Hello everybody!
It has been a long time since the last news post, but that does not mean I have been doing nothing as you will see 😉 I finally had some vacations in August and thanks to that i recovered myself from years of incessant work, but before having some rest Batch 7 was completely finished and shipped and i also managed to have time to develop a new addition to the Ironclad Plus family…
The Mt32-Pi PRO Internal Hat
The previous UserIO2 model has been renamed to “Easy” to differentiate between both, also the price of both is not the same but renaming it makes the identification easier as i plan to keep making and supporting the “Easy” model. The main advantage of the Easy model is that it is plug and play, it needs modified cores to work but once installed it just works transparent to the user, the need for the modified cores is also its biggest weakness as the installation of the new cores must be done by the user. Conversations to add those cores to update_all and being modified automatically, as the DB9 cores have been doing for years, were initiated, but as there are more people involved and they have their own lives, which i respect, things are going slowly and i cannot guarantee that will ever happen.
So I have been designing the MT32-Pi PRO during months and finished it this summer, it is completely internal, just like the Easy model, but it uses complex logic magic stuff to switch the only official UserIO port between whatever you have connected externally and the internal MT32-Pi, the user must do the switch and it can be done via your case power button, or the supplied remote control. It works with official distribution cores and has many other features, like led lighting presets, remote commands learning, volume control, and more, you can see everything it does in its section on the webpage.
The MT32-Pi PRO Hat is available now for all the purchasers of the Ironclad Plus Kit Batch 8 as an optional add-on, and will also be available for everybody else when it starts shipping with no pre-order, lead time, or anything, I estimate in October.
Batch 8 available NOW!
The batch 8 is now on sale, as always that’s a pre-order, or an order with some “lead time”, whatever you want to call it, the estimated shipping dates have been improving during the last year thanks to the optimization done to the workflow and changes to the design to make it more optimal to produce while keeping everything and adding stuff, and i must say i am very, very, happy with the current design, there have been no changes, just the incorporation of the flexible bridges, and like before, it is solid, reliable, beautiful… I feel sorry every time one leaves to its owner XD. Dates are confirmed by the factory, production agreements done, all parts are available and coming here, so, I estimate shipping will take place during October and November in order of purchase, as always that’s an estimation, but i have been very consistent lately meting the estimations and i will do everything i can to fulfil your expectations 😉
As always, every time there is some important progress or status change it will be posted to the front page section, please look there if there’s an answer for you before asking directly to me, as i am going to be buried in boards and tiny parts everywhere and e-mails might get some delay to answer, remember that e-mail is the only official way to contact me otherwise i would get crazy with all that social networks, thank you so much for your understanding 😉
And that’s all for now, I hope you are all enjoying your MiSTers, everything that is coming is so awesome it is hard to believe, seriously, what a time to be alive in the retro scene!.
Thank you for everything!
