A USB host and video/audio board for Feather #Feather #SNES #USB @bitluni @hacksterio
Hackster.io notes a new design for building an SNES clone from Bitluni. The update replaces SNES controllers with USB devices. The board is still a FeatherWing, hosting an Adafruit HUZZAH32 ESP32 microcontroller board. To accomplish this, a new main board was designed around the CH559 MCU, an inexpensive but not well documented chip. Using the CH559 required a new PCB design to host the chip and to include the USB, along with a micro SD card slot, and the mono sound and color (PAL) video jacks required to connect to a TV.
As with Bitluni’s previous ESP32 Mini Console, the USB Host Microcontroller board is outfitted with the same GPIO layout for use as a Feather and connects to the same ESP32 module as the earlier project. Getting the CH559 MCU to communicate with the ESP32 module was a bit of a problem, considering there is not much documentation for the CH559. To overcome that hurdle, Bitluni enlisted the help Aaron Christophel, who has knowledge garnered from hacking similar chips and adapted that insight for the USB Host Microcontroller.
See the video below and the Hackster.io article for additional details. For more on the incredible HUZZAH32 microcontroller, see the Adafruit shop. And for more on the Feather form factor, see Awesome Feather.
