Internal Speech Synth mod

[dphirschler]

One of the problems I always had with my TI was the bad connection from the firehose. If you move the console or bump it, it could mess up the connection. So you'd have to unplug it and replug it. The speech synth just made the likelihood of a bad connection even worse. So now I want to mount the SS internally in the console. I've read the "tutorial" at mainbyte. I am ready to do it, but I want to modify the design slightly.

First of all, has anybody else here done this mod? Are you pleased with it? What (if any) are the side-effects? And most importantly, what would you change if you could do it again? Are there better solder points for instance? Is it hard to get access to other components for modding or service after the internal SS mod?

My own idea is I want to be able to disconnect the SS (for service, upgrade, for repairs, etc). So I am thinking of running a ribbon cable to a connector and then plugging the SS into the connector, internally of course. Maybe it's possible to reuse the one desoldered from the SS?

Also, I think I might want a switch installed to disable the SS. Perhaps there is a game that does not behave with the SS well and it's better to remove it.

Thoughts?

[+arcadeshopper]

 

One of the problems I always had with my TI was the bad connection from the firehose. If you move the console or bump it, it could mess up the connection. So you'd have to unplug it and replug it. The speech synth just made the likelihood of a bad connection even worse. So now I want to mount the SS internally in the console. I've read the "tutorial" at mainbyte. I am ready to do it, but I want to modify the design slightly.

 

First of all, has anybody else here done this mod? Are you pleased with it? What (if any) are the side-effects? And most importantly, what would you change if you could do it again? Are there better solder points for instance? Is it hard to get access to other components for modding or service after the internal SS mod?

 

My own idea is I want to be able to disconnect the SS (for service, upgrade, for repairs, etc). So I am thinking of running a ribbon cable to a connector and then plugging the SS into the connector, internally of course. Maybe it's possible to reuse the one desoldered from the SS?

 

Also, I think I might want a switch installed to disable the SS. Perhaps there is a game that does not behave with the SS well and it's better to remove it.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

I considered it, but the required tiny wires soldered all over the place made me hesitate and not bother. I am thinking the best bet is the pbox speech card on mainbyte. If we can get it to work that's going to be a lot easier to build than soldering all those consoles.

 

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/speech_peb/speech_peb.htm

 

Greg

[dphirschler]

So I am attempting the speech-in-console mod.

So far I’ve done this:

-De-cased the speech synth

-Snipped, de-soldered, and removed the edge connector

-Cleaned everything up.

Next I need to find a nice piece of ribbon cable. Any suggestions here?

Darryl

[Omega-TI]

 

I considered it, but the required tiny wires soldered all over the place made me hesitate and not bother. I am thinking the best bet is the pbox speech card on mainbyte. If we can get it to work that's going to be a lot easier to build than soldering all those consoles.

 

 

If a run of these ever gets made and assembled into a 'ready to use' card, I'd be interested in buying one.

[dphirschler]

I may go ahead and attempt this mod this weekend. However, I want to use much smaller wire.

 

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/speech/speech_console.html

 

The top of mobo solder point (in the traces) concerns me a little. Any advice from the pros?

 

Darryl

[dphirschler]

Here's another guy that did the mod. Hopefully mine is cleaner than this.

 

http://www.nightfallcrew.com/23/10/2016/texas-instruments-ti-994a-internal-tms5220-speech-synthesizer/

 

Darryl

[dphirschler]

Good news is I have an old dead TI mobo I can practice on. I've already canibalized it a little in he past. So I can practice the delicate trace soldering.

 

Darryl