TL;DR Station Mode (with or without WPS) Inactivity timeout & Joystick statistics Auto-firmware upgrade Better ways to power the WiFi device Station mode and other features One thing that bothered me was that I needed to switch WiFi networks every time that I wanted to use the UniJoystiCle. Not a major issue, but not ideal specially if you use your phone both for the UniJoystiCle and for “regular” stuff. To solve that issue, I added WiFi Station mode support (Access Point mode is still supported). Basically the UniJoystiCle WiFi device, when in Station mode, can connect to any WiFi network. It also supports WPS (an auto-auth way to connect to a network). If Station mode fails, it will default to Access Point mode. In order to switch to Station mode you have to: Install firmware v0.4.3 (see below for more info) Boot the UniJoystiCle WiFi device (it will boot in Access Point mode) Connect to the unijoysticle-xxyyzz WiFi Network Open the web page: http://unijoysticle.local Select “Station” mode, put the credential (SSID and password) and reboot! From http://unijoysticle.local you can also configure the “Inactivity timeout”: how many seconds without activity should elapse before all the joystick lines are set to Low (simulates no joystick movements). I also added statistics: It tells you how many seconds you spent on the different joystick positions, and how many movements you did. Useful, right? :)

Since UniJoystiCle v0.3 was released back in July many things were added. Android client: It has all the iOS features, except Gyruss mode which will be added soon. iOS client: It is available on the App Store.

I’ve just released a new firmware version for the UniJoystiCle (v0.4.0). It supports the new Commando Mode. The new Android client with Commando mode can be downloaded from here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=moe.retro.unijoysticle The iOS client will be available as soon as Apple approves it (usually a few days) and will be available here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unijoysticle-controller/id1130131741?mt=8 In order to upgrade the firmware, please follow these steps: DOCUMENTATION.md

VChar64 v0.2.0 is available for download: Win32: vchar64-0.2.0.win32.zip Mac: vchar64-0.2.0.mac.dmg [caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“425”] New “VICE Import Snapshot” dialog[/caption]

Here are more UniJoystiCle videos: Showing how to play C64 games using a real Game Controller via the UniJoystiCle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9Q-Nlp2e44 Showing how to play Gyruss using the UniJoystiCle Gyruss mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2YHoj1pXB8

Two weeks ago I attended the Commodore Vegas Expo XII, and last week I’ve been at the Vintage Computer Festival West XI. CommVEx XII As the name describes it, it was a Commodore Expo in Las Vegas. But the format is a mix between conference and expo. It is a real expo, but with the social part of a conference. It is friendly and casual. People give talks in a very informal way. I gave a talk + live demo about the UniJoystiCle. Everything went well except that in the middle of the demo my phone’s glass broke. But that wasn’t an issue since the accelerometer kept working.

Yeaaaaaaaaaah! UniJoystiCle v0.3 was released! It includes: A beautifully designed PCB A realistic Unicycle game for the Commodore 64 A the iPhone application which can be downloaded from the App Store

This is mostly a bug-fix release, focused on improving the workflow. Download: Mac: vchar64-0.1.0.mac.dmg Win32: vchar64-0.1.0.win32.zip Source code: https://github.com/ricardoquesada/vchar64

[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“480”] v0.2.1 powered from a battery. Can be powered from USB as well[/caption] Changes in v0.2.1: Commodore 64 works Ok when the UniJoystiCle board is unpowered. The issue was that the 4066 chips were in an unknown state when they were unpowered. In v0.2.1 the 4066 ICs get power from the C64 Joy #2 port Smaller holes for the DC Jack making it compatible with “common” DC Jacks.

I assumed that the Commodore 1581 was failing because of a bad WD1772 IC (as documented in Part I). So I ordered a WD1772 replacement + the IC socket, I developed some basic desoldering skills, watched some desoldering videos, and also got a cheap desoldering iron from Radio Shack: So, I removed the board from the Commodore 1581 and started to desolder the IC. To my surprise the $11-buck desolder iron worked pretty well. I was able to remove all the solder from the the pins in a few minutes. The desolder iron just takes some time to reach the needed temperature, but besides that, it seems to be a great tool for occasional desoldering tasks (a hobbyist desoldering iron cost more than $250)