What's new Pussycat too?

My Dragon project arrived today. To whit a DragonPlus Electronics Dragon Power Board. The Dragon range of computers have an external power supply with a rather unusual 9 Pin D-Sub connector. This feeds into a separate PCB inside the case which in turn takes the power and supplies -5V -12V and 5V to the main board. The internal power board also takes the composite video feed and routes it to the UHF modulator and a composite video DIN connector.
So if you pick up a Dragon off feeBay without a proper Dragon PSU it is tricky to get it powered up without hacking something together from various bits and bobs.
This is where the new power board comes in, it basically replaces the old internal power board. The big plus for this is that you only need a 12V 3A PSU with a standard power jack, no more D-Sub power sockets. It provides a cleaner, less noisy power supply to the Dragon with minimal heat and some fast blow fuses. It also can be configured for a D32,D64 and Tano Dragon. It also has connections for the RGB expansion to output the RGB feed through the new DIN connector. There are also headers on the PCB to supply 5v to power something like a Gotek drive meaning one less extra plug is needed.
So I’ll be starting to build this next week and take some pictures then.
Details from the website below…
https://www.dragonplus-electronics.co.uk/product/dragon-psu-board-kit-version/

 

I've been trying to get a MOOH board/module for over a month for my TRS-80 Color Computer 2, but no replies from two e-mails I've sent in that time thus far. I'd like to recommend it to you @Vyper68 for your Dragon, if you hadn't heard of it yet, it's compatible with both Dragon's and TRS-80 Coco's with multiple cool features built in along with an SD card drive.and NitrOS-9 and Fuzix OS's.

It seems to be the Dragon and TRS-80 Coco equivalent to the Atari 800's Incognito board roughly, maybe include CP/M on the 800 too, like I have with my Indus GT drives with the ram upgrade and CP/M OS.

But I won't bore you with details in case you already know about it and just leave a link if you don't. But who knows if it's available anymore...

http://tormod.me/mooh.html

 

Another peek at some of my Atari 800 peripherals. The mouse and Fujinet device are complete, the disk drive and keypad are not, needing only print and/or badging. And I still need to do some touch-up with a fine paint brush to the plastic trim around the keypads of the CX85, masking tape only helps so much, with detail this fine needed.

I also need to figure out and create new badging for the 800 and 810 name plates. The plan is 'ATARI' with the outline font '800/810', like the originals, but a blue 'ATARI' and '800/810' white on a grey background. Though on the 800 the name and number will be slightly smaller than originally, with an italicized (black print) 'Personal Computer' underneath on the badge, like IBM 'ATARI' PC mock-up that inspired me.

I have been thinking a LOT about a new name plate and designation for the 800, like instead of 'personal computer' adding another designation like 'Scientific edition' or 'Research & Development edition' or 'R&D custom' or additional letters at the end like with XL/XE, like 'CS' for 'custom scientific' or 'RD' or 'XS' for 'extended line scientific' and a bunch more since it is a custom enhanced computer that will be used for research and development and psuedo-scientific projects. but right now have settled on 'Atari 800 personal computer.' What do you guys think?

That is light and shadow on the disk drive, I couldn't seem to find an angle to lose it as I did with the other devices even with the flash. It appears to be due to the mirror desk top I have. The drive face plate and the keypad's face plate are the same color grey, again, it's the lighting



The keypad will have the Atari Fuji badge and insignia like the mouse, where the original yellow Atari name and insignia were. I dubbed the mouse CX35, since it is analog like CX30 paddles, even though most controllers for the 800 were designated CX2x*.

I wonder why the CX20 driving controller isn't a 30 something and the touch-tablet is a 77 since both are analog? Then you have one trackball as CX22 and one as CX80...seems little rhyme or reason for designations sometimes...and why the hell did Atari never release an analog joystick for the 8-bit line since it is capable? I know the 5200's controller was a flop, but a simple self-centering fix was all that was needed. I imagine games like Star Raiders and ROF would have been great with analog control, among many others.

Atari controller designation list:

CX20-(analog) driving controller
CX21-(digital) video touch tablet (Star Raiders keypad for 2600)
CX22-(grey code/digital) track ball
CX23-(digital)kids keyboard controller
CX24-(digital)7800 proline joystick
CX30-(analog)paddles
CX40-(digital)standard joystick
CX42-(digital)remote control joystick
CX50-(digital)2600 "programmer" keypad(s)
CX52-(analog)5200 joystick
CX75-(?)light pen
CX77-(analog)Touch Tablet
CX78-(digital)7800 joypad
CX80-(grey code/digital)deluxe track-ball
CX85-(digital)keypad
XXXX-(digital) Track&Field controller
XXXX-(N/A)-Atarilab Interface

Did I miss anything?

The 800 and 410 still need to be re-assembled.

 

I've also made labels for my ABBUC Turbo Freezer, that will be more or less permanently connected to my 800's custom PBI port, but I'm leaving it transparent, like an ice cube, as it fits the name and it will be mostly hidden behind the 800 anyway, but also still goes well with the white and grey.

I still have to make a case for the Turbo Freezer PBI interface board, which will also house the controller ports from my 800's dual-PIA upgrade and extra 4 ports. Ribbon cables come out through the venting underneath the 800, hidden, and attach to the ports mounted in the same case, under the Turbo Freezer interface board. The case will be printed with white PLA plastic.

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the labels I am making for cases and keyboard keycaps (only the function keys and side keys like RETURN/SHIFT/CONTROL, etc-basically all the non-white keys on the 800 and CX80) are done with a Brother label maker hand-held thermo-printer. I have both white and clear label rolls. It's a cheaper one with only one font, but a different styles, widths and sizes of lettering. And as mentioned and shown before, the main Qwerty keyboard and keypad number keys are done with custom vinyl decals I purchased on-line from Germany.

 

I'd be tempted to christen the computer '800 XT'. Paying homage to the original IBM PC XT range and keeping the Atari X(L/E) lineage.

 

@M.D.Baker I have tried to contact Tormod myself for the 32KB RAM card, still waiting for a reply but if memory serves he is very slow in replying and to be honest I’m not sure if he still makes any Tandy/Dragon kit. I have asked the question in the Dragon FB group and I’ll let you know the outcome Matt.

 

The final pictures before the big reveal with photos of everything from all sides.

I am waiting only for the paint to properly cure (and time to finish), then everything will get a clear coat and all key cap decals and badges will be applied for the big reveal.

One thing I have been pondering are the Fuji badges on the 800 and 810; whether to leave them grey with the metallic Fuji, or paint the Fuji either blue or white on the grey back ground. What do you guys think? I'm sill planning on blue ATARI names with white 800/810 with a grey background for computer/device name plates.

 

Well, I was waiting for the paint to cure and some free time to clear-coat my Atari 800 system, but now that the paint is completely dry, the weather isn't with rain and too high humidity to even paint indoors, if I had a spot.

So in the mean time, with a rainy day off from work, I've made my key cap labels for the blue and grey keys and have been working on the name plates with a graphic art program, but they aren't finished yet.

So I cut out the decals and have laid them out on the keys for a preview and I thought I'd show you blokes too. Now the decals are transparent, they just have the paper backs on them still, so you will have to imagine solid color key caps with the black text (except the FUJI inverse key, which is a white vinyl decal like the qwerty keys). And, of course, they may not be perfectly centered and straight atm as the paper backing slippery.

Also, I'm not sure about the smooth-corner rectangles around the words on the reset and function keys, I may decide to remove them and go with straight text like originally labeled. At first I had the function keys and all left and right side keys (control, return, etc.) encircled the same way, then decided it was too much and detracted from the look of the colored keys and only kept them on the function keys. What do you guys think? Do the function key labels look good or should I do straight text on them as well? And if you guys think the encircled labels look good, should I do the same on the +ENTER key of the keypad (I had it encircled then removed it too), or leave it as is, like original?

What do you lads think about the blue arrow keys with the white text on black vinyl decals? Do they look good or would clear labels like the grey keys above them look better, keeping the keys all blue with black text? II wanted them to be a bit different than any other keys, but keeping the same color motif. I tried the white vinyl decals I have on the blue arrow keys, but didn't like the contrast it created and felt the black decals look better. But maybe I should just keep them solid blue with black print too and ditch the two-tone key color? I keep going back and forth, I like the black key tops then I don't. I do like the white top on the grey FUJI inverse key though, that stays no matter what.

The grey CX85 keypad face plate looks rough right now as I did some touch up (more still needs to be done) with a brush, but the clear coat will smooth out the texture and it will disappear. And there are some spots here and there all over on all the white cases and keyboard that need to be touched from my handling and assembling. All will be touched up just before a couple coats of clear coat goes on that will protect the paint from further chipping, scratching, etc from being handled/used.

 

I think all blue keys with black keys would look best Matt

 

Do you mean blue keys with black text on blue or how they are now? You said keys twice.

 

Also, though I haven't shown a side-shot of the 800 yet, just like the 810 face plate and front controller port panel as you might have noticed, the 800's side panel has been painted grey too. I intend to high-light all the relief text on the front and side 800 panels and on the 810's face plate. But I would like get your opinions on the color of the relief text. The choices available to me are white, black, blue or silver/metallic. Naturally at first I was deciding between painting the text either black or white, but then I started thinking it might give it a bit more flair, yet still possibly look good if I paint it to match the blue keys and ATARI name that will be on the name plate, or maybe metallic like the FUJI badge.



EDIT: Also, I've made a final decision on the text of the new name plate, what the machine will be called, Using the same font and style of the original name badge, the full name will be 'ATARI 800CX*,' though slightly smaller than the original text, and underneath it will have 'Personal Computer' like the mock IBM in the picture. The colors will be a grey background with a blue ATARI, as close to the Periwinkle blue of the keys as I can match, the Personal Computer will be black, and the 800 and CX name and designation will be outlined font like the original 800, though I haven't decided on one of the colors for the outlined text yet, or if the 800 and CX should be the same outline color. My first choice was white, or the 800 white and the CX blue. What do you guys think? The 810's name badge will match the 800's minus the "personal computer" and "CX."

I decided to not to name the model 'XT' for two reasons, though I really do like @nysavant 's idea of XT because that's a cool designation, but, one, I'm doing all this in homage to the colors of the mock-up 800 in IBM livery, not in homage to IBM or their XT line, and two, couldn't think up what the T designation could stand for, which is a must for me, they must have some meaning regarding the computer.

* There are two reasons I chose CX which stands for Custom eXtended line, as there is too much in upgrades and mods to be more precise, inside and out, than "custom," but it is 100% compatible with the extended line XL/XE computers. You might ask "why not 'XC' instead of 'CX' to keep in line with the XL and XE's? Because 'XC' implies that it was an extended line computer that was customized, and not a pre-extended line 800 that is customized, which includes extended line compatibility. The second, lesser reason is that the 'CX' matches the keypad (and other controllers) and mouse designations of 'CX.'

 

Oops. Blue keys with black text

 

OK, this suggestion I will go with (I decided against your XT suggestion and explain why above in an EDIT of the post).

 

It's all looking really good Matt. Not normally a fan of re-painted computers but your CX looks really smart in this case (pun intended). Almost a stock look, especially when matched with the peripherals. Kudos to you

 

Thanks. I'm not a fan of re-painted computers (or consoles) myself, but I've tried restoring the cases of the 800 line a couple of times, and I feel continual "retro-brite" sessions every year or two can only be hastening the fragility of the plastic, with noticeable diminishing returns on the results each time, so painting is a last, more permanent resort. Plus, hiding the cases from further light and it's damage with the paint can only be a good thing for the plastic's longevity too. And, of course, this opens the door for a whole new look, if done right.

I'll be doing the same to the off-white parts of the rest of my XL system as well (the 1200XL computer's off-white already painted and it's still looking good after about 5 years) as those parts are turning more yellow all the time as well. But I do love the XL's colors and looks, so it gets stock color repainting or as close as I can get (damn close). In the case (pun intended) of the 1200XL I had installed a real PBI port on it, which caused the need for body work to make it look original, and after that the only choice to restore it's looks was paint as well, but only the off-white parts. The dark brown of the rest of the XL line protects it from discoloration it seems (almost 40 years and none yet).

I also had to fgve my Dreamcast a paint job, with the same issue as the 800 equipment, with 2 retro-brite sessions as well and the yellowing of it's white case returning with a vengeance. So I had to paint it too, and went with black and metallic nickel for it. Which I think also looks good.

The only computer or console I ever painted without it needing it was my Atari Jaguar system that I painted about 20 years ago (the original paint job still looks great too!) but I was younger and more impulsive.

 

Wow, you lads have been busy whilst I've been bobbing about on the Broads.

Matt, your 800 looks truly breathtaking in the new paint scheme - I'm in total agreement with Al, Dazza and the boys - the subtle (early IBM) colour variations are perfectly matched and applied here - it looks a wonder and again I agree it would look totally in keeping with a lab, scientific, hospital or Space 1999 setting!

Chuffed that Dazza is making great strides with his C64 repairs with his pal, thanks partly to Matt's advice, and is now looking to put a C16 back on the road to recovery - it warms our RAM chips when we hear that another old warhorse is being brought back to useful life!

Richie has progress now on his Oric Cumana disk interface to get a working disk solution now for his Tangerine dreams - wonderful, mate. As you know, these babies will always be close to my heart (I have news of something extremely rare coming this way shortly which will make for a great read and has already triggered a wave of interest from a forum where the original programmer replied to my query and basically said - TELL ME MORE! THIS IS BIG! No, Al, I'm not talking about my joystick port).

Richie's fire breathing Dragon also sounds like it's stirring with news of something juicy coming its way and then Paul is eager to get his hands on a (Commodore?) cart coming his way real soon so that will generate some news too.

Jeez, fellas - I need another break just to digest this little lot.

Quick pic from the hols which in summary was a bloody good adventure IF you like boating with the roof off to get under low bridges (pretty chill and damp - ie. frequent rain showers in October), you don't mind a natural shower in a morning as the condensation drips off the aluminium window frames on to your head and bedding and you can tolerate a pretty rank toilet stench all week coming from your mate's room next door. Mind, the riverside boozers, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops were all very nice and we desperately needed a break from the pressures and stresses of modern living/life/family probs of late. Don't we all?!?


Nobbing about in Norwich (lovely city, guys - loads to see and do and very friendly locals)


Das Boot (Oberleutnant Bev sank several thousand tons of British shipping)



Our mates Fast Eddie and Lynny doing their thang with Bev at the controls driving Britain forward at a time when no fekker has a clue what's ganning on.

PMSL! Twas a blast folks and no mistake.

 

It looks like you had a brilliant Holiday @Andy Barr , great pictures. It's nice to see that canal (river/stream?), or similar to what I've seen on BBC TV in a real picture. Is it called 'The Broads?' Or is that just British slang you used; "on the Broads" for "being abroad" on holiday? I assume the first since the word is capitalized and the name rings a bell. Good show old chap.

In this combined reply/post is a picture of my latest vintage computing accessories. Two new mouse mats. I ordered these from the same place as my Alternate Reality mat and all three Atari 400 mats I got for myself, @Timothy Kline and IIRC, I gave the third to l you Baz?

Anyway, I've been using my older mats, and though I just cleaned them, they have a couple minor stains and I've decided to retire them to wall décor before they get in too bad of shape. So I ordered a couple of replacements for my 800 and 1200XL, but I had a hard time deciding, and I'm now regretting not getting the Archon mouse mat (can be seen in link below) as it would match my new Black and White 800 system (black including the monitor stand, 2 Indus GT drives and the LCD monitor and also black & grey PC/keyboard/mouse) instead of another 400 mouse mat, so I'm going to order the Archon mat too. The new 400 mat will be wall décor along side the old one and the Archon mat for the 800 and Koronis Rift mat for the 1200XL.

As you can see, the Atari 400 mat was redesigned to look like the entire top of the 400. The new mats are thinner than the nice, thick originals, but still decently thick and have a larger surface and thus also larger artwork. Though I'm torn between the two 400 mats, as I do like the new one that looks like the proper computer, but I still prefer the older one which has the full-size 400 membrane keyboard or damn close to it. But I guess I don't have to be since they will be displayed side-by-side.

The mats are sold by a bloke in you Brit's neck of the woods lads. I don't think I said where I got them before, maybe, but I think I kept things hush-hush as the two were surprise gifts. Two pages worth of mats to choose from, just for Atari.

Though many of these games had ports to the other systems so there is some cross-over in the listings and I noticed in the C64 mat listings it had Ninja and Mercenary not offered in the Atari section, even though they are on the Atari too. And thanks to home-brew ports in recent years, there are a couple of 'Ultimate Play The Game' game related mats that would fit the Atari these days too! For most of the popular 8/16-bit micros from the U.S. and U.K., except sorry Bazz and other Oric fans, no such luck for your intrepid micros. They have a pretty sweet selection of mugs, cup coasters and a few cool metal signs to hang from the wall too:

https://www.rhayadercomputers.co.uk/Atari_Mats/cat4866956_4165410.aspx


The blue dot on the top 400 mat must be some trick of light, it isn't really there. Though the mark above the fuji and in the lower left on the AR mat are stains.

 

Cheers, Matt.
Always nice getting some feedback to posts and we had a top time indeed on the Norfolk Broads. Sorry, should have given them their full title. Yes, a reet good blast and fun time was had by all shipmates, scallywags and shapeshifters on board the "good" ship Viscount. Yes, they are narrow rivers, canal like waterways and in parts quite wide estuary areas such as close to Great Yarmouth and we really had to be on our toes dealing with the tide at Breydon Water as it can "rough up":



https://www.broads-authority.gov.uk...-broads/getting-safely-through-great-yarmouth

Yes, I've come across Rhayader Computers before, Matt and every now and again they publish generous voucher codes and you can get serious money off these excellent mouse mats and other cool and nostalgic retro items. They tend to print these money off codes around holiday times so look out this weekend, maybe, with it being Bonfire Night you never know - you might get yersen a cracker of a deal!

Matt, you did indeed send me a very cool Atari 400 mouse mat - thank you - I think the Christmas before last. You have something cool coming this year/Yule, but the only clue I'm giving you is that it aint tapes (as per usual). Of course postage can be a bummer but hopefully this little gem will get to you without causing me to have to sell a kidney.

Some great items you flag up here, fella - always enjoy your posts - keep up the great work. Lurve that Koronis Rift mat - it's class.

 

Thanks for the link Andy, and additional explanation and pics.

I know what you mean about shipping these days, those mats cost me double just for that, and I believe the small boxed game I sent @Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine recently cost about $25, half the cost again of that game. I'm going to have a couple computers to ship in the near future, and that will probably cost me what the computers themselves sold for used a few years back before the "gold rush."

 

I posted about this with a picture in the hardware forum, but I suppose I should show it here too, since this thread is a much busier one. I finally got a mini short-wave radio with SSB (single side band) that is needed to communicate with the WEFAX station in New Orleans, though I'll give it a big CB antenna I have from and old truck I bought and attach it to the roof of my Fujilab trailer to make sure it can receive good. It's Arduino board based kit style-though I paid for an assembled one since I have too many hardware projects slated already.

As a reminder, this is for my WEFAX decoder board project (from Antic magazine-see thread), which I have all the parts for, but just need the time to assemble it.

 

That short wave radio / Arduino kit looks and sounds brilliant, Matt.
I do remember the WEFAX project from that old copy of Antic - just remind what extra it brings to the party on top of the weather forecasts etc you can already get through Fujinet as my memory these days is a complete non-starter some days.
Yep, the postage these days getting anything from A to B in the same country is bad enough (and so going transatlantic calls for a visit to see the bank manager) so we've all got to count the pennies but we also know the great feeling it gives sending folks something nice - and of course the surprise and joy for the receiver is often far in excess of anything we dreamed of so in the end it's well worth it if we can spread a little joy this Chrimbo, fellas.
As we all know, the past 18months have been sheer hell for most so let's cut loose a little...

 

This kit radio is the only one I could find for under $100, it cost me $60 assembled, kit form is selling for $30-35. All other radios I looked at, including the one @Graham suggested in the WEFAX thread, that had SSB, were well over $100 except for one just over, but it was a Chinese one, with the broken English translated text in the listing, and, of course, the features including SSB were not clear, so I figured it best to steer clear! I didn't want to spend more than $100 since I'm not sure how much use it will actually get yet, if I'll enjoy WEFAX or if the devices will just collect dust.

It brings all the up to the minute weather info, charts, images and radar that the ships at sea use from the entire globe, while the weather app just gives you the normal layman's info of the local weather, with no radar or any of that, though you can look up local weather in most parts of the world with the Fujinet Weather app. it will show all of this on the Atari screen as B&W high-res images or you can print them out for full-sized higher resolution.

 

One last thing for today, while my finishing up the 800 project is on hold due to poor weather and lack of time during good weather, but I have been busy, with other rainy-day electronic projects and I've created the first "draft" of my Atari 800 badge. I found Atari font used for the Atari name in general, but not the numbers and letters the 800 line used on badges and 400/800 cartridge number used.

So I found another font that matches those either perfectly, or real close, it was even in outline form like the Atari "800" on the computer...until I loaded the font up into the graphic art studio I'm using, which seems to have every style for the font there is, except outline. So I may look for another art program that has it or another font with it that will stay outlined and not turn solid as my '800CX' does.

Another thing that is not quite right is that the spacing between the A's and T and between the R and I in 'ATARI' are not as close as the standard for the ATARI name, (compare to the spacing between the A & R which is correct) so it looks slightly "off" to me. So I may have to resort to some manual cut and paste to get them closer as they should be. And of course text sizes/proportions on the badge might change still. The 'Personal Computer' font mimicking the IBM 'ATARI' PC is as close as I could find in the fonts I have available to match the one in the picture.

So, what do you guys think so far? Should the background remain grey? Or maybe it should be white like the computer and the 800CX in black or grey instead (regardless if solid or outlined)? Do you like the 'ATARI' that blue color of some keys(similar to the ST line), or should it be white or black or grey instead? Maybe the 'personal computer' should be white or blue too? Depending on the background color?

I may decide to just leave the 800CX solid white as it is. But I really must see about the proper spacing for the ATARI name I think. This badge, when printed, will be the same size as the original on the 800, 4 1/2" x 1." I matched colors as best I could between the light from pixels on the screen and the grey painted, physical objects and won't really know how close they match until I print it out, which I haven't done yet as I'm working on it in the Fujilab and my printer is still at my Atari XL Command Center, too far for my wi-fi hotspot to reach, so I have to save the file and move it over there....I think the grey may be a couple shades too dark.

The final print out will be in the highest resolution my printer does (960 dpi) on matte photo paper that will be laminated in a matte clear laminate and then applied over top of the original badge with double-sided tape, as to preserve that badge in case I ever remove this paint and repaint it in original colors. Highly doubtful, but why not think of future possibilities if it doesn't hurt the project: I tried removing the old badge for safe keeping, but just from slipping under one corner of it I could tell the badge would be ruined if I tried to remove it.



Here is the 410's badge for quick spacing comparison on the ATARI names:

 

Matt,

You've done another quality job there, mate - very cool and professional looking.

As you say, you could still faff with the proportional spacing to get it a little closer an authentic match to the original Atari logo but as it stands, I'd still give it 11/10.

Great work, fella.

That ATARI IBM 800CX gets another step closer to reality.

 

Thanks Andy. Seeing the grey color on the computer and accessories again in daylight (instead of lamp light while doing the badge) I realize the grey I used is too dark, but easily fixed. I also found a way to get the '800CX' in outline form like the original, and insert it to the graphic art program as another layer .png image (this badge is done in 4 layers for each color and font). Hopefully I can finish the job this weekend since we are suppose to have warm (enough for clear coating) and sunny weather again for a bit.

In the mean time, I've received some more parts for other projects. Some potentiometers. I need two new ones to replace broken ones I removed from my analog/digital trainer/experimenter P.A.D (power supply analog digital) and since the whole set below was only $15, with a variety and knobs too (I can use for the PAD and other missing knobs on vintage stuff), I figured I'd have more for future projects and repairs.

I also finally remembered to get some proper sliding pots to correct the ones on my Super Sketch Pad I reviewed and spoke of the issue either here or on Atari Sector several years ago, so I can fix it's flawed "engineering" and have the proper resolution to cover the full screen, unlike the originals.