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Atari Portable Project


selgus

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6 hours ago, Mr Robot said:

This is really starting to come together. How will you be latching the screen open/closed? 

On the top section, I have two locking clips and on the back of the display, there are two sets of tapered receiving holes that the clips mate with. There are also stops on the lower part of the top section, to let the screen rest in the closed position.

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2 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

Very nice! 

 

 I posted about this on facebook, twitter and the abbuc forums, I hope you don't mind. This project really needs to be seen!

 

You're very kind! Thanks for spreading the word. I have been putting a lot of hours into this project, and I do like the current direction. Now, if I only had my own 3D printer and didn't have to wait for my prints to arrive in the mail! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Smallest PCB I've ever designed.. less than 1cm, a flexible cable connector.. with one that is fitted into the motherboard and one that is inside the LCD display enclosure. I am using a 4-connector flex cable to allow the LCD display to slide up and down inside the main body enclosure..

 

flex-connector.thumb.jpg.d7d649d3db5bd655b459b9fbcd1990a5.jpg

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These are the test I did with material jetting colored 3D prints for the keycaps. Reasonable results, but if I was to go in this direction, I would take some liberties with trying to maintain the same scale of the labeling to keycap sizes, and increase the labeling weight. The other limiting factor is these prints are very expensive to produce, so really doesn't make sense..

 

color-keycaps.thumb.jpg.f9f33016c99f43dbd946d679d77ab947.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

It seems the keyboard is the place I am doing the most R&D and iterations.. I wasn't happy with the metal domes, as they were problematic with the 3D printed keycaps, and the whole trying to 3D print in color didn't give me the results I was after. So I've done another method, built up a PCB and modeled the 3D body middle section, along with pad.

 

I'm going with a silicone keypad, with silicone rubber conductive carbon bucks buttons on the newly designed keyboard PCB. I've also re-modeled the body middle section to mate with the silicone keypad, along with modeling a 3D high-definition printed keyboard buck, which I am making a mold around, and then I can pour silicone keypads for the portable..

 

keyboard-carbon.thumb.jpg.ae1eaefd24d1686a91ecd3553a8d1b44.jpg

 

silicone-keypad.thumb.png.89857a27a594032bba223470848f7ff9.png    body-middle-keypad.thumb.png.8a093f70ed942bdda52d484dc4ba9209.png

 

I also had needed to do another revision of the PCB anyways, as I needed to relocate the second connector to the bottom left-side, for clearance reasons.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Printed up the buck that I'll make my silicone mold from, and then pour the soft silicone keypads for my keyboards. The buck used Material Jetting VisiJet on a MJP 3D printer and was able to reproduce the engraved labels extremely well. These details will be picked up in the silicone mold, and thereby in the keypads..

 

keyboard-buck.thumb.jpg.5f382fa6cab7f0b910d1a78b7f07c518.jpg

 

Then each key has one of these silicone carbon bucks that makes contact with the keyboard PCB, to signal when a key is pressed..

 

silicone-carbon.thumb.jpg.4511e815ba050bf5eb939f36e5257c26.jpg

 

I'm going to make the mold this week and hopefully pour a few keypads right after.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made a silicone mold of the 3D printed keypad part, with limited success. It had some issues with air bubbles making some of the underside plungers not be represented properly in the mold, along with the labelling not being engraved deep enough to be represented well enough in the negative..

 

mold.thumb.jpg.ae51a3755ac1b2d345da819d5d54ba39.jpg

 

So I did another pass on the keycap labels, making them able to show up better when molded, plus I did a model of a 3D printed mold, instead of silicone casting of a 3D part, which is then molded..

 

mold-top-stl.thumb.png.752de294adfc435ca77dacad5379ac7a.pngmold-top.thumb.png.a6f7795bcad5e5cdf3bc1c022c8ddd17.png

 

mold-bottom-stl.thumb.png.089b4d3cdf4815a938cb293ce498c1b7.pngmold-bottom.thumb.png.a3fd9b0094cb0bee6371881d8921e8eb.png

 

This is the molds STL file and model renderings. I am 3D printing the mold now, so I can try pouring silicone directly into it, making my keypads.

 

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5 minutes ago, selgus said:

It had some issues with air bubbles

You can use a vibrating device of choice (electric toothbrush for example), to vibrate the substance to remove air bubbles. Similar to what they do when concrete is poured. Perhaps even connect a small wire to the tip of your vibrating device, and stick that into the not-yet-cured silicon.

 

Vibrating device. Just had to say it another time. Now let the jokes come in ;)

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52 minutes ago, ivop said:

You can use a vibrating device of choice (electric toothbrush for example), to vibrate the substance to remove air bubbles. Similar to what they do when concrete is poured. Perhaps even connect a small wire to the tip of your vibrating device, and stick that into the not-yet-cured silicon.

 

Vibrating device. Just had to say it another time. Now let the jokes come in ;)

yes and a vacuum applied at the same time does wonders!

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Yeah, I tried agitating the mold halves as they were setting, and it did help release air bubbles to the surface. I am getting a dental vibrator to use on my next attempt when I pour the silicone keypads.

 

I don't believe a vacuum would have helped here, because it was not due to degassing the silicone, but how some air got trapped in some of the low-points. Vibrations and heat would help the next time.

 

I am hopeful that removing one level of silicone fabrication, and using the 3d printed mold, will yield even better results.

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  • 1 month later...

As we are ending this year, I've been still iterating on the physical enclosure design, as the actual hardware has been finalized awhile ago.. it was interesting going back over the history of my initial thoughts and the journey along the way, to the place I landed.

 

Here is the original concept I had when I started the project and my original prototype enclosure:

 

atari67xePortable-prototype.thumb.png.b4556a5d06bab02dd5d5217d619452e5.png

 

Then I went through around 16 different versions, where I 3D printed the cases (I kept all of the revisions, as I want to do some sort of montage when I close out this project, before I melt them down), where this was where I gravitated towards:

 

atari67xePortable.thumb.png.8787c1c5c03fd653746ef248144e2c66.png

 

Along with my most recent modifications and what I have now labeled my final design (though I am still 3D printing up the upper layer of the body now):

 

atari67xePortable-final-angled.thumb.png.f41ad10045743e2e6475906e02ffa3e5.png

 

During the Holiday break, I'll be assembling the final console and can then begin adding additional tweaks to my BIOS, to really bring this project to completion. It has been a long journey, but a fun one!

 

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...
58 minutes ago, ivop said:

Wow. Just wow.

 

How many hours you estimate this took to print?

I used two different services, Shapeways and Xometry to do all my printing.. so I don't actually know the printing hours.. just cost. :(

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59 minutes ago, mytek said:

So what's the current status on your project @selgus ?

 

I did one more spin of the motherboard, and two versions of the keyboard (one which uses momentary physical tactile switches and one with carbon pill style PCB keys). R&D is complete and tests so far have been successful. Been assembling the final version now. Not sure what I am going to do with it next-- make units for any one whom wanted one, take your route and release the designs so others can make their own, etc.

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