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Rolo

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Everything posted by Rolo

  1. Yes, why not? Calling cards, stamps, old radios, batteries ? Where is the difference? Technical everyday details, nobody cares about and suddenly they are gone ...
  2. Great! Thanks a lot for translating.? Google translates your string to: "Note: There is a risk of swelling, so put it in (+) (-) correctly, and do not charge, heat, or put it in a fire. Do not use it with alkaline batteries." We still don't know, which type of battery technology this is.
  3. Wow, this battery arouses interest! Amazing! This is interesting about this website: People here are looking at technical details, nobody else would care about. I carelessly dumped one of the two batteries some time ago... I just show some more photos of the battery, for the battery experts in the forum: Maybe some Japanese AtariAge member can help out reading this printing?
  4. Finally it has to be done! My calculator, which I started using back in school, sucked out the final quantum of energy from the original batteries. ? On the backside it's saying it's consuming 0.0004 Watts.? The FX-100 is a phantastic calculator, which is as current as ever. It covers all functions you need in school. It offers a quality keypad and it is calculating much faster than the competitors of those days. My father bought it in 1982 or 1983 as far as I remember. This really was ATARI age. I've never stopped using this calculator. Hard to see, the bottom is stamped with 81-03 (?). All seals are as good as new. This battery stood the test of time. ?
  5. I just uploaded it to the Internet Archive https://archive.org. Probably a good place to preserve another piece of computing history.
  6. I just scanned the manual. There is no place on AtariAge, where I can upload the file, I think?!
  7. Probably the biggest Arcadia joystick in the universe. ?️?? At least a record!
  8. A New Controller for the Arcadia 2001 As you surely expect, the Emerson Project is not complete yet. ? Again, I'm using one of my wooden cases to make a new controller for the Arcadia. My requirements: a real joystick, a decent fire button, real numeric keys and -of course- auto fire. A couple of years ago, I helped out AtariAge-member "Endprodukt" with a schematic of my VECTREX firing circuit, since he wanted to reproduce a couple of those for his joystick projects and to sell the rest. He sent me one of his pcbs to say thank you. That board will be used to provide the auto-firing feature. A second board is built into the case, too. It contains a 4016 CMOS-analog switch, which will be operated by the auto-firing circuit, and several connectors. This board distributes the wires from the main cable to the components. The finished device: Some games simply NEED an auto-firing button. Again quite a big device, but finally a real joystick!
  9. Detachable Controllers for the Emerson Arcadia 2001 So, what else can we do with an Arcadia 2001? ? How about making the controllers detachable? (https://atariage.com/forums/topic/315672-super-cassette-vision-detachable-joysticks/) I don't like the original Arcadia controllers. They are simply not good, not responsive. The fire button(s) are breaking player's fingers. A prerequisite to improve the situation is to make the controllers pluggable and removable, like the 2600 joysticks, for example. Obviously, marketing or management people did not comprehend the chance to generate a secondary market, besides the cartridge sales, by offering different and maybe more expensive deluxe-controllers. They saved a few pennies by putting the connectors inside the console, instead of preparing it for some more high-profit-accessories.? Like so many other companies ... (Odyssey 2, Intellivision, etc.) There seems to be some space on the backside, which I can use. There are 11 wires running inside these thin coiled cables. Astonishing! ? DSUB-15 connectors seem to be a good choice. First some DREMEL-action: Making cables next. As usual I cut the controller cables and solder the wires to DSUB (m). Additionally, I provide +5 VDC and GND for later use. So, 11 + 2 = 13 pins of the DSUBs are used. A quick glance inside the black connectors showed the same color coding for both controller cables. Soldering +5 VDC and GND directly to the pcb. There is a 7805 voltage regulator on the top-side of the board. Some mechanical work and voilà: Some more soldering of DSUB 15 (f) at the two controller cords: + All right: Let's check, if everything is alright... ? Oh no‼️ One controller is working, the other not. When I swap controllers, none of them is working. ? This looks more like a general mistake. Ok, let's rip the thing apart again... Well, it is a single sided pcb. Not easy to route all the lines on the tiny board and to avoid crossings. Let's have a closer look. The two pcb-ends of the coiled cables are equally soldered to their plugs. No difference. How about the controller-ends of the cables? They really did it! There is a left controller and there is a right controller! ? The controller mylar is the same, but not the coding of the connector. Those controllers can't simply be swapped. I've never seen that in any console at all. Some investigation reveals the way, how things are connected. The controller sockets on the pcb are wired completely different, to make routing of the pcb straight forward! So they had to compensate for this by connecting the mylars of the controllers in different ways. The cables are translators. or the mylar side I can't use this. I just want a controller, not two types of controllers. I define the left controller scheme as a "standard" for all controllers. I re-soldered the right mylar connector and changed its color scheme from right controller to left controller, making it a left controller. I only have "left" controllers now. The translation "left to right" for the right port will be done by the short adapter cable inside the console. The left controller adapter is unchanged. I stick to the pin-numbering, to not get confused. The right controller adapter is wired differently and reversing the effect of the different pin-outs of the board-sockets. Let's reassemble the box and check: Thumbs up ??! All controls working as supposed to do. Controllers can be swapped now. ✅
  10. Today I present something not so common, something vintage: The LCM-1001 microprogrammer learning module from 1976 ? There is a nice description in wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_SBP0400), so there is no need to explain everything, that's already there. Most of the references google presented to me, are more or less copies of each other. Most links are dead or obsolete FLASH-content. I want to show just some photos, I took, when disassembling the device, especially, what's inside, bevor this information is lost. The device is powered by 7VDC via a 2.5 mm jack plug. Inside there are three rechargeable batteries (AA) - a neat idea to be able to run from battery. Inside there is a 4 bit - well, what is it? - processor element, designed by Texas Instruments, called SBP 0400. The concept is to make it expandable. Up to four of those processor elements can be serialized, to build a 4,8,12,16 bit device. The position of the slice (MSB ... LSB) can be specified with the Position Switches 0 and 1, which directly lead to the corresponding pins of the SBP 0400. The SBP 0400 uses a 40 pin DIL package. All pins are available at the socket of the panel. all important input pins can be toggled on and off, with those switches. Important outputs can be monitored with the help of the LEDs. The SBP 0400 architecture and the schematics of the learning module: There is no memory, just switches and a clock button. Everything is done manually. The addressbus is only 4 bit wide and even in combination with ALUCOUT only 32 memory locations can be addressed. Note that each opcode is a 9 bit word! Registers and program counter (=register 7) are 4 bit wide. A single device on its own can only do very simple control tasks. What's inside the box? Texas Instruments offered three extension for the device: LCM-1002 controller module for micro programming with 256×20 bit PROM LCM-1003 memory module containing 1024 12-bit words LCM-1004 input/output module I do not have access to those and can't tell anything about them. I think they are very rare. I did not even find the documentation scanned in. Maybe I should scan the LCM-1001 manual, that I have. Just check out the Wikipedia link above for more information. Does anybody have any experience with the learning modules?
  11. Almost... Well, size matters. ? I've got big hands. I like it, if I can put the controller in front of me on the table and if it is not so tiny. And what is more, I had this case ready in the drawer, so I just used it. Sure, it could have been made 5 to 10 centimeters shorter, but this was no intention of mine.
  12. A custom-made Joystick for the Super Cassette Vision I finally made some progress with the project. To make joysticks detachable, but having nothing to attach, is not really attractive. So I started working on part 2 of the SCV-project. In the beginning, it felt like being an old Arcade-guy building wooden cabinets out of plywood. ? I've been using this kind of case already for a VECTREX controller and I have a few of those in the drawer. (https://atariage.com/forums/topic/240542-new-vectrex-joystick-kit-for-sale/?do=findComment&comment=4681514) The auto-firing board also is a re-used part of the Vectrex Controller Kit, a little bit modified. For this console, two Arcade-buttons are enough. I tried an industry 4-axis joystick, which proved to be a good choice. This type is sold in many electronics shops and on ebay. It's easy to find and not very expensive, compared to the quality you get. Some cabling is required. An analog switch IC (i.e. CD4066, two of the four switches used), too, which is operated manually by the buttons or repeatedly by the auto-firing circuit. Simple GND-switching like on the 2600 is not working, since a defined port signal of the SCV's processor port (PB2/PB5) has to be fed through. The schematics of the SCV-joysticks are available in the internet. Power & ground, needed by the auto-firing board, are fetched from the console, with two additional wires of the cable. This is shown in the post above. This is the whole set-up, somewhat larger than the original controller. A functional check with NEBULA and BOULDER DASH, played from the Dragon Multi-Cartridge attached to the SCV-adapter. What a difference it makes! A decent controller changes games a lot. Suddenly, there is some fun❗ Pushing manufacturing costs, by making cheap controllers, is not a good idea. A crappy controller spoils the whole system. The SCV could use some more well designed games. It is a quite powerful console, with a much too small (and odd) game library.
  13. Yes, I have adapters for: Odyssey 2 Vectrex Interton VC4000 1292/Advanced Programmable Video System Arcadia 2001 Epoch Super Cassette Vision I can serve two brother systems of the Interton/1292 type. And the same would be with Arcadia 2001 and MPT-03, the two main members of that type of console. Soundicvision SD-200, Hanimex HMG-7900, Rollet Video-Color and ITMC SD-290 seem to belong to a completely different system familiy, as far as I understand it, using a special scarcely documented NEC-microprocessor. But I have had only two or three questions concerning a MPT-03 console so far and I believe that an adapter probably won't be needed. I can save my time and energy for something else, I suppose. Rolo
  14. I was thinking, if I should make an adapter for using the DRAGON/COCO II Multi-Cartridge together with the MPT-03-family, besides the adapter for the EMERSON-ARCADIA family... ❓ Is there a demand for that? If so, how many items would I need? Five, ten, twenty? I have already enough things catching dust on my shelf, maybe it is a good idea to check in advance. If you would be interested please let me know...
  15. I was thinking, if I should make an adapter for using the DRAGON/COCO II Multi-Cartridge together with the MPT-03-family, besides the adapter for the EMERSON-ARCADIA family... ❓ Is there a demand for that? If so, how many items would I need? Five, ten, twenty? I have already enough things catching dust on my shelf, maybe it is a good idea to check in advance. If you would be interested please let me know...
  16. project update: I'm getting questions from time to time: "Do you still make the multi-carts and the adapters?" Yes, I do. ? I'm still making the two types of the (Dragon/CoCo II) Multi-Cartridge, "8-16" and "16-32" and adapters for: Odyssey 2 Vectrex Interton VC4000 1292/Advanced Programmable Video System Arcadia 2001 Epoch Super Cassette Vision Just send me a PM. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242786-multi-cartridge-for-dragoncoco-2-available/page-3?do=findComment&comment=4082727 http://atariage.com/...ic/258478-rolo/
  17. Hi guys, I really appreciate the Channel F reaction caused by this post. ? Great job, also the missing lid (which was missing from my first console too) looks very good!
  18. Yes, I really think so. This antenna switch confused me in the beginning, when I saw the input socket. It's a nice idea, as long as you don't have to move around the console, like it was back then: everything nicely arranged in a wooden tv cabinet in the living room! ?
  19. My Channel F / SABA Videoplay adventure - part 2 I explained above, that the controllers did not respond, as supposed to do. Some movements did not react and some movements were permanent. I had a closer look at the controllers. I discovered several broken wires, cracks and brocken parts inside. So, the console was "used"? Surely it was... Loctite super glue was my friend. It was working astonishingly well. Soldering the wires is a delicate job. Not only the wires are very thin, but what is more, the small tin tongues are only attached by fragile plastic noses, which immediately start melting, during the soldering efforts. Neither the tongues, nor the wires are willing to take on the solder tin. ? In the end, I secured the tongues with Loctite - again. Tests showed, the controllers are back again. ? Those are kind of rare and we'll probably never get anything like that again, unless we built it ourselves. But still three specific player movements could not be stopped. Measurements of the audio/buffer chip revealed problems with the three corresponding line buffers, which output constant high-signal. See below what I figured out to be inside the chip. The schematics of the issue 1 Channel F proved to be helpful, since those were built of standard ttl-chips. I decided to substitute three defective buffers by an external chip (74LS366). Different from the custom chip, the 74366 is inverting the buffer gates, which means I need to invert the ENABLE-signal. Fortunately there is a 7405 (six inverters) chip on the pcb, which offers two unused gates. ? I used one of them for my purpose, I built a small piggy-pack board and drilled holes for the wires. Currently I'm only using three of the six line buffers of the 74366 and have another three as spare. I bent away the pins of the malfunctioning buffers of the FCM9102. This is what it is looking like. The crippled controls are working nominally again. The 74366 is helping out successfully. But still I have that problem of only every 2nd line being displayed correctly ⁉️ Writing to videoram (EVEN, ODD, DATA0, DATA1) is controlled by port pins of the CPU and of one of the PSUs (which offer more than only ROM-functionality). Measurements showed, whereas the CPU's port pins are behaving normally, two of the port pins of the PSU (port 5-29 and 32) present constant high. They are part of the 6-pin "vertical bus" controlling video chip/ram access. This can't be right, since the remaining 4 pins can only address 16 rows, instead of 64, of the four RAM-chips. Each RAM chip has 64 rows x 64 columns x 1 bit (4096 bits). Quite amazing that the system, different from ATARI VCS, already used a regular videoram, when RAM was very expensive. Obviously the processor is working hard to get this huge amount of databytes stored in time! Still the drawing of lines is noticeable. This is, where my efforts come to an end. Where would I get a new programmed PSU-chip from, without ripping apart another system? Healing this one, probably means killing another one. The PSU is soldered in, so chances of destroying it during desoldering is imminent! What do I do with the console? Probably offering spare parts on ebay to get some money back. Controllers probably are sought for. Some people are looking for retro cases. Or maybe somebody needs a power supply or RAM chips. Especially the socketed, working videochip can be of "high value" as a spare part. => I put a lot of time in it, learnt a lot about the system, but could not successfully end the job. In the meantime, I bought another one from ebay. That one is working and in a good state.
  20. You don't see it on the picture anymore, since I cleaned the switch. Practically all the empty space inside the switch was filled with that strange white, kind of crystalline stuff. I don't know, where it came from. Like from an exploded electrolyte cap or a leaking battery, but there are none of those anywhere around... Big mystery❓ Under the hood, pushing the button is operating two switches, the power switch and simultaneously an inbuilt antenna switch, which cuts off the tv-yagi-antenna on your roof, that can be plugged right into the console, and connects the tv-set with the console output. Quite handy! No external switch needed. I can't remember another system which is offering this feature. ? Due to this construction not only a certain amount of power is needed to push the button, but also some grease is attached on the sliding parts and a moving template of that assembly. Maybe that grease is morphing into this white stuff after a while. I read it quite often in ebay offerings, that the power button is no more working. It seems to be common.
  21. My Channel F / SABA Videoplay adventure - part 1 I've recently bought a SABA Videoplay console from ebay. My first time checking out that console. I don't even remember it from back in the day. I remember INTERTON, but not this one. Well, I'm always interested in exotic consoles using "forgotten" microprocessors, like the Fairchild F8-family. I found a cheap system on ebay, marked as "used". Ok, this is what a used system looks like: I'd interpret this as, yes, "used" certainly, but more as "not working at all". Strange, what some ebay-sellers do consider as "used".He claimed, that it has been working, but probably he would be too dumb to find the channel on the tv-set. I kept it anyway, since I wanted to explore it, maybe repair it or use it for spare parts. I ripped it apart, washed the dirty thing and examined it closer. This is what the Videoplay is made of: A lot of plastic and metal shielding. Quite corroded. Cartridge assembly from below and a cartridge pcb, showing two PSUs (Program Storage Units), one cap fallen of. The chips being directly attached to the pcb, the bonding wires visible and accessible. No IC-housing. I've never seen this before. The famous and very fragile controllers. We can see, the pcb is made by FAIRCHILD. This is already the model with custom chips (video and audio/buffer) and considerably reduced component-count. I injected the video signal of another console, to check, if the rf-part is working. Yes, working. I removed socketed components, cleaned pins, tried again. No change. Later I discovered aged solder joints around the crystal and the clock generation. I resoldered and suddenly had some kind of reaction from the board. Due to bad solder joints the clock generation failed (look at pcb-picture above). Every 2nd line (grey background) is displayed. Game logic is working. Ball is bouncing. Players can be moved, but not all movements. Some controls are alway on paddles moving into one direction. At least, the processor is working. What else did I have? The plastic cap of the antenna plug has fallen to pieces. All of them are doing that after some decades. The power switch was not moving it all. Interesting! I disassembled the power switch. It was filled with some unknown white material, which blocked the movement completely. I cleaned it. The tiny white pistons are operating the contacts of the switch and are pushed into opposite directions by a small spring. Unfortunately, this micro-spring was broken into two pieces. I replaced it with some kind of spring from another switch, but it is not moving really well. to be continued soon ...
  22. project update: Batch sold out! Thanks everybody for the support! ??
  23. project update: In the beginning, I wanted to announce the start of selling of the new batch, but due to pre-orders half of them are already gone... ? Four kits of the current batch are left, two ready built and two almost ready, waiting for some components to arrive. If you want one, now is a good time to send me a PM. ? First come, first serve. They are US$ 65 each, plus shipping. Please read the post above and make sure that you have the tools and skills required. It is not a ready-to-use product, but a kit.
  24. Upps, the last picture is an error. Should be deleted, but I can't edit the post anymore.
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