selgus

I know everyone is different, but for me, the building is half the fun/enjoyment. You also know the machine much better, and helps if ever you need to troubleshoot. I prefer SMD parts, but many thru-hole components are pretty forgiving and getting the board to look "professional" is not as hard as it might seem.. just takes time and focus (IMHO).

I had not thought of this, as one of my design goals was to replicate the XE keyboard (with extra function keys) to be a scaled version for the portable. That mini-keyboard wouldn't have the correct number of keys or placement for an XE-style keyboard, but it is a very interesting concept. Thanks!

I wouldn't try to kludge it, I would just replace it. I can send you one I will remove from one of my donor XEGS motherboards that I am using for my portable. You should have posted this 2 days ago.

Each of the unique key-caps for my mini-keyboard.. which I am going to 3D print, though I don't own a 3D printer, so I use Shapeways. The lettering will be added on afterwards as decals of some sort (haven't figured how I wish to do that yet)..

I had decided against doing this early on, as with everything about this project, size matters (in this case, smaller is better). With the keyboard, and the joystick, along with the LCD, it doesn't leave a lot of areas to add additional items and not be awkward. Just some of the design decisions I made to at the start.

I'll take that into account, when I order my revision 002 version of my PCB and start building them up. 😉

I do, it is fed into the audio circuitry and on to the on-board audio amp.

Do you know how much current the device is pulling from the SIO port? I'm looking into possibly supporting this on my portable. Thanks.

Oh, I didn't know this. Thanks for the info.. I should probably look into FujiNet more.

While building this first prototype, I knew I would be spinning another version of the CPU PCB.. as I've been working assembling the portable, I've been making tweaks here and there (ie. improving the video quality, beefing up one of the power rails, switching some footprints for easier assembly, etc.). I took this opportunity to think about a full standard SIO port, using the traditional connector, along with my USB port. I did need to rip up most of the audio and some of the video layout, along with relocating the keyboard connections and video port, but now I do have the SIO port coming out the left-side of the portable. So I will be able to connect any standard SIO device (like a disk-drive, to transfer files to the CompactFlash, if desired). I don't see a need to use it all the time, but probably could be useful, from time to time. I did route all the signals, including PROCEED and INTERRUPT (though not the 12V line, since I don't have that rail), even-though I don't know any devices that do make use of those signals.

>>Joysticks, pbi, sio, monitor jack? Yep, nope, nope (sort-of), nope. This portable has a built-in Joystick 1, with the stick on one side of the case, and the fire button on the other. There is also a DIN plug at the top, that is for Joystick 2. I've made a DIN to DB9 dongle so a normal joystick could be attached, or anything using my pin-outs for the DIN plug. This is a portable, hand-held, ie. not a desktop unit that you'll be attaching things off of, so no need for a PBI (fyi, I make use of the fact that I don't have this interface to get another 512 bytes of RAM for bios use). I don't have a traditional SIO port, but I do have the COMMAND, DIN and DOUT, along with rs-232 support with USB, so this portable can be connected to a PC. The unit uses a built-in 5" TFT LCD, so there is no additional monitor jack.. again, I am looking at this as a portable and not a priority to have such an external connector.. though internally there is a plug for VIDEO,+3.3V,GND.

So I am down to just some trimmer resistors to install, and then I can plug in all the ATARI custom chips. I have a ZIF socket on the OS ROM, as I'm using a flash for development.

I've been using a Weller WESD51 digital soldering station for years, and have nothing but great things to say about it. I would recommend to anyone. Fine control over temperature, pretty quick heat-up and tips have been lasting me a very long time.

Made some more progress tonight.. just a few more parts to go, but 2 I am still waiting on to arrive..

More the assembly of my first CPU board.. all the passives soldered (except for a few I forgot to order from my BOM) and all the diodes, transistors, misc components and the CompactFlash connector. Next step are the SMD ICs and sockets for all the ATARI custom chips..

Building the CPU board, slow going with lots of small SMD parts.. always start with the passives, and have about 1/3 of the board populated (though doesn't looks so, since all the larger parts have not been soldered in yet). My normal process is going through my BOM, highest quantity of specific components/values at a time..

I have a few of these that I won't be using. Message me and we could work something out. B

Sure, the CPU board is 214mm x 94mm and the keyboard is 155mm x 76mm. The keyboards gets stacked on top of the CPU board, and to one side of the keyboard is the D-pad, and to the other, FIRE button (they can be switched to either side). The LCD, as it stands right now, is on an angle, above the keyboard. I am still working in CAD to get that angle just the way I want it, while I am building and testing the system.

Finished keyboard, now just need to 3D-print the scaled ATARI 130xe keycaps and place them over the switches..

Started assembling the keyboard today.. finished all the passives and now on to the tactile switches.. there are a lot of them..

My parts are starting to arrive, should have most by the start of next week. I did have to spin another revision of my small power board, as the TFT LCD display that I will be using buck-converter turns 12V into 3.3V, not 5V (as is used by the rest of my design). So I sent off revision 2 of the board today, that now includes a step-down from the 3.7V lipo to a regulated 3.3V for the TFT LCD.

Just what I wanted to call it, "better than a 65 series" I kept it at 64K, like the XEGS, but since I don't have a PBI, $D600-$D7FF is enabled as RAM.

I have some parts I still need to order from Mouser, so I've started with removing the custom chips from the XEGS motherboard. Probably going to take me around 2 weeks, if I get enough time and my parts arrive. I also have a stock XEGS machine, with ZIP socket, for testing the flash-rom out. It's hardware is very close to my 67XEP, so I can use my scope on both to trouble-shoot (when needed). I'm still working on the BIOS menu system in parallel too.

I really enjoy seeing all the things Ben designs and builds. Like I said, I was very inspired by his ATARI portable, but I understand he just has very different constraints in producing a segment, than I do making this project. My other goal was to have all the components on one side of the board, unlike what he was going after. It was pretty hard routing all the signals and achieving this goal (without the use of an auto-router) :)

I had seen Ben's portable videos and it is what inspired me to make my own. My goal was to make something that was portable, used real ATARI parts and would be a fun project. I am sure there are plenty of other ways this project could be done, with other goals.. these just happened to be mine. I did make a bunch of PCBs, as in talked to a few of my friends, they would like one of my systems. I also wanted this to be something I could make more of one of, if I desired. That didn't seem to be the goal of Ben's version. The BIOS has actually been quite fun to write, and getting me back into 6502 assembly level coding again.