carmel_andrews #1 Posted October 21, 2011 (edited) Seeming as though the overriding opinion of the XE motherboard isn't exactly positive (given the fact that is somewhat difficult to do any sort of mods/upgrading for the XE because of the poor quality of the motherboard), one idea that did come to me was that someone could design a new (unpopulated) motherboard using better quality materials and offer the service to XE users whereas they send in their old xe's (with or without mod's/upgrades) and for say 40/50 pound, excluding postage/packing etc (or whatever that is in euro's/usd etc) and that someone could just transfer everything over to the newly designed motherboard (which would obviously be more upgrade/moddying friendly) and ship/post it back to them And since there will be a supply of old xe mobo's (from the one's that were sent in to be swapped over for the better quality one), that someone could use these old mobo's and rebuild/redesign then to be less difficult to moddify/upgrade (so they won't need to buy much new materials) and sell them back to people needing their XE's repaired/upgraded or modd'd Perhaps tramiel told shivji (when he was designing the XE) to purposefully use a low quality motherboard so that people (atari users) would bother trying to moddy or upgrade the XE (so basically, to design a computer system that purposefuly could'nt be upgraded or moddified) Edited October 21, 2011 by carmel_andrews Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thgill #2 Posted October 21, 2011 I am not sure how practical it would be, however I like the idea. Also, instead of just doing a 1 to 1 motherboard design, perhaps integrate into it some of the most popular mods that are being installed. Dual Pokeys on the board with a switch to toggle between stereo/mono. Integrated 512k sram. Perhaps SIO2PC interface. Higher quality composite and s-video output...dump RF jack if possible. A feature us NTSC folks would like would be the ability to have dual Antics and dual crystals. Then with a simple switch we could go between NTSC and PAL modes. All these could be optional and not required for system usage. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bryan #3 Posted October 21, 2011 Perhaps tramiel told shivji (when he was designing the XE) to purposefully use a low quality motherboard so that people (atari users) would bother trying to moddy or upgrade the XE (so basically, to design a computer system that purposefuly could'nt be upgraded or moddified) Or, perhaps you missed the fact that Jack is cheap. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sloopy #4 Posted October 21, 2011 um... well... although the idea of making a new mobo with common mod's isnt a bad idea, the big issue is, who is going to swap all those parts? With decent equipment, you are talking about 3-4 hours of desoldering and soldering... Overall you may be better off getting new parts of all but the custom IC's and then having just those 6 IC's transfered over. Probably even having a assembly house do the initial install of all the common parts, and then just having a pre-made board would be possible, as i dont know anyone who has the time or patience to assemble a whole A8 by hand... and 're-working' the original mobos... well i will let someone else comment on that... and just as a example, the PCB alone would be about $60USD (44EUR) each... before ANY components were placed on it... sloopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sub(Function(:)) #5 Posted October 21, 2011 Has any one got a reliably accurate schematic of the 130xe? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rybags #6 Posted October 21, 2011 IMO the best idea is the remake with "Super PIA" and 1 Meg or more onboard Static RAM. That in itself eliminates a lot of components and the room could accomodate extra Pokey or modern-day "triple" remake, among other things. Naturally, provide enhanced video output (15 KHz RGB and Component) with a cut-down VBXE equivalent. Provide XE-style ECI with plugin board that changes it to PBI, in addition to XL-style vertical cart. House the entire thing in a small form-factor HTPC case, provide a PS2 socket and XEGS keyboard connector - back-end BIOS controls stuff like RAM config, OS, which keyboard interface to use. But yeah, plenty of development would be needed and plenty of people would have to back the project, ie commit to buy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
UNIXcoffee928 #7 Posted October 21, 2011 The topic in this thread seems like it might be a good option for someone inclined to try to build a New, Upgradeable Atari, modularly, in hardware. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+wood_jl #8 Posted October 21, 2011 I think one of our obviously-capable European friends (who have designed mods as complex as the entire Atari itself) should consider an entire drop-in motherboard replacement, that would fit RIGHT WHERE the old one was. Is this impossible? Perhaps, not enough interest? I'm interested! I want it totally pre-modded-to-the-hilt! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mathy #9 Posted October 21, 2011 Hello Sloopy ... i dont know anyone who has the time or patience to assemble a whole A8 by hand... I do. His name is Beetle. Did it for (IIRC) his 1500XL laptop. Mathy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sloopy #10 Posted October 22, 2011 Hello Sloopy ... i dont know anyone who has the time or patience to assemble a whole A8 by hand... I do. His name is Beetle. Did it for (IIRC) his 1500XL laptop. Mathy he used a pre-existing mobo :') sloopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BillC #11 Posted October 22, 2011 ... i dont know anyone who has the time or patience to assemble a whole A8 by hand... Vandal968 purchased a 1450XL motherboard from Best Electronics, researched and obtained all the components, then populated the board. It is covered in the following thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/186380-1450-xld-motherboard-build-assorted-questions/ Is this the type of patience you were thinking of? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sloopy #12 Posted October 22, 2011 ... i dont know anyone who has the time or patience to assemble a whole A8 by hand... Vandal968 purchased a 1450XL motherboard from Best Electronics, researched and obtained all the components, then populated the board. It is covered in the following thread: http://www.atariage....rted-questions/ Is this the type of patience you were thinking of? if vandal968, or you want to do all that desoldering and soldering, then I will layout the PCB, and have it made... yes, i have seen the thread, and yes its quite the undertaking... i hope he gets it up and running, like the other people who bought the boards and made a sell out... and once they are done, ask them how much they would charge to do the same for a 130XE, but desoldering all the components from the 130XE first, instead of buying them from various suppliers... sloopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
venom4728a #13 Posted October 22, 2011 I would be up for purchasing at least one board, two if it came with the best mods incorporated in the design, Robert Miller Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shawn Jefferson #14 Posted October 24, 2011 Why bother with an Atari board at all? Why not just stuff a miniature PC motherboard in a case, and make it run Altirra or one of the other Atari 8-bit emulators? If you want additional hardware, just write some software to emulate it. A lot easier... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sub(Function(:)) #15 Posted October 24, 2011 if vandal968, or you want to do all that desoldering and soldering, then I will layout the PCB, and have it made... yes, i have seen the thread, and yes its quite the undertaking... i hope he gets it up and running, like the other people who bought the boards and made a sell out... and once they are done, ask them how much they would charge to do the same for a 130XE, but desoldering all the components from the 130XE first, instead of buying them from various suppliers... sloopy. Hi Sloopy, If you do re-lay out an 8bit atari, Which existing case will it be for (800XL/600XL/130XE)? Also what add-ons/mods will be included? I guess the RF unit will be taken off? But what about passive components like resistors and capacitors, will they be surface mount? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sub(Function(:)) #16 Posted October 24, 2011 Why bother with an Atari board at all? Why not just stuff a miniature PC motherboard in a case, and make it run Altirra or one of the other Atari 8-bit emulators? If you want additional hardware, just write some software to emulate it. A lot easier... But then I have to buy a Windows Licence. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+rdemming #17 Posted October 24, 2011 Why bother with an Atari board at all? Why not just stuff a miniature PC motherboard in a case, and make it run Altirra or one of the other Atari 8-bit emulators? If you want additional hardware, just write some software to emulate it. A lot easier... How good the emulators are, they are never as "good" as real hardware. One problem is smooth 50Hz scrolling. Since an PC monitor has at least a 60Hz update frequency while a PAL Atari has 50 Hz update frequency, the scrolling will be always jerky. One solution would be to use a monitor that handles 100Hz and do only an update every two frames but only expensive tubes handle 100Hz. I haven't seen an LCD monitor yet that handles 100Hz. Robert Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rybags #18 Posted October 24, 2011 Emulation is emulation, regardless if the machine's a beige box or a plastic remake of a plastic case. I don't see the point, it's about as useful as painting a girl's face on the back of your hand before having a wank. 5 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sloopy #19 Posted October 24, 2011 Why bother with an Atari board at all? Why not just stuff a miniature PC motherboard in a case, and make it run Altirra or one of the other Atari 8-bit emulators? If you want additional hardware, just write some software to emulate it. A lot easier... Beacuse, if you cant program, you cant play with things like these... sloopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+orpheuswaking #20 Posted October 24, 2011 If you have the ability to desolder an XE board, why on earth would you need a better PCB? You would already know the problems it has and be capable of making corrections if you messed something up... If you are just buying a bare board and paying someone to transplant it for you, you might as well pay them far less to just make the modifications you need... I do know that some of our Polish friends are talking about making a replacement motherboard that will be completely shrunk down (so you get an atari in a project box type thing) I'd much rather pay for that. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
thgill #21 Posted October 24, 2011 Perhaps the new board should have a built in game too, kinda like on the XEGS. Maybe Prince of Persia. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+orpheuswaking #22 Posted October 24, 2011 O_o That board would never be done.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmetal88 #23 Posted October 24, 2011 If you have the ability to desolder an XE board, why on earth would you need a better PCB? You would already know the problems it has and be capable of making corrections if you messed something up... If you are just buying a bare board and paying someone to transplant it for you, you might as well pay them far less to just make the modifications you need... I do know that some of our Polish friends are talking about making a replacement motherboard that will be completely shrunk down (so you get an atari in a project box type thing) I'd much rather pay for that. Exactly. I've done mods on my 130XE and screwed up traces before. I just soldered jumpers in to reconstruct the broken paths. It's fairly simple. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shawn Jefferson #24 Posted October 25, 2011 Emulation is emulation, regardless if the machine's a beige box or a plastic remake of a plastic case. I don't see the point, it's about as useful as painting a girl's face on the back of your hand before having a wank. haha, you've got me there (and I won't say how.) True, there are some issues with emulation... and I guess if someone wants to design a new Atari board with a bunch of mods built-in, they should do that. I'll probably have to buy one too if it gets done! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sloopy #25 Posted October 25, 2011 should it be made smd or through-hole for the common parts? sloopy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord