Karabas Mini / Mini G
The same cores on a compact board with DVI and a shield with ESP32-S3
- Chip
- Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX25 + RP2040
- Video
- DVI, FT812
- Memory
- 2 × 2 MB SRAM, 32 MB SDRAM
- Latest revision
- G / G2
- License
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Karabas Mini and Mini G are the compact members of the Go family: the same Spartan-6 FPGA, RP2040, memory and core files, with DVI instead of VGA.
On the board
- 2 × 2 MB 10 ns SRAM and 32 MB SDRAM
- DVI output and an FT812 video processor
- SAM2695 MIDI synth
- 4 USB ports
- 2 microSD cards, tape in / out
- DS3231 RTC, 1 KB EEPROM
- ESP8266 Wi-Fi module
- uBUS expansion connector
Which board do you have
The firmware depends on the revision. The core files are the same for all of them.
| Revision | Board | Firmware |
|---|---|---|
| C .. F3 | Mini | karabas_mini.uf2 |
| G, G2 | Mini G | karabas_minig.uf2 |
Rev.C, D and F need a small hardware mod for the cores that use the FT812.
Shields
Rev.G has a second floor: a shield with a CF card and an ESP32-S3. A third floor adds a dot matrix display.
Files and documentation
- Firmware Mini, rev.C .. F3: karabas_mini.uf2
- Firmware Mini G, rev.G / G2: karabas_minig.uf2
- All cores
- First start guide
- FT812 clock mod for rev.C, D, F
- Schematic rev.G2
- Gerbers rev.G2
- Interactive BOM rev.G2
- Schematic shield v4
- Gerbers shield v4
- Interactive BOM shield v4
- 3D cases
Latest firmware: v26110421. The .kg cores need firmware 26110415 or later.
Cores
One .kg file works on all the boards. Copy the files to the root of SD card 1.
| Core | Build | .kg | About |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karabas Pro + | 26110101 | profi.kg | A port of the Karabas Pro main core to the Karabas Go hardware |
| Nanomig | 26110106 | nanomig.kg | An Amiga 500 (OCS / ECS) for the Karabas Go family of boards. It is a port of NanoMig by Till Harbaum, which is the Minimig of the MiSTer project (Minimig-AGA, OCS / ECS … |
| TS-Conf + | 26110401 | tsconf.kg | A famous ZX-Evolution TS-Conf core ported to the Karabas Go hardware. |
| ZX Evolution BaseConf | 26110301 | baseconf.kg | The ZX Evolution (Pentevo) of NedoPC with its own FPGA configuration, BaseConf, on the Karabas Go family of boards (Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX25). It runs the stock ZX Evo … |
| ZX Spectrum Next | 26102300 | zxnext.kg | Ported version of the ZX Spectrum Next FPGA sources to the Karabas Go hardware |
| Alf | 26101500 | alf.kg | Alf core port to Karabas Go based on Aeon-Lite project sources. |
| Alf-128 | 26101500 | alf128.kg | The Alf core with 128 KB of paged RAM and AY sound. |
| NES | 26103001 | nes.kg | NES core port to Karabas Go based on FPGANES project port to ZXDOS+. |
| Next 186 | 26110101 | next186.kg | A port of the Next186 core (from ZXDOS+) to the Karabas Go hardware |
| PC XT | 26110102 | pcxt.kg | An IBM PC/XT for the Karabas Go, Karabas Mini and Karabas Mini G boards (Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX25). It grew from PCXTXilinxSpartan6 by @spark2k06, the Spartan-6 port of … |
| SNES | 26103002 | snes.kg | A Super Nintendo (Super Famicom) for the Karabas Go family of boards. It is a port of SNESMiSTer by srg320, through its MiST version SNESFPGA by gyurco, to the Xilinx … |
| Radio-86RK | 26101500 | radio86rk.kg | Radio-86RK, the Soviet DIY home computer. |
| Spec256 | 26103101 | spec256.kg | A ZX Spectrum 48K that plays the games of the Spec256 project in 256 colours, in hardware, for the Karabas Go family of boards (Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX25). |
| MSX1 | 26103108 | msx.kg | An MSX1 computer for the Karabas Go family of boards. It is a port of MSX1_MiSTer by molekula to the Xilinx Spartan-6 XC6SLX25 of the Karabas boards. All file work … |
Service cores
| Boot Menu | 26110116 | boot.kg | A basic FPGA core to show a core selector |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDRAM Test | 26011500 | sdrtest.kg | Karabas Go SDRAM MT48LC16M16A2-75 Test Core |
| Test Core | 24030514 | test.kg | Adopted version of the ZXDOS Test Core. |
Descriptions come from the core READMEs and may be in English.
Photos and renders
Videos
Karabas mini Go with Dot Matrix Shield
ZX Spectrum Next NMI button works on Karabas Mini Go
Karabas Go Mini - booting into ZX Spectrum Next core
Karabas Go Mini ревизия F3. Допаяю, проверю что умеет. В общем - обозреем (Паяй, Калантай #110)
Знакомьтесь - Гошевич. Он же - Гоша младший. Он же - Karabas Go Mini (Паяй, Калантай #109)
Платы Jasper, Karabas Mini Go и ещё много других (Калантай, посылки открывай #25)
More videos (3)
Videos by the author and the community on YouTube, in their original languages.
PCB changelog
Rev.G2
- replaced UDA1334A with PCM5102A
- aligned SDRAM tracks
Rev.G
- removed crystal from FT812
- removed MCU_IO4 connection from RP2040
- the MCU_IO4 line now repurposed as FT812 8MHz clk generated by FPGA
- disconnected FT_AUDIO, FT_DISPLAY from FPGA
- PWM audio replaced with UDA1334 DAC
- disconnected FT_PD from FPGA, connected to RP2040 as FT_RESET
- disconnected MIDI_CLK from FPGA, replaced with 12 MHz crystal
- disconnected MIDI_RST from FPGA, connected to RP2040
- disconnected ESP_BOOT and ESP_RESET from FPGA
- connected ESP_RESET to RP2040
- connected FT812 GPIO0 and GPIO1 and FT SPI to the uBUS header
- connected free FPGA pins to the uBUS as I2S slave pins
- added optional diode to the HDMI 5V line
- rerouted MCU_SCK, ADC_BCK and FT_CLK to the FPGA globak clock pins
Warning: Due to so many backward incompatible changes in the Rev.G, a dedicated firmware (_g.uf2) and cores (.kg3) will be released for this revision. Do not try to install the default firmware and cores (kg2) on this revision!
Rev.F (F1, F2, F3)
- replaced USB Type-C connector with a flag-style one
Rev.E
- Skipped
Rev.D
- Small improvements to the rev.C
Rev.C
- Initial Revision
Rev.A, Rev.B
- Unreleased due to broken FPGA pinout