VecFever

[+grips03]

would like to order one

[redrumh2o]

Please add me to list!

[dphirschler]

I will buy one as soon as it's ready. Will you send the LED with the cart. I will solder it in.

 

Darryl

[TomSon]

Well, I've got excellent news and a slightly less good one.

 

First the less good one: it's vacation time and everyone is off to sunny and warm locations,

including myself, for a while.

The good one is that yesterday the cases were made - or rather the usb openings were

drilled with a cnc machine. And they turned out beautifully; so the dimensions of the pcb

and case, the precision of the cut - I'm a really picky guy but there's nothing I can

faul there - they are just perfect. The plastic was borderline useable for cnc-cutting, even

with coolant fluid over it all the time (and a knowledgable person fiddling with the

process parameters) quite a few cases were destroyed. Still, I decided to get this over

with and made probably all I'm likely to make for a while.

 

Friends also sent me a few (semi-)transparent ones to try out - they are really rare

in the moment but I wanted to try out the plastics, if some ever get available.

Surprisingly those seemed to work better so I'm a bit more open to actually make

another batch, if these ever get available. I've tried them out with the LED on the pcb

but apart from the one transparent one I've got the results weren't really useable in

Vectrex mode - you can hardly see the color of the LED under an orange or blue

case. The blue one is more useable for USB-mode, the orange one almost once you

know what 'blue' looks like there but my personal favorite is still just the black case.

The ones I've made for myself before have a LED on the outside corner of the case, so

it's still easy to see when in a Vectrex, I've put them in the photo with the colored ones

so you know what I'm talking about.

 

So, when I'm back from vacation (August or .maybe. early September, I'm a European so

plenty of vacation time..) I intend to make them available - either just the pcb if you

are a lucky owner of a transparent case already or want to use it as is. Or including

a case- in that case I'll still add a LED, in case you want to add one yourself eventually.

If you know you want to right away I probably can also drill the necessary 5mm hole for

you - I just don't want to add the LED myself because so far it took me quite some

time to get the LEDs in - adjusting the cabling and hot-glueing the LED in - and I'm

not certain whether the cable solder points on the Led side would survive a really

rough postal handling..

 

Thomas

p.s.

(the black ones in the photo below are just a few of the ones I've got now..)

[genfuyung]

Well, I've got excellent news and a slightly less good one.

 

First the less good one: it's vacation time and everyone is off to sunny and warm locations,

including myself, for a while.

The good one is that yesterday the cases were made - or rather the usb openings were

drilled with a cnc machine. And they turned out beautifully; so the dimensions of the pcb

and case, the precision of the cut - I'm a really picky guy but there's nothing I can

faul there - they are just perfect. The plastic was borderline useable for cnc-cutting, even

with coolant fluid over it all the time (and a knowledgable person fiddling with the

process parameters) quite a few cases were destroyed. Still, I decided to get this over

with and made probably all I'm likely to make for a while.

 

Friends also sent me a few (semi-)transparent ones to try out - they are really rare

in the moment but I wanted to try out the plastics, if some ever get available.

Surprisingly those seemed to work better so I'm a bit more open to actually make

another batch, if these ever get available. I've tried them out with the LED on the pcb

but apart from the one transparent one I've got the results weren't really useable in

Vectrex mode - you can hardly see the color of the LED under an orange or blue

case. The blue one is more useable for USB-mode, the orange one almost once you

know what 'blue' looks like there but my personal favorite is still just the black case.

The ones I've made for myself before have a LED on the outside corner of the case, so

it's still easy to see when in a Vectrex, I've put them in the photo with the colored ones

so you know what I'm talking about.

 

So, when I'm back from vacation (August or .maybe. early September, I'm a European so

plenty of vacation time..) I intend to make them available - either just the pcb if you

are a lucky owner of a transparent case already or want to use it as is. Or including

a case- in that case I'll still add a LED, in case you want to add one yourself eventually.

If you know you want to right away I probably can also drill the necessary 5mm hole for

you - I just don't want to add the LED myself because so far it took me quite some

time to get the LEDs in - adjusting the cabling and hot-glueing the LED in - and I'm

not certain whether the cable solder points on the Led side would survive a really

rough postal handling..

 

Thomas

p.s.

(the black ones in the photo below are just a few of the ones I've got now..)

I WANT A CLEAR ONE SO BAD

[vectrexroli]

That CNC hole for the USB connector looks great, much nicer compared to what I did on my cart shell

[+-^CrossBow^-]

So ready to toss money for this. Exciting post and do keep on keeping us updated!

[HurrayBanana]

Translucent cases look amazing, great it's moving forward. Enjoy your holiday.

[killersquirel]

I would love to be put on a list to get one. Thank you and enjoy your vacation.

[iesposta]

I have the adapter to use PS2 Dualshock Controller to play Robot Arena, so please keep us informed when they become available. Thank you.

[Mayhem]

What's the standard USB connector for, in addition to the micro USB that I presume is the usual way to connect it to your PC?

 

And yes, put me down for an LED version with a transparent case please. I do have one transparent here anyhow, but may prefer to keep that intact for now heh...

[redrumh2o]

Interested in LED clear as well

[TomSon]

What's the standard USB connector for, in addition to the micro USB that I presume is the usual way to connect it to your PC?

 

The VecFever also has a serial port - this standard usb is of a serial<->usb chip which fits neatly into

the case, too, although it does get really tight in there.

 

I've also added a (low-6809-cycle) way to access the serial connection via Vectrex cartridges.

[shadowman]

Can't tell if this is a pre-order thread or not, but I'm definitely interested in one!

[vazquezrick]

Put me down for an LED version

[rockman_x_2002]

Awesome stuff. I just got my hands on a Vectrex myself this past weekend, and this looks like the perfect little item to go along with it. Put me down for one, please!

[Blazing Lazers]

I can't believe I'm just now seeing this- I'm definitely down for a transparent cased LED copy. So looking forward to this!

[D-Type]

Thomas, you seem to have wasted a lot of time developing your device, all people want is a flashy see-thru case! 😀

[Jess Ragan]

How much do these cost again?

 

I'd like to know more about that development environment. How easy is it to use? (I never really got over it when the other guy failed to deliver on his promise of a Vectrex BASIC...)

[BinaryStar]

There is a version of Basic for Vectrex - on the Vectrex32 (http://vectrex32.com/) Vecfever is a multicart, not a development environment. Most Vectrex homebrew is developed using 6809 assembly.

[D-Type]

It's not a dev environment, but as well as being a multicart that you can write to like a memory stick, it can also operate like an EPROM emulator, e.g. like a Dataman S4, where you can send down a binary quickly and run it.

 

The VIDE dev environment can be used to assemble and send the binary, but you'll still need to write the program code.

 

The VecFever has the ability (with an add-on?) to communicate via a serial com port (typically via USB these days) and this could be used to interact with the Vectrex if you ported the BASIC from Grant Searle's 6809 single board computer. It probably wouldn't be useful for making a game as it would be to slow and big, but it would be fun to actually do it.

 

Lots of interesting projects there!

Edited July 20, 2017 by D-Type

[vazquezrick]

When can we purchase a copy?

[MidgardianGamer]

So stoked about this

[takevin]

Take a black one

[takevin]

Try reading