AtariVox internal install

[marauder666]

Juansolo did this with his VCS, but never documented the process. Now my long awaited Atariage order has arrived its time to do so.

 

First thing is to get a joystick extension cable for the socket end, if you’ve replaced any bad cables you’ve probably got some of these lying around, needs to be around 30cm long.

You might need to shave a little of the inside of the socket with a craft knife,  the Atarivox is a very tight fit.

You need a speaker, this one is from a dead Dell all in one, cut in half to fit.  Ideally 8 ohms, this one’s 4 and still works, the LM386 amp chip is pretty tolerant.

 

The switch is a 8 pole dual throw, not 9.  We don’t need to switch the ground wire, lucky as I can’t find 9 pole ones.  Only using one pole. Ground is the blue wire in the pictures.

 

Use a multimeter to note down which wire connects to which pin on the extension. It’s not guaranteed they are the same as mine.

 

Solder the extension to the switch, and some wires to go to the back of the joystick socket on the VCS, these need to be longer than you think, as I found out.

Solder the wires to the back of the VCS socket, use flux, makes it easy as it can be a bit tight.

Solder the ground wire to the ground point.

Double check wiring, making sure that the corresponding pins on the extension and joystick port are connected when switch is in one position, and not in the other.  Except the ground.  Check for shorts between the soldered pins.

 

Plug speaker into Atarivox, and Atarivox into extension.  Fire up the VCS, switch in one position, will do nothing, in the other will turn on the Atarivox.

 

I mounted the switch behind the post where the RF cable originally came out, had to Dremel it to get it to fit, but its ok.  Drilled some holes, and secured the switch using screws.  This took an hour to find a matching pair, which had correct thread, short enough not the interfere with the switch mechanism, and long enough to get through the plastic.

 

AtariVox and speaker are secured with double sided foam tape.

 

This will give friends a shock in future. You wouldn’t know its in there.

 

Edited May 26, 2021 by marauder666

[juansolo]

1 hour ago, marauder666 said:

Juansolo did this with his VCS, but never documented the process. Now my long awaited Atariage order has arrived its time to do so.

I did document it, but I don't think I posted it here. It was one of the few times I actually decided to update my painfully out of date website. It's here: http://80.229.1.38/geekery/atarivcsvox.html

 

FWIW I'm going to give my 7800 the same treatment shortly

[juansolo]

7800 here: