I’ve been making “bare metal” handheld games of increasing complexity with my kids for a while. We started with a LED dot-matrix Snake, then with a HD44780 obstacle-dodging game (similar to the Dino game in Chrome), then an Arkanoid clone on a monochrome 128×64 OLED display, then a clone of Sokoban on a full-color OLED hooked up to an 8-bit MCU (AVR128DA28). My latest project is the culmination of all that, essentially illustrating how to do top-notch graphics on a higher-resolution screen.
The display is NHD-2-8-240320AF-CSXP-F. The MCU is a Microchip SAM S70 series chip, although it’s a bit overpowered for this. The rest is fairly run-of-the-mill. Happy to answer any questions.
I must say that this is the best looking home made handheld I have seen posted on reddit so far, good job!
Seeing your debug connection, have you ever had a look at tag-connect?
Do you use any specific hardware inside the MCU for rendering or to communicate with the display, other than serial or DMA?
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*I have been looking for decent displays to use on some inhouse dev tools at work, and this look like a good fit. But my Atmel/Microchip experience is limited to some 8 bit AVR’s from many years ago, and would prefer to use STM32’s or something from SiLabs since I have more recent experience with their parts.*
Is there a particular reason SM caps were used rather than through hole? It seems like this would be a good practice board for sm as ive never done it before but curious as to if they could be replaced with TH?
I’ve been making “bare metal” handheld games of increasing complexity with my kids for a while. We started with a LED dot-matrix Snake, then with a HD44780 obstacle-dodging game (similar to the Dino game in Chrome), then an Arkanoid clone on a monochrome 128×64 OLED display, then a clone of Sokoban on a full-color OLED hooked up to an 8-bit MCU (AVR128DA28). My latest project is the culmination of all that, essentially illustrating how to do top-notch graphics on a higher-resolution screen.
The hardware info, including schematics, parts list, and PCB files, is [here](https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/bob-the-cat/). Some notes about the software design are [here](https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/mcu-land-part-10-blocks-all-the-way). The source code is downloadable [here](https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/soft/embedded/bobcat.tgz).
The display is NHD-2-8-240320AF-CSXP-F. The MCU is a Microchip SAM S70 series chip, although it’s a bit overpowered for this. The rest is fairly run-of-the-mill. Happy to answer any questions.
Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.
What did you use to design and fabricate?
Did you do the smd soldering?
I must say that this is the best looking home made handheld I have seen posted on reddit so far, good job!
Seeing your debug connection, have you ever had a look at tag-connect?
Do you use any specific hardware inside the MCU for rendering or to communicate with the display, other than serial or DMA?
​
*I have been looking for decent displays to use on some inhouse dev tools at work, and this look like a good fit. But my Atmel/Microchip experience is limited to some 8 bit AVR’s from many years ago, and would prefer to use STM32’s or something from SiLabs since I have more recent experience with their parts.*
What software environment did you use?
Hello, friend.
I love that it’s barebones.
Is there a particular reason SM caps were used rather than through hole? It seems like this would be a good practice board for sm as ive never done it before but curious as to if they could be replaced with TH?