January 17, 2013

Arduino-controlled FDD emulator for Spectravision MSX Computer

 Fans of 1980s home computers may (or may not) fondly remember the MSX systems, however if you do and are looking to get one working - this project by Raul at codinglaboratory may be of interest. He has created a created a replacement floppy-drive system for his Spectravision SVI-728 computer using some clever hacking. The disk bios has been acquired and burned to an EPROM which is controlled by an ATmega128 and fitted to an original cartridge. This then connects to an Arduino which accesses data to and from a PC - behaving as the replacement for the original floppy drive. It's serious hacking, but it works - for example:


Kudos to Raul for his efforts, and click here to find out how it works. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

When your projects outgrow the normal Arduino-compatible boards, running out of program and flash memory space, need more I/O pins or you're stacking on Ethernet and microSD shields, or all at once - it's time to upgrade to the Freetronics EtherMega:


Quite simple the EtherMega is the fully-loaded Arduino-compatible board on the market today. Apart from being completely Arduino Mega2560-compatible, it includes full Ethernet interface, a microSD card socket, full USB interface, optional Power-over-Ethernet support and still has a circuit prototyping area with extra I2C interface pins. So if your project is breaking the limits, upgrade to the EtherMega today. 



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