Low cost Flash Hucard

[gameofyou]

Hello,
 
I have been thinking of making a low-cost Hucard with flash memory.  I know there are some expensive (> $100) options for flash cards that hold multiple games.  What I am thinking about making would be a simple 8Mbit flash Hucard, which could be used for game development or downloading a commercial game.
 
I did a search and saw an older topic of someone that was going to build something similar to this.  Did it ever happen?
 
I will probably build one of these for myself, anyway.  I just wondered if there was any interest, because if so, I would build a batch of them.

So I'm talking about an 8Mbit, flash-based Hucard, with a USB connector for loading a game.  It would be as simple and low-cost as possible (but high quality).  For price, I'm thinking around the $30 range.  If someone wanted to sell a homebrew on Hucard, you could solder down a pre-programmed flash memory and leave the rest of the circuitry off, and it would bring the price down to $20 or so.
 
Here are some of the other projects I've done previously:
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/
 
I just recently bought my PC Engine & a stack of Hucards, and am having a blast with it!

[Chuplayer]

Sounds good. I'd be down for soldering the components myself, too. Like, if you sold it as an unassembled kit, not just for the selling of homebrews.

If possible, I'm sure people would like 20Mbit capability.

I guess some people are going to get a little antsy about TG16 vs. PCE circuit board types.

[mrhaboobi]

having just bought a flash card it's not like i *need* another   but always willing to support a homebrew project and the tools that help provide them   so yeah id be keen to see what comes of this.

[gameofyou]

Yeah, I forgot to add that.  This would work with either PC-Engine or Turbo Grafx.  It is basically just up to the PC software to download the game in the correct format.

[sunteam_paul]

Sounds good, I'd be interested.

[thesteve]

i like it.
any design help you need let me know

[Bonknuts]

Jerry DaSilva made a TurboRom board back in 2001. I got mine from Dave Shadoff. It takes either a dip or surface mount rom. Damn nice looking board too. Dave Shadoff had the pcb design file for it too (I forget what the format's called). I soldered a zif socket on mine.

[gameofyou]

I am definately planning on making this flash card.  Since I am doing it in my spare time, I don't know what the time frame will be.  But I will be sure to post pictures when I get any prototype work done.
 
I will also be sure to ask here, if I need any further design information.  Thanks!

[grahf]

I've been wanting to make myself one for a while not, but it's definitely more cost effective to make them in semi-bulk. I'd definitely be interested in one of yours.

[gameofyou]

Ok, I have looked into the HuCard interface.  If anyone here is knowledgable about the HuCard pinout, I would really appreciate if you could take a look at what I have, for a sanity check.  I am using a MX29F800C flash chip (cheap & available at Digikey).  You can see the datasheet here:
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/temp/MX29F800C.pdf
 
And here is the circuit schematic for the HuCard/Flash interface:
http://www.gamingenterprisesinc.com/temp/HuCard_Schematic_V01.pdf
 
I will work on the USB/PC interface portion of the schematic design next.

[thesteve]

that looks right.
build a prototype first to test it

[burn_654]

Definitely looking forward to this project!

You can count me in for buying one when they're done.

[Aladar]

I'm interested, but I have some questions:
Can you add a reset button?
Will it be a generic HID device?
Will the source code be released? Or at least enough information to write a driver and the transfer software?

[gameofyou]

I'm interested, but I have some questions:
Can you add a reset button?
Will it be a generic HID device?
Will the source code be released? Or at least enough information to write a driver and the transfer software?

If I have space, I can add a placeholder on the pcb for a reset button.  Then I can always decide later whether I want to populate it.

I am still working on the design, but it will use an FTDI usb chip.  So, you will be able to get drivers for almost any OS right from FTDI's webpage.  I will document the transfer software well, so that anyone can write their own if they want.  I will make the interface as simple as possible.  The initial software will run on Windows (since that's what I have).

[Mortis]

Will definitely take part in the batch if you get this done!