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Troy Schrapel

372 orders since Dec 22, 2023

MOUNT BARKER, SA, Australia

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USA: Shipping to the US is temporarily unavailable due to Australia Post policy. Once Australia Post resumes shipping to the US, I will re-enable it here. Latest news suggests on or before Sep 25th.

Overall Rating:

Review Breakdown

5
13 4
5 3
0 2
0 1
0

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Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (4.72)

Shipping: (4.78)

Communication: (4.94)

All Reviews

Shawn | Feb. 5, 2025

Works great in the Colecovision Adam (NTSC)

For PICO9918

I purchased two of the PICO9918 units. One was to put in my NTSC Colecovision Adam and the other as a spare for future use. Shipping was good on the seller's part, but terrible on my side. My local post office sent it to a different city that was about 30 miles away, they couldn't deliver it so it went back to the postal transfer station which is 50 miles away in the opposite direction where it sat for days, then finally 4 days later they figured out how to properly deliver it. The address on the package was correct, so the post office messed it up.

When I got it in my hands, I opened up my Adam and de-soldered U9 which is the video chip, but had a little trouble getting it to come out since it was tack glued to the board in two places under the chip. I then soldered in a machine pin socket without any problems. Then I inserted the PICO9918, hooked up my VGA monitor and powered it all on.

All I can say is the picture is amazing. It is beyond my expectations.

John | Nov. 15, 2024

Awesome device - Works on Many Systems - 2024 Upgrade

For PICO9918

Upgrade these classic systems to 2024 technology and crisp clear VGA output! I've installed two of these now, one in a Coleco Adam and one in the TI 99/4a. They are easy to install and take up no more room than the original chip. Plug and play out of the box, get a industry standard VGA output. Quick shipping and good customer support. Troy has been good about keeping the community in the loop on when new shipments will be available and updates to the firmware.

Michael | Feb. 21, 2024

Great kit, easy build

For PICO-56 Kit

Came with all parts labeled and board with part labels too. Very easy to build. works great! Would love to have a 3D printable case (hint, hint)
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Response from Troy Schrapel | March 12, 2024
Hi Michael. Thanks for the review. I now have a case available. STLs on GitHub. :)

Andy | Feb. 5, 2024

Pico-56 - A great easy to build retro computer kit

For PICO-56 Kit

I ordered the kit with two Nintendo controller ports & opted to solder the micro-sd card my self. I followed along with build video which makes the build super easy to complete. The micro-sd card was in the end easier than expected and the video covers the process very well. The kit is easy to assemble and went together in about 2.5 hours - and it worked first time too.

The build video covers the process of installing the firmware on the Pico which is super easy and then takes you through the process of copying the current software library onto your micro-sd card. The demo software all worked perfectly and offers a fun way to see what this little board can do.

Get yourself a Pico-56 - you will not regret it!

Andy

Larry | Jan. 21, 2024

Pleased to have this kit and looking forward to more.

For PICO-56 Kit

I was able to build this kit quite quickly, although the SD card soldering needed touching up as the pitch is fine. The software works and there are sample roms to play with. The software development environment is still to come but it will likely follow the HBC-56 pattern. The software (version 0.2 at the time) could be better advertised on the github page as it was not in the main github section but off to the side under the releases area. I'm looking forward to more of the Youtube videos and code for setting up the development area and following some of the examples. I hope to add some 6502 code examples when I get up to speed. While you can order bare boards and build your own, the kit has everything you need and the price is reasonable. My only complaint is the shipping cost versus the package cost but that's what you have to expect when you live in Canada and have to pay in US dollars.