1200XLmx My poor man's 1400XL show and tell

[Gunstar]

After 2 years of repairing, upgrading, modifying and restoring, internally and externally, I present to you my 1200XLmx. MX is short for max or maximum because it kind of fits with a PBI and all it's modifications and upgrades and because the system is based around Atarimax upgrades and MyIDE 2. My tribute to what the 1200XL should have been and the 1400XL is/could have been and in tribute to the original "sweet 16" Atari 1000/1000XL project that started it all with the XL line.

 

Upgrades & mods

 

*Internal RGB LED back-lighting w/remote powered by internal +5V

*REAL PBI port w/+5V power lines (from 600XL salvage computer)
*Complete case restoration and modification
*Atarimax APE Warp + 32-in-1 OS
*Atarimax 256/512K Rambo memory
*Dual Pokey stereo w/mini-stereo out jack&amp board
*PAL converted
*Supervideo 2.1 S-video upgrade
*Internal Basic upgrade
*XL/XE MMU upgrade
*High-speed SIO line patch for upto 126Kb+ SIO speeds with compatible OS's
*+5v SIO line fix
*RF modulator removal-an upgrade because it does wonders for clean video output.
*Keyboard Mylar fix
*Cartridge port fix-all cartridges fit

Edited September 9, 2018 by Gunstar

[+mytek]

Sweet!!!

[+slx]

Impressive! I'd be happy if I ever go around to do even half the mods to my 1200XLs.

[+Nezgar]

Impressive and nice. Definitely a lot of hard work and dedication put in there.

 

Even back in the day, I remember consensus that the 1200XL even though it was an ugly duckling out of the box, it was great for space for internal mods. At the time that meant room for 2.5" Hard drives. But I think doing a PBI mod, and making it look as good as you did on the back impresses me the most here. Always wondered how people would do that and make it look OK. (never seen pictures of it done before though) Are you willing to post pics of the insides?

[Gunstar]

Here are some pictures of the motherboard I took...if you want to see the complete operation of the case and PBI mod, and all the ingenuity, headaches, set-backs and final successes, head over to Atari Sector for my two-year on-going mod thread: http://atari.boards.net/thread/947/phoenix-rising-1200xl-pbi-mod

Edited September 9, 2018 by Gunstar

[Gunstar]

Impressive and nice. Definitely a lot of hard work and dedication put in there.

 

Even back in the day, I remember consensus that the 1200XL even though it was an ugly duckling out of the box, it was great for space for internal mods. At the time that meant room for 2.5" Hard drives. But I think doing a PBI mod, and making it look as good as you did on the back impresses me the most here. Always wondered how people would do that and make it look OK. (never seen pictures of it done before though) Are you willing to post pics of the insides?

I always hated the terms "ugly duckling" or "red headed step child" when referring to the 1200XL, even though it was an incomplete version of the Sweet 16 1000 project, I find it to be the most elegant and beautiful computer Atari ever made. A hell of a lot sleeker, IMHO, than 600/800XL's with the ugly cartridge port on top. I chose the 1200XL to for it's beauty, design and port layout all of which I love, as well as plenty of room inside, and the best Atari keyboard ever, once the mylar issue is fixed...

 

I have two other 1200XL's currently in restoration and upgrade processes, one will be a restored stock 1200XL, and the other will eventually have a custom case and get all the Lotharek upgrades including U1MB, VBXE, Rapidus, etc. But the one I'm showing here is the only one that will have the PBI mod.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Gunstar

[mellis]

Thats awesome work! I love how well integrated the PBI port is. Im going to read through your blog now.

[+Stephen]

Wow - what a great build.

[+Nezgar]

Thanks for the pictures of the inside. First time I've seen the PBI mod done in a picture. Beautiful job there, so cool to see it done 'for real' !

[+MrFish]

First time I've seen the PBI mod done in a picture. Beautiful job there, so cool to see it done 'for real' !

 

FlashJazzCat detailed and pictured his 1200XL upgrades in an AtariAge blog here.

 

He used a centronics connector, rather than an edge connector, for the PBI.

 

Poor Man's 1400XL

[gilsaluki]

Man. Very impressive. I am amazed everyday what people are doing for this 39+ year technology. Jay Miner and Co., could never have dreamed it would still be evolving over all these decades. Proud to be an Atarian for Life!

[+mytek]

I just gotta say you did a fantastic job at integrating the PBI into your case. With it buttoned up, it would be very hard not to think that's the way it came from the factory. However I don't envy you on having to hand wire it all.

 

And I love the internal lighting, really shows off the vents.

 

Great job .

[Gunstar]

I just gotta say you did a fantastic job at integrating the PBI into your case. With it buttoned up, it would be very hard not to think that's the way it came from the factory. However I don't envy you on having to hand wire it all.

 

And I love the internal lighting, really shows off the vents.

 

Great job .

Thanks, I worked hard to figure out and implement a PBI design that looks factory on the outside. Yes, I love my LED lighting, so much so that I felt I needed more, the 1200XL needed company, so I wired up my two 1050's with internal LED lighting as well. Powered internally from the +5V .

 

I'd do it to all my peripherals, unfortunately my 1010, 1020, 1030 and CA-2001 drive don't have venting on them to show off internal lighting. So I'll have to settle for my computer and two drives...of course they don't have to be lit up as the same color as my computer, they are separate.

 

But no remote control for them like the 1200XL, as I used left over LED light strips for the 1050's and so I have them running through a four-switch dip-switch for power on-off and what combination of R,G,B I want to use, up to 7 colors. While my 1200XL with remote can do 16 color combinations plus strobe and fade settings.

Edited September 12, 2018 by Gunstar

[+Nezgar]

Love the light in the 1050! I never thought of putting lights inside the 1050 before. Could do something fun like change from Whatever to Red during writes or drive motor spinning, write protect indicator...... or who needs an external LED indicator when you can emanate light from all openings

 

And on that note, I hope they don't hatch...

[Gunstar]

Yes, that is an idea, to run them through read/write on the SIO line, though I already have read and write activity LED's on one of my 1050's, you might have noticed in the picture. That's from the built-in SIO&1050toPC RS232, and any device connected on my SIO line makes those LED's light with activity if the device is reading or writing. But it wouldn't hurt to hook up the interior lighting the same way. I'm thinking about doing something like that with my L1 and L2 LED's on my 1200XL too. Of course I would do it so they still light up for the OS options for International keyboard and keyboard lock.