+orpheuswaking Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 hmmm... time to send FJC one of my 800XLs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 (edited) hmmm... time to send FJC one of my 800XLs I'm not normally a fan of mods which require radical changes to the case, but I'm rather taken with this one. Edited October 30, 2011 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+JAC! Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 This is so awesome. I hereby award the inofficial price for best looking Atari hardware 2011! If I get get to create some hardware for my XL, I'll be on my knees for you to create the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) Activity lights done, all working perfectly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2Kbid9sVA Edited October 31, 2011 by flashjazzcat 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thgill Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 Looks ace! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 FJC, very nicely done. How did you cut the opening for the screen? How do you get the inside corners square? I assume that your buttons are shaped like tophats to capture them inside the case. Do you use springs to keep them fully up against the case or do they rely on the switches themselves for spring pressure? I'm assuming that you'd use springs from ballpoint pens or something that slips over the extended buttons on the tac switches. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) FJC, very nicely done. Thanks - the owner's certainly happy. How did you cut the opening for the screen? The usual procedure: marked out in pen and dremelled, then flat-filed and hand-sanded. This one was a little more difficult, however, since the exact position of the screen in relation to the case lid was hard to calculate. Therefore, I started with a rectangular hole a bit "short" on all sides, then carefully widened it out, constantly refitting the lid to see how things lined up. How do you get the inside corners square? I scrape the "thick" out with a craft knife, then carefully finish them with a box-shaped file. I assume that your buttons are shaped like tophats to capture them inside the case. Do you use springs to keep them fully up against the case or do they rely on the switches themselves for spring pressure? I'm assuming that you'd use springs from ballpoint pens or something that slips over the extended buttons on the tac switches. Since the shafts on the momentary switches were so tall (although not quite tall enough), all I needed to do was extend them some (using the nylon 5mm M3 spacers which are usefully an exact push-fit on the button shafts), and then superglue the button tops in place (these particular button tops don't have a cavity in the bottom - just a recessed channel around the perimeter). I just pressed the spacers down until the clearance was just right, and the increased surface area they provided gave a good contact area for the glue. Fitting the 800XL's lid, then, is simply a case of ensuring the buttons are lined up with the holes before pushing it home. One thing I could certainly use is a drilling jig. Owing to the natural "drift" of the power drill when widening the holes for the shift and reset switches, they ended up off course by a couple of millimetres. I managed to fix them with some minor adjustments, but I'll certainly be saving up for a jig at some stage. For the activity lights, I designed a 3-pin header directly attached to the LEDs (push-fitted into the brown plastic layer), into which is plugged a harness connected to three wires going to the relevant pads on the PCB. The objective here was to ensure that nothing that shouldn't get wet in a cleaning or Retr0Briting situation was permanently attached to the case. Edited October 31, 2011 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) Lettering complete. Done using a laser printer, parchment paper and a toaster-oven. I've also attached the original concept sketch I did a few months ago (for the rev 2 board). Pretty close. cheers, c Edited November 1, 2011 by Vandal968 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) Nice - lettering's come out really well. Seems you used the same technique I did: Edited November 1, 2011 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Seems you used the same technique I did: I wish I had known, it would have saved me some time! There's a guy in my local machining club that spent a few weeks researching how to do this and came up with this procedure: http://rick.sparber.org/ttm.pdf I did the final transfer part a little differently, I held the strip onto the metal with binder clips and heated in the toaster at 250F. When hot, I reached in with a stick and rubbed the lettering to do the xfer. Worked pretty well, but I think that your font is better than mine. Do you seal it with anything, or just leave the bare toner? How does it hold up against scratches? cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) I did the final transfer part a little differently, I held the strip onto the metal with binder clips and heated in the toaster at 250F. When hot, I reached in with a stick and rubbed the lettering to do the xfer. Worked pretty well, but I think that your font is better than mine. Do you seal it with anything, or just leave the bare toner? How does it hold up against scratches? I'd had some practice with this, so what you see is somewhat refined through repitition. The font is "SF Atarian System" (although I recall using Arial for the numerals). I adjusted the kerning very carefully to get the XL "look", and printed numerous copies on A4 photo paper. I then cut these into strips and taped them face-down onto the aluminium offcuts on a piece of chipboard. I then ironed them for about five minutes on the hottest setting, before carefully washing away the paper under the cold tap. I'd do a couple and pick the best one. I tried sealing it with spray-on sealants, etc, but it seems to look better with nothing on. The print isn't as black as I'd like (more a dark grey), but at least it's sharp and required no retouching. As for scratches - I don't know. I don't scratch it. On the subject of aluminium strips: I find they bend better if gently scored underneath. Edited November 1, 2011 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKRetrogamer Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 I received my SIO2SD3 just this morning but I've been unable to test it as the connector is different from my original SIO2SD. Does anyone make or sell cables for use with the SIO2SD3 yet or would anyone be kind enough to provide pin-outs so I can solder a SIO cable directly to it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 You guys (flashjazzcat, Vandal968) never cease to impress. What a wonderful thread!!!! Bravo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 I received my SIO2SD3 just this morning but I've been unable to test it as the connector is different from my original SIO2SD. Does anyone make or sell cables for use with the SIO2SD3 yet or would anyone be kind enough to provide pin-outs so I can solder a SIO cable directly to it? You can use your version 2 cable, that's what I'm doing. I originally soldered a male header to a female header to make an adapter so that the pins would be offset enough for the bulky v2 cable connector to clear the v3 board. Once my enclosure was done, it would no longer fit with my crude adapter, so I just soldered the wires to a female header and plugged it in. The cable still works on either board, but it's no longer "keyed". I plugged it in backwards once and it didn't hurt anything. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKRetrogamer Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 You can use your version 2 cable, that's what I'm doing. I originally soldered a male header to a female header to make an adapter so that the pins would be offset enough for the bulky v2 cable connector to clear the v3 board.I'm wondering if an off-cut from a turned-pin DIL socket would fit. The connectors look to be of the turned-pin type... Need to look into this more thoroughly. Thanks for your suggestion. Where did you buy the male and female headers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 I'm wondering if an off-cut from a turned-pin DIL socket would fit. The connectors look to be of the turned-pin type... The female connectors are turned, but (on mine) they have extra-wide diameter holes which will take square header pins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted November 2, 2011 Share Posted November 2, 2011 Where did you buy the male and female headers? Digikey, Mouser, Fry's, etc. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Vandal, you should look at this: http://www.crcind.com/wwwcrc/tds/TKC3%20POSITIV20.PDF not as cheap as toner transfer, but far less prone to errors and more durable (see page 3) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Interesting, thanks for the link. For the moment, I'm satisfied with how the toner looks. If I do another one, I'm definitely going to try a different process, but unless this one gets damaged, I'm going to leave it alone for now. Too many projects, too little time.... cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Got mine today. I was going to order the case but it looks like the display for mine is longer than the ones in the posted pictures. So I doubt the case would fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Longer? I've got three displays here, orange, b&w, blue, they vary a lot. The metal bezel is the part that varies the most, the orange one is narrow but tall, the blue one is wide but low, and the B&W one kind of splits the difference. I found that I could use any one of the three if I adjust the header pins a little. Remove the plastic strip from the base of the male pins, I used an exacto knife to gently pry it up. Then you can clip the male header pins a little at a time to shorten them until you get the fit that you want between bezel and enclosure. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qix_maniac Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Lettering complete. Done using a laser printer, parchment paper and a toaster-oven. I've also attached the original concept sketch I did a few months ago (for the rev 2 board). Pretty close. cheers, c amazing work! ...any chance you will make for sale? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Longer? I've got three displays here, orange, b&w, blue, they vary a lot. The metal bezel is the part that varies the most, the orange one is narrow but tall, the blue one is wide but low, and the B&W one kind of splits the difference. I found that I could use any one of the three if I adjust the header pins a little. Remove the plastic strip from the base of the male pins, I used an exacto knife to gently pry it up. Then you can clip the male header pins a little at a time to shorten them until you get the fit that you want between bezel and enclosure. cheers, c Here is a picture of my SIO2SD3 with the supplied display. The display doesn't look like it would fit in the enclosure. It's much longer than the others I've seen posted here that fit nicely over the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 The display doesn't look like it would fit in the enclosure. It's much longer than the others I've seen posted here that fit nicely over the board. LOL. Yeah, that display definitely will NOT fit inside the enclosure. The good news is that the displays are standard and you can get the correct size/type for about $6 delivered from eBay. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vandal968 Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 amazing work! ...any chance you will make for sale? Thank you The design is up on Shapeways, you can buy a set by following this link. http://www.shapeways.com/shops/ohmbu There is a small amount of fitting required. On mine, the posts that locate the pc board printed a little off from where they should have been, the easy solution was to just snip off two of them. It took me about 10 minutes of careful adjusting with an Exacto to get it all to fit just-right. cheers, c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.