Introducing Jelly-Load – An inconvenient way of loading stuff into your Commodore via Youtube etc.
Why load your 8bit things via the convenience of Cassette, Disk or Cartridge when you can load things via YouTube video? Because it’s horribly slow that’s why! But it is rather cool! And if like me you’ve got a million electronic bits and bobs lying around the house, you may have enough electronic purchase left-overs to start making your own Jelly-Load interface right now! 😀
Anywho, you lot know me. I’m not very good at the ‘blah blah explanations’ But suffice to say, I’ll try and plonk enough info here and a few files to get you up and running. You’ll also find ‘test’ videos over on my YouTube channels JellyLoad Playlist.
Right’o, lets try and do an explainer..
One Million years ago, for some reason or other, I found myself in possession of a big bag of photo resistors.. Roll on One Million years and I had an idea..
I wonder if I can transmit a file via the internets like they did back in the day with the ** cant remember what it was called tele-soft was it.. i’ll google it later, but it was a thing!
Jelly-Load Sensor v0.1
It didn’t take me long to realise that a single flashing light at ‘some’ frames per second just wasn’t gonna cut it. This was double confirmed when I mentioned it to Mr Tynemouth, but he kinda like the idea (kinda) but he knew it would need some sort of fancy serial based forward checking. All very complicated stuff, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t have worked, so Dave started looking into the software side of things for me.. While I continued to brain fart myself to 8bits 😀
Jelly-Load proof of concept LED bar
As the serial based way of transferring files seem rather difficult, my brain went back to basics. My thoughts where this, you can ‘dump’ ASCI to a LPT printer port, can’t you do the same with a Commodore? So if I connected up the data ports on my daily drive C64c to some LED’s I should be able to drive them right?
Jelly-Load blinky lights!
Crude programming in basic got me this far, I could read and write the port. But my programming skills aren’t up to the Tynemouth-Software level of 8bit things.. So I pestered him into knocking up a 8bit send & receive programs that would actually function in real life! And while he was about it, I’d move on to making 9 sensors practical (yeah, it’s not that practical!)
An off the shelf photo resistor based sensor
All along, I wanted this to be the sort of thing people might ‘have a go at’.. I had a big old pile of vintage sensors and a few modular ones I picked up via the Amazons. BTW, much testing has happened with off the shelf sensors and as it turns out, the 3 pin photo resistor based ones work waaaay better (see work) than the photo diode flavour.
Early version of the Jelly-Load sensor holder
27, yes 27 version of the sensor holder have happened.. Using off the shelf parts kinda fixes the proportions (btw, we’ll have a single PCB version as soon as we get around to it)
Jelly-Load Sensor
And any excuse to buy a big old box of LED’s is always a win in my book 😀
One Million LEDs!
One of the most ridiculous things about Jelly-Load is you (at the time of typing) record your LED’s flashes at as many frames per second as you can get away with. Elgato FaceCam to the rescue!
Jelly-Load LED 'Sender'
Right well that was the ‘sender’, how’s version ‘something or other’ of the receiver looking.. As it turns out, not bad.. But things changed a lot over the 27 versions.
It seemed like a good idea at the time, but stringing all those power wires got too weighty.. The final ‘product’ should not only sit on a tablet (pinch to zoom is dead handy), but also off a monitor.. All this lot was just too much..
Even more so, when you attach all the data lines..
Linking all the power lines was fiddly, but it made it all much neater.. Again, we’ll get a PCB sorted with a single adjustment pot etc sometime soon.
This is the ‘final layout’ of the Jelly-Load adaptor.. Easy access to the pots.. But not the clock. That’s a bugger, coz it’s in the middle. 🙁
Userport connection of my test bench VIC20. Yeah, I’m amazed I didn’t short out the 9vac too ;D
I did a lot of local testing.. and a heck of a lot of YouTube testing.. but lets jump ahead of all the things that didn’t quiet work from the past.. and lets see how things have progressed in the last few days.. First up, we need something to receive!
Introducing Jelly-Load – An inconvenient way of loading stuff into your Commodore!
But will it ‘play back’?
It works!! One of my first attempts to load software via Youtube!
It only frigging works! Next up, something bigger! Obv’s I started with smaller files, but before I start trying to describe how to build an interface.. Next up is the result of the first big test.. Snake Pit 3.5k..
Shirley I didn't just load Snake Pit via YouTube? I sure did 😀
So, are you tempted? Do you fancy trying to load something into your Commodore VIC20 over the Youtubes..
What you’ll need for this weeks Hobby.
Patience, a soldering Iron & Solder, 9 Photo Resistor modules, ribbon cable, a 3d Printer, a userport connector, a Commodore VIC20, some software and some 3d-print-ables.
First off, look behind the fridge for 3pin photo resistor modules and if you can’t find any, you’ll find them on Amazon as well as various Arduino / Ri-Pie bits and bobs sites.
Next get printing, coz you’ll need to connect all the power lines. Fit the Clock (centre) unit first and daisy chain the power connections from the centre pcb.
Being super-duper careful, coz you’ll find 5vdc and 9vac on the Userport to the sensor array as follows.
USERPORT – COLOUR – DICE SENSOR ARRAY
TOP ROW 1-12 (1 Nearest Cassette Port)
1 – BLACK – 0V dc – (C – GND)
2 – BROWN – 5V dc – (C – 5v)
BOTTOM ROW A-N (A Nearest Cassette Port)
C – GRAY – (0)
D – PURPLE – (1)
E – BLUE – (2)
F – GREEN – (3)
H – YELLOW (4)
J – ORANGE (5)
K – RED (6)
L – BROWN2 (7)
White (C) is the Clock connection. The Userport connection varies depending on host!
VIC20 – 8, PET – 7, C64 – M
Jelly Load Sensor Holder
Right, I think that’ll have to do for now. I’m not very good at writing stuff up.. So I will be back to correct things and add the software for PET & C64 as soon as we’ve sorted it.
Oh and a special mention to Dave over at Tynemouth-Software, coz without his help, none of this would have been possible! BTW he’s done a bit of a write up on his Patreon
Rod Hull Live Build: Jelly Load Interface - A silly & inconvenient way to load Commodore VIC20 Games
Jelly Load Calibration Video: Just 00's & FF's to get your sensors into sync
Jelly Load Dice Test Calibration Video: Use this + dicetest.prg to check your signals are reaching your user port connection
Jelly Load 3d Printed Sensor Holder
* News Justin has just informed me that Jelly-Baby (Micro JellyLoad) is the Future *
Yes, I know it’s only been a few days, but we’ve done One Million Test and we now have feedback from humans.. and surprise surprise a massive flashy box in the corner of the screen is a bit distracting, unless you’ve got 9 sensors sat on top of it Obvs ;D
Anywho, we always planned an ‘off the shelf/open/homebrew’ version to come along. Well it’s about time I started broadcasting the new ‘standard’ format. Obviously you can pinch and zoom full sized JellyLoad and Micro JellyLoad to fit either physical format. But I’ll get some specs / 3d prints for the new version here real soon. With the ultimate aim of something you can hang off the top corner of a conventional 24-34 widescreen monitor as well as being tablet-able. (The current version is waay to bulky for that. But as a proof of concept, it’s been fantastic)