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A question of preference.


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Do you keep your Tape Drive on the Right or Left side of your TI?

 

I am designing a new desk that will be a retro battlestation of sorts. It's gonna hold the TI-99/4a with the following peripherals:
 Tape Drive 

 Speech Synth

 Joystick Mod

 

As well as the Atari 2600 and the Atari 1040STFM 

 

Later this station will incorporate a soldering station and enough room to squeeze a 20 Mhtz Oscilloscope in it.

 

so in the design the tape deck is facing but .. due to cable length I would think that it might have to go on the right but .. when I get home I will move the bits around. 

 

also what else should I try shoehorning in there?

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Joystick is on the left too... so +1 for tape on right.   

 

I have 14 computers setup on 3 desks. 1 monitor, wall mounted. I find that the perfect desk design is a table. 

 

The soldering station and oh-so-silly-scope get another perfect desk to themselves. Also a table. 

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Well before I read all these messages, last night I just sat down and tried to get a good base from which to start. Here's the proto-mockup. Just for shape and overall size. No hinged doors yet. Hmm maybe sliding doors, like in those nice wooden secretarys.

There's gonna be hinges and doors to allow for access to the cables. The top vents will have fans pulling the heat out. Bottom vents will have a filter to staunch the dust being pulled in. Also the TI will be further on the left to allow room for the data tape.

Given what i've seen for the TIPI SS project .. hinges door for access to the sidecar port will be coming. 3eeb2c3c3c8df24e3c7938dd6ecb32a2.jpg3ce22b615ea45d5c99446dae800e0737.jpg

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I've learned to NEVER, EVER design a desk for specific computer or piece of equipment.  As soon as you get it done, there is another piece of equipment that shows up and makes the desk worthless!  Been there, done that!
Yes .. I.. know. But but but... Aww heck. Yes it probably will be a waste. But what if it could be made modular .. hmmmmmmmm

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Part of me is impressed by your efforts, the other part just keeps sighing repeatedly.
why.jpg.8f6b8b724f23348b6116dd597959abb4.jpg
Get a mp3 player and play any wav files back to the ti from there. Saves a ton of desk space.
You're right. I think it is for the aesthetics. Helps me pull away from my current online game addiction


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23 hours ago, Mehridian Sanders said:

Well before I read all these messages, last night I just sat down and tried to get a good base from which to start. Here's the proto-mockup. Just for shape and overall size. No hinged doors yet. Hmm maybe sliding doors, like in those nice wooden secretarys.

There's gonna be hinges and doors to allow for access to the cables. The top vents will have fans pulling the heat out. Bottom vents will have a filter to staunch the dust being pulled in. Also the TI will be further on the left to allow room for the data tape.

Given what i've seen for the TIPI SS project .. hinges door for access to the sidecar port will be coming.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
 

but but but

dual casette?

(still working on mine)

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Now the "MuahahaHA" Moment.

 

a door opens on the right of the tape recorder... a Wico Joystick Folds out ... Mechanical arms propel the joystick front and center to the user. Small aluminium bars shoot upwards from the underside of the desk, into the joystick, filling the screw sockets and locking the joystick into place.

 7446210-mad-science.jpg

Edited by Mehridian Sanders
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@Omega-TI @Tursi @Ksarul @wierd_w

 

For the Joystick Ports....

I want to put as little stress as possible on the ports .. on all of them really, but for this post I wanted to ask your choice preference and orientation.

 

When looking at a dual joystick connection 

(pardon the crudity)

1.

   _____   _____

   \ __ /    \ __ /

 

2.

    ___      ___

   /___\   /___\ 

 

3.

   _____

   \ __ / 

   _____

   \ __ / 

 

4.

    ___ 

   /___\ 

    ___ 

   /___\ 

 

Which orientation seems Correct to you (Let the battling of OCD begin!)

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In my cassette-only days, my preference was to have it close so I could run the player and see the counter. Pushed out of the way once I was done with it, which might be loading one program or sometimes sampling the whole tape.

 

I might leave the cable on the TI and unplug it from the player to get it off the desk till needed. Don't forget the AC power cord to the player unless you're just using batteries. In your planning, if you intend to keep using tapes, a place for those might be nice to have as well. Carts too, for that matter.

 

Right after upgrading to a PEB and floppy drives, I moved all my tape files to disk. After that the cassette player, cables and tapes were stowed away till needed to make a one-off tape for a friend or other occasional uses.

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10 hours ago, Mehridian Sanders said:

@Omega-TI @Tursi @Ksarul @wierd_w

 

For the Joystick Ports....

I want to put as little stress as possible on the ports .. on all of them really, but for this post I wanted to ask your choice preference and orientation.

 

When looking at a dual joystick connection 

(pardon the crudity)

1.

   _____   _____

   \ __ /    \ __ /

 

2.

    ___      ___

   /___\   /___\ 

 

3.

   _____

   \ __ / 

   _____

   \ __ / 

 

4.

    ___ 

   /___\ 

    ___ 

   /___\ 

 

Which orientation seems Correct to you (Let the battling of OCD begin!)

5.

    ___      ___ 

   /___\   \___/

 

 

6.

    ___ 

   /___\ 

    ___ 

   \___/

Could also be choices. ;-)

Edited by jrhodes
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On 6/6/2020 at 3:41 AM, wierd_w said:

It prevents you from plugging your cord into the wrong port when you are half awake and or distracted.

This may work as a solution, for you.:) But what about my needs, when I come over to play!
It has been found that I have ...superior aptitude, when taking the "getting the square peg into the round hole" test!:grin:

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