chopperthedog
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Posts posted by chopperthedog
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Strip of double sided tape under header/pot and small piece just under the power input of UAV so the rest of board is floating above chip. Should be fine. Thought about top of RF thingy, but I did put shield back.
Yeah, knew I was killing the audio to RF, no biggie at all. Last and final time the RF was connected was for the PP screen shot. :p Your guide was great though.
good day.
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Finally added a 7800 to the collection last week, was just waiting for the right CL deal. Ordered a UAV after seeing how rough the RF signal is. I've done many mods to other consoles, but the case on the 7800 really is a bugger. Knowing how brittle the plastic is and also would never be happy with jack placement, I just didn't have the heart to take a drill to this thing.
Had a 9v battery enclosure hanging out in the parts bin and got the idea to use that as a jack box for the unit. Held on with some VHB tape, wires route through added hole in 9v box that lines up with the 2/3 switch opening. Header pins used for vid connections on UAV and audio line is soldered, easy to fish wires back out should any future repairs be needed.
Someone that is savvy in the 3d print world could do a slim line box that would stick to the molding of the cable wrap on botton and have all jacks in one row. I'm just an idea guy, but really happy with the results, it's easy to hook up when needed and no drilling.
The video quality is stunning with the UAV.
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Chip looks original, 22nd week of 1983, and pretty normal for clean sweep.
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You're making sure that the voltage is zeroed out when nothing is being drawn to the screen. Logic board generates digital signal and DAC converts to analog to drive the vector monitor, it's kinda like setting the idle on an old engine. There are some bad vids out there, best place to start is giving the vectrex service manual and read through a couple times, helped me a ton. It's like 40 pages long or so, covers in some detail of the operation of circuit, find it on console5 or other places.
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Hope these get in the hands of people that have wanted one for an extended period (like myself) and not caving in to the secondary market. Thinkers and double uppers should get to the back of the line.
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Driving controllers on atari vcs are not optical, the use a gray encoders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_code
That's the nicer encoder to have (doesn't feel as "ropey" as the more common pcb stack encoders). Comes apart real easy for cleaning with lightly prying the corner tabs. You can also reduce the friction by bending down the unused sweeps (see attached pic). After cleaning a spritz of deoxit on the pcb for lubrication is recomended.
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There's some other cool TTL coin op stuff that wasn't exactly a video game. I have an Electro-Dart wall game from 1971 in my collection, main pcb is in the left unit and large multi pin cable connects to right unit for lamp operation. Fun game, on wireless remote you press and hold button while watching the animation of your dudes arm and release button/dart at right time to get bullseye or lesser score based on timing. There's no sound, you just have to picture a couple old dudes sitting at the bar of the VFW in 1972 passing the remote back and forth with 50¢ bets on each game. I've been meaning to shoot a good video of mine in operation, there's a couple other blair witch type vids on the tube already if you want the gist of the game. Wonder how many folks here have even heard of "wall games".
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Was able to log some hours testing over the last week and I'll applaud their attempt, but something isn't right with the paddle portion. It has a strange feeling on the left side of the screen, almost like there's a different resolution interpretation of the pot beyond center left. Right side of screen seems ok, but all game failures were due to something off with left of center.
I couldn't even get close to 1000 with the ranger on kaboom after hours of trying to adapt. Plugged in my trusty Sears video arcade II (modified for 2600) controller (pictured far right) and got 2225 on kaboom on the 3rd game and cleared 3 screens on avalanche. Also tried the standard paddle and had some fair scores, but I get in the groove with that 2800 controller on paddle games. Went back to ranger and it felt like crap again. It's not bad as a game pad with the joy and button, but paddle is not right, ermm left. :p Ain't no one gonna be setting any records with the ranger paddle, it will just piss you off.
If you have a 2800 controller and are interested in wiring it for paddle on a 2600 see here:
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If you're in the Chicago area or happen to have a 2 hour layover at ORD, you can swing over to his store and buy in real life direct.
Video Games Then & Now
4850 N. Harlem Ave.
Harwood Heights, IL. 60706
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If your image is set to the test cart overlay, than the tour de france overlay will line up perfectly to the little clear gear window. It's actually not a bad little game, neat dynamic with having to grab waters along the way.
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Heads up for the non fakebook crowd. Came across these during an ebay search yeasterday and was able to run over to his store today and grab these from him.
The tour de france package is fantastic, top notch overlay.
The multicart overlay is also top notch stuff.
Sean on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/skelly-etc/m.html?item=233457067209&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
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For those like me that value their privacy it wasn't til today when I checked http://vectrex.co.uk/ that I learned that Thomas set up a site and posted his new/current goods here: https://www.vecfever.com/
Of course the biggest addition is the whole cinematronics/vectorbeam CCPU game collection, this goes great for exploring the original coin op games that led to ports of the GCE games of the vectrex. I've seen some cool UV overlays done by Laurence, but I wanted to create some overlays that gave a nod to the original coin op overlay schemes that were used. With my little cutter I came up with a nice set for myself.
Star Wars and ESB is some exciting stuff, was able to get to do some testings of Star Wars over the summer and actually found myself addicted to the game (not a bad little shooter), gotta get my ESB on now.
Another great new FW setting is the orientation for the menu, no more taco neck while rockin' the SBT horizontal games.
The horizontal SBT games also got the brain power flowing to come up with a better stand than the 3D print thingy. Wanted it to be minimal, safe, fold-able and a sturdy stand for horizontal gaming. Height of stand was determined by the center of the screen in vertical mode, so the height of screen is same when on the stand.
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My initial comment about vextreme was an uneducated one not knowing they're similar based hardware. So, I apologize for sounding like a dick.
14 minutes ago, hcmffm said:Right, VecFever is probably great for 50 (or probably even less) people. My guess is that even half of the VecFever owners have it just laying in a shelf. And for all those people posting here and wanting one it's just a dissappointment which could have been avoided. So I'm very happy and thankful that Brett develops the VEXTREME.
@playvectrex: Perhaps a good idea to start a new topic for the VEXTREME, Brett.
There's about 130 fevers and about 20 of the "ultimate" editions that are out there. Normally someone does some cool hardware and abandons the software 6 months or a year later, but he's still plucking away with development of the sbt's of the coin op stuff and fw features. It does suck that more can't enjoy it.
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3 hours ago, hyrulebr said:
How does it stack up against Vecfever?
https://www.retrorgb.com/vextreme-an-open-source-vectrex-flash-cart.html
Not even close, better off comparing vextreme to the vecmulti or vecflash. The fever is in its own class.
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12 minutes ago, adamchevy said:
Theirs one on eBay right now, but I’m not sure paying over $200 for a glorified sd cart is worth it.Oooof... glorified? Far from it. Some pretty masterful programming and features that no other cart can remotely come close to doing on the vec. Bet that fever sells for $1300+.
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Sold sealed/unopened copy of stramash zone for the vectrex. $140 (via paypal) shipped to the lower 48 states. If you're in the Chicago area I'm about 2mi south of midway apt and you can come pick it up for $100 cash.
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40 minutes ago, Vectrexer said:
Very nice work as always. Have you considered placing larger feet at the of the all thread instead of only caps? Always interested in long term distribution the forces on a the case for alternative contact points not originally engineered in to the case design.
I did do a quick search for some swivel feet and was only finding larger pieces for chairs and such. I will say a bulk of the weight of the vec is towards the rear at that mold angle where I have the rear supports situated. The front supports seem to have about 35% or less of the weight on them and the rear has the rest, so there isn't any undue added pressure to the case to cause any long term deformation. I've been keeping an eye on the thread caps for any wear last couple weeks with nothing bad to report. It's nice to have screen at an angle and height for playing the tomson sbt horizontal gold along with the piece of mind that my vec safe.
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Continuing from my post #321 in this thread with wanting to come up with a minimal folding stand, I finally got some time at the bench to try an idea with some materials. I kept the same height and kickback angle specs from the original wood one. Slant of unit is compensated with the length and position of the rear supports, so when looking straight at screen the legs and cross brace line up, unlike that 3d print. Main center of gravity is covered well with small footprint of stand and you just hold to side of unit, pick up, rotate and set down on legs with ease. Pretty happy with result, it's sturdy, minimal and folds flat.
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In my color overlay set there are 2 fluorescent colors that offer an interesting glow with bright vectors and at one point I wondered if an image could be etched into the material to make a custom overlay. Fast forward many months and was exploring warrior via vecmame through the vecfever and saw that the game is virtually unplayable without knowing the original artwork or having an overlay. This was the chance to try out the etching idea from months ago. Took the mame art and made it real low res and turned into a cut file and with light pressure etched the image into the backside of the material. With a blue overlay on top and illumination from my black light it offers a pretty cool effect.
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Purchased! Fantastic option.
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I was bored and had an idea of adding 2 microSD cards that could be switched sorta on the fly. 15cm microSD extension cable, 2in1 microSD switcher and some double sided tape is all I used. I did remove the plastic cover from the female side of the extension and just taped pcb direct to cart shell. You can see that extra ribbon cable tucks nicely into the cart shell. So now when I loan this cart to a coworker he'll have a little bit of a clue as to what he's looking at vs. a long list of intermingled title types.
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Fantastic stuff, and bravo to all involved.
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On 6/25/2019 at 3:54 PM, gtoal said:
As much as Richard's 3D printed enclosure is a nice design, I wanted mine in a proper cart ?:
About a year ago I mucked around with the method of mounting the SD reader on the other side of the pcb so it could be used in an unmodified original case. I couldn't use the new repro shells since they seem to be a thicker mold than the originals. It could work in the repros with using a ribbon cable and finding a way to secure SD read pcb directly to cart shell. I never got around to milling SD card access in the shell and ended up undoing and putting the vecmulti back in the 3D printed case. I like thinking, trying, analyzing and undoing things, keeps the mind going.
good day.
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Getting my PONG collection up to snuff.
in Classic Console Discussion
Posted · Edited by chopperthedog
Trying to plow through things from my todo pile before spring hits and the backyard RC track reopens. I've gathered these random units cheap over the last 4 years. They all had random issues ranging from crappy video, jittery pots, locked sounds, broken pot, non working switches and just over all filthy.
The major save for me is the coleco telstar arcade, had one growing up, it was a great option for a single mother raising 3 kids that couldn't afford a VCS at the time. Aside from RF tweaking, changing shifter switch, pot and switch cleaning, it had a sound issue. When it was supposed to be a blip or bloop it would output a crash sound. So something on the sound board was locked, figured out the signal trigger inputs and after looking at spec sheets narrowed it down to 2 chips. Found them online over a year ago, but finally did the repair with perfect success. The tennis game now blips and bloops instead of the crash sound. I'm proud to have this example in my collection.
The radio shack Electronic TV Scoreboard had a broken pot in the main unit. The sweep had come separated from the plastic shaft. Thankfully the plastic was real receptive to CA glue and got the sweep back in place for good.
The speedway RF unit was toast, just could not be tuned, thankfully this is one of them units that looks sweet through composite. Lifted center pin from RF out jack and tapped from the video input. I'm only getting action from 1 of the 4 pots, I've narrowed it down to the comparator chip. Will hunt for one and hope for a fix.
Great weekend to finally get 4 out of 5 of my pong units ready for prime time and fully playable. Made great headway on the Telegames Speedway and saw a clean image for the first time, hope to solve the input issue.
good day.