e5frog

I'm ready for a new batch, need to fill at least five orders to cover the component costs (parts that I don't already have and it's including my own investment). Price for these paid pre-orders is $120 - price is valid until I have calculated the real price (I will know after parts have been received and tested) which is likely to be a little higher. So if you want some discount, get yours early. See first post for payment instructions. I found a PCB supplier that had an affordable price for gold plated cards, I'll use them this time as well (as I did for Pac-Man) - so this is the first Multi-Cart batch with gold connectors!

Good news everybody! Finished soldering the 18th board today, left to do is to clean cartridge shells, print and put plastic on front and back stickers (edge is already finished), fold and glue box together - pack and ship... I will probably begin shipping next week starting with the first order which is not necessarily the first number - depending on what was chosen. I have this list: -1,-5 and -12 -3 -4 -2 -6 -15 -11 -7, -8 -13 -16 -14 -10 -9 -17 -18

stupus bought the prototype PCB at full prize, the incentive was to ship it ahead of the others. Not a very good picture, you should practice your photo skills stupus, more light is always better.

Yes, the Multi-Cart includes a full version of Pac-Man.

Ten boards soldered, I'll solder all boards before I'll get to the cart cleaning, labeling and glueing boxes.

Will start taking orders for a new batch as soon as I have done most of the Pac-Man carts and have gotten back in contact with my memory adapter provider.

Thanks toymailman, your payment is welcome.

First board confirmed working - after a few more tests it's ready to get its own case.

Boards and the last caps arrived! Gold contents confirmed!

Nope. You can get the -17 that hasn't been sold yet, go there: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256273-fs-system-fairchild-channel-f-homebrew-pac-man/ Follow instructions.

Folded up instructionsbooklets today. Got word from the German memory interface supplier that they'll refund the two wrong chips, anyone collecting ceramic and gold 70's chips?

Today I have cut all boxes (I think the order was for 30). Strangely - no blisters on any fingers. Also clean cut the edge labels (that I also had printed professionally). PCB:s have been shipped from Hong Kong, may arrive next week.

Printed a bunch of booklets yesterday on the special sized paper I had left from last batch, with some horrible staining on some prints (some crease made the paper brush against print head) I ended up short of three instructionbooklets, will have to get some more special sized papers for those (Width 121,1 mm; Height 376,1 mm). This long paper goes through the printer three times so there's three chances to mess it up. I finished cutting the first box, I like the material that was used this time, it's new for my printhouse and a bit sturdier than what has been use before. I'll finish the prototype cart no later than this weekend, cart is already done, just need to glue the box and fold instructions.

Yes 4cade, there's one left in the planned batch, look in the sales thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/256273-fs-system-fairchild-channel-f-homebrew-pac-man/

Got a shipment of memory controllers today, nice old box, looked like it was from the 60's, nice foam inside and a hard styrofoam box "Lucas Aerospace Ltd Birmingham England"... took the lid of.. chips in a bunch, they had been pushed into styrofoam plates and given enough room to shake loose. A few bent legs, not a big problem I think - but I got two wrong chips, some peripheral I/O chips instead of memory interface. Worst case I have to buy some expensive chips for the last carts, not a big problem. Got the small capacitors today as well, cases came in yesterday, all loose Luxor ones - so if anyone wants a particular Luxor version (1,2,3,5, 9,13,15) let me know before I start harvesting. Had to order some new large caps, the 220nF I bought was more 160nF-190nF which might be enough but not what I have tested with so it was easier to get a new batch from someone else, got the few $ back though. Box-prints also came in yesterday with the edge labels and I printed the other two labels. Guess I can start cutting boxes as well as cut and hand-laminate labels...

Updated with this complete SABA #20, fully working, apart from the "price tag tear" on the box and the usual wrinkles on the booklet it's in great and fully working condition, no missing box-flaps.

ONE left from the planned batch

Thanks kelseya, added to the list. TWO left from the planned batch.

@stupus, I can number this "-2" and ship ahead - basically as soon as boxes turn up then you can send payment for another in two weeks, sounds OK? I just bought a smaller batch of memory controllers from Germany to cover this batch - so that problem is solved, it's possible they'll be ceramic with gold plate... from the looks of it - exciting.

Got confirmation that PCB order was sent to manufactuer yesterday, expecting them next week or the week after. Received two types of capacitors for the new design today, only missing the last one and the rest of the memory interfaces - that I have gotten no reply about yet, I'm not getting them for $15 each from eBay... unless I have to.

Prototype (properly made this time by my dear colleagues at the PCB factory) soldered and tested, no problems at all in any of my five different models. New design is as expected successful - or it was just a bad memory interface that was used the first time and I ended up making a better design even though it wasn't needed - we will never know. It's currently in attract mode on the ITT after trying to drive the wife crazy with the siren sound (hold button 3 or 4 at attract screen and it plays two sound effects that wasn't possible for us to fit in the game code). I paid the order for the PCB:s, will get an e-mail when something happens in the ordering process, I'm not 100% sure they'll accept my nice logos that I posted a picture of earlier - we'll see. Order is for 20pcs of blue boards with gold plating (so called Electroless NIckel + Gold or ENIG) - so I might be able to offer more than the ones listed already. Earlier today I checked all logic chips to see if they were working properly - all were OK, also set up a test cartridge for the memory interface so I can check those properly before soldering. So, what to do with the two prototype boards? I'm thinking I might offer them for sale - the one who wants one gets their order shipped first (of the already paid ones) - or I'll offer it maybe $10 cheaper when the other ones have been sold - or I'll just sell it like any other cartridge as there's no functional difference. They're the same chips and layout as the large order, the details that differ is green soldermask, no silkscreen (white text print) and plain old HASL (Hot Air Surface Levelling) with plain old lead free tin - like all the earlier Pac-Man carts and over 100 Multi-Carts. What do you think, is anyone immediately interesting in getting their cart first? It would be nice making good use of the board now that it's fully soldered and working. Prototype board, new design 12kB Videocart:

@vectrexroli If the Multi-Cart is bought after 2012, it's not a problem, if it's an older Multi-Cart it could be a problem. I don't know if it's a problem with just my setup or possibly just my ITT machine. I haven't had any problems like this with Luxor VES, Luxor VEC, Grandstand, SABA, SABA 2, Fairchild VES nor Channel F II. If I ever get a Democart 2 (the only bidder on the eBay-one sniped 5s before end and got it for start bid of $450) I may not want to try it in the ITT. The SABA #20 (Chess) may suffer from the same problems... it only has two small capacitors for four logic chips, four RAMs, two ROMs the memory interface, maybe they had sturdier chips - don't know. I'm starting to lean more towards me having a defective machine - but other people could have an equally aged ITT and have the same problems. Adding caps at the cartridge connector should help prevent future chip destruction. I finished the new Pac-Man PCB design, will get a prototype done this week, test it and then order the PCB:s. Mostly it's a change of 5V and GND traces (resulting in retracing the entire board) and adding more decoupling caps, so it will be able to take more abuse. Just need to order some more capacitors as well. EDIT: Ordered caps, should be here within a week. @fdr4prez Love the "IT Crowd", watched all the episodes this summer. Turning it off and on didn't work (these machines are supposed to be hot swapped anyway), memory controller and memory address selection chip were probably (quietly) blown at first contact.

Thanks! Status-report: Was down at work yesterday and picked up the prototype card of my nice-looking smaller PCB, noticed that there was some errors but didn't understand why until I got home and checked the Gerber-files. I had forgotten to include the excellon drill file when zip:ing it up with changes made to prevent the same disaster as last time - not that there was anything wrong with my initial files - if they messed it up the same way this time it would still be OK. Seems my collegue got creative and picked the drill file from the previous version... it fit fine, almost. Three via holes outside the pads, one slightly off center - but it was doable, a few wires and I'd know if it was OK or not. Soldered it tonight, on the ITT in the livingroom, this nice and small unit - no warning bells ringing... Didn't work, tried a few times more - f n c k - what now!? Went upstairs, tried it in the US Channel F II - nope. Made sure console worked and it did. So, I started looking for the problem, first checking the chips, eprom was OK, one logic chip was not will keep checking the rest and decide what to do about it, could be the ITT frying it because of bad design - had similar problems with the Multi-Cart before redesigning that one so unless it was just a bad logic chip I'll redesign Pac-Man to a safer board as well - or if I'm lazy I'll just go with the previous version but that would be admitting defeat. Other possible errors could be a defective PCB, defective ITT, bad memory controller - or bad CAD:ing - I'll figure it out.

Added -17, me shrinking the PCB size by moving the edge 1,5mm resulted in smaller area and one more PCB - nice! Got some more components today, missing one type of logic chip and PCB:s before I can start soldering. Three left now.

Yes the FMS6400-1 will output both and you can use both at the same time if you like, for my Longhorn mod I thought the composite video I got with a simple capacitor type s-video to composite adapter was better than the composite that came out of the FMS6400-1 (at least on the TV I tried it on) so I didn't bother hooking up more than audio and s-video, I was careful and used a few inches of cable through the antenna wire hole for audio and s-video - not making any holes in the case - then about a day later one of my kids popped some nail polish remover over the whole thing and... well I could just as well have drilled in it, destroyed a controller, button got melted to the case and couldn't be moved. I sorted it out pretty nice, had to get a new controller. unti has a a large smooth blank area on top instead of the patterned surface... kids are bad for your retro collecting. There are a lot of nice video chips, some are hard to find, they had to do t with logic chips etc in 1976.