1200XL Pizza Box w/detachable keyboard...

[+Allan]

So the actually height of this would be same as a stock 1200XL or would it taller? The taller the better.

 

Allan

[Curt Vendel]

If this works out, I'd like to look at some form of replacement case for the XL or XE --- probably the 130XE as it will be easier to do with the cart/ECI ports.

 

Since the 65XE was originally supposed to be the 900XLF, then the 130XE can be designated the 1000XLF

 

 

 

Curt

 

Curt,

 

I don't own a 1200XL, but I guess somethng like this could be done for the 800XL as well, right? Maybe the 600XL? There is one 800XL that I have that could really use something like this, as it has a weird error (repeating character on the screen, I think it's a keyboard error), so using a separate removable keyboard would be the greatest thing for it. It's spare, after all, my main one works great.

 

If I were to get one, would it fit on the 800XL? Would it need to be modded?

 

Just curious, there aren't that many 1200XL owners compared to the 800XL owners, why did you choose that system (and not the 800XL)??

 

Nathan

 

/edit I passed this along to the great folks at vintage-computer, very interesting idea and makes me wish I had a 1200XL

[carmel_andrews]

was there any advantage of having the cart port on the side of the system as opposed to the top (xl and 800) or the back (XE)

[mimo]

Yes the advantage is the cart slot is on the side, not at the back or on the top, or even under a flap

[blackpanther]

I would be interested in buying one.

[Curt Vendel]

having the convenience of a side cartridge slot beats the heck out of a back slot anyday no worries about wires in the way, or having to have enough room between your computer and the TV/Monitor, and I never liked the top slot - things fall in and it just made the computer look toyish.

 

 

Curt

 

was there any advantage of having the cart port on the side of the system as opposed to the top (xl and 800) or the back (XE)

[Mathy]

Hello Curt

 

I've been told that the 1200XL keyboard is the best Atari 8 bit keyboard. Have you ever considered reusing it? In a similar way as Atari did with the keyboard in the XEGS.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[Albert]

having the convenience of a side cartridge slot beats the heck out of a back slot anyday no worries about wires in the way, or having to have enough room between your computer and the TV/Monitor, and I never liked the top slot - things fall in and it just made the computer look toyish.

Yeah, when I was running a BBS on an Atari 800XL, I had a SpartaDOS X cart, R-Time 8 cart and Atari BASIC Rev. C cart all stacked into the machine's cartridge port. You had to be very careful not to accidentally bump that stack or the computer would crash. A side cartridge port is preferable to one on the top or the back.

 

..Al

[Curt Vendel]

That was my first idea - to do a keyboard encoder to take the keyboard matrix and transmit in serial codes to a decoder board on the PC side... its very easy to implement -- the issue is that I'd have to do a new top/bottom keyboard case design and the tooling for that is very expensive, if I was to go that route I'd have to charge like $300 for case & keyboard plastics and that is not something most people will go for, so I decided a stock PC keyboard with XL colored case and keycaps is the least expensive way to go.

 

 

Curt

 

Hello Curt

 

I've been told that the 1200XL keyboard is the best Atari 8 bit keyboard. Have you ever considered reusing it? In a similar way as Atari did with the keyboard in the XEGS.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[+bob1200xl]

What keyboard are these caps going to fit on? Which MCU in the adaptor?

 

Bob

 

 

 

That was my first idea - to do a keyboard encoder to take the keyboard matrix and transmit in serial codes to a decoder board on the PC side... its very easy to implement -- the issue is that I'd have to do a new top/bottom keyboard case design and the tooling for that is very expensive, if I was to go that route I'd have to charge like $300 for case & keyboard plastics and that is not something most people will go for, so I decided a stock PC keyboard with XL colored case and keycaps is the least expensive way to go.

 

 

Curt

 

Hello Curt

 

I've been told that the 1200XL keyboard is the best Atari 8 bit keyboard. Have you ever considered reusing it? In a similar way as Atari did with the keyboard in the XEGS.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[Curt Vendel]

I've sourced a cherry pc keyboard that the vendor is willing to mold in whatever colors I specify.

 

I prefer AVR's, but I'm using a PIC with a switch array to have the PS/2 keyboard interface directly to the 1200XL keyboard port.

 

 

 

Curt

 

What keyboard are these caps going to fit on? Which MCU in the adaptor?

 

Bob

 

 

 

That was my first idea - to do a keyboard encoder to take the keyboard matrix and transmit in serial codes to a decoder board on the PC side... its very easy to implement -- the issue is that I'd have to do a new top/bottom keyboard case design and the tooling for that is very expensive, if I was to go that route I'd have to charge like $300 for case & keyboard plastics and that is not something most people will go for, so I decided a stock PC keyboard with XL colored case and keycaps is the least expensive way to go.

 

 

Curt

 

Hello Curt

 

I've been told that the 1200XL keyboard is the best Atari 8 bit keyboard. Have you ever considered reusing it? In a similar way as Atari did with the keyboard in the XEGS.

 

greetings

 

Mathy

[Rhod]

I'd buy one.

[+Larry]

I thought at first, NO, since the 1200XL is too big for my desk real estate, but by having them separated, there may be another way.

 

Presume we could use a keyboard extender cable (if necessary)?

 

-Larry

[Curt Vendel]

With the design, you could then put a monitor or display ontop of the main unit and since it will use a standard PC/AT keyboard you can always put the keyboard off to the side.

 

 

Curt

 

I thought at first, NO, since the 1200XL is too big for my desk real estate, but by having them separated, there may be another way.

 

Presume we could use a keyboard extender cable (if necessary)?

 

-Larry

[+orpheuswaking]

I have a 1200XL just begging for this mod... (well that and to be 800XLified, video modded and internal storage )

[falcon_]

With the design, you could then put a monitor or display ontop of the main unit and since it will use a standard PC/AT keyboard you can always put the keyboard off to the side.

 

 

Curt

 

I thought at first, NO, since the 1200XL is too big for my desk real estate, but by having them separated, there may be another way.

 

Presume we could use a keyboard extender cable (if necessary)?

 

-Larry

 

Just a thought folks... Once the new case-top is on, how about a small lift stand for the new 1200?

It could serve as a space to slide your keyboard under - neatly - not using up deskspace.

Support would have to be from the back, not the sides. So - 7-8 inches for keyboard area,

and about 3 inches for structure at the back.

 

It almost turns the 1200 into an Amiga-style system - all it needs is a floppy on the right side!

 

Curt, I love the idea of a new case look for A8's! I've spent a lot of time thinking

similar ideas over the years. I'm so happy to see such activity going on today.

This is the Best Atari8 site ever. I wish I could have been plugged into all this

10-15 years ago.. tho I guess the site wasn't here then... :-)

 

*peace*

Falcon_

[Sub(Function(:))]

Hi Curt,

 

I know you say you do not want feature creep.

 

but...

 

As an extra do you think it would be possible to make a stand so the 1200xl could be mounted vertically as in your photos?

 

My problem with the 1200XL has always been the desk space it took.

 

Now with the external keyboard, a vertical mounting could solve this.

[+Larry]

As another user with too limited desk space for a 1200XL, that's a very good idea. But with a few small pieces of wood and some paint from Lowes or such, you can build a *nice* vertical stand. ...And no feature creep for the majority that don't need it.

 

-Larry

 

 

 

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Mon Dec 7, 2009 11:13 AM' timestamp='1260198832' post='1892320]

Hi Curt,

 

I know you say you do not want feature creep.

 

but...

 

As an extra do you think it would be possible to make a stand so the 1200xl could be mounted vertically as in your photos?

 

My problem with the 1200XL has always been the desk space it took.

 

Now with the external keyboard, a vertical mounting could solve this.

[Curt Vendel]

Its a cool idea, but the PC keyboard is wider then the 1200XL case, but I get what you're saying, something like a basic "U" shaped reinforced plastic stand.

 

 

Curt

 

[quote name=Sub(Function()' date='Mon Dec 7, 2009 10:13 AM' timestamp='1260198832' post='1892320]

Hi Curt,

 

I know you say you do not want feature creep.

 

but...

 

As an extra do you think it would be possible to make a stand so the 1200xl could be mounted vertically as in your photos?

 

My problem with the 1200XL has always been the desk space it took.

 

Now with the external keyboard, a vertical mounting could solve this.

[Curt Vendel]

I choose this system because I only have to have tooling for the top plastic made, with an 800XL, I'll have to do both a top and a bottom, which will make the project twice the cost.

 

Plastic die tooling is horrendously expensive.

 

 

 

Curt

 

 

Curt,

 

I don't own a 1200XL, but I guess somethng like this could be done for the 800XL as well, right? Maybe the 600XL? There is one 800XL that I have that could really use something like this, as it has a weird error (repeating character on the screen, I think it's a keyboard error), so using a separate removable keyboard would be the greatest thing for it. It's spare, after all, my main one works great.

 

If I were to get one, would it fit on the 800XL? Would it need to be modded?

 

Just curious, there aren't that many 1200XL owners compared to the 800XL owners, why did you choose that system (and not the 800XL)??

 

Nathan

 

/edit I passed this along to the great folks at vintage-computer, very interesting idea and makes me wish I had a 1200XL

[nathanallan]

I knew it was expensive, I had looked into getting a small run of custom plastic made for a project of mine, and the guy told me something like 10-14K to get the dies made (I think I spoke to you on it a while back, still haven't made the molds we discussed, too busy).

 

I see what you're getting at, now. Thanks for clarifying. The 1200 would be a better choice.

 

Though I still want one for my 800XL

[ataridano]

Hey Curt,

 

This is a really neet idea. I have been thinking about it quite a bit the last few days and finally concluded that I like the retro-ness of the stock 1200XL so I'm thinking I'll probably not do a conversion to mine. Now to completely contradict myself, I have been working on a new keyboard for my XEGS and would be very interested in buying/building one of your converters for it. Mine is just going to be a custom wired keyboard though I thought about an adaptor for a PS/2 keyboard for a while. I'm assuming that, because you're using a standard PS/2 keyboard, that you'll use that keymapping instead of the Atari one? For example, on the A8 the @ is typed my pressing shift-8. Would you duplicate that on your end? If you make custom keycaps you could always have them layed out any way you want, the keyboard would send the wrong scan codes, but your firmware could correct them. Also, would the keyboard have the 1200XL style aluminum strip w/ the function keys and the LEDs behind clear plastic? Just wondering as this affects how much I want to spend on one. I don't have much on-desk space but would love an XL styled keyboard on my desk hooked to my XEGS on the floor One last idea, I don't want to cause feature creep, but figured it would be worth throwing out there. Have you thought about making this a kind-of 1450XL cover, just like what you've described but with a drive bay or two for an internal drive? Just an idea.

[mimo]

I definitely like the look of the stock 1200xl too much to do this, but I would be interested in a keyboard if I could use it directly on my PC

[+Guitarman]

With all the 1200XL's I have, I would get 2-3 easy. I hope this happens.

[Curt Vendel]

Okay, looks like we are closing in on the 50 minimum orders to make this project a reality, so I'm putting this on the front burner and will start to get the keyboard interfaces going in January and it'll be about 30-40 days and the new plastics should be ready, so figure by Mid-February the 1200XL's will have a whole new look to them, thank you to everyone who expressed firm interest to make this project move forward. With some luck, I will see if this can then be done for the 800XL's next or 130XE's (maybe something along the lines of the Mega ST type cases? - those are rather simplistic)

 

 

 

Curt