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[AQUARIUS] New Product: Aquarius 32K RAM Module


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Here's a link to the (preliminary) instruction manual for the 32K Module. I hope to add more to this shortly, but this should cover the basics:

 

http://www.synapsetechnologies.com/files/Aquarius32KManual.pdf

 

Very nice!

 

It may be messy to add this detail in the manual, but the non-S2 models will show 31037 bytes of RAM available.

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It may be messy to add this detail in the manual, but the non-S2 models will show 31037 bytes of RAM available.

... and Extended BASIC will show a different amount as well. That version of the manual is a "rough draft", so I'll soon be reworking the whole thing, and I'll be sure to include all this information.

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  • 2 weeks later...

As I couldn't decide on one color, I picked up some RGB slow rotating color changing LED's... any suggestions on a resistor value to use with it on the RAM cart?

 

-John-

Hmmm ... I wish I'd thought of that idea myself!

 

The supply voltage from the cartridge board is 5V, so the best value of the current-limiting resistor would depend on the forward voltage rating of your LED. The easiest way to find the resistor value would be to use a calculator like this one.

 

The LEDs that I used were rated at a maximum forward voltage of 2.4V to 3.4V (depending on the color), and a maximum forward current of 20mA, so I used 82Ω resistors for the blue, white, and green LEDs, and 150Ω resistors for the red and yellow LEDs.

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Hmmm ... I wish I'd thought of that idea myself!

 

The supply voltage from the cartridge board is 5V, so the best value of the current-limiting resistor would depend on the forward voltage rating of your LED. The easiest way to find the resistor value would be to use a calculator like this one.

 

The LEDs that I used were rated at a maximum forward voltage of 2.4V to 3.4V (depending on the color), and a maximum forward current of 20mA, so I used 82Ω resistors for the blue, white, and green LEDs, and 150Ω resistors for the red and yellow LEDs.

Thanks! I'll have to bookmark that link!

The specs on the LED's I picked are 3.0v - 3.5v, 20mA... Which calc's out as 100Ω - 82Ω. Think I'm better off leaning towards the higher side of the range?

 

-John-

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  • 1 month later...

How many special editions did you end up selling?

All of them! I have a very limited quantity of transparent shells, so a run of thirty "collector's editions" seemed appropriate for the Aquarius's 30th anniversary, and all thirty of them sold.

 

(There are actually 31 in existence, since I also made one for myself, but all the rest use black shells.)

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  • 2 years later...
  • 1 year later...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that, after being unavailable for several months, the Aquarius 32K RAM Module is finally back in stock again! When I started this project, I had no definite idea of how much demand there would be for this module, so I kept my inventory fairly low. Somewhat to my own surprise, I ended up running out of my original run of boards, so I had to order more! I've received several inquiries in the meantime, so for anyone who's been waiting, the 32K RAM Module is indeed available again, and at the same price: $30 plus USPS Priority shipping. Of course, the Aquaricart is still available, too, so send me a PM if you're interested in either or both of these cartridges. As always, thanks very much!

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  • 1 year later...
1 hour ago, orion1052003 said:

There was never a disk drive?

The only "official" Aquarius disk drive was the Quick Disk System, released in very limited quantities, which used double-sided 2.8" media (100K total per disk).  Here is more information on the Quick Disk, and here are some pictures (courtesy of Martin v.d. Steenoven) of one of the few remaining Aquarius Quick Disk drives in existence.  The Quick Disk System interfaced with the Aquarius through a cartridge port adapter, which also added a few disk commands to BASIC.  There was also a similar third-party interface designed for the Commodore 1541 disk drive, with its own disk commands.  Both of these modified versions of BASIC are available in the Aquaricart collection.

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  • 11 months later...
On 6/16/2014 at 7:14 PM, jaybird3rd said:

(By the way, I just took "Disco Fever" through the same conversion/loading process I described above, and that loaded fine for me, too.)

Have you (or anyone else) played Disco Fever - specifically the file(s) bundled with Virtual Aquarius - for more than a few minutes of gameplay? I ask because, at least based on my experience playing it in Virtual Aquarius (I'm still waiting on my real Aquarius to arrive), once I get to about 20 dancers on the dance floor, the game freezes. This wasn't an isolated occurrence; it happened every time. Curious if it's an issue with the .VAQ file itself or the emulator. Has anyone else experience this and/or can anyone replicate this potential bug? Cheers. 

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It wouldn't surprise me if the cassette image in Virtual Aquarius is corrupted.  Cassettes had no inherent error correction, so if the original cassette had a flaw, it's entirely possible that some bits may have been flipped.  I seem to recall that one version of the image (not sure if it's the same one) had a man misplaced completely outside the game board.

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