I think the MSX systems are kinda cool. I think LaserDiscs are also kinda cool. What if someone made a MSX that can interface with LaserDisc players?
In regards to things like pinouts, a really nice manual for the PX-7 (the European version of the same thing) not only exists but is scanned. You can view it here.
The included keyboard is a weighty membrane board made of metal and plastic. It's not horrible but it's not amazing either.
Powering the system on drops you at a menu asking if you want MSX BASIC or MSX BASIC + P-BASIC. P-BASIC is a set of extensions which lets you control the superimposer and extra I/O.
My system came with a cartridge in it which, if you start the system to MSX-BASIC + P-BASIC with it inserted, drops you to this screen. I think it's a part of some educational suite?
It's a MSX so, who would've guessed, MSX games work just fine.
The PX-V7 has some special I/O ports on it.
We're going to focus on I/O #3 for the Pioneer LD-700 LaserDisc player. It's the most "complete" connector with all important signals in one place.
Oddly, when looking at the LD-700 service manual, the pin numbering just doesn't match up. By placing the pinouts next to each-other, you can see they do make sense.
The PX-V7 service manual has a list of all commands which can be sent over LREMO. We'll get into these later.
Looking into the service manual, the right audio input jack doubles as a secondary cassette-like input.
If you're using a CPE LaserDisc with data on it, make sure your audio is going into the MSX. If you don't, no program data will be sent.
Let's say, instead of wanting to rely on old diode players that the LaserDisc community doesn't seem to think are very worth servicing, you want a modern way to interface to your PX-V7.
Step One of this little project will be making a video player on a Raspberry Pi respond to LREMO commands. I used an oscilloscope to capture what each signal looks like.
With the knowledge that this was just a modified NEC signal, it wasn't hard to determine what each set of square waves translated to.
Thanks to the openmsx documentation, I found that the Pioneer CU-CLD106 remote shares the same timing and most of the commands.
It turns out LIRC has the CU-CLD106 remote already integrated.
The next step of MSX-PG is to create some sort of "interface" board between the PX-V7 and a Raspberry Pi. This should be simple, just hooking the DIN connector to GPIO pins.
Once the board is made, the following things will need to be done:
In theory, this should make a LD-700 "emulator". I may go as far as trying to "port" some FMV game or menu-driven title to this format. It'll all be published on GitHub once completed for anyone to mess with.