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1088XEL Alternative Mother-Board Project


mytek

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Is it working SDX ?

It's on U1MB....

 

Hi pajero :)

 

Yes SDX is fully functional as well as all other aspects of the U1MB. Basically the fixes that were required and have been implemented in the first prototype are as follows...

 

  1. Due to clearance issues underneath the U1MB board, implemented extra tall female headers on the XEL (board-side)
  2. Reversed address lines on 6520 PIA
  3. Minor change to power control circuit to initiate a RESET each time the board is sent the Power ON signal
  4. Changed paddle input inline resistor array from 220 ohm to 1.8K and added .047uf capacitors on POT inputs of Pokey (this also required paralleling the two resistors in that array that feed the trigger inputs with an additional 1.8K -- in the final version this will come from 2 spare resistors in that array)
  5. Added 3.3K pull-down resistors to J0 and J1 mouse port select inputs on Mousetari chip

These changes have already been incorporated into V1.1 PCB layout.

 

Board shipments are going out today for my BETA Test Group members (6 active testers of modified V1.0 boards). After they have done their best to break things, any problems they find will also be integrated into the next rev boards, after which a small order will be placed to double check that all is well with the revised design. Then we are on to the pre-order stage, which will be announced when everything is a go.

 

Pajero I want to thank you for being the voice over at www.atari.org.pl (topic link) :thumbsup: :)

 

- Michael

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Board shipments are going out today for my BETA Test Group members (6 active testers of modified V1.0 boards). After they have done their best to break things, any problems they find will also be integrated into the next rev boards, after which a small order will be placed to double check that all is well with the revised design.

 

LOL I just caught a major typo in this earlier post I made. I don't think it would be a good idea to intentionally integrate problems into a new design :grin: :P Of course what I really meant to say was any problems discovered will be corrected, and then those corrections will be integrated into the next rev boards.

 

- Michael

Edited by mytekcontrols
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LOL I just caught a major typo in this earlier post I made. I don't think it would be a good idea to intentionally integrate problems into a new design :grin: :P Of course what I really meant to say was any problems discovered will be corrected, and then those corrections will be integrated into the next rev boards.

 

- Michael

 

Then I keep my fingers crossed to them not to find any problems :)

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XEL Update

 

Had to make a few corrections in the Mousetari chip's code that was causing problems with the 2nd Joystick Port's paddle inputs. In a nutshell, I needed to specify that the PIC chip's internal pull-ups be used only for the PS2 data and clock lines, and exclude all other pins associated with the Joystick side of things. Also had to add some pull-down resistors on the Mousetari Joy Port Select Lines, since the LED's couldn't be counted on to reliably do so (fixed an erratic mouse presence). I also made a cool little mouse select PCB that can be seen as the red board to the right in the image below, which takes advantage of the unused USB port on the side of the Realan H80 Mini-ITX Gaming Case.

 

2vhFqxk.jpg

 

 

UXH93Io.jpg

 

PS2 Mouse and Keyboard Plugged In (this particular mouse has dual USB/PS2 protocol)

Upper DB9 ports are from left to right: Sophia Video Out, Joystick 1, Joystick 2

 

S8B2da9.jpg

 

And here's a short video showing the XEL's mouse in use...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvpjLWbgWw

 

- Michael

Edited by mytekcontrols
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A quick question and clarification requested: :)

 

Your last released schematic shows a single block IC representation for the UAV daughterboard but no pin # assignment. On the pcb pic it looks like there are two connections, one has a 16 pin IC U3 footprint and the other is a single 6 pin header.

 

I realize Bryan may not want schematics in the wild for his work, but can you clarify what pin # the signals go to on the U3 IC block and the header? :)

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A quick question and clarification requested: :)

 

Your last released schematic shows a single block IC representation for the UAV daughterboard but no pin # assignment. On the pcb pic it looks like there are two connections, one has a 16 pin IC U3 footprint and the other is a single 6 pin header.

 

I realize Bryan may not want schematics in the wild for his work, but can you clarify what pin # the signals go to on the U3 IC block and the header? :)

 

I can help that a bit - the 16 pin IC footprint is - on a stock Atari - plugged into the 4050 hex buffer socket. Since different Atari models have different signal routing, the UAV has a jumper block which configures the board for the specific machine it's installed into. The 6 pin header is usually a terminal block for the Color, Chroma, Luma, Composite and two Grounds.

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A quick question and clarification requested: :)

 

Your last released schematic shows a single block IC representation for the UAV daughterboard but no pin # assignment. On the pcb pic it looks like there are two connections, one has a 16 pin IC U3 footprint and the other is a single 6 pin header.

 

I realize Bryan may not want schematics in the wild for his work, but can you clarify what pin # the signals go to on the U3 IC block and the header? :)

 

Very good point about not showing pin numbers for the UAV in the XEL schematic (me lazy). I'll add those and paste an image here in a few minutes or so. And DrVenkman is correct about the 6 pin header assignments, which in the normal usage (non-XEL) is a terminal block.

 

Michael

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I can help that a bit - the 16 pin IC footprint is - on a stock Atari - plugged into the 4050 hex buffer socket. Since different Atari models have different signal routing, the UAV has a jumper block which configures the board for the specific machine it's installed into. The 6 pin header is usually a terminal block for the Color, Chroma, Luma, Composite and two Ground interchangeable Grounds.

 

I realize Bryan's UAV module allows configuration to account for the various different signal routing of the various Atari computer models. :)

 

I'm speaking specifically of the 1088XEL.schematic and what pin # of the U3 chip block goes to the signal name listed. Also for the 6 pin header. Unless I missed it......(and I could definitely have missed it) it's not listed. :(

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Very good point about not showing pin numbers for the UAV in the XEL schematic (me lazy). I'll add those and paste an image here in a few minutes or so. And DrVenkman is correct about the 6 pin header assignments, which in the normal usage (non-XEL) is a terminal block.

 

Michael

 

 

Thank you. :)

 

My last post crossed while you posted. DrVenkman don't take offense. :)

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My last post crossed while you posted. DrVenkman don't take offense. :)

 

None whatsoever. You're vastly more experienced and talented than I am from an Atari hardware perspective, but I wasn't sure how familiar you were with Bryan's mod and how it's used. :)

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XEL to UAV Module Connections

 

First lets take a look at how the conventional 4050 video circuit looks like on an XE since Bryan's board is meant to interface to it.

 

l3QBWR6.gif

 

The UAV piggybacks the 4050, or can be used in place of it (which is what I did in the XEL).

 

QRPrBX6.png

 

The XEL mimics the same XE connections, outputting LUMA and CSYNC using the same input pins as the former 4050 buffer chip. The UAV picks up these signals on it's 16-pin DIP connector, and then outputs the processed result on a secondary 6-pin header (1b-6b) which gets sent out to the rear panel video connections on the XEL. UAV jumper block configuration needs to be set to ALL XE.

 

uSDGUTL.png

 

 

 

I hope that clarifies things :)

 

- Michael

Edited by mytekcontrols
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Bob1200XL brought a board to our Atari Club meeting last night. I must say that is very well put together board!! Bob was very impressed with your working unit you showed him.

I can't wait to get my hands on a finished unit.

One small little suggestion; could you put the name of each IC on the board? There appears to be plenty of room. fyi

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Thank you. :)

 

And the 6pin header?

 

Sorry, is the b referencing that?

Yep the 1b-6b are referring to that 6-pin header, and are directly inline top to bottom with the UAV terminal block shown in that configuration diagram.

 

Michael

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Bob1200XL brought a board to our Atari Club meeting last night. I must say that is very well put together board!! Bob was very impressed with your working unit you showed him.

I can't wait to get my hands on a finished unit.

One small little suggestion; could you put the name of each IC on the board? There appears to be plenty of room. fyi

Glad you liked it.

 

Yeah Bob and I had fun poking around with the O-Scope seeing what the signals looked like, and I could tell he was impressed by how clean and noise free everything was. So what Atari club are you talking about?

 

I just figured it out... must be the SLCC (went to the website and saw a meeting for yesterday scheduled). BTW found this pic on the site, and I see Bob at the far left. Which one is you, and who are the others?

 

2015-09-01-slcc-group.jpg

 

Most of the chips are already identified on the silk screen, but for the Atari specific chips I'll be removing part numbers and just referring to them by name on the production boards since there were different part numbers used in many of the chips. Which chips did you think lacked identification?

 

- Michael

Edited by mytekcontrols
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XEL Update

 

Had to make a few corrections in the Mousetari chip's code that was causing problems with the 2nd Joystick Port's paddle inputs. In a nutshell, I needed to specify that the PIC chip's internal pull-ups be used only for the PS2 data and clock lines, and exclude all other pins associated with the Joystick side of things. Also had to add some pull-down resistors on the Mousetari Joy Port Select Lines, since the LED's couldn't be counted on to reliably do so (fixed an erratic mouse presence). I also made a cool little mouse select PCB that can be seen as the red board to the right in the image below, which takes advantage of the unused USB port on the side of the Realan H80 Mini-ITX Gaming Case.

 

2vhFqxk.jpg

 

 

UXH93Io.jpg

 

PS2 Mouse and Keyboard Plugged In (this particular mouse has dual USB/PS2 protocol)

Upper DB9 ports are from left to right: Sophia Video Out, Joystick 1, Joystick 2

 

S8B2da9.jpg

 

And here's a short video showing the XEL's mouse in use...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWvpjLWbgWw

 

- Michael

Seeing these updates inspire me, your personal journey along with the little mods that you come up with, that suite your needs / fancy. Seeing your mouse / joystick toggle mod, liking it, along with the re-purposing of the ports on the case you selected, made me wonder if I could competently create something similar. So, I went looking for the model of case you had selected or at least something similar in design and while doing so, came across this case. It looks very close in design and looks like it might be created by the same OEM, just under a different brand. Take a look at the back panel and notice a rather strange coincidence. It's a powered version of the board, so it has a rounded power connector, but also has antenna holes on the back, the same size as the LED holes on your toggle switch. icon_wink.gif

 

https://www.amazon.com/EMC-810B-Mini-ITX-Aluminum-Server-Fanless/dp/B01BXV0FVS/ref=sr_1_45?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493879813&sr=1-45&keywords=mini-itx

 

Same case, under the Realan brand:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Realan-Aluminum-Supply-Adapter-computer/dp/B01GLDALGW/ref=sr_1_104?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493880386&sr=1-104&keywords=mini-itx

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Simply WOW!

 

So far I did not read all this because I was under the impression this was a project which was like a pc running an atari emulator...

 

But wow.... this is simply AMAZING. This is actually a real atari.

I would love to buy a few when ready.

 

I hope it will be easy to hook up the freezer when it is done.

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Simply WOW!

 

So far I did not read all this because I was under the impression this was a project which was like a pc running an atari emulator...

 

But wow.... this is simply AMAZING. This is actually a real atari.

I would love to buy a few when ready.

 

I hope it will be easy to hook up the freezer when it is done.

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Simply WOW!

 

So far I did not read all this because I was under the impression this was a project which was like a pc running an atari emulator...

 

But wow.... this is simply AMAZING. This is actually a real atari.

I would love to buy a few when ready.

 

I hope it will be easy to hook up the freezer when it is done.

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There is something wrong with AA last days on my Android phone. Posts do not want to save so it looks like a problem. When i press post again it still hangs stuck. But now it seems it posted my msg three times. Sorry for that.

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Seeing these updates inspire me, your personal journey along with the little mods that you come up with, that suite your needs / fancy. Seeing your mouse / joystick toggle mod, liking it, along with the re-purposing of the ports on the case you selected, made me wonder if I could competently create something similar. So, I went looking for the model of case you had selected or at least something similar in design and while doing so, came across this case. It looks very close in design and looks like it might be created by the same OEM, just under a different brand. Take a look at the back panel and notice a rather strange coincidence. It's a powered version of the board, so it has a rounded power connector, but also has antenna holes on the back, the same size as the LED holes on your toggle switch. icon_wink.gif

 

https://www.amazon.com/EMC-810B-Mini-ITX-Aluminum-Server-Fanless/dp/B01BXV0FVS/ref=sr_1_45?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493879813&sr=1-45&keywords=mini-itx

 

Same case, under the Realan brand:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Realan-Aluminum-Supply-Adapter-computer/dp/B01GLDALGW/ref=sr_1_104?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1493880386&sr=1-104&keywords=mini-itx

 

Sure looks like a simple rebranding. A little more expensive than this option

 

But then, not by much. ;-)

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There is something wrong with AA last days on my Android phone. Posts do not want to save so it looks like a problem. When i press post again it still hangs stuck. But now it seems it posted my msg three times. Sorry for that.

I just assumed you posted three times because you were just as amazed as I was. :)

 

Allan

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