XM has shipped!

[Curt Vendel]

On 3/14/2020 at 11:50 AM, TailChao said:

No worries - not my hardware, not my call.

Its a nice idea, but not at this juncture and its something that could always be considered down the road.  Its exactly why the XM BIOS is upgradable.

 

 

[Zonie]

56 minutes ago, Curt Vendel said:

500 cases were made.   

I stand corrected...

[conjurershand]

Curt, can you provide an update as to when the XM units will go up live for sale on your page ? I referring to new orders as I can't recall if I every pre-ordered, don't remember paying ? How would one check if they had pre-order considering the time. I remember messaging you awhile ago and you replied that you had expected in April for new orders. I find new released products seem to get back logged or put off for some time before posting for sale on the Atariage Store.  

[Curt Vendel]

19 hours ago, conjurershand said:

Curt, can you provide an update as to when the XM units will go up live for sale on your page ? I referring to new orders as I can't recall if I every pre-ordered, don't remember paying ? How would one check if they had pre-order considering the time. I remember messaging you awhile ago and you replied that you had expected in April for new orders. I find new released products seem to get back logged or put off for some time before posting for sale on the Atariage Store.  

I will post up when I myself know...  I am waiting for new revision boards to arrive thurs to correct a timing issue that the Dev's found while pushing a lot of data in and out of the XMRAM, I had to fix a missing power trace to a pad and I have made 2 electrical changes to the PIA footprint to enable something I'll show soon.    After 10 years of stops, starts and having to deal with a system I love, but a system that is a mess in many aspects, to get this running the way it needed to be.  I'm not going to, at the final stage, rush this out to people only to find that many would have issues and others none.   Whats the point then.   After all this time, if its gonna be an extra month give or take, then let it be.   I want this to deliver as promised.  So please hang tight on ordering, it'll come.   

 

[Curt Vendel]

Hi,

 

    Update:   The new boards that correct the deep timing issue arrived and I have built one of them out and did testing with RevEng's ROF Test program and now the timing issue is resolved.   I will complete this board (only did the left side of the board with all of the memory components) now I'll finish the Audio and I/O section on the right side and do some additional testing.

 

   Mark has given me the first pass and a small revision of his End User BIOS... all I can say is, its even better than expected... let me allow him to finish it and then I can post a full walk through of all of the area's of the menu.  Its a beautifully polished design and it really rounds on things.   So, while we are all stuck in COVID limbo, I've been working away, so has Mark and I am going to check in with all of the Dev's and see how they are progressing.  I saw Bob's great update announcement and I think he made a great choice in just getting himself used to working with his XM to develop on and hopefully we'll see what the guys are up to.

 

  Everyone please stay safe and hopefully once we get through this crap and everything gets back to some type of normalcy, then these units can go out to everyone, but the downtime is definitely being put to very good use to complete these final items.

 

Curt

 

 

[Bobby Nelson]

I’m not one of the original pre-orders but whenever the XM becomes available for general purchase I’ll be there, ready to buy one!

[Zonie]

Seems like we're all using this time to get things done!

 

[bradhig1]

I want one too.   I will get one when new ones come out.

[Jinks]

I am waiting for my xm ship. 

[Shawn]

6 hours ago, Jinks said:

I am waiting for my xm ship. 

 

I'm actually on deck for the unit that is sent out next  

[+sramirez2008]

17 minutes ago, Shawn said:

 

I'm actually on deck for the unit that is sent out next  

You lucky dog! Congrats Shawn.

[Jinks]

3 hours ago, Shawn said:

 

I'm actually on deck for the unit that is sent out next  

Cool I will not be too long after. I just have a feeling. 

 

[+Mitch]

Still waiting for mine.

 

Mitch

[+Stephen]

18 minutes ago, Mitch said:

Still waiting for mine.

 

Mitch

Are these still going only to devs, or are we moving down the list on order of our pre-orders yet?

[Shawn]

4 hours ago, Mitch said:

Still waiting for mine.

 

Mitch

 

Really? He posted publicly that your XM and your machines\games you lent him where going to be mailed back to you on March 4th and that my XM was next after that which I was waiting for after he did another board fix cause some others who got theres found something that needed a fix and I assumed I was getting one of the new pcb's that he posted about recently. Sorry to hear that, I assumed you already got yours. So it looks like Mitch is actually next and then I'm after him. 

[Jinks]

4 hours ago, Stephen said:

Are these still going only to devs

No YOUR analog!! 😛

[Curt Vendel]

19 hours ago, Mitch said:

Still waiting for mine.

 

Mitch

Yup...   You're getting the newer board Mitch, needed to weed out the deep timing issue in the XMRAM....  you are for compatibility testing, so I wanted that sorted out before you get one...    I'll put yours to go out end of this week.   Sorry for the delay and my fault for not keeping you updated.

 

 

[Curt Vendel]

15 hours ago, Shawn said:

 

Really? He posted publicly that your XM and your machines\games you lent him where going to be mailed back to you on March 4th and that my XM was next after that which I was waiting for after he did another board fix cause some others who got theres found something that needed a fix and I assumed I was getting one of the new pcb's that he posted about recently. Sorry to hear that, I assumed you already got yours. So it looks like Mitch is actually next and then I'm after him. 

Don't worry Shawn...  yours will go out once the end user BIOS is done as discussed...   not send you a Dev BIOS version as its just better you get the end user one.   Everyone is getting the newer PCB's.

 

[Shawn]

2 hours ago, Curt Vendel said:

Don't worry Shawn...  yours will go out once the end user BIOS is done as discussed...   not send you a Dev BIOS version as its just better you get the end user one.   Everyone is getting the newer PCB's.

 

 

I'm game for the Dev BIOS if you recall, It's not a concern on my end and I don't really care about the end user BIOS. I can flash it to the end user BIOS in the future as we discussed. The Dev BIOS is cool by me to get the unit sooner than later if that was the only thing holding it back. If that timing issue is still a thing I understand that will be a delaying issue and of course I understand having to wait until that gets sorted out first as that it on the PLD not not the BIOS chip.

 

 A couple of my friends who you have sent units to with the dev bios have shown me the ins and outs (you have too, obviously) and it's all good to me. I sent you a PM about potential power consumption,etc. We can continue via PM about that part  

[twoquickcapri]

How much height does the XM add to the 7800 with the cart in? I only have about 2.5 inches of room above the cart in my current setup.

[Shawn]

6 hours ago, twoquickcapri said:

How much height does the XM add to the 7800 with the cart in? I only have about 2.5 inches of room above the cart in my current setup.

 

I'm gonna guess you will need to figure out something else for more clearance.

[Curt Vendel]

22 hours ago, twoquickcapri said:

How much height does the XM add to the 7800 with the cart in? I only have about 2.5 inches of room above the cart in my current setup.

Someone asked me this question a while ago, I’ll measure and post up, but it’s gonna be probably 3” or so...

[Curt Vendel]

Couple of photo's, one is a HSC (High Score Cart) signature test Mark added into the BIOS to detect if someone were to plug their HSC into the XM and for the XM to disable its built into HSC.

The other test is of the PIA functionality. While the XM does not come with a PIA, I still need to make sure that if a PIA is installed, it is fully functional.

The PIA fully enables the SIO port and will allow hardware hackers to enable a 2nd POKEY or many other features beyond what the XM will already do.

 

 

[Curt Vendel]

On 4/15/2020 at 4:07 PM, twoquickcapri said:

How much height does the XM add to the 7800 with the cart in? I only have about 2.5 inches of room above the cart in my current setup.

So, normally a cart in the 7800 is about 5 1/2" High.

 

In the XM its an additional 2" higher, so you'd be looking at 7 1/2" total height.

 

 

[DarthCloud]

4 minutes ago, Curt Vendel said:

So, normally a cart in the 7800 is about 5 1/2" High.

 

In the XM its an additional 2" higher, so you'd be looking at 7 1/2" total height.

 

 

All set