Denial

WTB: Cardco Cardboard 6

Hello. I am seeking/Looking for a Cardco Cardboard 6, 6 Port "ribbon cabled" expander for the VIC-20. I have other VIC-20 port expanders, but I want this one because I always had one as a kid, so wanting one is pure nostalgia here.

If you have one to part with or sell, Shoot me an e-mail at: nefaurora@aol.com. and I'll buy it from you.

Much Thanks!, Tony K

Here are a few pics of what I am looking for...

It's a shame this one never seemed to get off the ground:

http://www.go4retro.com/2012/04/22/x-pa ... -progress/

That's from a decade ago.. maybe it did get off the ground and sold out?

As I remember Jim made 100 of these, but noticed the dip-switches were to close to the cartridge slots, so you could not plug in a standard cartrdige fully. You can still buy this for $22 a piece and I got one some years ago:

https://store.go4retro.com/non-functional-goodies/

See the notes at the bottom. If you re-locate the dip-switches (or just use the cartridges without shells) and cut some traces they work fine:

Ah, that's unfortunate!

I've got a couple of Cardboard 3 expanders (just picked up a second one off Ebay), so I'm good.. but I generally always will buy something new to preserve the old.

I have a HESware expander and didn't know about its idiosyncrasies until I read about them on Denial. Glad I didn't screw up any of my carts; if it had blown my MegaCart or Penultimate using that thing I'd have been wrecked.

What's wrong with the HESexpander 5-Port....???!!??? I have one... It blows ROMs???

)


Tony K.
Commodore Collector/Restorer
Melbourne, Florida

nefaurora wrote:What's wrong with the HESexpander 5-Port....???!!??? I have one... It blows ROMs???

You should clean the slash, number 1 and shift keys of your keyboard, they're stuck.

Other than that, see here.

tokra wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 11:28 am As I remember Jim made 100 of these, but noticed the dip-switches were to close to the cartridge slots, so you could not plug in a standard cartrdige fully. You can still buy this for $22 a piece and I got one some years ago:

https://store.go4retro.com/non-functional-goodies/

See the notes at the bottom. If you re-locate the dip-switches (or just use the cartridges without shells) and cut some traces they work fine:

Yeah, I apologize to the community for not continuing with the project at the time, but spending all that money and then realizing I should have made a prototype was a very expensive mistake. I tried to see if the PCBA vendor could desolder and fix the switches, but they said it would cost quite a bit, new switches would be needed, and it would not fix all the issues (the two additional lines would still be connected. At that point, I just shut down.

I need to redeem myself for the two issues (fitment and IO lines), so I did modify the design a bit to address the issue and I am willing to make a new run, but I probably need someone I can send a prototype to that can run it through the paces.

As well, I need to determine the minimal spacing of the slots. Before, I just laid it out with the switches being in a row dictating the distance, but I think I have a better idea now on how to manage switches and now I can squeeze the design to be shorter. But, I don't want to be too short.

For instance, i think my min distance should be the height of the VIC-MIDI connectors, but maybe there are other carts that need more than normal spacing. I assume some space is needed to get your fingers in to pull or push a cart.

Thoughts welcome.

I wouldn't attempt to fit the largest available cartridges in it because of the extra cost involved - I have an 80 column cart that is about 2x the thickness of a standard one. People can always sacrifice one slot for something big like that. As long as the spacing is large enough to accommodate cartridges the size of the cartridge slot in the VIC 20 case, that should be sufficient I think.

doug_in_nc wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 2:07 pm I wouldn't attempt to fit the largest available cartridges in it because of the extra cost involved - I have an 80 column cart that is about 2x the thickness of a standard one. People can always sacrifice one slot for something big like that. As long as the spacing is large enough to accommodate cartridges the size of the cartridge slot in the VIC 20 case, that should be sufficient I think.

Fair enough, but what is a good distance, given normal cart size, need to potentially grab on the top/bottom to pull the cart in, etc.?

The VIC-20 cart port is .777" tall, so I think that's the minimum distance.

Jim

I wouldn't think much more, maybe another 0.1". Enough to get a bit of fresh air between them and not rub or scratch the labels when they are pushed in or taken out. I just measured the gap between cartridge slots on a Cardboard 6 at 0.4" and the pitch at 0.77".

doug_in_nc wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 2:21 pm I wouldn't think much more, maybe another 0.1". Enough to get a bit of fresh air between them and not rub or scratch the labels when they are pushed in or taken out. I just measured the gap between cartridge slots on a Cardboard 6 at 0.4" and the pitch at 0.77".

Essentially 0.5" and 0.9" then, doug_in_nc? It still wouldn't make it as "long" as a VIC-1010, I would think. (0.1" is about 2.7mm, and 0.9" is almost 23.0 mm, BTW.) -OGM

0.1" is 2.54mm in metric

If I use 1" as the pitch, the total length ends up 9.9" for 6 slots:

doug_in_nc wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:17 am 0.1" is 2.54mm in metric

Yeah, I used my calipers to estimate. (BTW: 0.16mm is roughly the size of a sharpened pencil point.) -OGM