Should you piggyback?

[FireTiger]

If you have multiple cart selector units for the 2600 can you piggyback them one to the other or will something melt?

[DanBoris]

Potentially you could hurt your system. I believe most of these switchers work by just switching the chip select lines, so all the carts will be powered up at once which will put more of a load on the voltage regulator on the system. Not sure how may carts you would have to put on it before you ran into problems.

 

Also, as you start cascading more of the units the signal quality will start to degrade. This won't hurt anything, but the carts might not work reliably.

 

Dan

[Bruce Tomlin]

Depending on how they work, there may be too much bus latency or some other problem making it unreliable, in addition to the previously mentioned power problem.

[FireTiger]

ok, sounds like a bad idea... thanks.

[doubledown]

The RGA International Video Game Brain instuctions actually state that it's alright to piggy-back a full set. Meaning 6 6-game changers plugged into the main 6-game changer. 7 6-game changers required, but allowing 36 games to be installed and played at the push of 2 buttons. I've got 7 of them and it does work. I had it installed that way at my old house for over 6 months.

[FireTiger]

cool!

 

now all i need is a source of cheap Video Game Brains

[doubledown]

What's your idea of cheap? I think I've got 5 or 6 I'd be willing to sell. I think 1 or 2 are loose and there are 4 that are boxed.

[FireTiger]

I'll think about it and get back to ya, in the middle of being broke.

[Video]

Actually, to my understanding, the switch simply selects wich cart recieves power. There's one power out to cart, and all the ohter pins are data to the Atari.

 

But the cables aren't shielded and you can get a fuzzy picture. And it gets worse when piggy backing.

 

I had, and still have 7 game brains, Just thought it would be cool to switch between all the games without physically removing the cartridges (especially considering it's getting to the point some are flakey)

 

I even ran 3 in a row once. Video quality sucked, but it worked. So techinacally I could buy 36 more GameBrains, and hook them together and have 216 carts plugged in at once. Never tried doing 4 at once, but assuming I could find that many game brains, and do something about the degraded signal quality, it would be pretty cool to hook every game I have in at once. :\ Boy what a switching nightmare. Would be cool though.

[supercat]

Actually, to my understanding, the switch simply selects wich cart recieves power.  There's one power out to cart, and all the ohter pins are data to the Atari.

901688[/snapback]

 

A few electronic devices may be powered down while connected to a live bus, but most cannot. Nearly any game cartridge is going to fall into the latter category.

 

There are two ways to selectively disable multiple game cartridges:

• Switch the A12 signal while leaving the cartridge powered and optionally leaving everything else connected (no signal should be left completely floating; A12 should be pulled to ground; other signals may be pulled to ground or VDD as convenient).
  
• Switch VDD as well as all the address and data lines (22 pins total). Ground may be switched or not as convenient.
  

The former approach is easier, but will result in all cartridges using power whether they are enabled or not. The latter approach is harder, but allows for any number of cartridges to be connected.

[FireTiger]

so on a mod 2600 (from keilbaca) I wouldn't lose quality right?

Edited July 31, 2005 by FireTiger