+bf2k+ Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 (edited) I am trying to finish up my VBXE installation. Does anyone know of a source for a short length (10 ft or so) of 6 conductor shielded cable? I though about getting a VGA monitor cable and cutting the ends off of this - I assume they are shielded. Edited December 6, 2009 by bf2k+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 I'm running my machine without shielding, and just using bits of old PC internal wiring to carry the signals. No interference issues, and it's sitting 2 inches from the main PC. If you want some shielded cable, maybe just scavenge some unwanted network (STP) cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Cabel, you'll be first one to have impedance matched cable for VBXE VGA cables are usually of poor quality - hard to solder, and you might be quite suprised about the "shielding" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 (edited) Here's my VBXE install: Pure luxury! I've just messed around with the TFT's settings and got the picture to fill the screen a bit better. Candle: I think the screen dimming problem is down to some power inconsistency on the motherboard. It's unfortunate that the VBXE ended up in the first of my three XEs: the one with the mushy power switch and the system which sometimes takes two or three tries to boot properly from cold. I think a proper overhaul of the board is in order; perhaps a replacement power switch. Certainly reseating chips and checking RAM expansion soldering, etc. The VBXE and its sync signal are fine, I believe. I had the bare motherboard hooked up for ages and the picture was rock-solid. Only when I put the keyboard back on, reassembled the case, and rebooted a couple of times did the old fade-outs start again. ...Ed: The alternative is: 1) Take VBXE and INTSDX out of old 65XE (320K) and put in new 1MB 65XE (beamer320i's). 2) Rebuild old 65XE's video circuit (using at least some parts from new 65XE). Makes sense, you might think, but beamer's 65XE has such a great s-video picture anyway (like my 130XE which I'm determined to leave stock). Edited December 7, 2009 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteym5 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Hey everybody, I just got my solder sucker and tested it. I removed a memory chip from my old 130xe board cleanly. I now see how all that works now. If I have free time tomorrow, I will take the Antic chip from the new board. A Solder sucker with flux paste makes life a whole lot easier. The is no way you can cleanly remove a chip with a soldering iron alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Hey everybody, I just got my solder sucker and tested it. I removed a memory chip from my old 130xe board cleanly. I now see how all that works now. If I have free time tomorrow, I will take the Antic chip from the new board. A Solder sucker with flux paste makes life a whole lot easier. The is no way you can cleanly remove a chip with a soldering iron alone. I've never used flux paste, but perhaps I should give it a try. I use a cheap solder sucker and a 15 watt Antex. It took a lot of practice but I can get a chip off an XE board pretty easily now. I pulled a couple of traces lifting resistors back when I first started! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 I also use paste flux. It makes a huge difference when soldering & desoldering. Especially when working with tiny SMD stuff (like the Covox board from Lotharek) as the paste will momentarily hold the component in place. Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 My VBXE has finally found a permanent home (in zaxon's 65XE) along with a nice 1MB upgrade: Just waiting for INTSDX and that's the dream machine just about finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 My VBXE has finally found a permanent home (in zaxon's 65XE) along with a nice 1MB upgrade: Just waiting for INTSDX and that's the dream machine just about finished. Where are you getting the internal SDX from? I would love to have one, but am not sure if it will work in a machine with Steve Tucker's (Atarimax) 32-in-1 OS. I am rather spoiled by that upgrade. Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 and here is a little unusual use of VBXE once i've stated its possible to fit vbxe into any ANTIC equipped machine, so someone (Jer from AtariArea) went that path original text in polish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 (edited) Where are you getting the internal SDX from? I would love to have one, but am not sure if it will work in a machine with Steve Tucker's (Atarimax) 32-in-1 OS. I am rather spoiled by that upgrade. I just ordered one from Lotharek's Website. I already had one of these excellent units, but I think I wrecked it trying to desolder it and move it from my battered old 65XE. I'll be socketing the PCB this time. Perhaps you can email Lotharek and ask about the 32 in 1 OS upgrade: I have no real knowledge of it. The SDX board is quite tightly wired into the MMU and replaces the OS ROM completely. Anyway, I'm quite delighted with this machine now that I seem to have sorted out the sync problem with the LG Flatron. I've been working flat-out these past few days trying to get all the remaining upgrades fitted to the 65XE and 800XL so that I can tidy the place up and settle down to some coding next week. Edited December 30, 2009 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 and here is a little unusual use of VBXE once i've stated its possible to fit vbxe into any ANTIC equipped machine, so someone (Jer from AtariArea) went that path original text in polish vbxe 5200, nice. Would like a VBXE 400 at some point, but maybe a cut down version that just gives the RGB output and no blitter etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 why to cut? this is the whole thing, everything is operational, VBXE maps its memory into d800-e7ff address space, and base address is fixed to d6xx page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamageX Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Got my VBXE today. Need a memory refresh. Where is the thing that tells what all these pins poking off the board are for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 Should be in it's own thread "VBXE 2" Found it http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/142283-vbxe-2/page__view__findpost__p__1723679__hl__vbxe__fromsearch__1 The PDFs with the connector diagrams should be in the "Release" package that candle puts out once in a while. The how-to pictures for each machine type are buried somewhere in the middle of that thread above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted January 20, 2010 Share Posted January 20, 2010 they are also included in this package and its always at http://spiflash.org/files/vbxe/release.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 (edited) Since the forum's currently quieter than Karaoke night on a laryngitis ward, my just about finished installation again: Can you spot the difference between this and previous photos? No, it's not that I'm using more than four colours per scanline this time. I've just fitted an INTSDX board. INTSDX I made myself, which I'm very proud of (if only because I never thought I'd manage the surface-mount soldering), and MMU and INTSDX are socketed for maxium flexibility. Final jobs with this one for now are to reinstate the legacy output DIN and move the VBXE jack to where the RF socket used to be. Then just a small hole in the back for sync pot adjustment, and that's it until the next must-have upgrade comes along. I had originally intended to fit SIO2IDE in this one but I'm holding back for a number of reasons, not least the unwieldy nature of the adapter board plus CF interface plus CF card. Edited January 22, 2010 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted January 22, 2010 Share Posted January 22, 2010 Since the forum's currently quieter than Karaoke night on a laryngitis ward, my just about finished installation again: Can you spot the difference between this and previous photos? No, it's not that I'm using more than four colours per scanline this time. I've just fitted an INTSDX board. INTSDX I made myself, which I'm very proud of (if only because I never thought I'd manage the surface-mount soldering), and MMU and INTSDX are socketed for maxium flexibility. Final jobs with this one for now are to reinstate the legacy output DIN and move the VBXE jack to where the RF socket used to be. Then just a small hole in the back for sync pot adjustment, and that's it until the next must-have upgrade comes along. I had originally intended to fit SIO2IDE in this one but I'm holding back for a number of reasons, not least the unwieldy nature of the adapter board plus CF interface plus CF card. Awesome machine you have there. I will definitely be tapping you for help over the next few days. My VBXE2, Simple Stereo, and IO board arrived safely yesterday!!! I will be ordering a 1MB SIMM and IntSDX board this evening, but since there is so much work to do, I will start installing what I have this weekend while waiting on the other mods to arrive. All of this stuff is going into a PAL 130XE. I plan on taking a smegload of pictures. I'll make a blog entry when I have something to show. Stephen Anderson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Jon, take it away from me eyes! what'a'mess! this one belongs to Orpheuswalking: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 Awesome machine you have there. I will definitely be tapping you for help over the next few days. My VBXE2, Simple Stereo, and IO board arrived safely yesterday!!! I will be ordering a 1MB SIMM and IntSDX board this evening, but since there is so much work to do, I will start installing what I have this weekend while waiting on the other mods to arrive. All of this stuff is going into a PAL 130XE. I plan on taking a smegload of pictures. I'll make a blog entry when I have something to show. I'll be happy to help if I can. What's the IO Board all about? As I say, I'm still inclined to stick a sound upgrade in my machine too. What I would really love, though is an internal IDE adapter so I can mount a super-fast HDD or CF card inside the machine. Doing preparatory work before the other stuff arrives seems a sensible approach. Long before my VBXE arrived, I'd socketed ANTIC, and before my INTSDX was fitted, I socketed the OS ROM and MMU. I'm only sorry I didn't socket the 1MB upgrade, because you never know what's around the corner. Anyway, take lots of pictures: I for one love seeing this stuff. Jon, take it away from me eyes! what'a'mess! LOL. I think INTSDX tipped it over the edge: it looked quite neat up to that point. Difficult to keep the wiring neatly routed when there are jumpers spanning the whole mainboard! That's some neat work in the picture. What's the unit in the top left with the USB ports? I seem to remember seeing it before but I forget what it is now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 that is IO-Board - thanks to Cyco130 and his AspeQT running up to 300kbit using synchronous sio protocol, and up to 126kbit using standard sio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted January 23, 2010 Share Posted January 23, 2010 (edited) Who makes and sells them? ...Ah. A quick search answers that question, and many others. Edited January 23, 2010 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamageX Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 Where does the $D6xx signal connect on J1? The 800XL pic says pin 8 but I don't see the numbering of the pins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 Refer "vbxe2-con.pdf" and "vbxe2.pdf" in the package. Should be the lower right-hand pin on J1 if you're viewing it as oriented in those diagrams. Pin 8 of J1 is CSDxxx (remembering Dx is dependant on whether you've done a D6 or D7 install, which is determined by a connection point on the Atari, not VBXE). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DamageX Posted January 26, 2010 Share Posted January 26, 2010 lower right-hand pin on J1 if you're viewing it as oriented in those diagrams. Thanks, the operation is a success Time to get APE running and try some VBXE demos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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