Dateline: December 10th, 2000

I've been kinda busy lately with my other project, (that being a black and white 1950's horror movie called Lizard of Death, when the website for the movie goes online, I will have a link in my Info Hub section). I have to have it done by the 19th so that has taken priority over the Atari thing for a couple weeks. But I've taken a break from final editing of the movie to write this Vagabond update.

I've gone back to the original idea of using a portable TV for the screen of the Atari instead of a video-only module. Mostly because video-only modules are hard to find. Perhaps if I was more in the industry it wouldn't be hard to find one, but I live in Wisconsin so I lose!

I set this up today. It's a Sony Info Lithium battery "A" hooked into the power jack of the 2600 motherboard "C" that I hacked off, which I'm using (for now) to regulate the power into the Vagabond board section "D". Item "B" is a cartridge that was ripped apart so I could plug it into the slot easily during testing. (Frogger had to die, just like Earl). And item "E" is the TV, of course.

Now, the interesting thing with this picture is this: That TV needs 6 volts to run (since it takes 4 AA's) but I thought "Heck, maybe it'll run off 5 volts". There's a spot on the Atari board that is +5 volts. I hooked up the TV's DC POWER IN jack to that spot on the Atari board and then grounded the power in jack to the Atari's ground.

And it worked. The TV is getting power directly from the power that's running through the Atari board. This might seem cheap and weird, and I'm sure electrical engineers reading this will vomit and then print out my picture with the expressed purpose of throwing darts at it, but, again, this works and will simplify things in the long run.

I let this baby set there to see how long the battery would last. (I watched "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly" as I waited). It lasted one hour, which is as long as the original VCSp would run before the 9 volt died. But in this case, the battery is powering BOTH the Atari and the screen, and the battery is rechargeable. Also, when I install a better power regular it will increase battery life as well. So it will only get better. Here's why:

 (This info thanks to Bryan Edewaard)

The power regulator in an Atari 2600 is a generic 7805 type. It takes anything over 5 volts and knocks it down to 5 volts. But, when the input power goes below 7 volts, it stops working. It's got a 2-volt margin of error, so to speak. And that's what happened with my setup. It stop working, and I tested the battery and sure enough, it was at 7 volts. But, if I get a low drop-out regulator, it will keep running until the power gets down to around 6 volts. I won't know how much this will help until I get one, so I suppose I should get ordering! 

SPEAKING OF POWER! I got a swell blue LED for the power indicator for the Atari. I saw a blue LED for the first time on a PS2 and fell in love. (with the LED, not the PS2, although Time Splitters is a lot of fun). So I'm going to use one myself. Besides, blue matches brushed aluminum.

Dateline: December 11th, 2000

I decided I have hacked on the Atari enough and turned my hacking to the TV unit.

Here are the Volume and Brightness knobs on the TV's circuit board. But, you are saying, there is only one knob there! Well, that's because I removed the Brightness knob and wired to the end of a ribbon cable. I then hooked the ribbon cable up where the brightness knob was. Now I can put the Brightness knob wherever the heck I want! (The VCSp had a brightness knob on the inside, but I wasn't brave enough to desolder it off the TV. So it was hot-glued in place to a middle setting. The brightness knob isn't a huge concern with a TFT screen anyway) I then desoldered the Volume knob as well. I took this picture with it still connected so you could see the difference.

   Here's the removed Brightness control. It still works!

I also removed the A/V input jack, the DC Input jack, the headphone jack, and the Antenna jack. Who needs 'em? I can hook my connections up directly to the TV's circuit board. Also, it gives me a little extra room when I remove those parts. Removing the A/V port might just give me enough room to have a full-sized Joystick Port 2. I planned to have a second controller port anyways, but I didn't think I would have enough room for a standard 9-pin one so I was going to custom-build a port. But now I should be able to use a standard 9-pin connector, which is good, because you could then use any Atari compatible joystick for the 2nd player. Besides, it's more authentic.

Dateline: December 17th, 2000

This weekend I completed my Vagabond extra controller. I'm not sure if I talked about it yet, so I will now.

I had an idea of how to make the control pad of the Vagabond thinner, so I could have more stuff behind and make the unit thinner as a whole. But, I wasn't sure if it would work since it was kind of un-orthodox. So I designed a second controller for the Vagabond using my control pad ideas. I then built it. It has a brushed aluminum front, brass screws holding it together, in-line wood grain, and a black textured case. The buttons are textured as well, and they are custom-built.

 Now I know that my thin control pad idea works, and I have a second controller for the Vagabond! I am pretty well set on the final look for the Vagabond, and this controller could be considered a 'preview' of sorts, since they are designed to match each other.

Note: Although I think this control pad is pretty cool, is it just me or does it kinda look like the guy on the Pringles can?