What's new Pussycat too?

Many happy returns Matt, no going skinny dipping etc etc..

To quote a certain Queen song title...Who wants to live forever?....Not me...

 

The manual for my Tektronix 5301N arrived. Sort of...I'm going to keep it because most of the basics cover my oscilloscope too, but the 5301N/D10 is a single beam and the 5301N/D12 (my actual model) is a dual-beam (later models are renamed 5110 and 5112). But, I wisely decided to order a a CDR version from another vendor as well ($20 for manual, $10 for CDR), which is the proper pin number for my machine.

The physical manual was supposed to be for the same pin number, but the one I got came with a note that it was substituted, for the 5110 (5103N/D10) model manual, which is identical in every way to my model, minus a second beam in the tube. But I'm going to keep it as obviously the well-used manual I thought I was getting the seller doesn't have, for whatever reason, and I have one that is like-new condition here, and 90% correct.

But it should be spot-on for the repairs and restoration my oscilloscope as hopefully don't have to replace the CRT, and the boards I do need to work on or replace (as in totally missing and I most likely will have to make from scratch) should be identical schematics and parts. These manuals aren't just user's manuals, but Field Service Manuals and Engineering guide/references too, all rolled into one for academia, not the consumer, or that is, the consumer is known to be more sophisticated in these cases anyway.

I'd rather refer to a real manual with ring binding so it lays flat, and fold-out schematic sheets, then trying to scroll up and down a screen or wasting paper and ink to print out, which would end up costing far more than the manual I bought anyway. This way any deviations between the manual and the PDF manual I can print out and insert in the physical manual.

The manual is in mint condition except for bent tabs on the edge of section pages. I assume once amongst many handed out to students and this one was seldom used, though it was used as there are a couple penciled in "professor" notes in the first pages regarding sections and what they cover. So at least a teacher had opened it's pages at one point.



When I'm forced to rely on PDF's, I go to drastic measures sometimes, like the Atari 7800 schematic I printed out across four pages and then taped them together into a poster size print out. My glass display case makes a pretty good make-shift back-lighted drafting table. (like I had until it was stolen from storage) I figure I might as well include a couple of shots of my current display case set-up, since I've installed some mirrors and staging foam (which will be painted or covered eventually)
I just noticed in the pictures that my Atari Lynx has fallen over...

 

As they say, "one man's trash is another man's treasure"...I've finally acquired a good CRT screen for vintage gaming. Though it's a bit bigger than I wanted, I was thinking 17"-20," and I really want a Sony Trinitron as they do have the best picture hands down. But another wise saying is "beggar's can't be choosers" and for free, in spectacular condition, I won't complain. This isn't even a work related junk haul-off, but it's one of my neighbor's. I saw it across the street from me where all the neighborhood rubbish bins are placed for emptying. So I decided to grab it with my wheel barrel and take it to test if it worked. It did. So I cleaned it up and set it up.

But it does take up a lot of real estate on the desktop. Of course I specifically made a deep corner area for a CRT of decent size. But it means re-arranging my 1200XL system altogether, which is sitting in stacked chaos at the moment. I'll also have to move my Epson deskjet and my antique drafting light.

Sorry, no game screen shots yet, all systems are currently down for upgrades or repairs I haven't finished yet. I'll keep it there until I either get a slightly smaller Trinitron, or fix my CBM 1084S monitor. Then it will go into storage until I have a proper man-cave to set it up in with some vintage consoles.

Anyhow, more specifics. It's a Sanyo 23" flat screen with video/S-video/Component inputs, stereo sound with simulated surround. It has both 4:3 and 16:9 screen ratios available, 4:3 being native and 16:9 is letter-boxed.

 

And as I sit here, just finished setting it up, cleaning it up, taking pictures and posting for all of you to see, it just occurs to me that the 1200XL and 7800 I wanted it most for, are PAL and I'd be very surprised if this TV was PAL compatible, I'm sure it's a 60Hz NTSC only TV (I'll have to check the manufacturer's sticker on the back to verify) but I doubt it. Damn!

I do have a 2600 and the Bally Arcade I can use with it, and I suppose my 3DO console and Ms. Pac-man 4-in-1 games arcade joystick. But the main reason for wanting a CRT is for my 1200XL and 7800, and I forget that normally they are running through a 50/60Hz video/S-video converter-scalers that output at 60-75Hz VGA! I need a large VGA monitor for my CRT display! Doh! And if I want a Trinitron, I'll have to find either a VGA Trinitron monitor or a multi-scan monitor that can handle both PAL/NTSC 50/60Hz like my 1084S monitor does.

That's my fifty-something brain farting again!

 

CRT TV update: I did find a solution to my PAL vs. NTSC problem. A Pal to NTSC, NTSC to PAL video converter! Unfortunately it's only for composite and not S-video, but it's under $20. I found one which includes S-video, but they want $130 for it. I'm not ready for that kind of monitory commitment to this free TV yet, so I went ahead and order this one for now.

I do have an RCA2S-video/S-video2RCA inline adapter, and depending on the quality of the source signal, and the quality of the TV/monitors video circuitry one can generally get a better than normal composite video signal from S-video source, or better than normal composite going from a good composite source to S-video on a TV/monitor which often produces a better than composite if not quite as sharp as true S-video image. And vice versa, depending on the video source quality and the TV/monitor quality, so I can try both ways with that adapter, and try placing it before and after PAL/NTSC converter to arrive at the best video image without true S-video all the way.

https://www.amazon.com/SECAM-Bi-Dir...ds=convert+pal+to+ntsc&qid=1630615429&sr=8-13

 

My crazy-clever creative brain has just come up with a brilliant theory, damn it! I'm not even trying to think of such a solution, it just pops in my head! This is why I always have a project list a mile long...

What if I buy two of these composite PAL/NTSC converters, made a couple of DIY cables going from S-video DIN to two chroma/luma RCA lines (and vice-versa) and then only send the chroma through one converter and the luma through the other, keeping them separate, and then output would be chroma from one converter and luma from the other, recombined to S-video DIN connector going into the TV. For less than $40 I could have my S-video conversion, if the theory works. Assuming the converters will still convert just the chroma or luma signal, which I suspect they will.

Or even if both chroma and luma signals have to be present, I'm betting I can send composite to both converters using my S-video-2-composite inline adapter with a y-splitter after. Then at the output I can suppress one or the other (chroma/luma) on each converter, still producing clean chroma/luma signals on the outputs that I can then convert back to S-video DIN plug.

And that back-up solution just now popped in my brain too! I'm going to take the chance I'm right and order another!

 

Might be just a wild guess Matt, but you seem like the kind of guy who just gets a kick out of finding your own solutions as much as you do actually using your computers

 

@nysavant Guilty as charged. I've always said working on the hardware was half of my hobby and the other actually using it, so I guess my brain on auto-pilot solution mode when it comes to anything hardware related.

It happened to me with the Dragonfly device for the 7800 yesterday too. Though I've experience in that case so it wasn't a surprise I came up with a needed solution there too; When I ordered the Dragonfly device it comes with different options. A basic version which only includes the SD drive and 16K expanded memory, or add on a Pokeymax and YM2151 sound boards. Or, of course, you can install a standard Pokey chip yourself. There's not much in the way of stereo sound software for the 7800 yet anyway.

But the Pokeymax was not available as an upgrade when I ordered, stock ran out with no new coming in. So I had no choice but to buy one without the Pokeymax and only the YM2151. But I thought I could use a Pokeymax I already have in it, but the creator of the Dragonfly informed me that they had to be specially programmed for the Dragonfly/7800 anyway, and I did want it for my 1200XL.

So my brilliant idea was to go old-school, back to the original piggy-back style dual-Pokey upgrades of the late 80's and early 90's and have my Pokey stereo sound on the Dragonfly without the need for a specially programmed Pokeymax. I'll only lose out on the supported COVOX DMA, which I'll have on both my 8-bits anway, so I can get my COVOX "fix" from them.

I just have to hook the extra Pokey's pins that are used up to the right pins on the right IC's (or cartridge pins going to the right pins on the right IC's), which may be slightly different than the 8-bit Atari, but it's mainly a wire to the 6502 and then a few wires going in-between the two Pokey's with a 74LSXX IC in between which is piggy-backed to another 74LSXX on the mobo just for power and ground the other pins are all lifted and ones not used are cut. And then the audio out lines from each Pokey.

I think it may be much easier than all of that though, as the Pokeymax chips have a header which wires connect to and go out to connect to the mobo just like two real Pokeys and wires from their pins. And when I installed the Pokey, I saw a header on the Dragonfly mobo right next to the Pokey socket, so I think all I'll have to do is connect the lines from the second Pokey right to that header and it will work just like a dual-pokey Pokeymax (without needing any special programming as it's real Pokey's not emulated/simulated ones and no need for COVOX support, which I suspect is the bit that need the programming anyway.

 

I'm similar to Matt in the way of tinkering being as much fun as the items themselves. Back in the day, I enjoyed ripping out sprites, character sets, area maps etc etc as much as playing the games. I mean, who didn't like the Preppie font, it was impossible not to like it

My all-time love was to cheat stuff, it wasn't because I didn't play the games normally and just cheated them, I simply loved the challenge of finding the cheat locations and figuring the code out. I played most games without cheats with the exception of Spelunker which I found incredibly annoying with so many deaths from ladders.

So I was the software version of Matt, I love his solution finding stuff, he's way more techy than me and it's great reading.

You carry on with the tinkering, my friend..

 

When you say "ripping out" I'm not sure if you mean creating them with sprites, character sets and map editors, or locating them in games and extracting them and changing them. But I've often thought it would be very fun to do some pixel art with such applications instead of just the standard paint programs. But then I've been waiting until I at least know a bit of Basic or other language code to at least use my creations in a demo if not a game.

I've wanted to offer up my artistic services to some of the home-brew developers, some of them could have used a good pixel artist to really make their creations shine, but I've always seem to have so much going on in my life that I'm not sure I could be depended on to get the pixel art done on the schedule they may want, etc.

Basically between this type of stuff and learning to program and set up batch files to use SpartaDOS to it's full potential with system's that have special start-up procedures and on and on, trying to expand my hardware tinkering interest into software tinkering interest since I've at least got some skilz for graphics.

My plan has been to get this list of hardware repair and upgrade projects completed, with everything in good working order, nothing left to do on that front and then pivot towards software tinkering with smoothly working hardware with all the bells and whistles, with smoothly working system software to create a system environment advantageous to learning to program, and game and graphic development.

But that's also because my intention is to do it all on the real original hardware and not use modern PC and apps for development like most in the community do these days. I insist on using the real hardware I love, with it's real software made for programming and development back in the 80's, Just like our game programming heroes did back in the day, as well as the best that has come out for the Atari since, like some better sprite and character editors and better versions of languages.

But I also want to have it better than them as far as the OS environment and 2021 version of SpartaDOS and the best languages to choose from and best pixel art apps and sound/music apps for development that have been created between then and now, that run on the Atari, not a PC.

Kudos to those who like taking advantage of modern tech to make development of Atari software much easier and stream-lined and more convenient for them. But I just can't see myself enjoying creating for the Atari without using the Atari to do it. Because to me it's all about more and different opportunities to use the actual hardware I love hands-on.

 

Oddly, Art is one of my highest exam results bar Information Technology that I did in college, but I'm not very arty, I wanted to draw comic book superheroes and was proficient enough to do so to a degree, but it's my understanding of the creation of scene's, lighting and artistic reasoning that got me the exam result. To be honest, I rarely draw any more and the trophy has been taken over by Serena who is an excellent artist and has so much understanding of what art is all about, plus she's a whizz with photoshop etc.

As for the sprites etc, I was ripping them from the games, as said, I'm not that creative that way..

I did it as a challenge, same way I decided to learn 6502 and some 65C816 rather than BASIC, I was drawn to the harder language to learn. I wish my mathematics had been better since programming is pure maths at heart. Shame, as I learn most stuff at a very rapid rate and normally end up being as good if not better than the person teaching me.

But all that was back then, when my brain was awake and hungry, now it just wants a snack at best..

Always wanted to fly a helicopter, guess that is now a non starter unless I win the lottery..

 

I wouldn't mind doing some "ripping" too, from game hex code to re-do the sprites, animation frames and artwork on some games like TIX does...

 

Yes, he's very talented..

 

Well my Atari Lynx El Cheapo SD cart from Benn Venn arrived yesterday so now I have all the official games in one place along with homebrew games that I have found.
I quite fancy that Wyvern Tales RPG from Songbird Productions but $100 is a lot of money…
My MSX Uridium cartridge arrived yesterday as well so happy days, really nice product from Eric in the Repro Shop.

 

Some really great, creative and inspired threads on here at the mo, guys - very much enjoying your musings. And that free CRT TV of Matt's is a winner all day long in my opinion - it's just the sort of "treasure" I am always drawn to when left outside houses around here, surplus to modern requirements, but I find my "leash" gets pulled usually in the opposite direction with the insistent command "COME AWAY!" ringing in my excited ears...from our Bev....LOL! Game on, cable on and carry on enjoying our wonderful hobby, fellas.

 

Here are some pictures of my El Cheapo SD Card





free upload pictures

 

Loikes it, Rich,

Plenty of Lynx goodness in there - get skegging!

 

Here is my brand new Link232-WiFi Board for the C64, courtesy Richard aka @Vyper68. He was so kind to include three more boards for me as a surprise. What a good little community we have here on AOC! Can't wait to test the WiFi board and find out about the gifts that Richard was so kind to include.

More news in the near future, as I discover how to use them all!

 

OOPs

 

Brilliant, Daz.

Absolutely - peeps on here are very very helpful and generous with their time and gifts.

Is it just me or can other folks see Alex Drito's image?

All I get is....

 

I can see the picture Andy

 

I just made a copy&paste from WA web of the image on the forum editor.
What's best to ensure that the image will surely be visible?

 

That helps big time, Daz. Can see your goodies now - very narce indeed.

Rich is a very generous guy and you should get stacks of enjoyment out of the boards.

Everyone's a winner again.

 

Nice Lynx card Rich.
Have you thought about getting the screen mod for your Lynx?

 

Yeah Allen, It's on my wish list. They are out of stock right now but the guy said they expect some more in around two weeks time. They seem a lot easier to fit nowadays compared to the old ones.