Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'atarivox+'.
-
Last year, I did an internal installation of an Atarivox+ in my 7800. The goals were to have the Atarivox' audio mixed with the console's audio, and to also have a way to turn off the Atarivox if it was interfering with controllers. Both of these were to be accomplished without cutting or drilling the console's case. In the end, it worked out really well, and it's now weird to me whenever I see a 7800 come up from cold and don't hear the, "Atarivox Plus - Ready," greeting at power-on. Where this was especially evident, however, was on my 2600 Jr. The lack of speech and savekey support in certain titles was becoming more and more noticeable by its absence compared to the 7800, so wanting to install an Atarivox in it started to sound increasingly appealing. The only real question was, "will it fit?" There's a lot less room inside of a 2600 Jr. than a 7800 - a lot less. So an Atarivox+ was ordered and the measuring got underway. There were two main goals being shot for: one, find out if it was even possible to physically fit the Atarivox+ in a 2600 Jr. case; two, replicate all of the functionality of the 7800 installation in the Jr. The modifications that this Jr. already had were a UAV, Traco 2-2450 DC-DC converter, and the ribbon cable for the Reset and Select buttons had been replaced with wires and DuPont connectors. Significant modification to the Atarivox+ PCB was also required, and I'd recommend reading through all of this before committing to a course of action. There's plenty of room to screw things up (ask me how I know) even if there's not a lot of elbow room for the installation itself. Please note that the photos in this post are showing what is essentially a Version 1.0 installation - there was a lot that had to be figured out as I went, and there is room for improvement in certain areas. Having said that, suggestions for improvements are certainly welcome Moving on, there are three main components that will be needed: One AtariVox+ Speech Synthesizer One Adafruit 4-channel I2C-safe Bi-directional Logic Level Converter - BSS138 One Miniature Capacitive Touch Switch (these are apparently only sold in pairs; I've yet to see single ones for sale) And, in addition to those, the usual gamut of wires (with DuPont connectors), straight and right-angled 2.54mm pin headers, a pair of 10kΩ resistors, solder, a soldering iron, electrical tape, double-sided tape, etc. Starting off with the capacitive power switch: this was adhered to the underside of the upper case with a single layer of Gorilla Tough and Clear mounting tape; placement was between the Reset button and outer wall of the case. It receives +5VDC (red wire) and GND (black wire) from the mainboard and switches +5VDC over the orange wire. Tapping on the case to the right of the Reset button turns the Atarivox off. While it can be turned back on using this method, it's better to power-cycle the machine so that everything comes up in a known state. +5VDC power was taken from TP1, located just below and to the right of the RF output jack; a right-angled pin header was soldered into it. GND was provided from a pair of pads located on the mainboard next to the RF modulator shield. Note that the shield does not have to come off to access them - they're between the shield and edge of the board. Four are located in a small, square cluster, and two right-angled pin headers were installed; the second pin header will be needed later on. One word about the switch: there are jumpers on it that can be changed in order to alter its behaviour. It is strongly recommended against doing this. As it comes out of the box, the jumpers are already set correctly, and changing them may potentially damage the switch, 2600 Jr., or other components. Additionally, the layer of double-sided tape used to hold it in place does not interfere with the ability of the switch to sense a tap - if anything, it cuts the natural sensitivity of the switch down slightly to a more usable level. Moving on to the BSS138 board (Adafruit Level Shifter): This board is used to both power the Atarivox on and off as well as enable or disable the signal lines running from the console's right joystick port to the Atarivox. Vertical pin headers were installed in both rows, with a cut-down pin header bridging the contacts on the underside of the board for the pads marked 'HV' and 'LV'. The same wiring colour scheme was used here for both sides of the board: white, grey, green, and yellow were soldered to pins 1 through 4, respectively, of the right joystick port and connected to the corresponding pins on the HV side of the board; GND was taken from one of the previously-mentioned pads next to the RF modulator while switched +5VDC (orange wire) was connected to the pin marked 'HV' on the PCB. On the LV side of the PCB, the corresponding wires were soldered directly to the same-numbered pins on the Atarivox where the controller jack had been removed. Switched power (the pin marked 'LV') was soldered to pin 8 on the Atarivox; GND was attached to pin 7. Again, a single layer of Gorilla Tough and Clear mounting tape was used to adhere the Adafruit Level Shifter to the Junior's PCB. And now for the modifications to the Atarivox+ board: In order to make the Atarivox fit in the space above the RF modulator, a number of modifications were performed to it: The controller jack was removed On either side of the controller jack, the remaining anchor points for the jack were cut away with a Dremel along the white lines outlining the footprints of the anchor points The headphone jack was removed; with this and the controller jack gone, about 15mm of overall length was shaved off. Be careful when removing this one - if it's surface-mounted it'll want to take traces with it Note the white wire coming off of the board from the right side of C1. This is the audio output, and is attached to the most easily-worked location to pick final audio off from Wires with female DuPont connectors on the far end were soldered directly to the PCB in the location where the controller jack had previously been located; this was to keep the height of the installation at a manageable level The controller jack wires were separated into two bundles: one for pins 1-4 (Atarivox data; white, grey, green, and yellow, respectively) and one for pins 7 & 8 (ground (black) and switched power (orange), respectively). Two layers of Gorilla Tough and Clear mounting tape were used to hold it in place, one on the empty space on the 2600 Jr.'s PCB and one completely covering the back of the Atarivox' PCB. This provided both insulation from live components as well as enough clearance to fit the Atarivox just barely over and above them without running into clearance issues with the underside of the top shell. If you are planning on keeping the RF shields in place, it's strongly recommended to put a layer of electrical tape over any shield surfaces that might come into contact with the additional hardware. This essentially means the face of the shield over the RF modulator facing the rear of the console, and the entire rear-facing part of the main RF shield. There's also one side of the main shield that meets the modulator shield at a right angle; that one should be taped over as well. Finally, here's a bird's-eye view of the almost-completed installation: The white audio output wire coming off of the Atarivox from C1 can be seen looping out of the right-hand side of the frame, coming back into view just below the RF modulator. On the section just below the RF modulator, there's a length of heatshrink covering this wire. This is where a 10KΩ resistor was spliced in; another of the same value was spliced in to the audio output (another white wire) from the TIA located just above and to the right of the IC. Be sure to splice the Atarivox' output into the audio wiring after the resistor coming from the TIA's output. Note that the resistors are mandatory: without them, there will be sound from either the TIA or Atarivox (if powered on), but not both. One word about the resistors: after living with the 10KΩ ones for a few days, using ones with a lower resistance is suggested. 6.8KΩ or 4.7KΩ would probably be a better fit, and 2KΩ may also work. While both the Atarivox and Junior audio mix without issue at 10KΩ, the amount of volume that can be obtained from the Atarivox with 10KΩ resistors is about the bare minimum necessary to have a usable mix. At this point, everything's ready for refitting the RF shields (if desired), routing cables, and testing the machine. On powerup, "Atarivox Plus - Ready," should be heard from the display's speakers, and Juno First is recommended to test with since it mixes speech with TIA audio early on in the game; it also displays "Savekey Found" if it's detected at load time. Adjust the Atarivox' volume as necessary and once it's at the preferred level, carefully refit the top case, taking care to not catch any wires between the case halves or the screwposts. Other than replacing the 10KΩ resistors with ones of a lower value, one other change that may be worth making would be to replace the volume pot with one that mounts horizontally rather than vertically. This has the potential to reduce the overall height by a few millimetres, and while that might not sound like much, there are variances in PCBs, case mouldings, the adhesives used, cable routing, etc. that could turn that extra clearance into the difference between a successful fit or a frustrating, semi-finished project. This is something that I wanted to implement from the start, but available time meant that the luxury of being able to order and try out a few different trimpots just wasn't really there. In any event, if you decide to undertake this modification, all the best of luck to you, and please post any questions below
-
I made a quick video recording of the gameplay of Space Frenzy for the Vectrex using the AtariVox+ in VecVoice mode. The overlay is Minestorm. The video is portrait oriented. There are not enough videos showing the AtariVox+ speaking! The game is available to order at: www.packratvg.com (It looks better on YouTube if you choose 480p)
-
Finally got also an AtariVox+ for my 2600 and quite happy with that. If you have not seen that device in action, here is a little video I made: http://youtu.be/4UXBZEg3q_Y
- 10 replies
-
- 2
-
- atarivox
- atari 2600
-
(and 4 more)
Tagged with:
-
I finally got to hear the speech in Alex Herbert's Vectrex Y*A*S*I (Yet another Space Invaders) with the AtariVox+ that The.Golden.Ax is selling. From "Insert Coin" to "Game Over" and other fun things in between it is a great addition to the game. It is also used for sound effects in Debris Revisited 2010. I bought that game about two years ago and haven't played it until now because I was waiting for the AtariVox+ ! Easy to open the case and change the dip switch settings for Vectrex use.