Dark mod howto

Power connector is only extended and modified because I use its wires to feed other voltages to different parts. I used the 4pin socket from an old FDD panel to make the male connector and soldered another fdd power lead to it but also made the connectors for the other cables.

I wanted to use connectors wherever it is possible. The easiest way for me was to buy these prototyping jumper leads. When you cut them half way and solder the wires to the 2 points you want to connect you get a nice colour coded connection. When I needed a longer run I simply used 2 of them but 40 wires leave you plenty.

The board has the holes in the right position so I only needed to find the right spacers to get the correct height for the SD card socket. I used 35mm black spacers (ebay) and 50mm M3 bolts. Please note that the top right leg of the floppy drive is a copper spacer so you need to drill a hole through the bottom case. This height will leave you just enough space for the floppy cable.

I used a black piece of plastic to mark the position for the opening but also to hold the filler, this is glued to the inside of the case. I applied the car body filler with hardener to fill the old floppy opening. As you can see this is not my strongest skill however once it's sanded down it doesn't matter how ugly it is. Make sure you cover the bits you don't want to lose. I taped down the floppy icon to protect from the filler and sanding. Do not rush. I had to remind myself couple of times to calm down and not to rush. Once the filler is dried I used different size of files to shape the opening until it was good enough for me.

The board has the holes in the right position so I only needed to find the right spacers to get the correct height for the SD card socket. I used 35mm black spacers (ebay) and 50mm M3 bolts. Please note that the top right leg of the floppy drive is a copper spacer so you need to drill a hole through the bottom case. This height will leave you just enough space for the floppy cable.

I studied the existing hacks and decided to go with their positions in terms of button and display placement, however I wanted to have buttons that work better with my design. So I purchased this remote and used the Enter, left/right arrows (cut the the rubber all together)

The buttons are 1.5mm tactile switches. They are soldered to the correct position on the HXC board. It's easy to find these points on the board using a multimeter. The switches placed to a piece of stripboard which is soldered on the top because I didn't want the panel sitting on the cables once it is in place. This board also have another switch and a little extension (to balance the Atari badge button) what is used for the backlit control. Please note that those tactile switches are 4mm ones but I had to adjust (file ) them slightly during final assembly to get the atari badge to the correct height.

I did not use dremel for cutting the case, I used Stanley knife and endless minutes cutting through the plastic but this way I was able to use the correct part of the case later as a button.

for some reason I didn't want to hack the original display so just bought a similar type naked display from ebay without the connector. This is the same type as the HXC uses, 1602A, 16x2 blue LCD. The connection between this and the board is straight but not using all the pins. At first I got scared when plugged this in, because it was too bright but using the board's brightness control I was able to set the brightness to the correct value (very clever design indeed).

Once I marked the correct position I used a Stanley knife to cut the plastic. I cut 2-3mm away from the line to be safe and used the files to get the final shape. I believe this is where you can use the dremel. It was painfully slow to cut this bit.

Mounting

The place I picked has just enough room to fit the socket and the switch underneath and you still can put the metal shielding back (tricky but possible). It will not interfere with the keyboard. The socket has its own bolt to hold it in place but I used the glue gun here for the switch.

All the credits for this has to go to exxos who's not only designed and built the booster but also gave great support when I asked about the switch. My stupid questions also triggered the update of his site . The new CPU is installed in a socket.

Mounting the switch

I didn't just want to glue the whole computer together and struggle when I have to take it apart again. That is why I used connectors on cables and why I wanted to use as less glue gun as possible. So I carefully cut the metal shielding to hold the switch. When you do an H-shape cut, you can bend the top and bottom bits to hold the switch. I applied some glue afterwards but at least there is some other support than the glue.

This is another mod I found in the forum.

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=15728

I decided to use the "Television" out at the back for the S-video socket so after removing the components for the S-Video mod I also removed the modulator completely. I bought the socket below because this one has extra surface for mounting (screw or glue). Mine has one side fitted with a screw, which is strong enough to keep it in place. On the other side there is a cut-out in the metal shielding so it's not possible to use a screw there but that is not a problem and I use that side for the RAM switch anyway.

This ST has a Marpet extension with 4MB Ram and I added the switch exactly the same way as in this video. The switch is mounted with the help of a little piece of metal and some glue. Thanks to GadgetUK164 for sharing this great vid.

https://youtu.be/NecW-gh6jKM?t=840

Socket came from a dead board. Nice 'n easy.

To paint the case and keys I used Plasti-kote Matt Super black spray paint, I bought 2 cans just to be safe. I put the keys on half toothpicks so 1 toothpick for 2 keys. I suggest keeping the keys a little bit better organised than on the picture when painting (mark the back) to make your life easier when putting it back together.

And the most important thing: Do not let your 2.5 years old to "Ihelpyou" because that means you'll find F7 in the grass just after all the other keys dried.

The Atari badge is the button to control the backlight. Short presses increasing the brightness by 10% and a longer press switches it off. This is controlled by an Arduino Nano. I combined 2 projects basically, one is using a tactile switch to control an LED, the other one is controlling a 12V LED strip with Arduino.

These are the links to the projects and also the program for the Arduino. Thanks to those guys for their work.

On the Arduino, Pin 2 is getting the input pulses from the board below the Atari badge (this is where I used the +5V of the floppy power). Pin 9 is the PWM output to control the base current of a Tip 120 NPN transistor. This is basically converts the +5V range to the LED level. The Emitter is on GND, Collector goes to the Negative (GND) of the LED strip. The strip gets the +12V from the floppy power connector. I bought the 3528 type smd LED strip (SMD 5M 3528 300 Leds LED Strips DC 12V Flexible Lighting Cool White Ribbon Tape) which is wired in between the keys. You can cut the ribbon after every 3 LEDs and I was surprised how effective these sizes worked when put it down. Basically you can jump between the keys wherever it is convenient as long as all connected together. The LED height fits well for this, you still can press the all the keys down.

On the keyboard I changed the power led to Blue but left the Floppy LED red. To replace the original red plastic with a clear one I just cut a plastic DVD jewel case apart and made a similar plastic piece.

is a Domed sticker. I made the artwork and sent it to a company, they made it for me. There was a minimum order so I still have some available .
The cost for this was around £37 including delivery.

Note: I know it says STfm and I removed the modulator but still good enough for me .