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Curt Vendel

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Posts posted by Curt Vendel

  3. Posted

    Hi everyone,

     

      Sorry for taking so long to get back.   Been tied up with work on my XM's and just work in general.   So here is the shell I think you guys really want.   The XE game shells, the two piece plastic shells were actually designed by Warner Atari Inc in 1982 as a replacement for the Plastic/Metal shells done by Craig Asher for the 400/800 in 79.   So here is the full sheet.   Sorry about the shadows on it, I don't have time right now to go to Fedex/Kinko's to run this through the scanner and its E sized and would take me an hour to try and scan each section in then run it through the composite assembler to make one image.

     

      I hope this is good enough for everyone.  I also have the later 2600/7800 shells as well, if anyone needs those I can post those up in the 2600 and 7800 forums.    Same goes for the 5200 shells too... if anyone needs something, please PM me, I'm sitting of thousands of sheets of mechanicals and hopefully over time, all this stuff will be digitized and posted up.   Anyone want to kick in a few $100 and of a few grand to the Atari Museum to help me with funds to go to Kinko's or to lease of buy a used large format scanner, I would gladly accept the help please.

     

    8-bit-cart_shell.thumb.jpg.f8a62ab3a013bf9477dab527f84a0b49.jpg

    • Like 6
    • Thanks 3

  6. Posted

    36 minutes ago, mytek said:

    Here you go: http://www.softwaregizmos.com/xcheck.shtml

     

    This program really is worth it's weight in gold. I don't think I could have created the 1088 series projects without it. Very easy to use, just point to your PCB and Schematic files and it'll run a complete design rules and trace route verification check. Some of the ground plane clearance errors that pop up I ignore, since they are based on ExpressPCB rules and not the real world if you are exporting the gerbers to go to a different manufacturer.

     

    Yeah I purchased the last rev of Copper Connection mere months before he sold it off to ExpressPCB. It works great for exporting ExpressPCB to gerbers, which is pretty much all I use it for. Cost me $49, but has saved me hundreds of $$$ because I'm not locked into ExpressPCB's high manufacturing costs. I usually send my stuff over to JLCpcb to get made, or if it's a tiny board I'll also use OSH Park where they can be competitive (this only works for the smallest boards).

     

     

    Not to throw a wrench into the works, but since your board is still in flux, have you considered using any of the console/reset lines available on the TK-II-GS keyboard interface? Not sure if they would be useful for anything on the XM or 7800, but they're essentially 4 active low outputs that have been routed to the 15-pin Dsub connector, labeled Start, Select, Option, Reset which coincide with the Function keys on the PS/2 keyboard.

     

    TK-II-GS Schematic

    TK-II Manual

     

    Heck Mike!   That's an awesome idea, lemme look at what is needed and try to sandwich it in, the whole SIO/KB area is getting rather crowded. 

     

    Thank you!!!

     

  7. Posted

    20 minutes ago, Kobra Kai said:

    Great news that some finished units are shipped! Thank you for allowing us to fill out that form to update our addresses. My only issue with that was there was never any confirmation that the proof we provided with the form was 'acknowledged'. Would have been nice to get an email confirmation acknowledging that our information was updated.  Now I'm kind of anxious of my pre-order honestly.

    Sure, I understand that, right now I've been focusing on prepping to ship and I just planned to hit the forms from first entry onward, start contacting people in like 10-20 batches, do confirmations with each person, make shipping labels and then ship them out.   Then as Jinx suggested, I'll post up each batch of names that have gone out as well.  I'm trying to juggle a lot so please bear with me.

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

  8. Posted

    45 minutes ago, mytek said:

    What PCB layout program are you using? Don't feel bad, since I still use an older version of ExpressPCB myself, but I have a couple of auxiliary programs that make up for the deficiencies, such as Xcheck which verifies that all of the connections called out by the schematic jives with my layout, so no missed or incorrectly routed traces are possible. I also use Copper Connection to generate gerbers, and allow me to import artwork to go on the silk screen. So the only thing I'm really missing is auto-routing, which I do fine without.

     

    That is EXACTLY what I had wound up using.   Xcheck???   In all my years of using this old clunker of a program, never heard of that.   Copper Connection was nice, but had some very serious flaws when it first came out, by the time it matured enough (but lacked a schematic capture which made me not use it much, except for the export feature which was worth its weight in gold) he got bought out by ExpressPCB and they took out the export feature to lock people in.   But I managed to find a way to export out the gerbers from it anyway.

     

  9. Posted

    5 hours ago, Synthpopalooza said:

    Question:

     

    Going forward, will the XM be using classic POKEY or the PokeyONE?

     

    Because I use some sound techniques that require using the SIO functions that are not as yet supported in PokeyONE,  specifically 2-tone mode.

    POKEY's and POKEY Max's

  11. Posted

    14 hours ago, Zonie said:

    Only three straps? Wow, I'm impressed. That is a very detailed board to get it nearly perfect. Bravo. 

    Thanks, I'm using a very old CAD program that I just have a large library of custom Atari parts when I first started this project.  The board wasnt going to be as populated and complex as it became, so the software seemed fine in the beginning but has no auto-routing or  end point checks in it, so everything has to be down by the manual tracing feature in it that highlights the ends and then you click the traces and follow.   I just missed a couple of via's so those got me this time.

     

    In the meantime this gave me the opportunity to nest a SOIC 28 inside of the DIP 24 of the NvRAM and run the connections and a CE line resistor for a FRAM replacement for the Dallas 1220's.   I only had about 25 of them on hand and used most in testing and HSC NvRAM carts, so instead of buying more of the 1220's which got for about $4 each, I can go with the FRAM's which are about $1 each and also have a huge lifespan to them vs the DS1220's which have a 20 yrs lifespan, though some pinballs and arcades that use them some 35+ yrs later are just failing now.

     

     

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    On 1/19/2020 at 11:01 PM, DEBRO said:

    Do you have a demo of the XM working with a CC2 built in high score and POKEY?

     

    Also, is there a way for a developer to know the XM is present?

    My CC2 is currently hosed.  I’ve thoroughly tested with the CC2 in the very beginning.

     

    ive got new SD/MMC slots on their way so I am hoping to have my CC2 back up and kicking in 2 weeks.

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    I shipped Bob's (PacManPlus) XM to him about 1 hour ago, he'll have it on Friday and I have to say, given all of the games Bob has written, it is a true honor to put one these into his hands.  Hoping he'll start working on more of his games with POKEY, HSC and hopefully with Yamaha and use of the memory...   Maybe a Super Pac Man XM version??? ;-)

     

    bobs-xm.thumb.jpg.577b96f96bb90d8310f25ef78fe3d6ab.jpg

    • Like 19

  15. Posted

    12 hours ago, DEBRO said:

    Do you have a demo of the XM working with a CC2 built in high score and POKEY?

     

    Also, is there a way for a developer to know the XM is present?

    Hi Dennis,

     

    Yes CC2 works with the XM, that was one of the very first hurdles that was completed.

     

    Your code is going to look for the devices same as it would for an HSC, POKEY ($450), check for SRAM (If your game will be able to work in a limited way without seeing the SRAM) and such...  I've posted some of the register info up 7800xm.com and a lot more will be made available over time.

     

    Would love to see you coding XM games! 🙂

     

  16. Posted

    10 hours ago, JonnyBritish said:

    Can you post a vid of the yamaha demo curt

    are those patch wires i am seeing

    purple boards look awesome

     

     

     

    This was why I ran just the 5 dev boards of the new SMD design, turned out 3 of the traces didn't get routed correctly to the top layer of the devices, so I put on some straps to resolve. I've updated the PCB files and now when I run off the end user versions, those are fixed and I don't have any patches to place on the boards, they are all set 🙂

     

    As you requested:  An audio demo with the Yamaha chip...

     

    https://youtu.be/0ftA_AGNx-A

    • Like 7

  18. Posted

    30 minutes ago, Giles N said:

    Very good!!

     

    —

    Any approximate price for these boards yet (without shipping)?

    They aren’t boards, they are an entire module in a custom plastic case and aluminum name plate.  They’ll be $149.99 plus shipping 

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  19. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Giles N said:

    @Curt Vendel

     

    Congratulations!

     

    Hope this will be produced in some larger quanta and be sold with A7800s (somewhere) or game-bundles of non-pokey versions of games with pokey-sound-programming.

     

    👍🏻👍🏻✌🏻

     

     

    I have enough plastics and name plates to build 500 of them, I'm sure that will be plenty for everyone.   I've tried to stress to coders that if possible, to have a TIA mode and a POKEY mode on their games.   Others that will use the Yamaha or use the additional memory, keyboard or SIO obviously may not be able to have ways to work without seeing those features but coders may end up doing non-XM versions of that games with more trimmed down capabilities too to sell along side the more feature rich XM only versions.

     

    • Like 7

  20. Posted

    Hi Everyone,

     

      Okay so I was able to reach Albert and he cleared out the video's, they were just way too big, so I started uploading to Youtube and I'm embedding the links here, sorry for all of the trouble...

     

    Here they are:

     

    #1:

     

    #2:

     

    #3: The "Not Atari" Lab...

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 19

  21. Posted

    Hi everyone, okay so I was up till about 3am working on things and doing a lot of testing, so I posted up several videos up to the 7800 Expansion Module group on facebook (also known as evilbook as well ;-) so just sharing the videos and love here as well keeping everyone up to date...  More XM's on there way out, yay!!!

    • Like 8

  22. Posted

    2 hours ago, Zonie said:

    Hope my preorder is one with an original Pokey!!!

     

    To be honest, audio wise, unless you an extreme audiophile with a super acute ear, you can’t tell the difference between an NMOS POKEY and an FPGA one.

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    On 1/17/2020 at 12:08 AM, Giles N said:

    Does all this mean that

     

    ... if I had an XM..

     

    I could buy the Froggo non-pokey version, the Circus AtariAge non-pokey versions... plug them in ... and get pokey-sound...?

     

     

    Absolutely!  It’s been asked and encouraged that coders try to have their games work in 2 modes so if a person doesn’t have an XM or doesn’t have a spare POKEY they can play their game without the POKEY audio and no high score keeping.

     

     

    • Like 1

  24. Posted

    On 1/17/2020 at 12:04 AM, Giles N said:

    Old dream come true?

     

    —

     

    How long has it been?

    Too long! Way too long...  just glad to be making progress to getting these finally going out to people.  A bit late but tomorrow I’ll post some videos of 3 more built and shipping.

    • Like 1

  25. Posted

    On 1/16/2020 at 1:08 AM, ApolloBoy said:

    Hey Curt, I think my dad preordered one of these for me at Christmas years ago but I'm not sure if it's been cancelled or not. Can I send you an email through the preorder form even if I don't have the order number?

    You’ll need something from him to show the purchase.  Please ask him if he retained an email or print out.  PM me his name & email and I can check on my end for you.

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