My Atari 2800 Mod project "Wireless Woody"

[SepticLemon]

Hey there, just saying that I'm going to get my very first Atari 2600, and I'm going to mod it out with this cool idea that I thought, a Wireless 2600, which I'm calling "Wireless Woody". This is base off the concept of a wireless Master System that was available in Brazil called the Master System Compact, that would send it's video and audio wirelessly to a receiver.



Pretty much I'm going to put an Atari 2600 motherboard inside an arcade joystick that I want to build. But not only that, but I'm sticking a lead acid battery inside with a 2.4ghz (or 5.8ghz if I can afford it) wireless video transmitter inside, and of course there's a wireless video receiver that's separate to the system.

What I'm going to do is build a Composite video mod, which from what I've seen on sites seem to be simple; remove some resistors and combine the chroma and luma posts to make the positive for the composite video cable; the audio apparently is available on a side of a capacitor next to these resistors.

Then I need to build a simple power regulation board; since the 2600 works at 9 volts, and the lead acid battery is 12 volts, I'll be using a 9 volt regulator and a smoothing capacitor to cut the power down for the Atari 2600 motherboard, but I still need 12 volts for the wireless video sender, that will work straight off the battery.

The Arcade stick itself, as Japanese in style it may look, I'll be making it look like a huge 2600 joystick. In 2600 fashion the action button will be to the left of the joystick, and I'll be putting a dotted orange ring around the joystick. The base of the Joystick will be made of wood, in similar fashion the wood grain effect on the woody 2600. The Switches and cartridge slot will be made available on the top of the joystick, access to the battery and components will be done by opening a hinge on the under belly of the joystick. I might think of adding joystick ports for 2 player action or paddle controls.

The design will look something like this...



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Tell me what you think guys, I think this would be a cool idea for an Atari 2600 mod. I've been debating if I should, or should not include the paddles on the stick, thing is I don't want to clutter it too much.

[SepticLemon]

Lol, I named the thread "My Atari 2800 Project" lols

[NL-Mike]

I like the idea of doing some modding on an old console (if it's not a rare console and all).
So if you're going for it, and put up some photos every once and a while here, I'll be following this topic!

[SepticLemon]

The funny thing is, I'm more scared of the Wood work than the electronics since I don't have any real wood work tools, lol.

Damn it why does my Dad live on the other side of the world when I need him! lol

[SubaruBrat]

But not only that, but I'm sticking a lead acid battery inside wit

For the price of a lead acid you could go Lipo and have a much lighter and more compact unit with more capacity.

[SepticLemon]

true, but any suggestions on that though?

Bare in mind that the Transmitter needs 12 volts, I could have a mass of 10 AA NiMH batteries, but that would be a bitch to charge up though, lol. Unless I can find myself an insane 12-16 AA battery charger, lol.

[SubaruBrat]

11.1v should be close enough. The battery I put the link to is equall to a 2.2AH lead acid, and is about 1/5 the size and weight.

Battery: http://cgi.ebay.com/11-1v-2200mAh-3S...item2eb664719d


Charger: http://cgi.ebay.com/Venom-2-3-Cell-L...item35b3f77d0d


I was also thinking, you could install a Harmony multi-cart mounted at 90deg and you would not have to worry about cart access as all the games would always be on the unit.

[SepticLemon]

Ah... ok, a rechargeable battery for an RC car, interesting... There's a brand new model shop near me, I might see what RC car batteries they have, and hope they got something close to 12V.

Oh and just an update, I received my 2600 today, been playing Demon Attack and Yar's Revenge on it. One slight problem, the joystick's up direction doesn't work, I'm going to email the person who sold it to me and find out if I can get a replacement or a refund.

[SubaruBrat]

They should have 3 cell Lipos which are 11.1 volts. If you have a multimeter I would suggest hooking your project up and measuring how much current it draws with everything powered on. Then you can calculate the battery life and determine what size battery you want to buy. If a 2200mah gives you 6 hours you might not want to pay twice as much for a 4000mah.

[SepticLemon]

Ok, well I just drew this up, a simple design for my power distributor. The only thing that I'm a bit off with is the poly cap on between the Output and Earth on the Regulator, it's just that a friend of mine told me that I should put it there for voltage smoothing. But apart from that is there anything else I should include?



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