Curt Vendel Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 I just put together something quick/simple on modding the Flashback 2 with a cartridge connector. I'll do the cosmetic mod when I have some free time in the next week and add those pic's: Atari Flashback 2 Hacking/Modding Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atwwong Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 I just put together something quick/simple on modding the Flashback 2 with a cartridge connector. I'll do the cosmetic mod when I have some free time in the next week and add those pic's: Atari Flashback 2 Hacking/Modding Curt 901264[/snapback] THANK YOU CURT!!! This is great! Now all I have to do is get a Flashback 2 and have someone mod it for me, since I'm useless with a soldering iron... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexandre_Taito Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 I just put together something quick/simple on modding the Flashback 2 with a cartridge connector.I'll do the cosmetic mod when I have some free time in the next week and add those pic's: Atari Flashback 2 Hacking/Modding Curt G R E A T ! ! ! Congratulations Curt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 Is there a point on the board or the ROM where the CLK2 line can be accessed? Not that I have plans for anything, but it would be nice to know for making non-cartridge mods that can handle CPU writes without having to put in a dodgy R/C timer circuit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 30, 2005 Share Posted July 30, 2005 (edited) Here are a few suggestions to anyone wanting to do this mod. First of all, keep the ribbon cable as short as you can! It should be no more than six inches or so, but half that would be better. And if you can't, then you need to shield it to ground. This can be as simple as wrapping it with foil and using a clip of some sort to connect it to ground. Another idea if you need to be able to remove the slot for some reason is to get some header pins, and use a junk parallel port cable with the plug already attached. Then wire the header pins to the cartridge slot. Also, it's a good idea to saw down your PC board to size before you start soldering parts to it. It's a lot easier to saw an empty board. Also, try to saw along a line of holes to make your work easier. And I would like to repeat the advice to check every connection for continuity. It will save you lots of headaches later. Checking a few times (like every 6 or 12 wires) won't hurt, and may save you from lots of work if you get an off-by-one error. Learning to test regularly is something I've had to learn the hard way, but it really made a difference in my 7800 Ultracart prototype. As for the desoldering iron that was mentioned, Radio Shack sells a nice model (it used to be $8, and I think it's $13 now) with a built-in rubber bulb. Just remember to keep the tip tinned. It's also a good idea to use a fresh tip when desoldering IC pins (as the tip erodes, it loses vacuum effect, though a file can renew it a bit), but that's not important in this project, where you need it to clean up wild solder blobbing. Edited July 30, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Very cool, thanks for taking the time to write that up and take the pictures. Now all I need are a few Flashback 2 units that I can modify with a cart port, so I can use them to demo homebrew games at shows. I might even make a few of these without an external cart slot so I don't have to worry about people stealing carts (not that I've ever had this happen). ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 Thanks Curt, I'm eyeing it trying to see how much board can be cut away while keeping things functional. Adding a cart port is the least thing I'm gonna do to this puppy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Tomlin Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 (edited) Very cool, thanks for taking the time to write that up and take the pictures. Now all I need are a few Flashback 2 units that I can modify with a cart port, so I can use them to demo homebrew games at shows. I might even make a few of these without an external cart slot so I don't have to worry about people stealing carts (not that I've ever had this happen). It should be possible to fit a Pixels Past board inside that thing. You could hard-wire to it and swap socketed chips on the board, or you might be able to hot-glue a slot connector inside there to plug in a bare board. Hmm, sort of like this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...ic=69871&st=55# ...only with more hot glue. Mmm, glorious hot glue. Kevtris told me yesterday how he uses hot glue and masking tape to mold custom connectors. I guess it's more fun than epoxy. And doesn't smell as bad. Edited July 31, 2005 by Bruce Tomlin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercat Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 I just put together something quick/simple on modding the Flashback 2 with a cartridge connector. What's the pinout on the soldered in ROM module? Would it be practical to unsolder that, put in a couple of SIP sockets, and then make a plug-in board with a header that could connect to a card slot? If someone wanted to make a mod kit, that would seem an easier way to do it than soldering loose wires to all the miscellaneous solder points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted July 31, 2005 Share Posted July 31, 2005 (edited) It should be possible to fit a Pixels Past board inside that thing. You could hard-wire to it and swap socketed chips on the board, or you might be able to hot-glue a slot connector inside there to plug in a bare board. Hmm, sort of like this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...ic=69871&st=55# ...only with more hot glue. Mmm, glorious hot glue. Kevtris told me yesterday how he uses hot glue and masking tape to mold custom connectors. I guess it's more fun than epoxy. And doesn't smell as bad. 901810[/snapback] Thank you Curt, You the man! Nice link Bruce I am planning to hard wire in a board with zif socket also experiment with a trap door and use double sided tape for attaching the board to the inside of trap door Edited July 31, 2005 by ATARIeric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted August 1, 2005 Author Share Posted August 1, 2005 I just put together something quick/simple on modding the Flashback 2 with a cartridge connector. What's the pinout on the soldered in ROM module? Would it be practical to unsolder that, put in a couple of SIP sockets, and then make a plug-in board with a header that could connect to a card slot? If someone wanted to make a mod kit, that would seem an easier way to do it than soldering loose wires to all the miscellaneous solder points. 901862[/snapback] I was waiting for someone to notice and make mention of that :-) I can hear the gears in people's minds turning.... There are several other mod's that can be done and I am going to let some of the truly lunny hackers have fun exploiting things... Curt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted August 1, 2005 Share Posted August 1, 2005 There's more things you can do to it? Question. Can it run off of batteries from the start, or will we have to do our own? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gannon Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Well, I got mine today and now it's sitting on my desk right next to my open 2.5" lcd At the moment I'm tracing the controlller lines and such so I can cut it down Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Sweet deal Curt!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferris Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Nice work Curt. Now get to work on FB3 so we arent dissapointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.J. Franzman Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 (edited) A couple of minor points about your mod pages, Curt: SPST = Single Pole Single Throw (not Pull) and: Why did you instruct to use 2 separate switches, is there any advantage to doing it that way? I would use a single DPDT switch (Double Pole Double Throw, this is the kind with 6 terminals that flips to either of 2 positions), and run the black wire to the middle terminal of one set of 3. The terminal across from the one with the wire going to the original destination of the black wire will have no connection, and the other 2 from that trio will go to the 2 sides of J3, thus: to Orig. C4 loc. -----O O (no connection) Black from IC2 -----O O----- to J3 side A to Opp. end of C4 -----O O----- to J3 side B It doesn't matter which side of J3 you call "A" or "B". Edited August 4, 2005 by A.J. Franzman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxglove9 Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I'm hitting Best Buy and Toys R Us today to try and find one! I'm even more excited about modding it with a cart port. This thing is very cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacob Rose Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 I'm hitting Best Buy and Toys R Us today to try and find one! I'm even more excited about modding it with a cart port. This thing is very cool. 904360[/snapback] Yup...I've already ordered 5 cartridge port & guide sets from best electronics. I'm hoping Thinkgeek will carry the FB2. They're local to me, and independent, so I'd prefer to support them than EBX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bones Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Yup...I've already ordered 5 cartridge port & guide sets from best electronics. I'm hoping Thinkgeek will carry the FB2. They're local to me, and independent, so I'd prefer to support them than EBX. 904373[/snapback] What are the part #s you ordered from Best Electronics and how much were they? I've got a stash of some OEM parts at home, and don't have a use for much of it, at least any time soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyChris Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Is it possible to mod the flashback 1 ? Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Is it possible to mod the flashback 1 ? 904526[/snapback] Not in the same way. It's not really a mini-VCS like the FB2. You could put it into a different case, or change out the controls, but you will never be able to run real Atari cartridges on the first Flashback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TuzenTCA Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Is everyone who attempts this mod, going to put the cart port into the case? Maybe like the original or otherwise? I was thinking that I might go and buy one, and add a plug-in there on the side or something and run a cable to a project box, and have the cart port in there. What do yall think, have it kind of like a disk drive attachment? --James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacob Rose Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 What are the part #s you ordered from Best Electronics and how much were they? I've got a stash of some OEM parts at home, and don't have a use for much of it, at least any time soon 904467[/snapback] No idea what part numbers I ordered. =) All communication was very personalized via e-mail. I said what I wanted, they said what they had and for how much ($10 per set, or $3.50 for the edge connector alone), and that was that. I didn't really need 5, but they wanted me to e-mail them my credit card number (yipe!) if I was ordering less than $50 worth of stuff (at $50, they allow use of PayPal). I suppose I should've looked through the rest of their catalog to see what else I might like instead of extra ports, but it's extremely poorly organized; I couldn't even find these parts in there, which is why I e-mailed them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Is everyone who attempts this mod, going to put the cart port into the case? Maybe like the original or otherwise? I was thinking that I might go and buy one, and add a plug-in there on the side or something and run a cable to a project box, and have the cart port in there. What do yall think, have it kind of like a disk drive attachment? --James 904560[/snapback] Read Bruce's second post again, especially the part about short wire length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIeric Posted August 4, 2005 Share Posted August 4, 2005 Well, I got mine today and now it's sitting on my desk right next to my open 2.5" lcd At the moment I'm tracing the controlller lines and such so I can cut it down 904111[/snapback] Sounds like you are going portable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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