CV-NUC+ A Miniature CV Motherboard is in the Works

[Atari Nut]

4 hours ago, mytek said:

Working on the enclosure.

 

 

A modification of @Mr Robot's original 576NUC+ design.

 

EDIT: Still refining the overall look, getting used to the new 3D printer, and will be going with a dark gray filament in the next print

Looks good Mike.  Keep up the good work!

[+mytek]

Here's the unit in a more complete form. This will be the design in the released STL files.

 

OVERTURE 1.79 mm PLA Professional Dark Grey

 

The color and 3D printing process really gives it that somewhat aged look, like something out of the Star Wars universe.

EDIT: The lighting was very bright when I took this photo, so it makes it look to be a slightly lighter version of the color gray than reality.

 

[chart45]

so nice my ender 3 is waiting ... I'm the lucky one who have the first cv nuc + and i have to say its awesome.. work perfectly.. im testing pixelboy 64k game since they dont work on the atarimax..  yep they work.. you can see how small the cv nuc + is  next to the phoenix. in the last picture i could not resist already modded f18a. i will play test this little baby in for the next couple of day but i have to say it its awesome. thank you mytek to give me the chance to have it first.. 

 

this is av in a flat screen pretty nice color

Edited April 15, 2023 by chart45

[Atari Nut]

12 hours ago, mytek said:

Here's the unit in a more complete form. This will be the design in the released STL files.

 

OVERTURE 1.79 mm PLA Professional Dark Grey

 

The color and 3D printing process really gives it that somewhat aged look, like something out of the Star Wars universe.

 

I like it.  One of my co-workers may have access to a resin 3D-Printer.  Mike, how are you using the wireless keyboard that appears to be attached?

[+mytek]

4 hours ago, Atari Nut said:

Mike, how are you using the wireless keyboard that appears to be attached?

I think you mistake the USB dongle as being for a keyboard. In actuality it is for a USB Mouse which is the quadrature controller in this design (think roller-controller). So games like Slither and Armageddon can be played with the mouse. In fact after you try it, you'll probably not want to go back to an original roller-controller, since the mouse action is so much smoother and easier.

 

4 hours ago, Atari Nut said:

One of my co-workers may have access to a resin 3D-Printer.

Yeah I've been thinking of having PCBway print one in resin to see what that looks like. At first I was thinking in black, but after a test print I did with filament, I was disappointed in how the graphics and lettering looked which depend upon shadows to stand out, something hard to see when the case is all black. So I'll have to pick one of their other colors -- might be nice in a translucent red like the AtariMax Ultimate SD Cart

[Atari Nut]

Ha, I was also thinking of translucent red.

[+mytek]

Printed another case in Overture PLA+ Jeans Blue 1.75mm filament, with an Overture PLA+ Dark Grey for the back panel.

 

 

I think I'm happy with the case STL files at this point, and will consider it done.

 

As for the rest of the project, I have some investigation to do on a possible problem with the USB Mouse QUAD board not playing well with the Steering Wheel Controller, but that has yet to be confirmed. I do have a Steering Wheel on the way from eBay, and it should be here around the end of this week.

[Atari Nut]

Nice.  How long does it take for your printer to print these cases?

[chart45]

I'm doing it right now and simplify3d says 9h for the base .. 

[+mytek]

4 hours ago, chart45 said:

I'm doing it right now and simplify3d says 9h for the base .. 

That sounds about right.

 

And I think the top is about 5 hours, with the back being just under 1 hour.

 

Just so you guys can get a better feel for how much smaller the CV-NUC+ is compared to an original Colecovision console check out this simulation...

I'm not at the location where these things were at, so I photoshopped two pics I had in order to render what should be pretty close to reality.

[chart45]

print the base just wow fit perfectly

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by chart45

[chart45]

look at this little baby... thanks Mytek for  this perfect case.. was easy to print and fit like a glove. 

Edited April 20, 2023 by chart45

[+mytek]

Latest Case Tweaks -- Internal KeyPad Version

So far I think I like this color the best 👍

 

Although I used a tap to thread the screw holes on this case, it really is intended to have brass heat set inserts to give it strength.

 

 

EDIT: The funny thing was YouTube dinged me for copyright, since I hadn't even thought about the music I had playing in the background when I made the video. I don't think it was a big issue, since Barry White made an exception for this kind of usage, and I'm not monetizing any of my videos.

[Atari Nut]

So that keypad will perform all the functions that a Coleco Joystick keypad would?

[+mytek]

6 minutes ago, Atari Nut said:

So that keypad will perform all the functions that a Coleco Joystick keypad would?

Yes it will. So for games that don't require the 'ARM' trigger button, any Atari or 3-button Sega Genesis will work by using that built-in keypad to take the place of what's missing. Now the exception will be when the CV game requires it to be KeyPad #2, since this one is wired in as KeyPad #1.

 

And I'm thinking there might even be a way to modify the Genesis controller to give it the 'ARM' trigger using one of the extra buttons, thus giving it full compatibility for almost all games.

[Ruggers Customs]

1 hour ago, mytek said:

And I'm thinking there might even be a way to modify the Genesis controller to give it the 'ARM' trigger using one of the extra buttons, thus giving it full compatibility for almost all games.

I've been selling a sega Genesis 6 button controller designed for the Colecovision for years.

 

 

[+mytek]

5 minutes ago, Ruggers Customs said:

I've been selling a sega Genesis 6 button controller designed for the Colecovision for years.

That would certainly work 👍 (didn't know about that).

 

[Atari Nut]

Did you ever receive the Steering Wheel and test that possible concern?

[+mytek]

3 hours ago, Atari Nut said:

Did you ever receive the Steering Wheel and test that possible concern?

Yes I did, but it had a bunch of battery corrosion that wasn't apparent in the photos. It had dripped down onto the PCB. Anyway I stupidly used Acetone to clean the board, which at first didn't seem to create any issues. In fact when I put it back together it worked both on my original CV as well as the CV-NUC+ (assuming that the mouse wasn't plugged in). However Acetone had worked it's way up into the opto-interrupter and after a bit one of the channels stopped working. So I thought no biggie I'll just order a new part for it... well that's when I discovered that getting one of those is like finding hen's teeth. Anyway I did find something new and off the shelf that I think can be substituted with maybe a 3D printed riser to get it at the proper height above the board. It'll also take a tiny bit of wire modding to make it match electrically. That will all be happening today, and if all goes well I should be steering by this afternoon and running some more tests.

[+mytek]

The Steering Wheel works just fine with the CV-NUC+ 👍

 

It does require that the USB mouse (or it's receiver if wireless) isn't plugged in when powering up the unit so that it doesn't interfere with operation.

 

Here's a link to a post I just made about repairing my Steering Wheel, and then the subsequent test (there's a video at the end).

 

 

[+mytek]

As of today, there are now three CV-NUC+ systems in existence. Besides myself, the other two people are also AtariAge members. Essentially they form my beta test team.

 

So here are the members to this hopefully temporary group...

@mytek

@chart45

@MacRorie

 

MacRorie runs a place called The Brewing Academy (TBA) and will be offering DIY Bare Board Kits, which are going to be minimal, so please don't expect this to come with all the components that are required to build complete boards. Kits like that for something this complex simply are not a worthwhile venture, since it can actually take longer to put together a proper kit vs. assembling a complete board.

 

I believe he will also be selling 3D printed cases for the CV-NUC+, and who knows maybe fully assembled boards as well. We'll just have to wait and see on that last part.

 

I've been partly waiting on these last two systems to be put through their paces before releasing all the docs and manufacturing files to the public. And to be perfectly honest I have some stuff I still need to finish and update as well, including a webpage on my website for this project, which I'm hoping will coincide with a similar page appearing on TBA's website. That way I can provide a link pointing to the proper place to purchase this stuff from. And just to be perfectly clear, I have undertaken the R&D on this project completely from my own wallet, and will not be seeing any money from the sale of these to the public. So please don't expect me to act as customer and/or technical service, because I won't. So that means no PM's are to be sent to me if problems are experienced. However I will try to respond to posts in the forums where applicable, which I feel serves more than just one person.

 

And with all that said, I think this project has turned out incredibly well. and I feel very good to have been a major part of making it happen 

[+MacRorie]

13 hours ago, mytek said:

As of today, there are now three CV-NUC+ systems in existence. Besides myself, the other two people are also AtariAge members. Essentially they form my beta test team.

 

So here are the members to this hopefully temporary group...

@mytek

@chart45

@MacRorie

First of all, thank you VERY much for creating this.  I just spent an hour playing games I always wanted to play.  Also, this justifies the ColecoVision I bought. (I mean, I really bought it to test the 2600-UNO on the CV 2600 Expansion, but NOW I can *really* justify it!)

13 hours ago, mytek said:

MacRorie runs a place called The Brewing Academy (TBA) and will be offering DIY Bare Board Kits, which are going to be minimal, so please don't expect this to come with all the components that are required to build complete boards. Kits like that for something this complex simply are not a worthwhile venture, since it can actually take longer to put together a proper kit vs. assembling a complete board.

 

I believe he will also be selling 3D printed cases for the CV-NUC+, and who knows maybe fully assembled boards as well. We'll just have to wait and see on that last part.

Yes, on all three counts.  I just need to assemble it from scratch.  MyTek was *very* generous in supplying some of the chips pre-programmed.  Now I need to make sure I have all the equipment to properly program them for sale.  Stay tuned!  It will be available very very soon!

 

13 hours ago, mytek said:

And with all that said, I think this project has turned out incredibly well. and I feel very good to have been a major part of making it happen 

It's AWESOME and now I need to stop playing with it and get back to work.  The XEP80-II are not going to build themselves!

 

-M

 

[Atari Nut]

On 4/15/2023 at 12:16 PM, mytek said:

Yeah I've been thinking of having PCBway print one in resin to see what that looks like.

Did you ever order a resin case from PCBway?  I took a look at their site and many options need to be selected to order one.  I wouldn't know what to select so if you ever do order one, perhaps the options can be saved as a template or something similar that can be shared.

[+mytek]

12 minutes ago, Atari Nut said:

Did you ever order a resin case from PCBway?

Not yet, but I intend to down the road.

 

12 minutes ago, Atari Nut said:

I took a look at their site and many options need to be selected to order one.  I wouldn't know what to select so if you ever do order one, perhaps the options can be saved as a template or something similar that can be shared.

When I took an initial look at it, I also felt a bit overwhelmed by all the options, so much so that I pushed this to a later day until I could wrap my head around it better. If anyone beats me to doing this, it would be great to see how it came out and if there were any issues. Also if they want to set it up as a PCBway shared project I'd have no objection to that.

 

To get things started here are the final STL files: CV-NUC+ Case STLs_5-2-2023.zip

 

And here's my blog post talking about it: https://ataribits.weebly.com/blog/cv-nuc-a-colecovision-mini-game-console-part-5

[+mytek]

The CV-NUC+ Miniature ColecoVision Gaming System is now Ready for Prime Time

 

My CV-NUC+ webpage has now gone LIVE at: https://ataribits.weebly.com/cv-nuc.html

And simultaneously The Brewing Academy has now opened it's doors to sell this unique item in various configurations from their website. And as such they will be selling the complete set of 4 PCBs in a Bare Board Only Kit (TBA: DIY-Bare Boards), as well as offering an expanded DIY Bare Board Kit that comes with all the pre-programmed and hard to get IC chips (TBA: DIY+Chips). There will also be 3D Printed Cases, and fully assembled and tested systems that come already built into a case. @MacRorie owner of TBA is well renowned in the Atari scene, and has been manufacturing not only Atari related goodies, but also has expanded into various retro computing accessories and upgrades, now adding ColecoVision to his product line.

 

 

At my website you will find all the required files to build this system from scratch. And over time I hope to continue adding more informative postings about this project on my BLOG. There will likely be updates to the webpage over the next several weeks as I add anything that I have forgotten, which I'm sure there is something

 

Please do keep in mind that I personally don't sell anything myself, nor do I see any proceeds from what TBA sells. This project was a labor of love which I have freely given away all the manufacturing rights and files. All I ask in return is that people respect my privacy, and please don't PM me. If you want more info and/or need help, that's what the public forums are for. Also before you start asking a multitude of questions, it would probably benefit you to check out the TBA and AtariBit websites, as well as this forum topic to fully familiarize yourself with what this project is about, and what has been released.

 

Enjoy