Incognito - Now's your chance!

[+DrVenkman]

It has taken 20 days per the post mark but finally!  

 

 

[Gunstar]

@DrVenkman it looks like your's also has all the connectors and proper orientation, like mine!

[Jeffrey Worley]

8 hours ago, Gunstar said:

Yeah, I've gotten "ready" like that before, and by the time I returned there was a thick layer of dust on everything!

I finally got a small one too.  I've been burning table tops for 30 years.

[Gunstar]

23 hours ago, Jeffrey Worley said:

I finally got a small one too.  I've been burning table tops for 30 years.

Yeah, I didn't need one with a larger foot-print as I already have an adjustable PCB holder. Just something to protect a new work bench that all of this will be moved to soon.

 

"Almost ready" for the Incognito installation, I just have to replace the 1200XL board with the 800 motherboard.

[+DrVenkman]

Since I don't need the little recesses for tools, screws, etc. I bought a pair of these on Amazon for about $26:  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027RS8DU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

Edited November 2, 2019 by DrVenkman
add photo

[toddtmw]

I also have an anti static mat that I bought like 25 years ago. 

[Gunstar]

2 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Since I don't need the little recesses for tools, screws, etc. I bought a pair of these on Amazon for about $26:  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027RS8DU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

I almost went that route and bought one of those, but I thought the nooks and crannies might be fun, and it came with a free set of ultra cheap tools, but usable. I didn't need them, but I'll use them until the drivers brake free from the handles, etc. and then go back to my good tools. I'll be building a nice work bench with cubby-hole shelves etc., soon. I don't know if I'll build in any drawers underneath. But I've got an old tackle-box that I use like your drawer rack and the table-top drawer I have.

 

What material is the square "pad" under your desoldering iron? Wood? Ceramic? Clay/brick? Asbestos?

Edited November 2, 2019 by Gunstar

[+DrVenkman]

7 hours ago, Gunstar said:

What material is the square "pad" under your desoldering iron? Wood? Ceramic? Clay/brick? Asbestos?

That’s a hot-air station, not a desoldering iron. It’s a ceramic tile, left over from a home project years ago. The hot air station has a reed switch that turn off the heat when the handle is placed on the holder, but of course the air is still hot until the blower runs for several seconds to cool it down. 

 

My desoldering iron is not shown above.

 

 

[Jeffrey Worley]

On 10/31/2019 at 5:52 PM, DrVenkman said:

It has taken 20 days per the post mark but finally!  

 

 

Twenty days is pretty awesome for muleback from Gdansk.  ?  Seriously though, that isn't bad at all for a package in international mail.  The faster options exist, but it seems from my limited experience (several orders now), that the Polish post is both efficient and secure.  Lotharek himself is certainly efficient and runs his business thus.  I haven't used the faster, much more expensive, options, the post is fine as long as I get it in working order, and that is just what's been happening.

 

Jeff

[+DrVenkman]

2 minutes ago, Jeffrey Worley said:

Seriously though, that isn't bad at all for a package in international mail.  The faster options exist, but it seems from my limited experience (several orders now), that the Polish post is both efficient and secure.  Lotharek himself is certainly efficient and runs his business thus.  I haven't used the faster, much more expensive, options, the post is fine as long as I get it in working order, and that is just what's been happening.

As I’ve posted before, this is my 4th or 5th order from Lotharek. I’ve used the same shipping method every time - the last two orders were 12 calendar days from shipping until delivery, so this one is clearly an aberration. That said, I hope to make time this weekend to get the basic installation done; I don’t think I’ll have time or energy to do the ATR swap button but we’ll see.  

[Jeffrey Worley]

2 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

As I’ve posted before, this is my 4th or 5th order from Lotharek. I’ve used the same shipping method every time - the last two orders were 12 calendar days from shipping until delivery, so this one is clearly an aberration. That said, I hope to make time this weekend to get the basic installation done; I don’t think I’ll have time or energy to do the ATR swap button but we’ll see.  

You can, with little effort, put a three-wire dupont cable through the fins on the left side of the card cage lid and lust have a button plugged into them along with a led.  It isn't pretty, but it works and is un-do-able very quickly if you have to enter the card cage again.  When pushing the connector ends through the fins, rather than bending the fins, gently angle the connectors in at 45 degrees or so and you'll find theres just enough clearance to make it without bending the fins almost at all.

 

Best,

 

Jeff

[flashjazzcat]

You may also leave the lid off and short the button pin to GND with a screwdriver for an even hackier experience.

[+DrVenkman]

6 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You may also leave the lid off and short the button pin to GND with a screwdriver for an even hackier experience.

Reminds me of how I was testing my 1088XEL board during build-up before I had my case and without any spare buttons around to wire up while I waited. ?

 

There are any number of ways to wire up a swap button - people have been mounting extra toggles and switches on computer cases since the earliest days. Hell, just about every week there’s another post here from someone who’s bought an XL with some obscure internal wiring and an external switch of unknown purpose ... I do intend to wire up the swap button the ”correct” way, but it just may not be this weekend. 

[toddtmw]

For mine, I'm going to put the swap button on the bottom of the case, right next to the toggle switch (I added back in the day that I am also going to add to this 800) to turn off the keyboard speaker.

 

When i was looking at my 800s to pick which one to use, I noticed one of mine had an RF cable jack sticking out of the case. Haven't opened it up yet to see what is behind that. I mean, I'm sure it is an adapter to allow cable to be connected directly to it, but it will be interesting to see how they did it. That computer is so huge, thy might have just put the RF switch box in there.

[Jeffrey Worley]

23 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said:

You may also leave the lid off and short the button pin to GND with a screwdriver for an even hackier experience.

I just bought a set of arduino momentaries.  I'll mount one to a small circuit board trimmed to size and just stick it in that pocket under the cage lid with a led pointing upward.  I'll be able to reach the mometary with a paperclip or some little rod I figure out.

 

[+slx]

2 hours ago, toddtmw said:

When i was looking at my 800s to pick which one to use, I noticed one of mine had an RF cable jack sticking out of the case. Haven't opened it up yet to see what is behind that. I mean, I'm sure it is an adapter to allow cable to be connected directly to it, but it will be interesting to see how they did it. That computer is so huge, thy might have just put the RF switch box in there.

It plugs into the RF modulator, IIRC on the power board on the right hand side. You can simply remove it and use the hole for any other cable you need to route out of the case. There's even plenty of space inside the case (left side) to store the old cable. I suppose most people who used it with a monitor got rid of the RF cable to have a cleaner desk. My old 800 has a DB-25 connector for a homemade SIO2ST routed through that hole. 

[+DrVenkman]

Since I adore making Dupont connectors so much [/sarcasm] I went ahead and made one for the swap button and then test-fit it with the included main 6-conductor cable from Lotharek. It’s not a pretty mix of connector types but it will work. 

 

 

[Faicuai]

2 hours ago, toddtmw said:

For mine, I'm going to put the swap button on the bottom of the case, right next to the toggle switch (I added back in the day that I am also going to add to this 800) to turn off the keyboard speaker.

 

When i was looking at my 800s to pick which one to use, I noticed one of mine had an RF cable jack sticking out of the case. Haven't opened it up yet to see what is behind that. I mean, I'm sure it is an adapter to allow cable to be connected directly to it, but it will be interesting to see how they did it. That computer is so huge, thy might have just put the RF switch box in there.

 

Best, overall, location for the .ATR-swap switch. either for a permanent or fully-reversible install.

 

The .ATR switch is (in reality) an integral component of the system and, after 6+ years using Incognito (as my primary go-to platform), not installing it would be a no-no on my book. Quite a good deal of titles will just not run (even the latest FLOP-64 release, a couple of days ago!)

 

All-in-all, plenty of surface-space and accessibility underneath the machine to install it nicely, so it does not end up with another dumb-ass looking protruding switch somewhere else.  

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, slx said:

It plugs into the RF modulator, IIRC on the power board on the right hand side. You can simply remove it and use the hole for any other cable you need to route out of the case. There's even plenty of space inside the case (left side) to store the old cable. I suppose most people who used it with a monitor got rid of the RF cable to have a cleaner desk. My old 800 has a DB-25 connector for a homemade SIO2ST routed through that hole. 

I'll be using the RF cable hole for a stereo headphone jack out. Removing the RF cable is one of the first things I did, even before using the 800 for the first time (with monitor jack output) along with disconnecting the RF box and zip-tie the door power mechanism together. Then I put it back together and used it for the first time. (aside from a brief power-up with only the PSU attached)

Of course this wasn't the first time I'd owned an 800, so I knew I wanted that stuff done straight away.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Gunstar

[flashjazzcat]

3 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

I went ahead and made one for the swap button and then test-fit it with the included main 6-conductor cable from Lotharek

Honestly, I would just snip that bloody white connector off, grit my teeth, and crimp another six wires in order to affix the right connector on P5 as well. Crimping Dupont connectors is far from being my favourite activity, but if fifteen minutes of extra work is all that stands in the way of doing the job properly, it's probably worth doing.

[+DrVenkman]

1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said:

Honestly, I would just snip that bloody white connector off, grit my teeth, and crimp another six wires in order to affix the right connector on P5 as well. Crimping Dupont connectors is far from being my favourite activity, but if fifteen minutes of extra work is all that stands in the way of doing the job properly, it's probably worth doing.

Yeah, I know I should. But I don't think anyone here appreciates my utter hatred for making Dupont connectors, even with the right crimping tool. However, I still need to make a mating connector at the end of my swap-button cable, plus the pigtail for the power board, so I'll probably just do it tomorrow when I do the rest of the install and have an extra beer afterward. 

Oh, yeah, on that note ...

 

 

 

 

Holy obsolete SpartaDOS X, Batman! That's gonna get updated once I'm done with all this mess. Jon, you'll get another donation next week on payday.  Thanks for the marvelous installation instruction videos and links to Candle's and @Stephen's photos. 

 

Fun lesson learned: never forget the basics. I did the whole basic install, turned on the power and ... nada. Then I remembered I have a working interlock on this machine (which explains why I'm holding the power board in my right hand in that last pic. )

Edited November 2, 2019 by DrVenkman
Organize order of photos - I sure wish the forum software still allowed previewing a post

[flashjazzcat]

7 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

There are any number of ways to wire up a swap button - people have been mounting extra toggles and switches on computer cases since the earliest days.

This is indeed true, but many such vintage modifications (and even some contemporary ones) look like Hell on Earth, so it becomes a question of whether one considers that the Grand Old 800 (which appears to be utterly revered by the community as a whole) deserves any degree of 'special consideration'. The availability of this almost legendary hardware was greeted with hysterical excitement and anticipation, so it would be mildly ironic to me if any old thing will do when it comes to the slightly more challenging aspects of the installation (which were nevertheless passed off as 'not all that difficult' by some commentators, none of whom yet appear to have attempted the button/light mod in the manner depicted in Candle's installation guide).

31 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Holy obsolete SpartaDOS X

Wow... that is taking the phrase 'original firmware' rather too literally, I think.  The SIDE.SYS driver on the non-FJC SIDE carts dates from about the same time.

31 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Jon, you'll get another donation next week on payday.  Thanks for the marvelous installation instruction videos and links to Candle's and @Stephen's photos. 

That is tremendously kind Herb - thank you.

31 minutes ago, DrVenkman said:

Then I remembered I have a working interlock on this machine

That catches me out more or less every single time at some point or another (I shorted the thing out on my own machine).

Edited November 2, 2019 by flashjazzcat

[flashjazzcat]

7 hours ago, toddtmw said:

For mine, I'm going to put the swap button on the bottom of the case, right next to the toggle switch (I added back in the day that I am also going to add to this 800) to turn off the keyboard speaker.

That sounds like a good solution. I think I was originally going to fit a momentary switch inside the hole at the back of the case left by the (removed) RF cable, at least before the whole activity LED/button mod for the light conductor was cooked up. That location (around the back) is a bit out of reach, though; somewhere on the IO panel is probably the next best thing to placing the switch right on the keyboard itself.

 

[Gunstar]

1 hour ago, DrVenkman said:

Yeah, I know I should. But I don't think anyone here appreciates my utter hatred for making Dupont connectors, even with the right crimping tool. However, I still need to make a mating connector at the end of my swap-button cable, plus the pigtail for the power board, so I'll probably just do it tomorrow when I do the rest of the install and have an extra beer afterward. 

 

I understand and appreciate your hatred. That's why I recently picked up a few sets of these peel-away-ribbon single Dupont connectors and be done with it.

Edited November 2, 2019 by Gunstar

[toddtmw]

2 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Yeah, I know I should. But I don't think anyone here appreciates my utter hatred for making Dupont connectors, even with the right crimping tool. However, I still need to make a mating connector at the end of my swap-button cable, plus the pigtail for the power board, so I'll probably just do it tomorrow when I do the rest of the install and have an extra beer afterward. 

Oh, yeah, on that note ...

 

 

 

 

Holy obsolete SpartaDOS X, Batman! That's gonna get updated once I'm done with all this mess. Jon, you'll get another donation next week on payday.  Thanks for the marvelous installation instruction videos and links to Candle's and @Stephen's photos. 

 

Fun lesson learned: never forget the basics. I did the whole basic install, turned on the power and ... nada. Then I remembered I have a working interlock on this machine (which explains why I'm holding the power board in my right hand in that last pic. )

It’s funny that you’re calling a spartados from 2012 old.