Inside The ' Agon Light 2 ' Fast Single board 8 bit computer.

[@igorperuchi2114]

A new retrocomputer being used to power an old fairground game, that's really creative!

[@TELsBENCH]

Thank you Igor. I've had this game in my mind for a long time, and it occurred to me that this would be as good an opportunity as any to make it a reality, and share it.

[@TheSulross]

the Zilog CPU used in the design is actually a 24 bit register capable CPU - can shift to that mode from its Z80 compatible mode. There's 512K memory so that can be accessed from this 24 bit mode. There's an SDK with a compiler and assembler that supports the full capabilities of the CPU

[@TELsBENCH]

I am aware, but thanks very much for your comment.👍

[@greenfrogcoding]

It's on my shopping list 👍

[@TELsBENCH]

Cool🙂

[@rayerdinc2441]

Excellent video, thank you. Will be ordering my Olimex AgonLight2! Subscribed and liked. 👍

[@TELsBENCH]

Welcome to the channel Ray, thank you for the comment.🙂

[@Bob-qe3qi]

Great, best of luck with the channel...

[@TELsBENCH]

Many many thanks

[@cianmoriarty7345]

7:40 you generally only need the ZDI to flash the board's firmware on first manufacture. After that the onboard firmware has the capability to flash new versions itself from the SD card. As you didn't need it I guess Olimex flashes the boards after manufacture. The only time you might need to use it I think is if you make your own board, or you are developing your own firmware, which is definitely a thing people do, and you mess it up so bad it can no longer reflash firmware.

[@TELsBENCH]

@Cianmoriaty7345 . For flashing new versions of the firmware, yes you are right. But there are others who want to create variants of it and may want to be able to debug it that is where this interface comes in. Most ordinary mortals will not need this but some will.

[@duncanwalduck7715]

(and the reason *. is the .cat is because in alphabetical order from the first utility ROM it is the first)

[@TELsBENCH]

An interesting nugget there, I always wondered about that, but didnt bother to investigate. Thanks ;D

[@LearnAgon]

Very nice!🎉

[@TELsBENCH]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@duncanwalduck7715]

Cool, Olimex do UK again. I nerded over them a LOT when I first went down the FPGA rabbit hole (along with Trenz of Germany) prompted by projects like MiSTer, which I never specifically made for myself after all. I realised they (Olimex) formerly had post-Brexit difficulties, whether they were aiming to resolve them or not - I did not know. I know there is a UK distributor for this and similar boards (but I don't necessarily need to blow their trumpet) and even the (usually American) generic electronics distributors are getting in on the game, as far as I can see... without having seriously considered that route: food miles and all. Looking in a little detail at Raspberrry Pi Foundation's PR output (i.e. video interviews and stuff - not quite a plain-text search) you get to realise that they actually used an FPGA board from Zagreb University for prototyping the RP2040... It was sort-of available to the public (- a bit like the Raspberry Pi Zero for so much of its early life, then!!)

[@TELsBENCH]

There is a fair list of world wide distributors of the "Agon Light" product now, around eight or so I think last time I looked. Olimex's version is different to the original from a hardware POV but it still does basically the same job as the original. Its all good for the consumer in the end as everyone ( creators/manufacturers ) are competing to bring something new, and maybe innovative and or cheaper to market and its an everlasting evolution I suppose. I was looking at new version of the Aquarius the other day which has been re-engineered, not really like the AL/2 is it more a revamp of the original as far as I can tell and accepts the original cartridges, but they have a few nice features like being able to connect to the network out of the box and get updates directly instead of having to download them. Not the same as I say but these kind of modern day features should really be an expectation rather than a wish or an add-on. Having said that the price points are vastly different, and thats one of the reasons that AL2 although still in a relatively early stage of its evolution is still an incredibly good buy IMHO

[@rayerdinc2441]

@@TELsBENCH I am new this, only recently coming across the AgonLight2. You say the hardware is different from original, in what way please and does it have an effect better/worse/neither?

[@TELsBENCH]

There are some minor changes. So on the original, both the power and the Keyboard has a USB Type A connector, but on the AL2, the power connector is a USB Type c which fits in with standards power and auxilliaries should not have the same connector. Additionally, some changes were done to the PCB tracks and I beleive some protection added against surges with surge protector diodes. Plus a few minor alterations. In short AL2 was an improvement over the original. If you go to the 'Byte Attic' I think he does a video on the differences, but I beleive I got them all or most of them. In short you will not be disadvantaged by buying the AL2.

[@cianmoriarty7345]

5:44 is there a tin whisker short between the soldered pins of your VGA adaptor? 🙀

[@TELsBENCH]

Yes, there is. I assume this is a late mod. This is between pins 7 and 8 which are Green and Blue grounds, so assume that there was a production issue with some boards and they needed to be joined to provide that. No need to worry.

[@GarryGri]

I got one a while ago but haven't got around to using it for anything yet.

[@TELsBENCH]

Yeah, well sometimes we are too busy with life, happens to me somtimes. You'll pick it up when you're ready I guess.

[@paulscottrobson]

It's very fast, but I think the Mega65 which on fast mode is clocked at 40Mhz is probably faster. But it's £700 ...

[@TELsBENCH]

Ive had a root around for information regarding any benchmarking between the two and cannot find any. Noel's retro Lab did a benchmark against a lot of computers, but the MEGA65 was not on the list. If it was £60 like the Agon Light I might be tempted to buy one and do some. testing. - I actually like the physical arrangement for the Mega65, but I guess it all comes as part of the premium price tag.

[@CommanderKlag]

I've looked many places but I cannot find out what the specifications (Sizes) for the 34 HEADER pins used as GPIO's, thus I cant buy with confidence a Ribbon Cable for clean connection to a breadboard. I also will need just the black pin connectors so I can build plug-able solutions that are clean and don't have wires everywhere. Could someone point me to the right location to the information on the sizes and real Applications for the 34 GPIO's. I would like to build several solutions including an input for a joystick. Where's the right size ribbon cable? Thanks

[@TELsBENCH]

OK Its a standard 34 pin Flat cable ( same size as the old 3.5 inch floppy disk drives use.) The Connectors are IDC connectors. Search for "34 pin IDC Connectors" on Google. You will find them along with a number of suppliers, or you can try Amazon, or Ebay etc. Hope that helps.

[@yorkan213swd6]

I do not unterstand why a VGA connector…

[@TELsBENCH]

Hi there. I dont know how much of the video you watched, but I do address this concern early on the video in as much as I also would have preferred a HDMI as well . My assumptions as to why they settled on VGA are . . . 😊 * It fits with the retro profile and HDMI adapters are very cheap. * It keeps the price point low. * Some people still use VGA monitors especially in the groups who are likely most interested in it. * It may have resulted in more complexity on the board for very little ultimate benefit. However these are assumptions, and you would have to ask the designers, Bernard at the 'Byte Attic' as to what the actual reason was. I'm using a converter which cost me only £5, so although its a little annoying, I'm willing to put up with it. I hope that helps. Cheers TEL

[@yorkan213swd6]

@@TELsBENCH Thanks, I must overheard that. VGA makes real no sense today.

[@TheSulross]

hobbyist retro board designers don't want to pay the multi-thousand dollars licensing fees for licensing HDMI

[@TELsBENCH]

That is very true, good point.

[@yorkan213swd6]

@@TheSulross USB-C or Thunderbolt ?