=delete.me
[Ctrl] + [C]
14208+0 records in
14208+0 records out
7274496 bytes transferred in 7,378446 seconds (985912 bytes/sec)

writing firmware to CF:

Attention: If you write on the wrong device, i.e. the hard disk, the data on the hard disk will be lost!

dd if=am-fw-1.2.3_2004-06-15.cf of=/dev/sda
65+0 records in
65+0 records out
33280 bytes transferred in 0,182557 seconds (182299 bytes/sec)

If you want to test, if the update was properly written on the CF, only write the first 512 byte in a file and have a look at it with a Hex-editor.

dd if=/dev/sda of=start.bin count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
512 bytes transferred in 0,073941 seconds (6924 bytes/sec)

hexdump -C start.bin
00000000 41 52 ... 30 |ARCADEmini 26x20|
00000010 2f 31 ... 20 |/16 fw-up 1.0 |
00000020 ff ff ... ff |ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ|

If your result looks similar to mine, the update on the CF should be okay and you can connect ArcadeMini with the inserted CF to the USB port.

It is possible that the update is not working and right after the connect ArcadeMini is booting with the old firmware-version. Probably it has to do with the CF card, because ArcadeMini does not seem to be compatible to all CF cards. 1stein tries to find out why. At the moment the only solution is trying another CF.

If you want to use the CF normally again, that means with a file system, you have to reformat it before.

When I drilled the 1040 holes, I will go on reporting here ...

If you have questions or problems, have a look at the ArcadeMini website. The mailing-list and the forum are also open for help requests.

-- KatharinaMueller - 27 Jun 2004 (translation)
-- STephanKambor & StefanSchuermans - 14 Jul 2004