Throttle Blaster: An add-on Turbo circuit released! (Part 2)

[@dmnsonic]

This one is THE MOD many waited for! Use a platform like Pentium 4 or Arhlon XP to go as far as a 4.77Mhz open to many possibilities!

[@ruthlessadmin]

This is awesome...1000% better than having to go into BIOS every time to disable cache and downclock the CPU manually. I gave the suggestion for the push button presets (or at least one of the people who did) but didn't expect you to take it this far, and so fast! Will be building myself one asap!

[@scrap_computing]

Awesome, go for it!

[@AladimBR]

Impressive! Looking forward for the PCB proto testing ❤

[@darthtripedacus1]

That mp3 playback discrepancy may be due to the CPUs improved instructions and features that a 486 lacks.

[@scrap_computing]

Yeah, perhaps bigger caches, or perhaps better floating point unit?

[@rodneyg9231]

Absolutely incredible! Random idea: provide a way for the OS (eg. DOS) to set the speed through software! Perhaps through serial UART? One could make "game profiles" or .bat files that could be run before starting a game.

[@scrap_computing]

It's in the TODO list :)

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Thank you Scrap Computing!

[@overdriver99]

this is so impressive. I hope you sell as a kit since I am novice on modding my retro PC system. thank you for your design. This is the perfect for my Retro PC system.

[@NaoPb]

I would be tempted to use two push buttons. One for up and one for down. That will leave you with a more userfriendly way for fine tuning as well. I am also thinking of maybe having a small potentiometer on the inside of the case for the fine tuning. Because after it has been finetuned, there may not be a need to touch that anymore. And then maybe 3d printing a bracket that kind of looks like a gotek floppy emulator, which could house the raspberry pi, the display and the buttons. This could be optionally equipped with your large clicky rotary encoder just like with a gotek.

[@scrap_computing]

The single button mode is meant to be used by those who want to use their Turbo button. And it's actually not too bad to use. I think it should be fairly easy to support a 2-button mode, I will try to implement it soon, thanks!

[@NaoPb]

@@scrap_computing Fair point, I kind of forgot about that!

[@laudennn]

great video, thank you!

[@darthtripedacus1]

Brother you do amazing work

[@MrFathead]

I have no use for this, but I think I might make one anyway just because it is so cool.

[@shaunclarke94]

Another suggestion. You could offer a "simpler" switch mode that can work with a toggle turbo switch rather than requiring a momentary one. Obviously it would be more limited though.

[@scrap_computing]

You might still be able to use it with the toggle switch, as long as you don't push it all the way in, though I have not tried it. Or you could just use the reset button. Reset should still work with a toggle switch ;)

[@shaunclarke94]

​@@scrap_computingyou could also just press it twice quickly, but that's more a hack than a solution.

[@jacktheripper6716]

looking forward to the pcb so i can make my p3 950 run at 10ghz ;P or at least 1.2ghz or better

[@hectoralejandrotorrespopoc9232]

I would like to know how to run grim fandango on windows 98 without issues, everything i tried has never worked for me, could you tell me the specifications of your machine?

[@scrap_computing]

Grim Fandango runs natively on Windows 98. What kind of issues are you having?

[@hectoralejandrotorrespopoc9232]

@@scrap_computing It doesn't start at all, on windows 95 it works, but has graphical glitches on the 3D models and on windows 98 it goes to a black screen and then nothing, sometimes it shows a blue screen claiming the program did an illegal operation. My machines are: Biostar M7VIG 400 Rev 7 AMD Duron at 166Mhz 256MB RAM at 333MHz Foxconn 661GX7MJ Intel Celeron at 3.2GHz 256MB RAM at 333MHz Both machines use: Geforce FX5200 128MB of RAM Samsung Spinpoint HDD 10GB Hitachi CDROM Drive

[@scrap_computing]

Sorry to hear that. I've never had issues with Grim Fandango. Perhaps try disabling hardware 3D rendering?

[@hectoralejandrotorrespopoc9232]

@@scrap_computing Hardware 3D rendering is always disabled, otherwise it always shows glitches on the 3D models.

[@hectoralejandrotorrespopoc9232]

@@scrap_computing That is why I asked you for your hardware and software configurations, maybe i could troubleshoot my pc's knowing a machine with a working configuration for grim fandango, of course if possible, i don't want to sound like I am being rude or something, thank for your continued replies.

[@Jay-q3o4w]

Will that work with 286 processor?

[@scrap_computing]

No, this revision only works with Pentium (MMX I think) or newer CPUs. I am planning to release a new one that works with older CPUs.

[@Jay-q3o4w]

@@scrap_computing Would be great! Not having turbo functionality on 286 motherboard is a big bummer.

[@Jay-q3o4w]

@@scrap_computing Also, consider seting up a patreon. I'm sure there is a few people who will want to motivate your projects financially.

[@scrap_computing]

@@Jay-q3o4w I just checked and I don't think it will work. On my 486 the HOLD pin is actively pulled down by the chipset so it can't be overriden by the circuit without risking damaging the chipset. I will try to check with older systems too.

[@Jay-q3o4w]

@@scrap_computing Is it possible to modify motherboard instead of processor, to include turbo functionality that way maybe? Other 286 motherboards have it from factory, so it should be possible to mod my motherboard to include it, I think.

[@szyszka8303]

Big Red Racing is not playable on faster than 486 100mhz machines. Try it plz. Wing Commander runs at normal speed? Ultima 7 ?

[@scrap_computing]

All such games should work fine with the Throttle Blaster. You have very fine control over the CPU performance all the way down to XT-class.

[@Jack7277]

nice and like )