Currently the PCBs I have in hand are built per the Rasp Pi B+ / 2 "Pi Hat" specification. This means they fit only Pi+ or Pi B 2 (40-pin connector and physical dimensions). Electrically, however, I believe all of the signals except the BCR port output are tied to the original 26-pin region of the connecor. So making a version that works with the older Pi form factor would not be a big effort.
Currently, the only plan is to try to get a solution up on using Pi 2 B. Based on how much effort that is and how much interest there is, it may branch out from there. As far as system requirements ... that is still unknown. But it would be relatively minimal resources I'm sure (80x25 color text only requires about 310K of RAM, so I'm sure 256M would be sufficient). Ken On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Jan-80 <ja...@scarlet.be> wrote: > This is great. Using the RasPi as a base gives you an inexpensive platform > to build on, one that will be available for years to come. I am truly > impressed... > > I hope that the design is compatible with the original RasPi and the Pi2. > Please publish wich models A, A+, B, B+, Pi2, Pi0 ... it is compatible > with, the OS and the RAM requirements. I have an early RasPi B lying > around, 256 MB. > > If it's compatible with the original Pi, now that the Pi2 is out, you can > strike a bargain buying a RasPi very cheap. > > Great work! > > > Greetings from the TyRannoSaurus > Jan-80 > > On Mon, 07 Dec 2015 07:36:15 -0800, Ken Pettit wrote: > > On 12/7/15 7:00 AM, Ray Lopez wrote: > > Ken, forgive the stupid question, but what does TDock do? RL > > > Hi Ray, > > The goals of TDock: > > 1. Provide an HDMI LCD video interface for Model T (a DVI replacement). > 2. It should work with M100, T102, T200 and PC8201. > 3. Provide a TPDD client to USB Thumb drives or SD cards (NADSBox > substitute). > 4. Provide an interface capable of supporting networking. > 5. Provide an interface for printing to modern printers. > > 6. While not a goal, it also provides 13 I/O pins (well 11 I/O and 2 > input only) on the pass-thru LPT port when not connected to a printer. > > The implementation in the picture is a daughter card for the Raspberry Pi > 2 B (a "Pi Hat"). It connects with the Model T parallel port for primary > communication of video data, but also has an RS-232 port (and a BCR port). > It also has a "pass-through" LPT connector where your old LPT printer can > be connected. Making TDock a Pi Hat was the simplest and cheapest > approach, though it is not very portable and has the requirement of booting > / shutting down Linux. > > My other ideas involved simple microcontrollers or FPGAs to provide HDMI / > VGA. They would have been more portable, but also more expensive. The > general theme on this list always seems to be "cheap" (though I prefer the > word "inexpensive"), so I decided to give up portablily in favor of lower > cost. > > Ken > > >
