Intellivision 2024 Hardware Design?

[First Spear]

 

 

I like the design below, but I think in 2024 it could be useful to have a 3D printed kind of "vertical chassis" where an owner could disassemble their Intellivoice and ECS, put them inside a housing that sits on top of the master component (and they are daisy-chain-connected inside), with a "C" connector to plug in the cartridge. The master component would go on the bottom so the hand controller cables would work better. I think vertical would fit better in collections and modern entertainment centers than the super-horizontal current design.

 

Does anyone here have 3D printing experience to comment on how it could be done?

 

 

 

 

 

 (pointers to this and other images are from the Intellivision FAQ)

[Walter Ives]

On 4/30/2024 at 12:12 PM, First Spear said:

I like the design below

This particular design has the problem that that the loading and capacitance on the microprocessor bus would be quite high. The performance of the CP1600 output drivers is specified for a 1 TTL load and 25 pf of bus capacitance. The load for this design would probably be too high for even the very slow clock rate used by the Master Component.

 

So much of the original paperwork was lost that there is a tendency to put far too much weight on the snippets that happened to survive. Projects were driven by Preliminary Design's project leaders, not the graphics designers. The designers were in a separate support group that various desing groups could draw upon on an as needed basis. The project leaders described what they wanted and the assigned industrial designer drew up one or more designs to match. For example, Dave Chandler says, "I want a pull-out tray that holds multiple program ROMs," and the designers deliver several sketches of housings that can hold such a tray. They were quite good at their job, able to deliver drawings such as this one a day or two later. The ensuing wash-rinse-repeat cycle could quickly generate a lot of paper. In the case of this particular drawing, the responsible circuit designer would surely have taken one look at the sketch, immediately seen the bus loading problem and put an end to this particular design direction. It was a team effort, with the project leader in the role of director.

 

WJI

 

[First Spear]

On 6/8/2024 at 6:52 AM, Walter Ives said:

This particular design has the problem that that the loading and capacitance on the microprocessor bus would be quite high. The performance of the CP1600 output drivers is specified for a 1 TTL load and 25 pf of bus capacitance. The load for this design would probably be too high for (snip)

 

That is great information, thanks for the insight.

Because of my extreme hardware ignorance (even greater than my software ignorance haha), would it be possible to add any hardware inline (and/or user replaceable parts) to this design work? I was fantasizing that in 2024 it might be easier to add the extra capability more cheaply than was possible in the early 1980s.

 

Thanks.