Atari Portfolio

Back in 2016 I bought myself an Atari Portfolio, because they've always been cool.

Maybe you don't recognise the name. But you might recognise this:

Or perhaps this:

Or this:

No, that is not me, on the left in the top image.

So anyway, they come up occasionally on eBay, usually fairly highly priced, but I gave in and bid enough on one.

The process of getting this was interesting too, evidently, which I had forgotten about. I think the seller would only ship it within the US, and I had a friend living there at the time, so I had it shipped to his place..

Anyway, the reason I am posting this now, is because for years I have wanted the serial interface for it, and they are stupid rare, and always go for amounts of money I'm unwilling to pay.

Sure, I can just buy one from a few places, like: http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/portfoli.htm

But that's too much.

A few years ago I found someone's circuit diagram for a combined serial/parallel interface for it, which they had made up based on reverse engineering both the OEM serial and parallel interfaces, and I even started doing the circuit/PCB layout for it, thinking that I would have my own PCB made up, and just build it.. Though I would still have to find a way to deal with the weird connector..

For example there's a page detailing the interface, like this: https://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n10/parallelbus.html (except this is for the 600XL and 800XL, but you get the idea).

Google now even finds my partial schematic and layouts..

But I didn't get it finished, and then I lost the circuit diagram I was working from, so I couldn't even finish it.

Since then I have had a saved eBay search for the interface, which has a hit maybe once a month, but they always want like $100 for it, plus some other stupid amount of money for shipping..

Sure, it started at 1 Euro, but it ended up going for 37.50, and then there would have been some stupid shipping amount..

I was in the race for a while..

Yeah. Right.

Shit, even the instruction book goes for $7!

And then, 2 days ago.. I got this in an email:

Buy it now, for $20?! Yeah, sure, where is it, Uzbekistan, or somewhere else it's going to cost a million dollars to ship it from? I click on it anyway..

No fucking way. It's already in Canada?!

Reasonable price, no customs/delays to deal with, and it's a buy it now? I mean sure, the shipping could have been less, since it is being shipped within Canada, and not internationally, but I don't really care at this point.

I don't think I've ever clicked "Buy it now" so fast in my life.

Other info, since the listing will disappear in about 3 weeks, or whenever eBay seems to delete them, way too quickly..

So now I just have to wait for it to arrive. Maybe I can even reverse engineer it, and redo that diagram I had that I lost, and finish my PCB, at least for the serial part, until I can find a reasonably priced parallel interface..