gespy Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) For many years I have an Atari 600XL top case lying around. Always had the idea to do something with it. Now I have finally used it to build a new Atari XL computer based on a Raspberry Pi. On the Raspberry Pi, runs the Atari800 emulator and the original 600XL keyboard is fully functional. I have made a video, showing how I build this. Edited May 14, 2021 by gespy 21 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitoco Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Cool! I was surprised with the bottom half of the case. How long this project took? There were too many t-shirts... Where did you set the "Alt" key for the Pi? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinadan67 Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Very nicely done, thank you for sharing the video! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gespy Posted May 14, 2021 Author Share Posted May 14, 2021 23 minutes ago, vitoco said: Cool! I was surprised with the bottom half of the case. How long this project took? There were too many t-shirts... Where did you set the "Alt" key for the Pi? This project took a couple of weeks, working a few hours per week on it. I did not mapped the 'Alt' key to a keyboard key. I didn't realy needed it for the Atari800 emulator. It is only used for shortkeys to menu items. I had to to remap a number of keys in Linux. The characters you get when you press a key in combination with shift, is different for many keys on an Atari keyboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 Personally, I'd hate to use an old machine in this way if the original machine were still good or could be repaired. That being said, it was a really interesting video and you did a great job with it. Good work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 32 minutes ago, bfollowell said: Personally, I'd hate to use an old machine in this way if the original machine were still good or could be repaired. That being said, it was a really interesting video and you did a great job with it. Good work! Keep in mind that he only had a fraction of the original machine to work with. It wasn't like he took a complete XL and tore out its guts to remake it with a Pi inside. However what he did have (the original XL keyboard) was repurposed in such a way that it was relatively unharmed. The only noticeable alteration was the hole in the top of the case, which he had done much earlier, and was able to repurpose for the added function key. In the end, I was very impressed with the outcome of this project, and very impressed with the custom case bottom he fabricated ? 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivop Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) Agree with mytek. BITD, he used this top part of the case as a "remote" keyboard with a meters long flat cable. I was very impressed how he sort of folded a new bottom for it (out of alumin(i)um)? Only one thing, it's not Python code, but C. And you could have removed the black/brown part of the top half, before spraypainting, without having to mask it with tape. If you carefully heat the badge, you can even remove that with a precision knife. But all in all, nice project! ? Edited May 14, 2021 by ivop 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 30 minutes ago, mytek said: Keep in mind that he only had a fraction of the original machine to work with. It wasn't like he took a complete XL and tore out its guts to remake it with a Pi inside. However what he did have (the original XL keyboard) was repurposed in such a way that it was relatively unharmed. The only noticeable alteration was the hole in the top of the case, which he had done much earlier, and was able to repurpose for the added function key. In the end, I was very impressed with the outcome of this project, and very impressed with the custom case bottom he fabricated ? Yes, I agree. I meant to mention the bottom. I'm always impressed with fabrication work like that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 I'm at work so can't watch the video. What was used to interface the keyboard? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, orpheuswaking said: What was used to interface the keyboard? A Teensy microcontroller which can be programmed to decode any key matrix and to act as a USB host. https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_keyboard.html Edited May 14, 2021 by ClausB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted May 14, 2021 Share Posted May 14, 2021 49 minutes ago, ClausB said: A Teensy microcontroller which can be programmed to decode any key matrix and to act as a USB host. https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_keyboard.html Thanks for the link! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gespy Posted May 17, 2021 Author Share Posted May 17, 2021 On 5/14/2021 at 4:25 PM, bfollowell said: Personally, I'd hate to use an old machine in this way if the original machine were still good or could be repaired. That being said, it was a really interesting video and you did a great job with it. Good work! I also think that is terrible. But I only had the top of a Atari case, which otherwise you cannot do much with it. I definitely don't want to encourage people to demolish a complete Atari, to build a Raspberry Pi into it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mytek Posted May 17, 2021 Share Posted May 17, 2021 6 hours ago, gespy said: I definitely don't want to encourage people to demolish a complete Atari, to build a Raspberry Pi into it. I would, and I steal chips out of them all the time to make my recreations in a different form factor (am I kidding? ). And I repurpose 1050 cases for 1088XLDs. Yes I'm that guy 1 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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