Making a homebrew Atari Lynx cartridge has become almost trivial thanks to the efforts of Karri Kaksonen. His PCB design uses TSOP components to create an ultra-thin PCB which can fit into a 3D printed shell. The PCB itself is 0.6mm thick, the flash and EEPROM ICs bring the total thickness up to 1.8mm. The assembled PCB can be secured with adhesive or a sticker to the cartridge shell and used in both the Lynx model 1 and 2.
Below are some examples of cartridges that have been produced with this design.
The source files in KiCAD format are available over at Karri's Bitbucket repository. You can also order the PCB with PCB Assembly from PCBWay via this project link. Ordering PCBa has a significant up-front cost so Karri offers to sell these PCBs in lots of 10 from his online store.
The following components are required for the assembly of this PCB:
The PCB also allows for a larger 64KiB IC to be used for the EEPROM, however CC65 does not currently support it.
Assembled PCBs with components look like this...
The PCBs have to be fit into a cartridge shell. The original shell STL was designed by Karri as well, however we at Atari Gamer have improved on the design to bring the curved lip style 3D printed shell. The STL for it is available on Thingiverse - Atari Gamer Lynx Curved Lip Cartridge Shell.
This shell will work for the PCBs with the 93CxxC series EEPROM fitted. When slicing, be sure to position the model on its side or it will not point properly. It should be possible to print a shell in about 1.5 hours on an average 3D printer. You can also purchase these shells from us, if you want to do so, please contact us.
The flash IC can be programmed using an external flash programmer (before soldering), but it is much easier to use the Lynx Cart Programmer Pi-Hat for this purpose if you have already assembled PCBs. This PiHat is based on Karri's original Lynx Programmer design, but in a convenient package that slips on top of a Raspberry Pi. Software is available for both writing and reading to/from cartridges.
The following resources may be useful:
