I'm thinking about making Atari 2600 PCB's

[benheck]

that would be like 4" x 2.875" and have laid-out spots for the joystick/trigger tact switches. You'd solder on the 3 Atari chips, a crystal, regulator and some resistors/capacitors and be good to go..

It'd probably have an extension cable going to the cartridge slot but wiring 24 pins is child's play these days, especially since everything else is pre-wired.

The problem with putting the cartridge slot ON the board is that it'd most likely get in the way of the TV. With a cable you can put the cartridge anywhere. It's also hard to find a cart connector that would work "off the board" (The less you have to remove from an Atari the better/faster)

I've got the PCB pretty much designed and am going to make a breadboard version to double-check. What do ya'll think?

[gannon]

I was doing something similar:)
The pcb size for mine would be 2.5"x3.5", but I was going to increase that size to add buttons and a controller pot

[HK-47]

I was desighning one too. Gues great minds think alike! Id buy a board though. Make it so you can attack some IDE cable for a easy port rewire. Id but one for sure. Also see how small you can get the PCB's. Give everything pin headers for maximum modability.

[HK-47]

Another thought, include those things that you used on the vagabond 2k to simulate the two prongs on a normal crt slot. Then you can use a normal floppy drive connector thingie...

[Sparkfist]

Sounds like you've come full circle, as in the story about the first VCSp you mentioned you wanted to redesign the board to make it smaller but lacked the technical skills. I have to say this will be very good indeed as it might be bigger then an AOAC, but its the native hardware and thats what matters most.

I hope it turns out well.

[MM007]

Is it possible to get it smaller by sandwiching the components on top of each other, leaving some space in between them for air, and maybe putting them in front of a fan if you have to(which would cool the top AND bottom of the board)? I am wondering because that would be nice if you didn't mind a little extra depth, maybe less than a quarter of an inch, depending on the profile of the components.

[HK-47]

You wouldnt need a fan, probably at least I dont think so. Also, if its not a super secret or anyhting Ben, can I have a copy of the pcb file? Thanks.

[Sparkfist]

I dont think you would need a fan to keep the board componits cool, the chips of that era really never had a heat issue and even epacenter mentioned that overclocking the 6502 processor it never had problems with heat. As for making it smaller, I'd say that in the end the board size is going to be deturmened by the size of the three atari chips as they are the main opstical for miniutruzation (or how ever its spelled).

[MM007]

I'd like that PCB too, since making an Atari inside an NES cartridge would be MUCH easier! ^^ It is possible now, but it is close quarters...

[SgtBowhack]

The 2600 CE guy (Larry Ziegler) did this already. He got the board down to a pretty decent size, and I think at least some preliminary designs are up for public consumption. Either that, or if you e-mail him I'm sure he'd probably be pretty forthcoming with them. At the very least, his website might give you some insights into the problems you may run into.
I know everyone's gonna jump on me and say, "Well, I want to do it too! Why do you keep calling everything futile or already done, yadda yadda." And I'm not trying to stop you! I think it's a fantastic idea! I just think it might be nice to start somewhere closer to the goal (seeing as it took this guy months to figure out how to get it to work properly due to various schematic errors, etc).
This is really a fantastic idea, in that you can do it without destroying old Ataris The parts you'd need are all available separately (though slightly more expensive, no doubt) from here.
Anyway, best of luck. Hope something I said helped

[SgtBowhack]

I'd like that PCB too, since making an Atari inside an NES cartridge would be MUCH easier! ^^ It is possible now, but it is close quarters...

That would be so awesome. I know you mentioned it before, but now that I think of the two together... yeah The thing is, you could like, have everything in the cartridge (just use it as a cheap case) and not need to worry about NES connectivity (which would be quite difficult on an unmodded NES). Come to think of it, I want an NES-cartridge-sized NES.

[MM007]

I'd like that PCB too, since making an Atari inside an NES cartridge would be MUCH easier! ^^ It is possible now, but it is close quarters...

That would be so awesome. I know you mentioned it before, but now that I think of the two together... yeah The thing is, you could like, have everything in the cartridge (just use it as a cheap case) and not need to worry about NES connectivity (which would be quite difficult on an unmodded NES). Come to think of it, I want an NES-cartridge-sized NES.

Cartridge sized NES? If you use an NOAC, that could be possible.

I plan to use 8 AAAs and a special circuit to get my Atari to work in an NES. I was told here that there was something before the 7805 that needed the (V in. What is it and will 9.6V work with it? Also, is there a way to replace it with a 4.8V equivalent?

[SgtBowhack]

I went through the 2600 CE page, and Larry Z claims to have gotten the board down to 2.8"x3" (sounds pretty desireable, yeah?)
Here is the design he's using. Considering he put it up, you could probably just ask him for the Protel file. And of course, if you think you can do better, might not hurt to start from something at least
(Heck, even if he doesn't give it up, you could probably just look really carefully at that image and make it.)
His are dual-layered though, which presents a bit of a problem for doing it home-made.. You might be able to expand it a bit and make it single-layered. http://www.expresspcb.com/ has a "MiniBoard" service that lets you have 3 3.8"x2.5" boards for $60 though, drilled and dual-layered. If you can get one of the dimensions down to 2.5" (shouldn't be too difficult with some tradeoffs made, from a 2.8"x3" design) you can just send them the schematic and they'll send you the boards

[SgtBowhack]

Cartridge sized NES? If you use an NOAC, that could be possible.

I love my NOACs Yes, I would use one. Now I have my case design for my NOAC boards.

I plan to use 8 AAAs and a special circuit to get my Atari to work in an NES. I was told here that there was something before the 7805 that needed the (V in. What is it and will 9.6V work with it? Also, is there a way to replace it with a 4.8V equivalent?

Well, the 7805 won't work without having at least 6 (some say 7) volts going into it. If you can ensure a steady 5v elsewhere, that's fine. Though I am of the impression that (I think) the video driver of the Atari needs > 5v for its operation though. You'll have to ask someone more knowledgeable about that though.
This is where I get called a blasphemer: You might be better off getting some sort of emulated Atari design working. If done right, you can probably get away with very little circuitry (you shouldn't need the 6507 because the 6502 in the NES is the same thing with more pins, etc.) and if you can make a hardware emulation of Stella and RIOT that would somehow give the NES the signals it needs, that would (a) be amazing! and (b) probably actually work But it's a ridiculous amount of work...
It's about the only way to get this thing to work on anything but a heavily modded NES though.
Why not try and get the Atari to run off of the 5v that the NES passes to the cart slot, btw?

[HK-47]

Year, the fact that the CE guy hasnt updated his site in a few years makes no difference, right?