18 replies to this topic

[unhuman]

This has been a long time coming, but I've finally hacked it... Turned out pretty good. The wires are "touchy" and became disconnected several times. But, it's finally done & working.

One thing I did - I used a floppy drive cable and kept it a single length. That seems to stress various solder points, particularly along the cartridge slot. If I were to do it again, I would cut those different lengths.

Flashback Hacked Board Image

The cartridge slot inserted down into the hole I cut. Most other people, IIRC mounted it from below. Anyhow, it felt like it snapped in, but it pulled out if the cartridge was tight, so I used a lot of dollar store super-glue to hold it in. That worked well.

Flashback Cartridge Slot Internal Image

The cartridge slot solder wasn't nearly as clean as I had hoped, but it works... Stupid wire lengths. Although you can't see it very well here, pin #1 is the red wire. Since I split the floppy wire, I colored #13 black with a sharpie.

Closed Up Top Image

I used an DPDT switch - as you can see, I didn't mount it high enough into the top, so I had to cut away a little of the bottom, no big deal, but it doesn't look as good as it could.
Flashback Back Image

Edited by unhuman, Tue Dec 22, 2009 10:30 PM.

[EricDeLee]

Great job. Can you post a picture of the silk screening? I am wondering if this is the version I am having problems with (I think it is) and was hoping to possibly ask you some questions on it.

[unhuman]

Unfortunately, at this time, I can't - it's all working and as you can see it's pretty tight. I don't want to rock the boat again. I had wires break out a few times and don't want to go through that again.

My pics are on twitpic and very high resolution (10MP), so you should be able to view them "full size" to see some things a little closer.

If you post a pic of yours, I could tell you if it's the same

EDIT: Found Your old post

It appears we have the same system. You need a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) switch. This will let you control 2 distinct things with the same switch. You would wire it like this:

Please forgive the underscores: Couldn't figure out how to get my ascii art to look good.

J3 _ J3
| __ | __ |
=========
SWITCH
=========
| __ | __ |
___ J9 _ J9

As you can see, if you slide the switch one way, J3 is connected and J9 disconnected. Slide it the other way and J3 disconnects and J9 connects.

-H

EricDeLee, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:27 AM, said:

Great job. Can you post a picture of the silk screening? I am wondering if this is the version I am having problems with (I think it is) and was hoping to possibly ask you some questions on it.

Edited by unhuman, Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:22 AM.

[brojamfootball]

Nice job!
I have also done this Rev C mod--can't believe I somehow missed Eric's previous post. Looks like necessary info has already been provided, and looks like I used the same Radio Shack DPDT switch unhuman did!

This is one of the most fun and rewarding projects I've ever done. I impressed an electronics engineer friend of mine with it just yesterday!

Edited by brojamfootball, Wed Dec 23, 2009 9:44 AM.

[EricDeLee]

I pulled my project out of the shed last night. I had put it away until possibly an answer came. I can't find my DPDT switches, so I will run off to Radio Shack tonight (I think... perhaps not though, because of the crazy last-second shoppers).

Can't wait to get this up and running. I will still need to buy a good rechargable battery for the inside. Other than that... my portable will be fairly done.
I was thinking about trying to bondo the case a bit... I can possibly make it to where an Atari game slides into the portable, rather than sticking out of the portable.

Perhaps that will be version # 2

[brojamfootball]

EricDeLee, on Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:56 AM, said:

I pulled my project out of the shed last night. I had put it away until possibly an answer came. I can't find my DPDT switches, so I will run off to Radio Shack tonight (I think... perhaps not though, because of the crazy last-second shoppers).

Can't wait to get this up and running. I will still need to buy a good rechargable battery for the inside. Other than that... my portable will be fairly done.
I was thinking about trying to bondo the case a bit... I can possibly make it to where an Atari game slides into the portable, rather than sticking out of the portable.

Perhaps that will be version # 2

I thought of that cart-fits-inside-the-case idea as well. There certainly seems to be room.

[unhuman]

Hehe... I did as well, I thought about having it inserted from the right hand side, since I'm right handed, left handers could go from the left, of course.

But then I thought about how difficult it would be to get a clean slot cut out using the tools I have, and punted.

Another idea I had was attempting to have some physical switch (button) attached to the cartridge slot such that if there was a cartridge inserted, it would automatically switch to cartridge mode, and when not, default to the built-in games. I know someone else has done a circuit for this, but that seemed overly complicated... Alas, I erred on the side of simple and got it done

As far as a rechargable - perhaps a remote control car's 9.6V battery would work. A slight overvolt might be okay... But do at your own perils

-H

brojamfootball, on Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:29 AM, said:

EricDeLee, on Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:56 AM, said:

I pulled my project out of the shed last night. I had put it away until possibly an answer came. I can't find my DPDT switches, so I will run off to Radio Shack tonight (I think... perhaps not though, because of the crazy last-second shoppers).

Can't wait to get this up and running. I will still need to buy a good rechargable battery for the inside. Other than that... my portable will be fairly done.
I was thinking about trying to bondo the case a bit... I can possibly make it to where an Atari game slides into the portable, rather than sticking out of the portable.

Perhaps that will be version # 2

I thought of that cart-fits-inside-the-case idea as well. There certainly seems to be room.

Edited by unhuman, Thu Dec 24, 2009 10:09 AM.

[EricDeLee]

unhuman, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:05 AM, said:

Unfortunately, at this time, I can't - it's all working and as you can see it's pretty tight. I don't want to rock the boat again. I had wires break out a few times and don't want to go through that again.

My pics are on twitpic and very high resolution (10MP), so you should be able to view them "full size" to see some things a little closer.

If you post a pic of yours, I could tell you if it's the same

EDIT: Found Your old post

It appears we have the same system. You need a DPDT (Double Pole, Double Throw) switch. This will let you control 2 distinct things with the same switch. You would wire it like this:

Please forgive the underscores: Couldn't figure out how to get my ascii art to look good.

J3 _ J3
| __ | __ |
=========
SWITCH
=========
| __ | __ |
___ J9 _ J9

As you can see, if you slide the switch one way, J3 is connected and J9 disconnected. Slide it the other way and J3 disconnects and J9 connects.

-H

EricDeLee, on Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:27 AM, said:

Great job. Can you post a picture of the silk screening? I am wondering if this is the version I am having problems with (I think it is) and was hoping to possibly ask you some questions on it.

So...
I'm trying to figure this out.
I didn't go to radio shack (I was chicken of the lines)
First question: Isn't the power switch for the Atari 2600 a DPDT?
Perhaps not. Just curious as I could use that.
Second:
I don't understand that stuff that well (the art)


123
456

Do you have 1 and 2 going to J3 and #3 open.
#4 open, and 5 and 6 going to J9?

[unhuman]

To answer your question, yes. 1&2 wired to J3 and 5&6 wires to J9.

if you're doing proof of concept, you could just hard wire it to use the cartridge port and skip the switch (for now).

You're gonna pull a switch out of a 2600 just to make this work? That seems foolish. RatShack never has huge lines near me, but, perhaps you're where they do good business...

-H

EricDeLee, on Thu Dec 24, 2009 6:57 PM, said:

So...
I'm trying to figure this out.
I didn't go to radio shack (I was chicken of the lines)
First question: Isn't the power switch for the Atari 2600 a DPDT?
Perhaps not. Just curious as I could use that.
Second:
I don't understand that stuff that well (the art)


123
456

Do you have 1 and 2 going to J3 and #3 open.
#4 open, and 5 and 6 going to J9?

[brojamfootball]

Not a big deal to get parts off a 2600 if you've already scavenged the cartridge port, right?
I don't think the on/off switch will work but the difficulty or the b/w switch may work. It's just gotta have six legs like the one in the diagram above.

Edited by brojamfootball, Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:05 AM.

[Longhorn Engineer]

Actually all you need is a SPDT (single pole double throw ). The jumper locations use a common ground so when it is connected. So just solder the ground to the middle connector and then J3 to one side and J9 to the other side. Use a multimeter to figure out which side is ground and use the other side for the J9 and J3 connection.

I am using this switch http://www.radioshac...ilterValue=SPDT

And its mounted by the cart so you slide the cart in and it swaps the connections.

[brojamfootball]

Longhorn Engineer, on Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:16 AM, said:

Actually all you need is a SPDT (single pole double throw ). The jumper locations use a common ground so when it is connected. So just solder the ground to the middle connector and then J3 to one side and J9 to the other side. Use a multimeter to figure out which side is ground and use the other side for the J9 and J3 connection.

I am using this switch http://www.radioshac...ilterValue=SPDT

And its mounted by the cart so you slide the cart in and it swaps the connections.

Ahh,yes. One of these days I'll become more multimeter savvy and learn how to test for polarity. 'Till then I guess I'll be a DPDT guy.

[EricDeLee]

unhuman, on Fri Dec 25, 2009 10:38 AM, said:

To answer your question, yes. 1&2 wired to J3 and 5&6 wires to J9.

if you're doing proof of concept, you could just hard wire it to use the cartridge port and skip the switch (for now).

You're gonna pull a switch out of a 2600 just to make this work? That seems foolish. RatShack never has huge lines near me, but, perhaps you're where they do good business...

-H

Actually I have a few NOS switches from a few years back. I ran across them while digging around project boxes.
I think I killed my FB2 though.
I pulled a pad off of the FB2 motherboard by accident. It was a ground... and I'm not really sure what else went to it. I haven't really messed with it since that incident last night. LOL

[EricDeLee]

Longhorn Engineer, on Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:16 AM, said:

Actually all you need is a SPDT (single pole double throw ). The jumper locations use a common ground so when it is connected. So just solder the ground to the middle connector and then J3 to one side and J9 to the other side. Use a multimeter to figure out which side is ground and use the other side for the J9 and J3 connection.

I am using this switch http://www.radioshac...ilterValue=SPDT

And its mounted by the cart so you slide the cart in and it swaps the connections.

That only has three legs... right?
Wouldn't the difficulty switch from an Atari work?
Ground to the middle... and J3 to one side and J9 to the other? That seems pretty simple.

I just have to see if I can figure out the damage I may have caused last night. LOL

[unhuman]

That's awesome. If I had it to do it all over again, I'd go that route. Oh well.

-H

Longhorn Engineer, on Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:16 AM, said:

Actually all you need is a SPDT (single pole double throw ). The jumper locations use a common ground so when it is connected. So just solder the ground to the middle connector and then J3 to one side and J9 to the other side. Use a multimeter to figure out which side is ground and use the other side for the J9 and J3 connection.

I am using this switch http://www.radioshac...ilterValue=SPDT

And its mounted by the cart so you slide the cart in and it swaps the connections.

[wongojack]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'm planning my own cart mod project . . . I can't wrap my head around a couple of things.

I'm thinking through the different options and I'm wondering how much work having an old style 5.25" floppy connector will save me - it sounds like a lot since that eliminates 1/2 the soldering work.

I'm reading the various walk throughs and one thing I can't figure out is how you connect the floppy connector to the cartridge slot - does it just jam on there? I couldn't really find any pics of this. I can't really grasp how that connection is actually made.

This seems obvious, but I thought I'd ask how you kept track of which wire was #2, 3, 4, . . . . 7 etc as you were soldering - did you just count them one at a time from wire #1?

[unhuman]

I counted wires. I don't know about floppy drive connector since I used a real cartridge slot. Good luck!

[wongojack]

Thanks for the response to me digging up your old thread!

I took a closer look at your pic and now I see that you just used a floppy cable and soldered the wires individually on the cartridge slot. That actually looks easier than what was on Curt's initial website because those pins are pretty seperated.

Edit: any general advice on getting the wire lengths correct before I start soldering?

Edited by wongojack, Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:17 PM.

[unhuman]

wongojack, on Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:11 PM, said:

Edit: any general advice on getting the wire lengths correct before I start soldering?

My job was pretty imperfect. I did the best I could, but, if I had it to do all over again, I would use individual wires instead of a cable, honestly. They torque a bit more the way I've done it.