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The Poor Man's 1400XL Part 2

flashjazzcat

Entry posted by flashjazzcat

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Straight on with stage 2 of the project, and it's time to start drilling and cutting. No turning back now!

 

The DIN7 (for the new power connector) arrived this morning so I now had all the parts required to perform the basic modifications. I wanted the DIN sockets to fit properly in the board (not just sit in a pool of hot glue), so clearly it was going to be necessary to cut, remove, or re-route some traces around the power socket and switch. I took photos of the traces beforehand just to be doubly sure I don't screw up when it comes to putting everything back together.

 

Below, you can see the holes I've drilled for the power connector on the topside of the board. Some of the holes are well-positioned above the power track, but since I'm going to re-route everything anyway, I ground through the traces to be sure nothing shorts out.

 

blogentry-21964-0-44586600-1315649508_thumb.jpg

 

I noticed a deliberate mistake in this next picture: I forgot to cut the trace which would short the +5v pins directly to ground. Easily fixed.

 

blogentry-21964-0-29082700-1315649511_thumb.jpg

 

I also needed a DIN-13 connector for the VBXE output. I tried to drill an array of holes for this, but the tiny drill snapped and the holes didn't line up anyway, so I just drilled a "window" for the pins. Nevertheless, the two retaining pins are still going through holes in the board.

 

blogentry-21964-0-68827500-1315649523_thumb.jpg

 

Now it was time to clean everything up and see how the new connectors look:

 

blogentry-21964-0-70079600-1315649516_thumb.jpg

 

Not bad at all, I think, and there's space for something where the channel selector switch used to be (I may place a special connector there which will carry the eight extra signals required for proper operation of the IDE Plus 2.0).

 

blogentry-21964-0-10385900-1315649520_thumb.jpg

 

Next it was time to cut the case. This was without doubt the most nerve-wracking part, and I didn't have a hole-cutter. Nevertheless, the holes turned out OK.

 

blogentry-21964-0-96878600-1315649525_thumb.jpg

 

I decided to cut an aperture for the PBI connector at the same time. Below we can see all the new connections (the 50 way Centronics connector just being temporarily balanced on the back of the motherboard):

 

blogentry-21964-0-65333400-1315649513_thumb.jpg

 

Next job is to glue and solder everything in and add the various jumpers to the power circuit. After that come the VBXE, and finally the PBI. I just ordered the correct connector for the latter from RS.

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Gunstar

I'm very curious as to why you chose the DIN7 and DIN13 connectors for this project? Why not a much more standard positive/ground power connector like the original, to fit a common 5v PSU, like from an old cell phone, or even keep the original and find a PSU that fits or splice in the plug from the original PSU? And why not just use a standard VGA connector for the VBXE output? It seem to me the ones you chose are out of the ordinary and far more complicated to make cables or find PSU's to fit. Is there some logic to your choices that I'm just not seeing?

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flashjazzcat

I'm very curious as to why you chose the DIN7 and DIN13 connectors for this project? Why not a much more standard positive/ground power connector like the original, to fit a common 5v PSU, like from an old cell phone, or even keep the original and find a PSU that fits or splice in the plug from the original PSU? And why not just use a standard VGA connector for the VBXE output? It seem to me the ones you chose are out of the ordinary and far more complicated to make cables or find PSU's to fit. Is there some logic to your choices that I'm just not seeing?

Well, all my other A8s (with the exception of the 800) use a 5v, 7 pin DIN power connector, so it made practical sense and cut down on the need for yet another (different) PSU on my desk (I commonly hop between 600XL, 800XL, 130XE and 1200XL). I've spliced several DIN 7 connectors onto 2 amp 5v wall-wart PSUs as well, all of which came with totally different, non-standardised connectors.

 

As for the DIN13 video connector: this is wired identically to the Atari ST's monitor jack (with the exception of the second stereo channel going out on the ST's audio-in line), so it seems the closest thing to an Atari 15KHz RGB standard to which I could adhere. It's also neat (mounted to the PCB) and unobtrusive, and is in keeping with the legacy video jack (also a DIN). I've seen so many A8s with DB9 connectors screwed to the back of the casing, obscuring mangled saw-cuts and frenzied Dremelling - not to mention similarly repugnant case-mounted RCA jacks - that I conclude that the solution chosen here (which also carries stereo audio) is preferable in every possible way. :D

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