WTB: VIC-20 Cartridge Expander

SkydivinGirl · Post by **SkydivinGirl** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:24 am

Hey Everyone!

I'm new to the Denial forum but I frequent both AmiBay and Lemon64.

I already have a Mega-Cart and I am waiting for my Final Expansion 3 to arrive. Since I want to save wear and tear on my precious VIC-20, I would like to buy a Cartridge Expander so I don't have to constantly plug and unplug these two wonderful cartridges. Please contact me if you have one available and thank you!

Take care,

Heather

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:41 am

I have a cartridge expander that I've never had occasion to use. I have no use for something as complex as Final Expansion 3 and the Mega-Cart rarely leaves my expansion port.

I live in the UK so the shipping to the US might be pretty hefty. With any luck, someone in North America might have a spare one handy.

In any case, welcome to Denial.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 9:52 am

It's a bit OT but I've bought 2 or 3 and haven't had any luck getting them to work, what with all those pesky DIP switches and the like... But I like your thinking... Good luck.

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:07 pm

DIP switches? In any case, you want an expander that selects one cartridge at a time, not one where all slots are active at the same time. I have a VIC-1005 (three slot expander from Commodore/Datatronic) and can say as much as it does NOT work to run the Mega-Cart and my IEEE-488 interface simultaneously. Probably it is due to both claim BLK5 and some I/O blocks. I believe a similar conflict would occur if one would try to run Mega-Cart and Final Expansion 3 at the same time. Thus the one-at-a-time selectable one.

Pedro Lambrini · Post by **Pedro Lambrini** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 12:24 pm

Yep, DIP switches! I posted a while ago in my very own WTB Cart Expander thread:

http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... t=expander

Anyway, I never got it fixed and I still haven't got a soldering iron or a working cart expander!

Maybe we should be really nice to Eslapion and convince him to design one that'll work with FE3 and Mega-Cart...

PS: Welcome to Denial SkydivinGirl!

EDIT: I was just browsing the Lemon forum and noticed the Jim Brain is designing a 3 cart expander for the 64/128. Do you think it's worth harassing Jim to make a Vic one too...?

SkydivinGirl · Post by **SkydivinGirl** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:26 pm

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

@English Invader

You're probably right; getting an expander here would probably be much less expensive.

I'd entertain an estimate on how much you would like for yours and how much shipping might cost.

I don't have a "need" for the Final Expansion 3. I was thinking about getting a uIEC for my VIC-20 so I figured I might as well go for the FE3 instead. I also wanted the fun and challenge of assembling the cartridge. I recently put together a couple EasyFlash carts. It should be a lot of fun.

@Pedro

Too bad you haven't gotten yours working yet. It looks like it's in pretty good shape from the pictures. Definitely worth salvaging if you're able. I like the stuff Jim Brain makes. I've got a few of his products already, including the uIEC and some of his Rom-EL JiffyDOS chips. I'm planning on getting one of the network adapters as well.

It would be nice if he could design one of these for the VIC-20. I don't know how much of a return he would get on his effort, but I'd certainly buy one.

Take care,

Heather

6502dude · Post by **6502dude** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:33 pm

Unless cartridge expander can isolate data & adresss bus between slots, there may be a problem having MegaCart co-exist with another cart in a simple cartridge expander.

Mayhem · Post by **Mayhem** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 7:25 pm

Hey Heather, nice to see you over here

gklinger · Post by **gklinger** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:37 am

Welcome to Denial, SkydivinGirl. Did you by any chance pick up a copy of the Denial Collection 3 on eBay recently?

carlsson · Post by **carlsson** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:06 am

Regarding Jim's expander, I also noticed this and wonder if it will work in conjuction with his MasC=uerade. Obviously it wouldn't help us VIC-20 people since our VIC carts won't fit into C64 slots anyway. For a second I thought they would but obviously I had a brain fart.

Diddl · Post by **Diddl** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:55 am

@SkydivinGirl

Welcome to Denial!

FE3 has a jumper which disables FE3 nearly completly. Only internal µIEC is working if jumper is set.

You could wire this jumper to a switch and assembly the switch on the FE3 case. So you could simply enable and disable FE3.

If you have an expander which let you switch BLK5 signal (most expander have this) you also can use FE3 with nearly any other cartridge.

If BLK5 is disabled FE3 doesn't allocate any ressources. You can wake up it by software with a special sequence. And you can disable FE3 by software with no chance to reappear except a hardware reset (red button).

(hoping you can understand my bad english ...

)

SkydivinGirl · Post by **SkydivinGirl** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:18 pm

@6502dude

Thank you for that information.

I don't actually want the MegaCart to co-exist with another cartridge, I would just like to be able to switch from one cartridge to another (turn one off, turn the other one on) so I don't have to physically unplug the cartridges and swap them.

@Mayhem

Thanks! Great to be here.

I figured since I was doing more with my VIC-20 these days, I should join the Denial forums. I first found out about this site because of the MegaCart.

@gklinger

Than you for the welcome.

I saw the Denial Collection 3 on eBay the other day and I was very tempted to get it. I watched the YouTube video and it looked great. Unfortunately, it went out of my price range and was sold to another lucky person. The games looked like a lot of fun. I hope there's another way to get them since the collection was such a limited run.

@carlsson
Wow! I hadn't seen Jim's MasC=uerade before. What a neat project. I'll have to keep an eye on that one.

@Diddl

Thank you for the information on the FE3. By setting jumper to disable the FE3 functionality, I could get away with using the MegaCart with the FE3 as a uIEC. That could come in handy.

I'm still waiting for my FE3 to arrive. It should be soon!

And your English is not bad at all.

Take care everyone,

Heather

Post by **Jeff-20** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 1:58 pm

Two Heathers from different locations. We'll see if the other Heather, winner of the auction, joins too. Welcome aboard, skydiva'

SkydivinGirl · Post by **SkydivinGirl** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 2:58 pm

Thanks Jeff! It's wonderful to be here. It's funny that another Heather won the auction.

Take care,

Heather

English Invader · Post by **English Invader** » Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:17 pm

SkydivinGirl wrote: I'd entertain an estimate on how much you would like for yours and how much shipping might cost.

As far as I'm concerned, it's all yours for the cost of shipping. All I ask in return is a small favour.

There is a copy of Wheel of Fortune for the Sega Game Gear going for 44c plus $3.99 shipping at www.amazon.com. I would be grateful if you would purchase the game on my behalf and snail mail it to me in the UK. All costs will be reimbursed.

I only ask because the US website doesn't allow people outside the US to purchase video games.