BXTLC Homepage BXTLC LED Colors BXTLC LED trackball installation BXTLC module in Major Havoc
Installing the BXTLC in Atari Quantum:
Atari sure had a knack for producing really cool games back in the early '80's. One of the most collectable of the color vector games of the era is Quantum.
The game Quantum came from the factory with a solid black 3" trackball. Some collectors will no doubt want to stick with that for the sake of authenticity. My particular Quantum machine is a reproduction from the ground up. It has some original equipment such as the Amplifone picture tube, the power supply block, and the voltage regulator board. Every other part of the machine is built from reproduction parts. So for me, there's really no reason at all to worry about what's original and what isn't and I don't have a problem with adding a little fire to the control panel.
Since there are lots of different colors of translucent trackballs available, I decided to get one and install it in my Quantum machine and light it up. To light it, I could have chosen an incandescent lamp, a simple superbright LED, or some sort of fading color changing LED. Instead, I wanted something interactive that would react when the trackball moves. To this end, I produced the BXTLC module. The BXTLC is a small circuit board that plugs directly into the opto-board of a standard trackball and controls a highpower LED and responds to the ball movement.
To see how the light looks when installed, check out the videos at the end of this page.
The biggest issue with adding lighting to a trackball in Quantum is keeping the lighting modification to a very low profile. Inside the hole in plastic housing, there's only 7.5mm of depth before contacting the trackball itself. As the control panel opens or closes, there's literally only about 3mm of clearance between the bottom of trackball housing and the steel of the control panel hinge and wood of the cabinet.
To see details of exactly how I mounted the BXTLC highpower LED into the trackball housing, go to LED installation.
The following pictures show the BXTLC board installed on the trackball mounted in the Quantum control panel.
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