Finally had my Intellivoice II case made

[walldog1]

7 hours ago, JohnPCAE said:

From the service manual it looks like it revolves around the SPB640 chip, but I don't have the datasheet for it.

SPO250 & SPO256 seems to be an interchangeable chips to accomplish your project???? All I could find searching the internet about the SPB640 Chip was this link:

 

http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/chips/frankp_speech.html

 

Not a secure site but talks directly about INTV's. I'll copy the info and post below so you don't have to risk your computer going to that URL. Let me know if this gives you any help in your project with a heart, trophy, or whatever. If not, call me a fool for trying.

 

Another Datasheet URL for SPB 0256: https://archive.org/details/spo-256-a-datasheet You can go to this site yourself and see what you think. Just close their donation box request unless you get your answer and want to thank them. They have a very long PDF download for data with text to look at. Looks promising to me, but programming is not my strong suit. Plus other downloads related to this chip.

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by walldog1
Addition update

[JohnPCAE]

I guess this begs the question, what do people think is the best way to give the Inty USB connectivity?

 

(1) Make something that plugs directly into the cartridge port

(2) Go through the Intellivoice expansion bus

(3) Go through the ECS expansion bus

(4) Go through the ACC parallel port

 

Option (1) is actually the easiest to do, but it means lengthening the "train" of components that hang off the cartridge port. The Inty could really use something like the C-64's user port, but you need one of the other three plugin modules to get something like one.

[+fdr4prez]

The only thing I'd be interested in is for getting wireless controller support. 

 

Is the expansion port on the ECS just for memory expansion, or is it the same as the Intellivoice expansion port? 

 

Aren't most Intellivoice modules produced without the header and with the port cover glued in place? 

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

4 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

The only thing I'd be interested in is for getting wireless controller support.

 

Doesn't pertain to the Intellivoice in any way, but one way to have 'wireless controller' support is via the 8bitdo M30 2.4g wireless Genesis controller with Grips03's Sega SMS/Genesis/Atari 2600 to Inty controller adapter.

Edited October 23, 2022 by SiLic0ne t0aD

[+fdr4prez]

1 hour ago, SiLic0ne t0aD said:

Doesn't pertain to the Intellivoice in any way, but one way to have 'wireless controller' support is via the 8bitdo M30 2.4g wireless Genesis controller with Grips03's Sega SMS/Genesis/Atari 2600 to Inty controller adapter.

It does pertain to the Intellivoice since that was the original concept of the port. 

 

Not everyone has Grip's adapter, and more aren't being made. but the Intellivoice are readily available, and ECS to a smaller degree - if applicable. 

 

And the expansion port offers power, and doesn't Grip's adapter needs an external power source?

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

I meant to add the disclaimer *if you have that adapter. Unfortunately they're hard to come by nowadays. Yep, you're correct.. It does need an additional 9VDC as well.

 

Hopefully someone will come up with a better, more readily available solution someday. 🤞

 

[+Lathe26]

I can confirm that both the Intellivoice and the ECS have variants with and without the expansion connector.  Additionally, of the ECSs that do have the expansion connector, there are 2 slightly different pinouts.

 

Additionally, while the Intellivoice expansion connector was intended to support wireless controllers by disabling the normal wired Intellivision controllers, the circuitry for disabling the wired Intellivision controllers was inside the Keyboard Component.  This means that in order to use the wireless controllers, you had to buy 4 Mattel devices: Intellivision console, Keyboard Component, Intellivoice, and the Wireless Controllers (which were never released).

 

If you are looking to release a USB add-on that works consistently with whatever it plugs into, you need to go with options #1 or #4 above.

[JohnPCAE]

5 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

I can confirm that both the Intellivoice and the ECS have variants with and without the expansion connector.  Additionally, of the ECSs that do have the expansion connector, there are 2 slightly different pinouts.

 

Additionally, while the Intellivoice expansion connector was intended to support wireless controllers by disabling the normal wired Intellivision controllers, the circuitry for disabling the wired Intellivision controllers was inside the Keyboard Component.  This means that in order to use the wireless controllers, you had to buy 4 Mattel devices: Intellivision console, Keyboard Component, Intellivoice, and the Wireless Controllers (which were never released).

 

If you are looking to release a USB add-on that works consistently with whatever it plugs into, you need to go with options #1 or #4 above.

I've actually built option #4 and I'm trying to make it work, but so far the Pi Pico hangs or something when I plug a USB device into it. The nice thing about it is that it gets its own separate power supply and can be worked on without an Inty present.

 

I wonder how the Keyboard Component would disable the wired hand controllers, since those are connected to the Inty's sound chip.

[JohnPCAE]

Slow progress. My board had some extra room and three leftover Pi Pico I/O lines, so I gave it a BCD-to-7-segment decoder and a 7-segment display. It lets me display 0-7 that I can use for debugging. It also has I2C pins broken out that I can use for a separate LCD display but I haven't tried that yet. In this pic it's displaying the number of connected devices. It's not working correctly for hubs yet, but it's handling a single USB device without hanging.

 

 

[+fdr4prez]

20 hours ago, Lathe26 said:

Additionally, while the Intellivoice expansion connector was intended to support wireless controllers by disabling the normal wired Intellivision controllers, the circuitry for disabling the wired Intellivision controllers was inside the Keyboard Component.  This means that in order to use the wireless controllers, you had to buy 4 Mattel devices: Intellivision console, Keyboard Component, Intellivoice, and the Wireless Controllers (which were never released).

That's an interesting statement...  Is disabling the wired controllers really a requirement? 

 

Or just a convenience thing?

 

I'd think it'd just be for the sake of convenience for not needing to worry about accidental presses on the original when you are really using the wireless.

 

Are there any known schematics or documents for the wireless controllers out there?

[+Lathe26]

4 hours ago, fdr4prez said:

That's an interesting statement...  Is disabling the wired controllers really a requirement? 

 

Or just a convenience thing?

 

I'd think it'd just be for the sake of convenience for not needing to worry about accidental presses on the original when you are really using the wireless.

 

Are there any known schematics or documents for the wireless controllers out there?

It depends on the AY-3-8914 chip drives the bus as open-collector or as push-pull when it is read from.  If push-pull, then the new add-on chip will fight with the AY-3-8914, potentially damaging the part.  However, I suspect that it is open-collector (most other Intellivision chips are).

 

As for known docs for the wireless controllers, I don't know of any.

[JohnPCAE]

Well...I found that the version of TinyUSB that comes with the Pi Pico SDK is several revisions behind. I went and grabbed the newest version, and now everything magically works. I can plug in a hub, plug a keyboard and mouse into it (in any order) and it simply sees everything. I can unplug them and plug them back in, and it all just works. The interesting thing is that it sees my Logitech M545 wireless mouse as three USB HID devices instead of just one. I'll have to delve into that later to see what it's seeing.

Edited October 26, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[JohnPCAE]

Got my boards today! They look good and fit great, so here are the gerber files for them. The IntyCartExtend board plugs into the cartridge slot and the IntellivoiceII board does all the work. A ribbon cable connects the two boards.

 

 

IntellivoiceII_Gerber.zip IntyCartExtend_Gerber.zip

Edited October 27, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[+KylJoy]

On 10/19/2022 at 1:55 PM, KylJoy said:

We had a power blip that nuked it. Then I had to travel and I'm out of town.  Will try again soon.

Attempting a 3D print of the case now. Seems to be doing OK.  I'll let folks know how it comes out.

[+KylJoy]

On 10/27/2022 at 6:42 PM, JohnPCAE said:

Got my boards today! They look good and fit great, so here are the gerber files for them. The IntyCartExtend board plugs into the cartridge slot and the IntellivoiceII board does all the work. A ribbon cable connects the two boards.

Is there a BOM or should we cannibalize an Intellivoice for all parts?  Do you have suggestions for the ribbon cable and connectors?  I would like to use sockets for the ICs.  Is there room for those?

 

I'm super-excited about this but should I wait for further testing?

 

Thanks in advance!

[JohnPCAE]

Let me put together a BOM for the parts. I'll post something tonight (first I really need to get some sleep as I've been up all night working on something else). As for the ribbon connector, I suggest this:

 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Samtec/IDSD-22-D-03.00-T?qs=PB6%2FjmICvI0Gxg8eKrFUhw%3D%3D

 

It's the only one Mouser has in stock and they don't have many.

 

You can use sockets, and indeed I do in mine. As for cannibalizing, you need three chips from an existing Intellivoice: the SP0256, the SPB640, and the LM324N (I tried a third-party LM324N and it gave me a terrible high-pitched whine, but the one from an actual Intellivoice worked fine). Aside from those three chips, you can source the other two chips from anywhere.

 

For resistors, I use Yageo 1/4-watt ones from Mouser, except for the large 2W resistor. You can get that from Mouser as well. Indeed you can get all of the necessary parts from Mouser.

 

I'm still trying to find the perfect potentiometer for the project. I have one on order and it should arrive tomorrow. There is a possibility that I might have to revise the volume knob depending on the shaft coming out of the potentiometer. I won't know until I do a fitment test.

 

I plan to try a different LM324N (but one still made by TI) to see if we can source those without having to cannibalize them from an Intellivoice. I really hope so since those aren't typically socketed and would be a pain to extract for someone without a desoldering gun.

 

The ribbon cable and associated connectors are the same as those used in my ACC project. So feel free to consult the ACC BOM for appropriate part numbers for those three parts until I can put together a BOM specific to this project. The same is true for the ferrite core part.

Edited October 31, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[+KylJoy]

16 minutes ago, JohnPCAE said:

Let me put together a BOM for the parts. I'll post something tonight (first I really need to get some sleep as I've been up all night working on something else). As for the ribbon connector, I suggest this:

 

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Samtec/IDSD-22-D-03.00-T?qs=PB6%2FjmICvI0Gxg8eKrFUhw%3D%3D

 

It's the only one Mouser has in stock and they don't have many.

 

You can use sockets, and indeed I do in mine. As for cannibalizing, you need three chips from an existing Intellivoice: the SP0256, the SPB640, and the LM324N (I tried a third-party LM324N and it gave me a terrible high-pitched whine, but the one from an actual Intellivoice worked fine). Aside from those three chips, you can source the other two chips from anywhere.

 

For resistors, I use Yageo 1/4-watt ones from Mouser, except for the large 2W resistor. You can get that from Mouser as well. Indeed you can get all of the necessary parts from Mouser.

 

I'm still trying to find the perfect potentiometer for the project. I have one on order and it should arrive tomorrow. There is a possibility that I might have to revise the volume knob depending on the shaft coming out of the potentiometer. I won't know until I do a fitment test.

 

I plan to try a different LM324N (but one still made by TI) to see if we can source those without having to cannibalize them from an Intellivoice. I really hope so since those aren't typically socketed and would be a pain to extract for someone without a desoldering gun.

 

The ribbon cable and associated connectors are the same as those used in my ACC project. So feel free to consult the ACC BOM for appropriate part numbers for those three parts until I can put together a BOM specific to this project. The same is true for the ferrite core part.

Great stuff.  Thanks for the info.

[JohnPCAE]

Here's a picture of what the latest board revision looks like when you install it. I haven't completely assembled it yet because I'm out of ribbon connector parts, and those should arrive tomorrow. I have a fully assembled and tested one of the previous board design as well, but this is the final revision that you would be using.

 

I noticed that my mounting pegs under the board are a little on the short side. You'll probably have to use some short spacers (4-5mm) to get the board positioned properly.

 

By far, the HARDEST part to acquire is the cartridge connector. There are a few choices you can try and ebay might be a good source, but these EDAC ones are a great fit and EXTREMELY high quality. They can take a very long time to arrive, though, on the order of months. The part number is 392-044-558-201. I only just received them. Prior to this I was using 44-position right-angle edge connectors from ebay. They crop up from time to time. The major problem with the EDAC ones is the minimum order size: Digi-Key specifies a minimum order of 25 and Mouser wants you to order 100! It took me a long time to find a different site that let me order just a handful, and it took over six months to get them. onlinecomponents.com has a few in stock and the minimum order is 3. This is who I bought them from.

 

https://www.onlinecomponents.com/en/edac/392044558201-52866453.html

 

If you go the ebay route, be VERY careful to get ones with the right pin pitch. The pitch should be 0.1" (2.54mm). 95% of the ones on ebay typically have much wider spacing.

 

And lo and behold, there's an ebay auction for the right ones. It's a minimum order of 10, but it is what it is. They're so cheap because they aren't anywhere near the quality of the EDAC ones, but they do the trick. The major difference is that the legs on the EDAC ones (that you solder to the board) are MUCH thicker and resist flexing. They're as good as the ones that Mattel used. I don't know how well the ebay ones hold up over hundreds of insertions but the EDAC ones are as close to bomb-proof as you can get.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144445251361?hash=item21a19b9f21:g:SvcAAOSwAclbo0IG&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoCqwR00g1LQNt%2BtSCs4JsxqJ39FnImnivaMwfIV2spDzRUhkcHui7xacDXkfqOCSe3WwewXEFrFGCkV9MItZ%2BM%2FJl2Gk69NxHu%2BKfeCnEQ0OJjiHfk0GHe2K9b0LJEKmS5rAY0%2FvfZxAhw2533iRPMb0f2FfStUILfrouc%2F%2FyCkJQTo9LR6GcQU5igsTh1Ls0zmEu7owDdIC6qs%2F8%2Fc9kJ0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR-SmoeuFYQ

 

In the screenshot below, I'm experimenting with a couple of capacitors (the two large blue ones in the bottom left). The schematic calls for electrolytic caps for the 10uF and 4.7uF caps, but I'm giving MLCC ones a try. I'm curious to see how they work out. If the sound isn't right I can always desolder them and put in standard electrolytic ones instead.

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[walldog1]

22 minutes ago, JohnPCAE said:

If you go the ebay route, be VERY careful to get ones with the right pin pitch.

Is it possible to reuse the ones from an old Logic Board or an Intellivoice? A little bit of work to remove solder so as to remove it from PCB, but I just wondered if this could work. You probably have some old parts laying around, but I could help you out if you don't have any.

[JohnPCAE]

You can't reuse the one from an old Intellivoice because the style is different. My design calls for a right-angle connector, whereas an Intellivoice uses a straight connector. You could reuse one from an Intellivision or ECS (but why would you want to?)

 

I also should emphasize that my schematic differs from the standard Intellivoice in one important way. The Intellivoice uses a 74LS12 chip, which is an open-collector 3-input NAND and is totally unavailable these days. I've altered the schematic to use a 74LS10 chip instead, which has push-pull outputs instead of open-collector and *is* readily available. So you cannot and should not cannibalize the 74LS12 from an Intellivoice. Just get a new 74LS10 chip instead (Mouser has gobs of them in stock). The change to the schematic also means that three pull-up resistors in the original schematic are no longer necessary. Otherwise, the behavior is the same.

 

The general layout of components in my circuit board closely mirrors the layout of the original Intellivoice, so when assembling it you can even compare them side-by-side to make sure you're getting it right. Just bear in mind that my design deletes some resistors.

 

A final note: because I provide an expansion port, bear in mind that you MUST jumper two pairs of pins the same way that the original Intellivoice did. For mine I plug short jumper wires into the expansion connector.

Edited October 31, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[JohnPCAE]

This is a picture of the experimental version of the board, but it shows what you're generally shooting for when it's all assembled (except for the potentiometer -- this was just what I could scrounge at the time). I've tested it ("Mattel Electronics presents Space Spartans!")

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[+KylJoy]

5 hours ago, JohnPCAE said:

In the screenshot below, I'm experimenting with a couple of capacitors (the two large blue ones in the bottom left). The schematic calls for electrolytic caps for the 10uF and 4.7uF caps, but I'm giving MLCC ones a try. I'm curious to see how they work out. If the sound isn't right I can always desolder them and put in standard electrolytic ones instead.

Would love to see the MLCC work out to avoid electrolytics.  I really appreciate all your work.

[JohnPCAE]

I've completed the BOM and it's attached here. Good news: you can use a new LM324 if it's manufactured by TI and you get the same sound quality as the original. So there's no need to cannibalize that chip.

 

The part number I list for the 200k potentiometer is somewhat tentative as I haven't received those yet. They should be arriving tomorrow.

Intellivoice2_BOM.txt

[JohnPCAE]

My parts arrived today! I've finished building the board and I've tested it -- it works! I can also pronounce the BOM as good. The potentiometer works well and fits well, with one caveat. The shaft on the knob is way too short (and the hole for the pot shaft is too big) and I've had to revise the model. The rest of the case is fine, though. Attached below is an updated ZIP with all of the models, including the updated volume knob. Needless to say the first thing I'll be doing after posting this is ordering a new one from Shapeways.

 

EDIT: I've also taken the liberty of updating the bottom of the case with better mounting pegs. They should be the correct length now and not require spacers.

 

Intellivoice_II.zip

Edited November 1, 2022 by JohnPCAE

[JohnPCAE]

Here's what the final version of the board looks like when assembled, but I'm not showing the cartridge board yet because I'm still waiting for those to arrive in the mail (I'm using an ACC cartridge board in the meantime). Take special note of the two jumper wires plugged into the expansion port. Just like a normal Intellivoice with the expansion connector, you have to jumper those specific pins. Also, when installing the potentiometer, take care to not short its case against resistor R2. The potentiometer itself has loops instead of pins, so I had to use some short sections of wire to mount it to the board. You have a few options here: the potentiometers come with mounting hardware, so with some large washers you can also potentially mount them to the top part of the case instead and use longer wire to run them to the board. You could even make them detachable in that case with connectors. I went for the simpler route. I suppose you could also carefully snip off part of the loops to turn them into legs.

 

The potentiometer itself comes with a full shaft that's divided into two halves. You'll have to turn it halfway and twist off half of the shaft with a pair of small pliers. A thin screwdriver to spread them out a bit is helpful as well.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by JohnPCAE