My summer project: A colour Stacy

[Darklord]

I'm like you, think it will be fine but it never hurts to
add a little "insurance" just in case. :)

[derkom]

I made a little PCB with the remote buttons on it for the RGB2HDMI...

rgb2hdmibuttons.jpeg

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And just like with the LVDS controller board buttons, these are accessed from the outside via one of the doors on the bottom of the Stacy...

rgb2hdmibuttons3.jpeg

Looks like I need to work a little on that door, to add a little ribbing on the inside and stop that bowing.

The SD card for the RGB2HDMI is on a SD card extender that is behind this door, so future firmware upgrades should be easy.

And finally, this thing is actually starting to come together, and it is good...

dsos.jpeg

Greetz to @Gunstick. :D Still one of the best ST screens ever.

[Icky]

This has been one epic journey @derkom have been following it looking at all the solutions you have come up with.

A labour of love - great work.

[derkom]

The eagle eyed may have noticed that my latest photos are in a different location. I took the Stacy and a few plastic tubs of gear over to a friend's business (where he had a spare office for me to borrow). The idea was to get some time with fewer distractions, and it's helped me really get things together here at the "end" (quotes because this project feels a bit like building a model train...it's never really done!).

I cut and extended the wire coming from the button panel for the LVDS controller board, previously referenced waaaaay back in post #1. This will go up into the lid, where the LVDS board is foam-taped to the top case of the lid...

vnorga.jpeg

Fresh clock battery installed. It isn't the prettiest installation, but the original battery didn't really lend itself to pretty removal either...

arvwe.jpeg

HDMI cable routed off the RGB2HDMI and a little Raspberry Pi heatsink affixed to the CPLD...

panbeo.jpeg

@Atarian Computing (and anyone else who is trying to route HDMI through tight spots), for your reference, this HDMI cable is a FPV HDMI cable intended for aerial photography. Random Amazon example here, but you can get them from various sources, in all kinds of lengths, with all types of HDMI ends and angles.

[derkom]

So all of that left me basically here, with this mess of mostly power cables inside. I was also planning to add in a couple more USB ports in the battery compartment, so that I could have USB from both the CosmosEx and the Lightning. The Lightning USB port header has been routed to the little connector near the 68000...

niulha.jpeg

At this point I attempted a "trial closure" of the case, to see if this was going to work, and the answer turned out to be "not even close". :lol: So I redid all the power wiring, to eliminate all the plugs and adapters, which aren't necessary in a "permanent" installation anyway, and I ended up with this (note the addition of a couple of cat6 twisted pairs to route the Lightning USB)...

vualre.jpeg

So, will it close? Well, after some very tricky internal routing of wiring (to avoid getting under the shallow spots in the case), and some even trickier fishing/threading of cables with dental floss...

avegni.jpeg

Sweet jeebus in heaven it closes! This is not entirely closed (only the right hand side, which must be positioned precisely in order to fit around the floppy drive) is actually in place, but the rest is close enough that I know it will make it. I will not perform actual closure until after a good amount of testing in this mostly-closed configuration, and I ran out of time yesterday and haven't yet gotten to the point of performing any testing.

[Darklord]

I used a shoe-horn and Vaseline when I closed mine up.

Surprised you didn't go that route... :)

[derkom]

As long as I'm here, I figured I might as well replace the factory speaker in the lid, because it's so bad it's almost like Atari went with the cheapest part they could find. :lol:

A 1.5" speaker is never going to sound great, but I knew I could do better, so I ordered a few off AliExpress for a couple of €s each and made some recordings to compare results, and I selected one...

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It's a little bit deeper than the factory speaker, so I replaced the Atari metal bracket with a 3D printed one...

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So how does it sound now? Bad. But slightly less bad. :D


Finishing up the wiring inside the lid, and spring reinstalled...

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[exxos]

As long as I'm here, I figured I might as well replace the factory speaker in the lid, because it's so bad it's almost like Atari went with the cheapest part they could find. :lol:

Atari never did such things! :lol: the falcon speaker was unplugged as standard fix I think :lol:

[derkom]

Aaaaaand, I can't really believe I'm saying this, but... I think I'm done? For now at least.

The finished product...

IMG_20210511_233734 (1).jpg

Here it is on Vimeo, playing a few demo clips. Excuse the sudden edits. The backlight looks more consistent in person. I'm deliberately a little off axis to avoid reflecting myself in the screen, and that causes some inconsistent looking blacks...





And one shot running in mono mode, with the 68030 (and accompanying fastram)...

IMG_20210512_010719.jpg

A lot of software work remains of course, because right now there's a big blank SSD sitting in the battery compartment, waiting to be used. But I think the hardware is finally done.

One quick shot of the floppy+CosmosEx setup...

IMG_20210512_014504.jpg

And....

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Good night! :cheer:

[stephen_usher]

Do a google search on speakers used by model railway enthusiasts for DCC loco sound. You may find an iPhone speaker will fit and give decent sound.