Sign In
Register
Help
Subscribe to Zach's Projects
19 October 2006
7 Comments
Posted by
Zach 
Today I built a bike light out of a prototype board, a 9V battery connector, a resistor, and an LED. It won't win any beauty contests, but it works. I have new respect for the people around here would build their own hardware, because I've now dealt with wires slipping out of holes heat them, getting plastic insulation too close to the iron, cutting a wire too short, etc.
One problem I had was that the holes in the prototype board were too small to insert two wires that I wanted to connect. I thought I could put them in adjacent holes, but getting a piece of molten solder in between was pretty tough, since there was nothing in between to heat. Any suggestions?
Why should you care that I made a bike light? Simple: I am building experience so I can make a cart dumper that can be used for the Charlie Brown prototype that resides here in Northern California.
One problem I had was that the holes in the prototype board were too small to insert two wires that I wanted to connect. I thought I could put them in adjacent holes, but getting a piece of molten solder in between was pretty tough, since there was nothing in between to heat. Any suggestions?
Why should you care that I made a bike light? Simple: I am building experience so I can make a cart dumper that can be used for the Charlie Brown prototype that resides here in Northern California.
Share This Entry:
7 Comments On This Entry
Page 1 of 1
Nathan Strum
Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:09 PM
Bridge the two holes with a small piece of bare wire laid across them. Solder it at both ends. I use wires from leftover cat5 ethernet cable, and just strip off the insulation.
batari
Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:05 PM
When soldering wires and the like, these are really nice to have.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
Zach
Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:19 PM
batari, on Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:05 PM, said:
When soldering wires and the like, these are really nice to have.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
Well, there are multi-cart players like this, but 34.99 plus 10.00 shipping is quite a bit. I was thinking of designing my cart dumper so that it could eventually be upgraded into a multi-cart player.
batari
Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:03 PM
Zach, on Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:19 PM, said:
batari, on Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:05 PM, said:
When soldering wires and the like, these are really nice to have.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
As for the dump cart, I wonder if a board already exists with the correct edge connector plus at least two slots? It would probably be for another application, but it seems to me that one could more easily hack in a switch to toggle between chip selects for each slot than to build an entire a dumper board from scratch.
Well, there are multi-cart players like this, but 34.99 plus 10.00 shipping is quite a bit. I was thinking of designing my cart dumper so that it could eventually be upgraded into a multi-cart player.
That wasn't quite what I was thinking... I think
I suspect that the above uses a 24 pole, 9 throw switch, which is essentially the same as hot-swapping a cart. I don't know if it will work while keeping the power on (my dumper doesn't actually work unless you insert the cart at an angle, suggesting that simultaneous powerup of all pins wouldn't work.) Even so, while such an approach would be OK for a replaceable FB2, I wouldn't consider it safe for a unique prototype. I suspect this device above uses such a switch because the 2600 probably isn't capable of supplying sufficient current for too many carts at once. Two shouldn't be an issue, however, or maybe 3 or 4, but 9 is getting dubious.
The idea I was thinking of keeps constant connections to two carts at the same time and alternates the chip select lines. This is how computers are designed even today, so there is zero chance of damage.
But anyway, I did some searching and did find PC hobby boards that come with edge connectors already on them. None of them had 24 pins, but some careful cutting could solve this issue.
Zach
Fri Oct 20, 2006 12:55 PM
batari, on Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:03 PM, said:
But anyway, I did some searching
batari
Fri Oct 20, 2006 5:29 PM
Zach, on Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:55 PM, said:
batari, on Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:03 PM, said:
But anyway, I did some searching
You can fit the EPROM, inverter, resistors and edge connector slots on one of the boards I was thinking of. Might be easier for prototyping.
I still can't find any with 24 connectors though. The smallest one that this company sells is 30 connectors. However, none of the smaller ones have the proper spacing for the connectors. It looks like only the 72-pin boards do.
Zach
Sat Oct 21, 2006 7:10 AM
batari, on Fri Oct 20, 2006 6:29 PM, said:
You can fit the EPROM, inverter, resistors and edge connector slots on one of the boards I was thinking of. Might be easier for prototyping.
I see where you're coming from. I wasn't going to worry about resistors, inverters, etc. Since I already have a socketed 4K EPROM board, I was just going to buy a cartridge slot to connect the dumper side. Does that sound feasible?
Page 1 of 1
← March 2010 →
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
