The Universal Serial Interface for Amstrad CPC (USIfAC), currently in version 2 (Styled USIfAC II), is a modern serial interface based around a PIC microcontroller designed and built by ikonsgr from the CPCWIKI Forums. The only chip on the board is the 18F47Q10 PIC. The PIC software is written in Great Cow Basic and has been released by ikonsgr.
The board allows for TTL serial output and connection to a USB Stick as well as a ESP8266 WIFI module. The board has been used for many purposes including:
- Run games/programs from a usb stick or PC Hard Drive (through ESP8266 WiFi module or UART serial cable). Save is also supported. - Full read/write access of DSK images of both AMSODS and PARADOS formats. - Incredible loading speeds of up to ~30kb/sec (more than 6-7 times faster ,than a usual speed of a gotek/floppy disk drive). - Access up to Four DSK images and choose them "on the fly", to support all multi-image Games. - Load SNA snapshot files. - MIDI, RS232 and accessing online BBS.
Project's Main Thread:- https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/amstrad-cpc-hardware/usifac-iimake-your-pc-or-usb-stick-an-hdd-for-amstrad-access-dsk-and-many-more!/
Special thread for technical problems & support: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/usifac-ii-technical-problems-support/
Details of hardware, software and manuals are available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ezzga2dppm6jlm7/AACwFC_rv2QatWh_ndKc9fhma?dl=0
Useful links about USIfAC II:
- 3d case: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=207446
- Usifac II schematics & raster implementation:https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=212833
- Load CPM PLUS for USIfAC II (mass storage support): https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/applications/hdcpm-boot-and-run-cpm-plus-from-hard-disk/
- A small Basic utility for easily mounting dsk images to the 4 image slots: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=200760
- Some stuff about linux & python: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=201894
- Simple way to detect USIfAC II: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?msg=213269