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1088XLD - Custom A8 Computer in 1050 Drive Case


mytek

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8 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

This is the first I've heard of it, which it why I asked.

 

Same here, I sense some gaslighting...

 

Anyway back on topic, Has anyone received their bare boards yet? I'm looking forward to seeing builds in progress.

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I see so, your not interested in the concept so it's easier to treat it derogatorily. My issue is the keys on the keyboard, the stickers kits on offer are nice but it just makes my concept seem sub par. I want the graphics symbols on the keys. My idea is to put templates on the front facings and use a plastic bonding paint to do so. Spray is a bit messy and not sharp, but I haven't found something to apply with a roller consistently yet. Any other ideas?

Edited by _The Doctor__
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Why are we now talking about keys and keyboards? The issue was use of the case and parts from a dead 1050, wasn’t it? And before that it was the use of the wrong material to pin the SIO connectors. 
 

Why the sudden shift to yet another complaint?

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I'm not sure if the way I commented was taken the wrong way, I hope it wasn't; as I think we all use our computers for different things, and want different things from them including looks.

 

My comment was only aimed at the Doc, as a suggestion following his own path.

 

I've 6x 1050's two have been butchered as spares due to some 'other' in-experienced with a soldering iron, causing so many tracks to lift as not, also the mechanics are faulty, already used the stepper motor as a replacement in another Mech.

 

One of these spare case's will be the home for my XLD. that's not to say that I may change the 2nd tier to something other than MIDI. purely as I built that inside my XEL (being the taller 80mm case.)

however I like the idea of re-purposing something that will become redundant. 

 

I also like the idea of doing something similar but using the XEGS style case, will I?  Who knows could I, maybe and likely using the same or at least very similar circuits to either the XEL or XLD (and yes I'm aware there much more going on in the later..) the XEGS 'cart por't also poses an issue with lay out, but nicely the back panel can be cut about and opened up to all manor of interfaces :)

That maybe my choice for the future, my main interest is actually building these computers, repairing them, making addon's of my own etc. etc. thats almost more than playing games ( Although I do :) :) )

 

I'm grateful that the boards have been released, and hopefully be on there way latest Monday.

 

Do I like everything the way Michael has done things?  No not all , the PSU being a case in point for me.  but hey it's been good enough for Atari over many years, and it is very much better than any of the original Atari designs.

 

Remember Michael has his own vision and agenda which I'm sure he is most pleased with producing the XLD  Hats off to him for seeing it through and allowing us all to be able to share in his personal vision.

 

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how is it a complaint? it's all centered around the 1088XLD, I moved on to the rest of the project, you can stay back there trying for further fights over nothing(stupid of me to respond and really should have laughed, moving on instantly, my bad)...  perhaps digging a zillion posts in the past to continue carrying on. Mytek wanted us to stop bickering over this stuff so I keep trying to move on but some folks just want to go back and argue more. How is it my attempt to make a nice keyboard is a complaint? It's my idea and I explained MY failures!

 

you considering my keyboard as a complaint, wtf?... I'm having difficulty making sharp edges on the keys.. brushing looks like crap... and rolling isn't adhering and filling the edges.

I did get a suggestion but it seems expensive and tedious. Use a cricket to cut out stencil stickers and then mask off the whole key and then spray. Great for a one off... not so much if others want to do the same. I suspect if I hadn't suggested a fixative loc tite, you would have continued after and all over kyle22, the pack just chases after the last thing seen or heard...

 

Edited by _The Doctor__
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2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

My issue is the keys on the keyboard, the stickers kits on offer are nice but it just makes my concept seem sub par. I want the graphics symbols on the keys. My idea is to put templates on the front facings and use a plastic bonding paint to do so. Spray is a bit messy and not sharp, but I haven't found something to apply with a roller consistently yet. Any other ideas?

Yes I'd like to see something better than stickers to re-label the key caps, and there are custom professional keyboard manufacturers that will do it, but the cost would be prohibitive to say the least. I do like the direction you are going with this Doc, and it got me thinking that maybe a masking sticker set could be made aimed at painting. So in other words it would be a sticker where the part you wanted painted first gets removed, paint gets applied, and then the rest of the sticker gets removed. Seems like this could produce a professional end result but at considerably reduced cost vs. a custom keyboard.

 

:)

Trying to get this topic back on track to a constructive aspect.

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3 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Any other ideas?

Waterslide decals. You can paint the keyboard your desired shade of brown and put waterslides on them, then a satin clearcoat to protect the decals. 

 

To get white you need something like an Alps MD5000 Dyesub printer. There are people online who will custom print decals for you if you don't want to commit to buying your own Alps.

 

I'm going to do this to my keyboard, once I've 3d printed a new case for it.

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

Waterslide decals. You can paint the keyboard your desired shade of brown and put waterslides on them, then a satin clearcoat to protect the decals. 

 

To get white you need something like an Alps MD5000 Dyesub printer. There are people online who will custom print decals for you if you don't want to commit to buying your own Alps.

 

I'm going to do this to my keyboard, once I've 3d printed a new case for it.

 

 

NICE, white, gold , silver, metallic shades... this has a pile of options. This sounds durable as well.

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@mrrobot

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALPS-MD-5000-Micro-Dry-Dye-Sublimation-Color-Printer/193060326140?hash=item2cf34acafc:g:ANMAAOSwCoRdXaMT

 

you can't beat the price on this one guaranteed to be working

 

well you can, I suggest best offer :)

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You can, it's pretty easy, but only a Dyesub can print white or metallic inks.

 

I did think about buying a white/light grey keyboard, spraying it dark brown/black and then laser etching the designs onto the keys hoping that the paint would burn away, revealing the light plastic underneath. That would involve buying or making an engraver.

 

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5 minutes ago, AtariGeezer said:

Received my boards today :)

.

.

.

Thank you Michael for making these and to MacRorie for supplying them :)???

 

The boards look great in blue! Can't wait to hear you've started your build. :)

 

Feel free to start a thread in the Owners and Builders Club or here ... we'll be happy to help you out with any tricky bits you run into along the way. 

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I've choose the red PCB as well Lenore, which look great by the way.  I moved recently so getting things unpacked and setting up shop has been slow, but getting there.  Been delving deeper into understanding electronic circuits and testing methods to self help when things don't do as they should.  It's my hope that I can extend that learning to help other.  Thanks to Michael and the Beta Team for getting us to this stage of another great project!!!

 

Mike

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Yes RED is looking very HOT!!!

 

BTW, there was a minor update on the schematics. U11 was shown as a 74F138 whereas it really was intended to be a 74HCT138 instead. No biggie, since it's shown correctly on the board's silkscreen, and an 'F' series chip would work perfectly well in place of the 'HCT' version. However in that particular case, the extra fast speed of the 'F' series is not required, and by using an 'HCT' version instead it needs less current from the power supply. However down in the IDE area, U25 definitely needs to be a 74F138 as designated.

 

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Maybe a stupid question but when I look at the picture on @mytek's 1088XLD page, I see both a Sophia board and the UAV. But only one output DIN connector.

The 1088XEL could have different boards each one with its own output connector (s-video, composite, RGB, DVI) . But there is only one output connector in the 1088XLD.

So how these 2 video boards can be used ? Is there a switch somewhere to select one board or the other ?

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14 minutes ago, ebiguy said:

Maybe a stupid question but when I look at the picture on @mytek's 1088XLD page, I see both a Sophia board and the UAV. But only one output DIN connector.

The 1088XEL could have different boards each one with its own output connector (s-video, composite, RGB, DVI) . But there is only one output connector in the 1088XLD.

So how these 2 video boards can be used ? Is there a switch somewhere to select one board or the other ?

No - the UAV provides the standard Atari outputs (luma, chroma) while the Sophia outputs RGB signals, so they are supplied on different pins of the 13-pin DIN video output.

video.thumb.png.cacfca414f4be6921be2c15ab5d55549.png

 

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So I decided to install a P-COVOX in my 1088XLD.  WAY back in 2009, I ordered Lotharek's SMD version of Covox, but only installed it in an NTSC machine and NeoTracker played some of the songs too fast (not all would respond to tempo control).  That machine also did not have stereo.  Year or so later, I tried candle's Simple Stereo 2.0 board, but the design was defective and the sound never worked properly.

 

FINALLY in 2019 I am hearing NeoTracker as it was intended.

86.jpg.4c570e1aee55b7b2512fb2f234d81dcb.jpg

87.thumb.jpg.e2bbdd96d56a885acd7209b2a6abbe45.jpg

 

On the rev 1.1 boards, you have access to D600 and D600 on the Rapidus header.  On my prototype board, I only had access to D600 on the Covox header.  I will be installing a VBXE at that address, so I needed D700.  Since I did not want to solder a wire to the main board or run a wire from bottom to top, I simply soldered a wire to a socket on pin 7 of the chip select decoder (U11) as shown in the top photo.  It looks like I melted the connector but that is just flux I did not yet clean.

 

Installation was dead simple.  Unplug PIA, plug PIA into P-COVOX board, plug board into PIA slot.  There's a 3 wire dupont connector carrying audio signals, and a one wire going to control header.

 

I'm attaching a version of Neo Tracker 1.8 built to run at either D600 or D700.

NEOD700.COMNEOD600.COM

 

 

 

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I started thinking today since people are now beginning to build these, that it might be cool to do a little history lesson on the 1088XLD Project.

 

So here we go...

 

When I first began this journey, I was sitting in my shop middle of Summer July 2018 staring at a 1050 carcass sitting in the corner. Picking it up and rotating it in my hands, it suddenly struck me that maybe I could fit a 1088XEL board inside and with a bit of wiring, plus a custom front panel, make something both classic and useful all at the same time. But I hate doing a lot of wiring, and even the 1088XEL in it's originally intended persona required quite a bit of this if you wanted to add the normally accepted amount of bling (status indicators, mouse port select and swap disk switches). So I was kinda putting this initial idea out there, and Jon (flashjazzcat) mentions something about it would be cool to have a board incorporating the XEL hardware that was designed to drop into a stock 1050 case, something he also had a few carcasses of such floating around. Me being part bored at the time, and looking for a new project, decided to dive right in and see what it would take to create something like that. So was born the 1088XLD

 

 

First Version (V1 - ALPHA) Design completed November 30th 2018, with only one assembled version in existence. Consider this to be the Apple 1 of the XLD series.

 

Background: Due to the scarcity of the UAV boards at the time, and the uncertainty that the original creator Bryan would continue making them or license out the design, a DIY approach was taken on the video driver circuits to be incorporated. Speaking of video, this board was to become the first version to establish the break-out of all the analog audio and video signals through a common connector, that being the DIN-13. It also came with the normal I/O connectors for joysticks, PS/2 keyboard & mouse, as well as a 3.5 mm audio connector being perched on a separate I/O board, meant to be stacked at the front of the main board. This allowed the height of those connectors and the position of such to work better with a custom front panel that would fit where the original 1050's floppy drive would've been. Much to several people's dismay, I decided to retain the original 1050 9 VAC PSU, but in an interesting twist I used solid switching drop-in replacements for the original TO-220 +5 and +12 VDC linear regulators, with the 12 VDC being reserved for future upgrades (later this will play a roll in adding a GBS-8200 video enhancement board).

 

ALPHA

1088XLD_Alpha_top.thumb.png.8c6cec53da2e2c88143cc4d32c0393df.png

 

VIEW in GerbLook (once you are there, use the selections to the left to pick a view of interest)

 

 

Second Version (V1 - BETA) Design completed January 25th 2019, A more formalized design - near production ready.

 

Background: After tests of the ALPHA board revealed a shortcoming in the DIY video circuit, and licensing terms had been reached on a 3rd party to produce the UAV, a new board was created with an integral UAV this time around. Also an idea was spawned to create a 2 level stacking system for multiple I/O boards, with a very similar first level I/O board like what was used on the ALPHA board. However this time around it had an expanded I/O header and provided a signal pass-thru for MIDI signals to be used in a new 2nd level I/O board to stack above the level 1 I/O board. This board set saw multiple builds by some of the same team that had beta tested the 1088XEL, as well as a newcomer in DrVenkman.

 

BETA

1088XLD_Beta_top.thumb.png.9a7d5e5a1e76681e6e8b2e11164f5d51.png

VIEW in GerbLook (once you are there, use the selections to the left to pick a view of interest) 

 

 

Production Version (V1.1) Design completed August 6th 2019, first run bare boards made available to the public August 19th 2019.

 

Background: To better facilitate installation of Lotharek's P-COVOX upgrade, the $D6xx and $D7xx signals were added to the tail end of the original signal break-out header for the Rapidus accelerator, expanding it from 6 to 8-pins. The original COVOX header seen in the V1.0 designs, was reduced down to a 3-pin header from the original 4-pin, and now designated as AUD to provide the general purpose left and right audio inputs and ground. An additional header (J16) was added above the DIN-13 jack that now breaks out all of the analog audio/video signals, as well as the digital VSYNC and CSYNC. This header allows for some future video upgrade possibilities, and also provides the means for DIY builders to install some more conventional RCA and/or S-Video jacks for these signals by modding the case. The J3 rear MIDI expansion/configuration header was expanded to add the ability to disable MIDI control where either a cassette or an RVERTER was to be used. And a much needed bias resistor (R43) was added for the MIDI control line. This board in both an assembled or bare version is now available for sale from MacRorie of The Brewing Academy. Also while you are there, be sure to check out BoB: The Video BreakOut Board that expands the DIN13 video options into all of the individual connectors normally used for video.

 

PRODUCTION

1088XLD_V1_1_top.thumb.png.53a7e244bbd29749da243e7ac5adc4a2.png

VIEW in GerbLook (once you are there, use the selections to the left to pick a view of interest)

 

 

Where do we go from here?

I'm still ironing out details on how best to finish the GBS-8200 RGB2VGA carrier board for the XLD. In order to bring this into reality, I've been trying to reverse engineer and port the Arduino GBS-Control code over to work in a Microchip PIC so that it can be programmed with the JOY2PIC programmer. Over the last couple of days I'm getting close, but still no cigar :| . I'm pretty determined to make this happen, so I'm sure I'll crack this nut and then get back to finishing the PCB board layout to incorporate the changes.

 

Dropcheck is working on her vision of some upgrade boards that will add WiFi serial and a Cart, as well as a few other goodies. And I'm hopeful that we'll see other cool upgrades for the XLD coming down the road as well :) .

 

 

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4 hours ago, ebiguy said:

Maybe a stupid question but when I look at the picture on @mytek's 1088XLD page, I see both a Sophia board and the UAV. But only one output DIN connector.

The 1088XEL could have different boards each one with its own output connector (s-video, composite, RGB, DVI) . But there is only one output connector in the 1088XLD.

So how these 2 video boards can be used ? Is there a switch somewhere to select one board or the other ?

 

As has been said, every signal is acquired from the DIN13 at the back of the XLD.  It's one of the reasons I built BoB- to separate out all of the signals and not have to build a custom cable.  

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