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AtariVox rev2


Richard H.

Add Vectrex support to the AtariVox?  

108 members have voted

  1. 1. Would you like to see Vectrex support added to the AtariVox?

    • Yes
      76
    • No
      3
    • Don't care either way
      29

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Lastly, there is one very important failure-point on these boards. The dip switches MUST be set properly in one mode or the other or you risk frying your board.

That is a bit concerning. Not a major stopper, but still....

 

Any possibility of some circuit to prevent that damage? Diodes or something????

 

Just wondering...

 

desiv

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I'm not aware of any others, beyond the store listing. There's my Atarivox Spell & Speak, but it's more of a toy than a game.

 

I'd actually love to redo Spell & Speak with my best asm attempt at the Naval Text-to-Speech algorithm someday, but it will need to wait as my breadvox is in parts right now.

 

[edit] forgot about my q-bert arcade hack.

[edit x2] erp! I also forgot about my vox addition to Nukey's berzerk hack

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I'm not aware of any others, beyond the store listing. There's my Atarivox Spell & Speak, but it's more of a toy than a game.

 

I'd actually love to redo Spell & Speak with my best asm attempt at the Naval Text-to-Speech algorithm someday, but it will need to wait as my breadvox is in parts right now.

 

[edit] forgot about my q-bert arcade hack.

[edit x2] erp! I also forgot about my vox addition to Nukey's berzerk hack

 

But Spell & Speak is fantastic and I love you for making it. I still want to do a special run of orange dyed cart shells and embossed labels (maybe with a Vox2 bundled) for that. Really, I could spend hours with Type and Tell on OD2. The 2600 needed this since the 80's.

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Thanks Ax!

 

Don't get me wrong. I don't think there's a problem with S&S. I think the existing hand-rolled phonetic algorithm matches devices of the period, and sometimes makes it interesting to try to fool it into pronouncing a word the way you want. I just had a whim to climb a different mountain. :)

 

The orange cart run sounds cool. :thumbsup:

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Who I feel I let down the most is Richard.

 

Don't worry about it, I'm just really glad it's coming back.

 

 

The dip switches MUST be set properly in one mode or the other or you risk frying your board

 

That's something I did overlook. Just make sure DIP's 1 and 2 are never both selected on. Otherwise, you'll be 'crossing the streams' (GND / VCC short).

 

 

BTW Glenn, did you get a load of the PacTec cases as well ?

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Just make sure DIP's 1 and 2 are never both selected on. Otherwise, you'll be 'crossing the streams' (GND / VCC short).

Just for clarification, I'm not as worried about that, as I think I can keep that clear (I hope) when switching DIPs.

But what if I accidentally plug it into one system or the other while it was set for the other system.

i.e. I have it set for Atari mode, and plug it into the Vec (or vice versa).

I'm OK if it wouldn't work, but I don't want to run the risk of damaging either system of the VecVoice.

 

desiv

(Might have to just get 1 for each system I suppose :) )

Edited by desiv
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But what if I accidentally plug it into one system or the other while it was set for the other system.

 

No damage, just won't work (as a different baud rate / phoneme will be selected).

 

 

Almost as if you were begging me to post this:

 

:-D

Edited by Richard H.
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Here is what I'm doing. I don't feel good about shipping these assembled boards outside of their cases. So I am putting them in the cases with it preset to AtariVox mode for transport. I put green stickers on boards that I have tested. Those that don't have green stickers will need to be tested before they are shipped. ALL of them will need the cases opened and a dipswitch sticker put on the inside of the case so people will know what to do with them. (I also have a small batch of leftover AtariVOX USB adapters that should find a good home for those who want to use these on emulators. Good for homebrew developers who don't test every build on real hardware.)

 

 

Based on the poll, which has been up here for a long time, I believe that merely by shipping all the assembled boards that have cases and cables that it will be able to meet demand without anyone else besides me learning how to make more. I am going to do a full accounting of how many complete units I'm able to piece together, but by eye I'm positive it will be more than demand, maybe 2 or 3 times that.

 

If there is a bottleneck somewhere, I think it's in the cables.

 

My only request is that these not be shipped without proper labeling or a cable. It's been a long wait. Let's make this thing professional. Maybe offer a game-sized booklet that has the docs on the speakjet chip in it, not that you can't just go to a website and read about it, but it just seems more retro-gamish to have a booklet. Since I'm not asking to be paid back, I'm thinking that it will make frills like this easier to pull off.

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I have snapped together 70 boards already. I'm pretty sure I sourced enough spekjets (or speakgins as they renamed them) for 100 boards, and the bottleneck is going to be cables. So there is some finishing work to be done and my role is just to batch these up and send them to GoldenAxe who has been eager to help all this time. The poll lists about 40 people interested, so it will easily be twice needed to satisfy demand. I think anyone who owns a cart that supports speech or savekey (atari or vec) should have one of these. And given how I'm pretty much giving them away, they really should be priced reasonably. I can't remember what price I was flirting with originally. I'm hoping people come out of the woodworks once they know there is a glut of these out there to be sold at bargain prices.

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Total tally is 195 assembled units in cases, of which I may hold a few back for myself.

 

A hasty count yielded 97 cables.

 

11 Atarivox USB units, plus leftover unassembled PCBs to make more.

 

I have 13 leftover loose speakjet chips but I'm now about out of cases.

 

So assuming proper labeling, we're talking over 90 units that can be sold.

 

I suggest taking another headcount and then figure out how to handle the labeling and packaging costs. Sales from the initial batch should more than compensate for these items as well as fund buying more cables, assuming there is enough demand. I don't know how many Vectrex users are remaining. If there is enough of a division between the Atari and Vectrex userbase, demand could be higher. The more overlap there is, the fewer units are necessary because they can be reconfigured on the fly.

 

The tabs that hold these cases break very easily and unless you keep them sealed, it's only a matter of time before they break off and the case won't hold tight anymore. So I suggest just shipping them with a couple colored rubber bands to anticipate this. I know it's kid of chintzy. It would be nice if there were a hinge or some way to flip modes without stressing the case. There were lots of debates on form-factor and we settled on this because it's an off-the-shelf item.

 

Also, a small number of these boards have a central header installed. I vaguely recall talk of doing pass-throughs, or user-reprogramming of the Speakjet or the PIC using this header. I suggest separating these special boards and only giving them to power-users who want to tinker with the hardware/firmware. I was originally going to solder the header onto every board but it just slowed me down too much and I gave up on it. It's certainly something one could do on their own. The points on the PCB are still there on all of them. The odds of some sort of "official" dongle that hangs off this header and does something useful are pretty remote now, so it's really just there for the eccentric HW hackers.

Edited by mos6507
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If these use the same case as the previous AtariVox units, I may still have a whole bunch of them--I'll go look. I can also print labels and manuals. I'd like to get a few of these myself, if possible, as I don't even have an older AtariVox at the moment (having sold them all!)

 

..Al

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I think it's the same. It's designed for a DB9 on one end and an ethernet or printer-style USB jack on the other. This leaves an open gap on the audio-jack end that allows you to carefully stick a small screwdriver in and adjust the volume-pot. When it's clamped together the PCB is a bit loose on the audio-jack end. Double-sided foam tape could help secure it better, but it's fine as-is. I did debate whether or not to have this sold through AA, but GoldenAxe has been relentlessly gung-ho and I had already promised to let him handle things ages ago. Just going through these one by one, gingerly opening the cases, testing them, sorting them, applying the stickers, then handling the fulfillment. It's a pretty significant time-commitment. I only enjoyed soldering the boards together, in order to learn the skill of soldering after it being so intimidating to me all this time. I did not relish the idea of doing all the packaging and fulfillment. I hope that by me eating the cost of building these things that I will help make up for the delay. I pride myself on not ever screwing the retro-gaming community and I don't want this to wind up spoiling my reputation.

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