Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Includes Atari 2600, Nintendo 8-bit, Sega Master System, MSX and more!

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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Basement_Modder » Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:53 pm

I have that LCD.

Finish this in a week now. You can do it.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Mario » Thu Jun 17, 2010 2:31 pm

Does waiting for paint to dry count? :P

I got my Atari carts yesterday, and I found I have enough room (just BARELY) to have the cart slide in the top. I needed a way to mount the PC board I had the slot soldered to, but I didn't have brackets small enough. So, I took some NES shielding, cut it up and bent and soldered it into some tiny brackets. They're really strong, especially with the triangle soldered on one side.

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The spacers are there to take the force of putting in a cartridge and distribute it to the top of the PC board. Otherwise, it would rip the traces off after a few cart insertions.

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There is almost no room for the cart. I had to dremel all the way to the bottom of the bottom half and in the top half the cart clears the components on the screen by about a tenth of a millimeter. But, it fits! So, next I need to wire the cartridge slot to the FB2, put in the volume control and select/reset buttons, and paint the bottom half.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Donalbain619 » Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:08 am

:shock: NERD BRAIN BONER! Love it.
I have nothing clever to say here. Sorry.

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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by lovablechevy » Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:12 am

this is looking so great, mario!

and i love your paint choice. :D

just one question - how hard would you say cutting the fb board was? is it easy to follow traces to know what to solder where? or would you be willing to maybe post a diagram or something? ;)

and out of curiosity, do you happen to know the entire draw from stella?

your work is awesome, as always!
Last edited by lovablechevy on Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by brunoip » Fri Jun 18, 2010 8:36 am

I thought It was just for built-in games.
It's becoming amazing :P

PS: I patched you at instructables :wink:
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Mario » Fri Jun 18, 2010 9:58 am

Donalbain: :P

Chevy: Thank you! :mrgreen:
It was not too hard to follow the traces. The more difficult part was soldering to the traces.
If I had a scan of the FB2 board, I could show where to cut and what traces are what. I forgot to scan mine before I chopped it up. :oops:
The total draw is around 300mA. When the amp is running, it shoots up to 510mA. Good thing the Atari 2600 doesn't have background music! :wink:

Bruno: Thanks, I saw the patch. :D

More photos!
Got the cartridge slot working (I wired it backwards the first time. :facepalm:)
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The back, painted. Still needs more paint, though. You can see the volume knob hole on the left and on the right are the holes for the Select/Reset tacts.
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Left to right: Charge port, A/V out, 2nd player controller port.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by phantom92opera » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:02 am

did you bend the acrylic yourself? I remember 7th grade tech ed we did something like that with a heatstrip... unfortunately i just have a heat gun... which gives me ideas...

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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by lovablechevy » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:06 am

Mario wrote:Chevy: Thank you! :mrgreen:
It was not too hard to follow the traces. The more difficult part was soldering to the traces.
If I had a scan of the FB2 board, I could show where to cut and what traces are what. I forgot to scan mine before I chopped it up. :oops:
The total draw is around 300mA. When the amp is running, it shoots up to 510mA. Good thing the Atari 2600 doesn't have background music! :wink:
i'll get you a scan tonight (if i can get my scanner at home working) or on monday (if i have to use my work scanner). :D

do you (or anyone else) happen to know what the cut down fb2 board by itself draws? my curiosity is getting the best of me....

it's coming along so great! congrats on adding the cart slot!
they call me the Queen of Bondo, though maybe i should be called the Queen of Epoxy Putty

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current project - code name: blue mushroom!

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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Mario » Fri Jun 18, 2010 10:22 am

Alright, cool. :)
I think the draw is around 120mA, but I'll have to check when I get back home on Sunday.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Bino Gas » Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:05 pm

Looking good; great job with the cart slot. You just got me interested in Atari (never owned one). :P
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Mario » Fri Jun 18, 2010 5:03 pm

Ha, I never had one, either. I thought Atari would be a fun system to portablize, so I decided to do it.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Basement_Modder » Fri Jun 18, 2010 7:46 pm

phantom92opera wrote:did you bend the acrylic yourself? I remember 7th grade tech ed we did something like that with a heatstrip... unfortunately i just have a heat gun... which gives me ideas...
It's in one of those cases that iPod touches (2nd and 3rd gen) come in.
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by Mario » Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:22 pm

Chevy, do you have that scan? I'll start on the diagram as soon as you do. :)

Over the weekend I got some countersunk screws. They are perfectly flush with the case and plenty strong:
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The cartridge wiring was much too thick, so I redid it with 32 wire and didn't separate all the strands.
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Here is the volume control and the select/reset buttons: (sorry for the poor lighting)
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2nd player port glued in:
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Left: A/V out, Right: Charge port
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With the cables plugged in:
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I am done paint the back, hence items being glued in. Tomorrow I am selling lemonade with my brothers until maybe 4pm, so no updates till then. :wink: Some other kids are selling lemonade and talking trash on our lemonade stand to potential customers. We're gonna do better than them. :P
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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by lovablechevy » Tue Jun 22, 2010 7:03 am

so beautiful.
Mario wrote:Chevy, do you have that scan? I'll start on the diagram as soon as you do. :)
sorry, i was rather preoccupied this weekend. and i keep forgetting to bring it to work to scan. i'll boot up the old desktop tonight and see if i can get my scanner working. :)
they call me the Queen of Bondo, though maybe i should be called the Queen of Epoxy Putty

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current project - code name: blue mushroom!

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Re: Stella: Atari FB2 Pocket-Sized Portable

Post by lovablechevy » Tue Jun 22, 2010 4:56 pm

sorry for double post, but i got some images of the fb2 board.

boo to my 10+ year old scanner... it was far too blurry. so i did the best i could with my phone.

please make sure to click on the pics - i didn't want to stretch the screen out. :D

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hope those are good enough, mario. if not, i'll try to remember to take the board to work with me.
they call me the Queen of Bondo, though maybe i should be called the Queen of Epoxy Putty

Image

current project - code name: blue mushroom!

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