8-bit Cartridge and Jack Pinouts

[+Larry]

This came up recently, and I find the information available somewhat confusing. The simple question is "what is the correct pinout for the 8-bit cartridge jack, and how is it viewed?" A corollary question is "what is correct pinout for the cartridge itself?"

 

There are all kinds of pinouts on the web for the jack. So far, I've found none for the cartridge itself. Virtually no cartridges that I've looked at have their edge connector pins labeled. Basically all Ive ever seen is "label front; components to the rear."

 

The typical pinout is like this -- looking down on the jack from the top or rear:

 

A---------------------------------S

 

1---------------------------------15

 

 

Then I found this:

http://blog.3b2.sk/igi/post/Atari-cartridge-01-Uvodne-informacie.aspx

 

Note the difference between the 800XL and the 130XE. I can "explain" this difference only by thinking the 800XL view is from the bottom looking up (which to me seems quite odd). I would think that all would be viewed from the same position so that the 130XE could be rotated 90-deg. and become the 800 or XL view.

 

One would assume that the cartridge (not the jack) pinout would be numbered so that pin 1 of the cartridge would align with pin one of the jack. OTOH, if the cart pcb were viewed as a separate entity (which it really is) then I would think that edge connectors would be numbered left to right from the component side, making it backwards relative to the typical jack pinout.

 

Hopefully, my descriptions are reasonably clear. So, can someone shed some light on this?

 

-Larry

[flashjazzcat]

I always went with the pin description in Mapping The Atari.

[GoodByteXL]

This may help though it is in German. It is the respective page of the 'ATARI Profibuch' describing the cart connectors.

 

DAPB20160409 319.pdf

[+kheller2]

pin "A" is always label side facing you, right most front pin of the female connector. Which, if I recall, means solder side of the cart board facing you, rightmost pin.

The jacks, obviously, on the XL and XE are labeled identically, just the orientation of the picture is what makes it look off. (Tilt the XE straight up in the air with the keyboard facing you and cart port up and the pins are the same as the XL jack.)

Edited September 17, 2016 by kheller2

[ndary]

Hi Larry

 

it may be confusing, the best way to clear this confusion is to look at the breakout cartridge PCB

 

https://www.bitsofthepast.com/?product=atari-8bit-cartridge-slot-breakout-pcb#

 

if you look at the images you can see the direction of the cartridge (front / face) with the data/address line labels.

 

Nir