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Atari Portable Project


selgus

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1 hour ago, Asaki said:

I wish someone made something like this for running PC-DOS.

The GPD Win 2, as linked above, is fantastic for running Altirra and getting the entire Atari experience it delivers in the palm of your hand. I've had one for a year and use it regularly. About the only negative with it is an active fan that is (understandably) very small so it creates a high pitch noise.

 

It's quite expensive on the one hand, but on the other will run even modern games and anything I have thrown at it emulation wise (I also do Amiga, Atari ST, 16bit consoles on it all the time).

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59 minutes ago, Lastic said:

There is something like this...

Yeah, something like that, but a lot less expensive, and with a proper screen resolution (640x480 would be ideal IMO, most programs would just have some slight letterboxing).

 

...in my dreams, you could toggle the CPU type/speed, probably FPGA based, and emulate addons like sound and video cards :lust:

 

 

...oh, sorry, we were talking about Atari, weren't we?

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9 hours ago, rockdoc2010 said:

I broke one of these out by hand and it is a direct replacement for an atari joystick with all the same numbers across the screen when under test. might be good for your application

 

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9032

Douglas

Interesting, how did you wire it up? That joystick is analog (10k pot) and the atari expects an on/off signal. Do you have to push the joystick full stroke to register a direction or somewhere inbetween?

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Nope it just wired up straight up.

The thing that stumped me was that it is the ground and not 5VDC that sends the signal.

I will find it soon and send you picks.

it is possible i had to send it full stroke but the stroke is minimal with the size of the pots and stick.

Douglas

 

 

 

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My parts are starting to arrive, should have most by the start of next week. I did have to spin another revision of my small power board, as the TFT LCD display that I will be using buck-converter turns 12V into 3.3V, not 5V (as is used by the rest of my design). So I sent off revision 2 of the board today, that now includes a step-down from the 3.7V lipo to a regulated 3.3V for the TFT LCD.

 

atari67xePortable-power-r2.png

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On your first post you mentioned the possibility of going with a 5" display for this portable Atari. Just trying to scale the size of the main board in my mind, and that seems like that would work well and not be much bigger than the PCB. Can you share the dimensions of both the main board and the keyboard?

 

BTW, that keyboard is looking real nice, can't wait to see it with the 3D printed key caps.

 

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Sure, the CPU board is 214mm x 94mm and the keyboard is 155mm x 76mm. The keyboards gets stacked on top of the CPU board, and to one side of the keyboard is the D-pad, and to the other, FIRE button (they can be switched to either side).

 

The LCD, as it stands right now, is on an angle, above the keyboard. I am still working in CAD to get that angle just the way I want it, while I am building and testing the system.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Building the CPU board, slow going with lots of small SMD parts.. always start with the passives, and have about 1/3 of the board populated (though doesn't looks so, since all the larger parts have not been soldered in yet).

 

My normal process is going through my BOM, highest quantity of specific components/values at a time..

 

 

atariPortable-cpu-passives.jpg

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More the assembly of my first CPU board.. all the passives soldered (except for a few I forgot to order from my BOM) and all the diodes, transistors, misc components and the CompactFlash connector. Next step are the SMD ICs and sockets for all the ATARI custom chips..

 

 

atariPortable-cpu-half.jpg

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>>Joysticks, pbi, sio, monitor jack?

 

Yep, nope, nope (sort-of), nope. :)

 

This portable has a built-in Joystick 1, with the stick on one side of the case, and the fire button on the other. There is also a DIN plug at the top, that is for Joystick 2. I've made a DIN to DB9 dongle so a normal joystick could be attached, or anything using my pin-outs for the DIN plug.

 

This is a portable, hand-held, ie. not a desktop unit that you'll be attaching things off of, so no need for a PBI (fyi, I make use of the fact that I don't have this interface to get another 512 bytes of RAM for bios use).

 

I don't have a traditional SIO port, but I do have the COMMAND, DIN and DOUT, along with rs-232 support with USB, so this portable can be connected to a PC.

 

The unit uses a built-in 5" TFT LCD, so there is no additional monitor jack.. again, I am looking at this as a portable and not a priority to have such an external connector.. though internally there is a plug for VIDEO,+3.3V,GND.

 

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While building this first prototype, I knew I would be spinning another version of the CPU PCB.. as I've been working assembling the portable, I've been making tweaks here and there (ie. improving the video quality, beefing up one of the power rails, switching some footprints for easier assembly, etc.).

 

I took this opportunity to think about a full standard SIO port, using the traditional connector, along with my USB port. I did need to rip up most of the audio and some of the video layout, along with relocating the keyboard connections and video port, but now I do have the SIO port coming out the left-side of the portable.

 

So I will be able to connect any standard SIO device (like a disk-drive, to transfer files to the CompactFlash, if desired). I don't see a need to use it all the time, but probably could be useful, from time to time.

 

I did route all the signals, including PROCEED and INTERRUPT (though not the 12V line, since I don't have that rail), even-though I don't know any devices that do make use of those signals.

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6 hours ago, selgus said:

I did route all the signals, including PROCEED and INTERRUPT (though not the 12V line, since I don't have that rail), even-though I don't know any devices that do make use of those signals.

FujiNet uses PROC and INTR.  It can be powered off the SIO's 5V, so your portable Atari will have WiFi access to servers at home and on the Internet!

 

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Trust us, with the tiny size a add ons today, and the great functions they give, you'll want to include the ports.

Your portable will love you with a FujiNet installed, and there are other such useful and wonderful devices...

depending on how thick the case is maybe some could be internal, but you'd have to hack for buttons, led, possible display, and sd slots etc etc..

Edited by _The Doctor__
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3 hours ago, jamm said:

FujiNet uses PROC and INTR.  It can be powered off the SIO's 5V, so your portable Atari will have WiFi access to servers at home and on the Internet!

 

Oh, I didn't know this. Thanks for the info.. I should probably look into FujiNet more.

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7 hours ago, selgus said:

Oh, I didn't know this. Thanks for the info.. I should probably look into FujiNet more.

Do you include SIO AUDIO IN in your audio mixing? @tschak909's Fujinet is so much more than just networking. It can do S.A.M. speech :) It could evolve to have aux-in or a microphone for voice commands. I expect, by the end of the decade, it joins the singularity. Or Skynet.

Edited by ivop
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