ACID chip inside

[Bryce]

3D Printers make parts that look nice, but they are very brittle, ie: they break really easily. they are only useful for confirming dimensions and look and feel of a part, they aren't very good for everyday use. We have 3D (SL) printers here at work to confirm prototypes, but the parts often break while just passing them around in a meeting. They also have a very rough surface that would need to be sanded before it would look decent.

As far as moulding is concerned, there are two solutions: Hard moulds can make millions of parts, but they are very expensive (think in 10s of thousands of Euros), but a pre-mould, also know as soft-moulding is much cheaper and can still manage to make a few hundred parts before it looses it's tolerances.

Two suggestions: Find a standard housing that's close enough to be used with minor modifications, or design the unit with a connector/flat cable and a box that doesn't need to fit exactly into the slot.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

How long do these materials from 3D printers last? There's that to consider, too, and I have absolutely no idea about these beasts... -ah, oops, Bryce was replying to my question as I was typing it

But molds and all that normally cost a LOT of money. In industrial environments (of course we're not there and we don't care so much about building quality or durability) molds  cost real money, and when one breaks it's a really big expense to replace it...

[steve]

Reprap uses parts in it's construction that have been printed on other repraps so the parts cannot be brittle if they have been printed using the proper temperature and speed.

As for how long the materials last, it's plastic,  it could be broken if you abuse it, but if properly printed it should last as long as a moulded cartridge case.

[Bryce]

I don't know Reprap, I was referring to SL printers (Stereo Lithography), which is the process I am familiar with. Maybe Reprap are robust enough.

Bryce.

Edit: Ok, I just took a look at Reprap. An impressive idea, but definitely not suitable for this application. The Reprap is really good at making thick solid objects, but the thin walls, latches and shape of a cartridge needed is not within the boundries of what the Reprap can do. I also found their home page a little misleading. They only ever show the production process and the completed part. They don't show how the part looks before it has been sanded and precision filed and neglect to mention that a huge extra machine is required to actually finish the part after the Reprap has done its job (ok, it's shown for a few seconds during the video, but they then quickly move on). In the case of the Cartridge, it would be easier to get a solid block of plastic and use a CNC machine to carve the shape, which is only slightly more work than the step they avoid mentioning too much in the Reprap information.

[steve]

Some electronic boards are encapsulated in some sort of resin material, maybe the board producers could use the same stuff to create a block of material around the board instead of a case, the board will be inaccessible so repair will be impossible but it is one option if nothing else is affordable.

[Bryce]

You mean "potting Material", it makes a really robust case, but it's a real mess to work with and it needs some sort of half case to pour it into, but the biggest dis-advantage is as you say, there's no changing / repairing or expanding possible after it's finished, which would be real a pity.

Bryce.

[TFM]

Now, we got a variety of interesting solutions...

Well, I don't like to search for a similar case, because it will always just be similar, but slowly I think this may be the best solution.
Creating a mold would definitely make more work. And 3D plotting seems to be not state of the art enough to be usable.

Thanks a lot for all the contributions! You provided all very good ideas!

[dragon]

I will say foolish.

If the plastic is expensive, why not use wood?.

http://www.gadgettastic.com/images/snes_wood1.jpg

Any carpenter could make the case.

[jbaudrand]

I probably live in wonderland, but why not asking guy at atariage? our loved machine never reach united states, so they probably won't see your project as an opponent. especially if the max limit corresponding to ACID chip. moreover, some of the guy at atariage developp custom PCB they probably have the solution too.

the number of homebrew is exploding on atari because there's some money to catch, if you succeed to make Cartridge for AMstrad I 'm sure we will see a lot of promising game maker come back.

[Gryzor]

@dragon: +1!
@jbaudrand: +2 (duh...)

[Trebmint]

I know nothing about plastics etc, so have no real idea except I found this might be a way of making invidiual cases / mold???

http://www.castolite.com/prod01.htm

[redbox]

The plastic case would be nice, but just the icing on the cake I think.

I'd happily put up with a PCB and no plastic case if it worked 

BTW, this solution for the SNES looks awesome...

[dragon]

And the external box?

i can suggest this?

http://www.mediashelving.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=W&Product_Code=USCG&Category_Code=VHS

upps sorry real price not 42 lol

http://www.shopperinc.com/product.htm?pid=572959&catid=26185

http://www.specialtystoreservices.com/productchild.aspx?group=7673&img=7673.jpg&category=3334

[Bryce]

They are packaging solutions. The discussion is about the case of the actual cartridge (or at least I thought it was).

Bryce.

[Trebmint]

I have no idea of the cartridge cases sizes, but the C64 carts seem to be very similar?

http://www.vesalia.de/e_c64cartshell.htm?slc=uk


Whats this, surely not a bastardised orginal case?

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/imgs/thumb/3/30/CPC_GX4000-Multi_EPROM_Cartridge-1.jpg/300px-CPC_GX4000-Multi_EPROM_Cartridge-1.jpg

(oops just noticed it is in effect an original casing)

[Bryce]

That's what's known as a "cut & shut". I think they glued two old cartridges together to make one.

Does anyone have the exact dimensions of the original cartridge so that we could investigate whether there are any off the shelf cases that would fit?

Bryce.

[Trebmint]

That's what's known as a "cut & shut". I think they glued two old cartridges together to make one.

Does anyone have the exact dimensions of the original cartridge so that we could investigate whether there are any off the shelf cases that would fit?

Bryce.

Was just looking at this. I have no idea of the case size, but look similar

http://www.vesalia.de/e_c64cartshell.htm?slc=uk

[steve]

Dimensions of a cpc cartridge case are 15mm x 65mm x 68mm but this last measurement can be larger as it protrudes from the cartridge slot.

[arnoldemu]

Dimensions of a cpc cartridge case are 15mm x 65mm x 68mm but this last measurement can be larger as it protrudes from the cartridge slot.

it's quite small, but I found this while browsing:

http://www.boss-enclosures.co.uk/Enclosures/Potting_Boxes/Custom_Potting_Boxes

Not sure if this would be any help...

[Bryce]

Companies like Teko ( http://www.tekoenclosures.com/ ) will make custom housing to the dimensions you want. Not sure what it would cost, but if the order is large enough, I'm sure it's the cheapest solution to get the case exactly as you want it and looking professional. I suspect that the Commodore and Atari cartridge cases available were probably made in a similar way. You'd need to send them a drawing of exactly what you want and the quantity to get an estimate.

Bryce.

[redbox]

I have no idea of the cartridge cases sizes, but the C64 carts seem to be very similar?

Could ask the the maker how they did it?

[MacDeath]

If plastic stuff is to be done, it should get another colour just to differenciate from old carts...

To show it's a new production : cannibal-free

Black would be neat...

Also while in MAdrid I found out the Amstrad Cartridge housing was compatible with an Atari conle one...can't remember which one (but this is not reciproc)

so a casing compatible with both format could be nice...

[arnoldemu]

Also while in MAdrid I found out the Amstrad Cartridge housing was compatible with an Atari conle one...can't remember which one (but this is not reciproc)

Can you remember if the case needs modding, or does it work direct?

[Gryzor]

While I agree with the color differentiation, and a black cartridge would look cool, try imagining it plugged into a CPC... not good at all

[Bryce]

I'd go for something transperant, so that you can see the bits inside

Bryce.