Topic: replacement for the Main ULA IC in the POD.

[Karl]

That message from NZ would be Chris, the creator of c5alive - never met him myself but have chatted via email.

There are some circuit diagrams that Chris composed for the c5alive forum ,they are still available on the download section of the main C5alive website.

No idea what happened to the replacement prototype chip 

[PLOD11]

My mate and my self have looked at this and as said before the amount of work needed to develope it with out any info on the original chip it was not worth the effort and cost considering how few people it would want it.

But if anyone has the info on the protype chip we would be interested.

John

[MikeDX]

My mate and my self have looked at this and as said before the amount of work needed to develope it with out any info on the original chip it was not worth the effort and cost considering how few people it would want it.

But if anyone has the info on the protype chip we would be interested.

John

Friend of mine is still convinced that a slot in replacement is workable and wouldnt require vast ammounts of work. We are only talking about replicating a *very small* ammount of circuitry here, and the goal is to replicate the results, rather than a 1:1 copy of the ic.

[Karl]

With c5martin stepping back from pod and control box repairs, we will need to find a solution fairly soon.

I think new pods were £160 from Adam ?

[MikeDX]

Is there any chance whatsoever of me getting a donor ULA to put towards the development of the replacement?

Obviously if i had my own, I'd give that, but at the moment I'm totally C5-less

[Karl]

Is there any chance whatsoever of me getting a donor ULA to put towards the development of the replacement?

Obviously if i had my own, I'd give that, but at the moment I'm totally C5-less

Would this mean sacrificing a working pod, or would it involve no damage/dismantling at all  ?

[MikeDX]

Is there any chance whatsoever of me getting a donor ULA to put towards the development of the replacement?

Obviously if i had my own, I'd give that, but at the moment I'm totally C5-less

Would this mean sacrificing a working pod, or would it involve no damage/dismantling at all  ?

No, this is purely so that it can be logic probed and analysed A safe return in one piece is the preferable option!

The only thing that would be sacrificed if anything would be the actual ULA itself, and that's only if it were to be de-capped (not likely).

[aladds]

I am defiantly willing to try to make a PIC replacement for the ULA. Unfortunately I'm unable to do so at the moment as revision is about to commence and I have *loads* of exams in less than a month. (Second year Uni, Electronic & Electrical Engineering) But, give me about a month and 2 weeks or so, and I'll have finished and be able to devote some time to this. Honestly I don't see it being too difficult. All it needs to do is monitor the battery level, battery usage and temperature, with a piezo alert output, the two multiplexed displays and obviously a signal back to the control box to give it the 'ok' to run. Might even be possible to do it in logic, i.e. no programming required...

It may be easier to make a new board than use the existing one, so I'll look into doing either or both.

I do think, however, that any work done on this should be released publicly (i.e. code & layouts). We don't want someone doing loads of work on this and then disappearing, taking everything with them, requiring someone else to do it all again (which by the looks of it has already happened once).

[radiomarty]

May I encouage you to GO FOR IT dude !!!!

[Karl]

What radiomarty said !! 

If you achieve this you will be elevated to a god-like legendary status mate  , bit like C5Martin , Adam Harper and ElectricDave 

[automino]

Hi forum, for what its worth I have considered offering a pod and box repair service for C5's after the summer... Would there be interest or is somebody already doing that successfully?

[techytype]

it would be hi-stoic work to achieve a replica replacement, but as a designer i wonder when you can buy these as example -:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12v-battery-monitor-voltage-level-charge-state-meter-/150440704794?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item2306f6fb1a

and so cheaply, is the effort really going to be worthwhile for the amount of sales? 

the C5 can be run without the pod, plenty of the battery volt monitors out there with alarms for about £12 designed for cars, the one i have has LCD display and an external temp sensor, so could be used to monitor the motors temp

imo possibly the best way forward balancing ease v originality is to use the existing pod but transplant the electronics from a modern bar graph version to operate the original display.

but even then, i find my (so far working ) pod hard to see in the sunlight.

regs
Alan

[radiomarty]

I think with the fact that C5Martin is moving on to kit cars that the service ie pod and control box repairs would be a very useful thing to have - check with Boo Boo on the current situation.

[Karl]

I think this is definitely along the right lines - a simple,ready made "off the shelf" replacement item that is easily obtained has to be the way forward.

Although he might still be doing occassional repairs when time allows, C5martin has pretty much moved on now so we need to find an alternative.

I am exploring a couple of options .....

[aladds]

The very fact that they offer a custom programming option for those modules tells you that it's probably just a PIC running a little program. As I said before, I don't expect any replacement pod to be too complicated, I'd just like to be able to produce something complete, something that you can grab, swap for your ULA (or pod board) and go.