144 LED Games Console Project

[Art]

Sorry, I was away for two nights. Lucky I took my laptop and pic programmer with
me so I saved a lot of chip space again

I don't know what my LED spacing is. As long as it's even, it should work.

The EEPROM in the circuit def shouldn't be needed now, but I don't think a tilt
switch is needed either. The orientation of the joystick is determined by the game you're
playing, so it can be switched with the game.

One of the pins that was connected to the EEPROM should now be used for a
serial port I think.
I was using one of the LED input ports, but without the EEPROM, the serial ort could have it's own pin.
The other EEPROM pin could now perhaps be connected to a PCB speaker.

[Art]

Hi again Guys,
I've done a few updates including support for a 250 character display message
for the scroller. This was done by making space for tables in program memory again.
Now the only thing other than a message on the on-chip EEPROM are game high scores and message length.

Removal of the external 12C EEPROM chip provided extra pins.
The serial port now has a dedicated pin, and a PCB speaker has been added.

Both games now have basic sound, and the unit clicks as you type characters into your terminal program
when using serial message programming mode.

I thought I'd do more with this one, but I've moved on to another pic project.

Cheers, Art.

[Art]

Thought I'd better post that there is an error in the LED matrix schematic.
The 18 transistors should all be connected to + 5 Volts, not Gnd.
Cheers, Art.

[mtripoli]

Thought I'd better post that there is an error in the LED matrix schematic.
The 18 transistors should all be connected to + 5 Volts, not Gnd.
Cheers, Art.

What's connected to +5V? Not the emitter. Not on an NPN.

If it's a PNP the load goes in the emitter (emitter follower, and doesn't need a base resistor) or in the collector (and needs the resistor). It's drawn now as an NPN open collector. If it is an NPN and *something* is connected to +5 it's the collector (the only time I've ever connected a postive supply rail to the emitter of an NPN has been when designing very high speed switches and we ain't going there)...

I've got all but the switches and ICSP header and related components in place. You can see the top layer here: http://www.scarydesign.com/144/144topview.pdf It hasn't been optimized for size yet or mounting holes etc.

The pads look a little odd because you can use TH or SMD components. I'll wait to do more until this has been worked out...

Mike Tripoli

[Art]

They are BC549 (NPN) transistors with the collectors connected to + 5 Volt.
All of the LED anode columns are connected to the emitters,
and the cathode rows are sunk directly by the pic pins.

I deleted the LED schematic section from flickr. It may also picture the wrong transistors
(wired for a common cathode display).

Ooh.. the PCB artwork is nice

[ScaleRobotics]

Welcome to the forum Svrzic. (But please, no double postings here)

You connect them at the ports for the PIC chip. For instance: RB0, RB1, RB2, etc.

[momore]

can I request or suggest Sir Art?
the 144 led game console was spectacular ^_^

im not completely good in pic basic that's why I will be needed your help or anyone out there just to improve if possible the message scroller...

i want to make it more portable.. as ive scanned your program it is very mind bugling
how about we will make the RE.1 a start/ok button???
is it possible to make a message if we use:
UP = (Capital) A to Z and 0 to 9 plus special charater
Down = (reverse) special character plus 9 to 0 and Z to A
if we will press left/right = the letters will be small letters... then press start to enter the next character

[Art]

Hi, Coincidence that I checked this forum tonight...
I haven't checked, but if I remember correctly, there are no spare IO pins left on the pic.
This is probably the most readable code I've ever written as it was intended for "Human consumption"
It's free for anyone to do what they want with, but my time is certainly not.
If I were to revisit this project now, it would def be a priority to include a real time clock as long as it's
interrupt code doesn't visibly affect the display.

Nice work aberco
What are the code modifications you want to do? (out of interest)...

One simple change that would also require hardware modification:
I should have addressed leds across the opposite axis to make all leds brighter for free.
Rather than addressing 18 rows and only lighting 8 leds at a time,
I could have addressed 8 rows, and lit 18 leds at a time.
Simple change, but would require a new board and software change.

bushprogrammer (at) gmail dot com