Operation Successful!

Ok, here it is, for all the world to see. The Atari Vagabond board.

I chopped this thing up just yesterday. I had a friend at work (Thank you Thad Weldon!) blow air across the unit as I cut it so dust and stuff from the saw wouldn't get in the circuits. And believe it or not, IT STILL WORKS. I anticipated every broken connection that would occur when chopping it and re-wired workarounds in advance. At the top of this picture you can see the yellow cable that goes to the cartridge slot. I photographed my fingers with it so you could get an idea of scale. The size of this board is 3.15 inches wide by 2.9 inches high. The unit is a mess of wires, well, actually they're all quite in order. The best thing is that everything is quite flat and compact, the depth of this circuit board is about .25 inches! None of the wires actually are ABOVE the level of the chips, they're all snaked around the sides. (Except for the wires leading off-camera, but, those are temporary hook-ups) I'm going to snip off the little wires prongs on the bottom of the board to save a bit more depth.

One thing. The trigger stuck on again! Now, this has happened twice so I used deductive reasoning skills!

(Me)- "There must be some reason why the trigger is stuck on!"

(Atari board section that was cut off)- "Re... remember me?...."

"Oh, it's you. You're history, remember? All I need is this middle part."

"OR DO YOU?"

"...Keep talking."

"Why don't you take a look to where the trigger connection leads?"

"Well, it leads from the joystick port to the Stella chip."

"Yes, but what else?"

"Looks like it goes through a couple resistors first..."

"And are those resistors still connected?"

"...No, not now. They're on the section of board that got removed."

"Perhaps you need them after all?"

"You're suggesting that some pass-through current is required for the trigger to work properly?"

"That's the ticket, laddie!" (Star Trek 4 quote)

"Ok, let's try it."

[Ben connects a temporary circuit to test the theory]

"Well, I'll be a Turkish hen. It worked!"

"Just put those 2 resistors on the control pad part of your new unit."

"How can I repay you?"

"Disconnect me. I might be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line again."

"You haven't been top of the line in quite a while."

"(ahem)......... I know."

ZAP!

What a brave circuit board. It didn't have to help me, but it did. Even though it's not going to make it into the Vagabond unit, it was a key element in its creation. It'll end up in a junk box near the back of my garage, but, it will not be forgotten! All circuit boards die. Not all circuit boards really live.