Adventures of an Atari Owner Timothy Kline Administrator, Male, from Michigan Blog Posts: 3 Personal Journal of Timothy Kline. Comments: 1 Oct 13, 2024
SUBBUTEO - YOU JUST FLICK TO KICK nysavant Chief Officer Blog Posts: 2 One of my favourite games to play before the 2600 and NES came along was Subbuteo. I've always kept one or two bits but over the last couple of years had a renewed interest in it. Now got to the point where I figured it was time to set up a proper 'hang out' for myself and a couple of pals. The same pals who used to play Subbuteo in our own league back in the early to mid 1980's! The new stadium is being 'built' in my garage which is going to need a good declutter first as I also tend to use it to store CRT screens, bike stuff and a multitude of other bits and pieces. Rather than clean it out first like any sensible person would, I have instead started on "Palace Park" - the home of FC Palace, my Subbuteo team Pictures so far.... View attachment 3090 View attachment 3089 View attachment 3091 View attachment 3092 Next on the to-do list is to erect some floodlighting... but as I don't have any power in the garage that will be mean going down some sort of USB route. Also going to hunt out some original Subbuteo posters to decorate the wall and a few other authentic football bits and bobs to add to the feeling. Of course, being a retro geek, it also meant a small move around of the Subbuteo shelves in my man cave up in the flat. View attachment 3093 Do we have any other former players of the table top version of the beautiful game amongst our members? p.s. also looking for a shirt sponsor if anyone wants to make us an offer Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
AL's CAVE nysavant Chief Officer Blog Posts: 2 Hi Guys I hadn't noticed the Blog option before so thought I'd give it a try. I added a couple of new bits to my retro collection while away so will post them up here. It might even encourage me to take a few other photo's of my bits and pieces (oo-er missus). Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
Trouble with a 800XL Stackpole keyboard Vulcanman Deckhand, Male, from Somewhere in darkest Lincolnshire Blog Posts: 2 One of my 800XL keyboards with the mylar sheet unfortunately decided to crack right across its width at the keyboard end. Ordered the new mylar from retrohax_de and waited for it to arrive. And that is where the fun started. I carefully folded it over, with the separating sheet between and tested it before fitting it to the keyboard, and all worked well. Fitted it to the keyboard mechanism and absolutely nothing. I couldn't get into the self test, and trying to type from the ready prompt wouldn't work either. Took it apart and carefully tested it again, and it worked. To cut a very long story short, (about 6 hours of frustration), I compared the old separator against the new, and there is no physical difference that I can see. So just on a hunch, I used the old separator sheet with the new mylar, re-assembled the keyboard and all works well. A fully functional 800XL at last. Now for a sit down, and a coffee. Stay safe all Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
More pictures of the internals of the Oric Microdrive Graham Chief Officer, Male, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, England Blog Posts: 6 Guys a few more pictures I'd thought I'd add. Hitachi HFD305S original HFD305SX mine Notes .. Dual colour LED on original drive just Red on the one I have Note mounting points on underside ringed in Orange. a pair of holes needed in undersidee of Microdrive case to secure. Note Power plug... especially important as if the replacement drive works I'll be cutting a hole for the power plug through rh steel support directly behind the drive. View attachment 1970 View attachment 1971 View attachment 1972 View attachment 1973 View attachment 1974 View attachment 1975 View attachment 1976 Comments: 2 Oct 13, 2024
Investigating and modifiying the Atarilab Interface M.D.Baker Chief Officer, Male, from Kellyville Oklahoma USA Blog Posts: 3 AtariLab Interface modding and hacking The AtariLab Interface is a peripheral that plugs into the controller port(s) of the 400/800/XL/XE machines and as many can be used as you have controller ports for. Originally the Interface came in the 'AtariLab starter set' which was to be the main kit in a series of educational experiment software and hardware modules. The 'starter set' came with one Interface and tools and software cartridge for the first module, the temperature module. Do to poor sales and/or the video game crash of '83/84 which lead to the sale of Atari and the new agenda of Jack Tramiel only one other module for the series was ever released, the light module. But the AtariLab Interface was made for so much more, and the starter set explains, with minor examples, of using the Interface for your own experimentation and projects. It's essentially a controller port break-out-box allowing for the easy connection and interfacing to the Atari computer through RCA jacks that use every line of the controller port(s) but for the trigger/fire button line. The Interface can be used as a prototype and experimentation device for anything one can dream up to interface with Atari computers (and any computer with Atari compatible controller ports really) and through it either control or communicate with external devices from the computer or vice-versa. I have no idea why they didn't include all 8 I/O lines (one line is ground) and instead decided to include two +5V outputs on the 8 Interface I/O lines and leave out fire/trigger input. I was dissatisfied with two things about the AtariLab Interface. One, the missing fire/trigger button input line, and two, a power switch as the interface powers up with the computer or when plugged in if the computer is already on. A pet peeve of mine are devices that only power on and off by plugging them in, when a on/off switch is literally the simplest circuit one can build in electronics and is the basic circuit and basis of all computers. On/off, zero and one, open or closed. Computers are literally made from this simple circuit and would not exist as we know them without it. It's literally what makes up the internals of all I.C.'s and computers work based on which of them are on and off, high or low, one or zero. So why power switches aren't included in every electronic device made is beyond me. But, since it is such a simple and basic circuit, I add my own to devices without them, and the AtariLab Interface is one example. So after investigating and researching the interface and it's circuit, I added power switches and fire input to the three Interfaces I own. The power switch I installed myself and created the circuit for it. The fire button I implemented trough one of the two +5V lines which are really both connected to the one +5V line of the controller port, and if I need more than one line, it's easy enough to use an RCA splitter to get two or more +5v lines back through the interface. I wanted to make sure that every single controller I/O line is available for me to use for my interfacing projects and experiments. I have purchased two extra interfaces that are surplus, with no labels, separately from B&C Computervisions (MyAtari on eBay). So why do I want or need more than one? Because I may want I/O possibilities through more than just one port. For example, and the project that caused me to gain interest in the interfaces is the 'Arm your Atari' article from Analog magazine issues 44 and 45, summer 1986. It's a project for connecting a Radioshack Armitron robot arm to your Atari through the controller ports. The full project requires 3 of the 4 ports of an Atari 400/800 and originally requires the user to hack together connectors for the controller ports to interface with the robot arm. With the AtariLab Interface, this is not required and I can connect everything, at least in the research, development and prototyping stages. If needed, the final project can have it's own controller port plugs. I intend, now that I know the interfaces inside and out, to build my own DIY forth interface as I intend to make the 'Arm Your Atari' project merely a starting point that I will expand on, eventually building and interfacing an entire robot through the controller ports and I also foresee the possibility of needing even more I/O lines through controller ports, so I intend to add a second PIA I.C. to my 800 and even more controller ports for this long-term project and others. So why interface with the Atari through the controller ports (aside from the initial project from Analog doing it that way)? Because the SIO, PBI and cartridge ports on my systems are already clogged with devices that I will need too, and clogging up the plumbing even more for such interfacing could cause traffic jams and interference, etc. with other devices connected to the system. A perfect example of this is the SDrive-Max device that connects through the SIO but will not work with other devices on the SIO unless another circuit is made to allow it to work. I don't want to have to worry about device and communication conflicts when I do my interfacing projects. Also because the PIA chip(s) is a wonderful little chip with all kinds of communication and I/O properties that are hardly ever used and free to use with my projects even with everything else being used. The pictures below are of what I've modded on my interfaces, and also show how the first interfaces were totally screwed up and Atari had to manually rewire them by hand to make them work correctly, like the center interface, where the green wiring is all Atari's rewiring. Only the yellow, blue and red wires were added to the interfaces by me to create fire button input and power switches. The interfaces on either side are the extras I purchased, which are a later, correctly done revision of the Atari Interface. I scanned the original interface's labeling and printed and cut out two copies for my other devices. They are slightly blurry due to the power switch not allowing the device to lay flat while scanning it, but it's good enough for me, and still better than hand labeling it all myself. View attachment 1746 View attachment 1748 View attachment 1749 View attachment 1750 View attachment 1751 Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
Sophia2 PDF & configuration program Links Graham Chief Officer, Male, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, England Blog Posts: 6 View attachment 1588 View attachment 1664 DVI to DVI All Digital connection https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dvi+cable&ref=nb_sb_noss DVI to HDMI Again All Digital https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dvi+to+HDMI+cable&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 DVI to VGA This ones is of course Analogue and uses the additional pins shown highlighted in PINK suggest stay away from these https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dvi+24+5+to+vga+cable&ref=nb_sb_noss_2 You can use also a splitter for two monitors (DVI and VGA) at the same time: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dvi-i+to+dvi+vga+splitter&ref=nb_sb_noss Config Program Tech Details V1_2 Comments: 8 Oct 13, 2024
Two 800XLs and an 810 Power Supply Vulcanman Deckhand, Male, from Somewhere in darkest Lincolnshire Blog Posts: 2 Hi all, hope you are all well as can be expected? I've had a problem with one of my 800Xls with the dreaded Red Screen of Death. Andy was kind enough to let me borrow his syscheck II 2.2 board which initially didn't seem to help as I still got the red screen. So I started on fault finding using Atari's 800XL Field Service Manual Rev 2.0 checking U2 - U5, U18, U19, U28, and U29. (By the way, U4 and U5 are reversed in the parts list). All the 40 pin chips GTIA, Pokey etc. are known working items, along with the Basic and OS chips, as these had been checked out in another working 800 XL. All the RAM chips were checked too. This just left U18, U19, U28 and U30, which were soldered into the board. U18, and U19 were de-soldered one at a time, and checked in my programmer for correct function. Both had sockets added to the board, and the offending item at this point was U19 the 74LS14(Hex invertor). I suspect a dry joint(s) on he chip. Using syscheck, the 800XL ran through its memory check and passed. It did not pass the OS checksum test. That's strange as the OS chip is known to be good. So I re-soldered the socket and no change. Time to replace the socket, and after that it passes all checks no problem. The socket I removed had broken pins on it, which I've come across in the past. This computer had been sitting around for over a year after an earlier fault finding attempt. So another 800XL lives to fight another day. The second 800XL had the Black Screen of Death. This one turned out to be a right pain, as the S yscheck reported U9 and U13 RAM chips. These were removed and socketed and replacements fitted. Syscheck was rerun, reporting all RAM chips at fault. The removed ram chips were tested in my stock 800XL and worked fine. The problem was traced to the MMU, which works fine in my stock 800 XL but not in this computer. MMU's swapped over and all is happy. One more problem the keyboard isn't working so that is the next task to complete. Two almost down, one to go. The power supply needs a new plug fitting at the drive end, and the internal fuse replacing. I've got the replacement parts so will update you when it's been completed. Update 1. Photo 1 - new plug. Photo 2 - fuse holder with added heat shrink sleeving. Photo 3 - Transformer and fuse holder fitted prior to the bottom plate being refitted. View attachment 1508 View attachment 1509 View attachment 1510 The 810 PSU is up and running. I have now used the repaired power supply for about 20 hours, and so far and it working with no problems. The body is nice and cool, so this is another piece of vintage computing saved from the recycling centre. Stay safe everyone. Comments: 4 Oct 13, 2024
Who am I? - Harvey Kong Tin - Atari 800 owner/user from Dec 1982 Harvey Kong Tin Galley Slave, Male Blog Posts: 1 Prior to my interest in home computers - I was into drawing/art and 35mm still photography. Got into photography in a big way in my last 2 years at High School. My two best subjects at High School was Art and Mathematics. Worked a couple of years at a local department store as a window dresser/display assistant - then got into a local Colour Film Processing Laboratory - as a laboratory assistant. Didn't get along with the management there, and left - working at a couple of local factories. After about 4 years of that - I went onto a Polytechnic course on Data Processing - having a go with BASIC and COBOL programming - that I wasn't good at. I already decided go on a 1? year OE (Overseas Experience) that a lot of kiwis go on - at some time in their lives. This was in December 1982 - that I stopped off for a couple of days in LA - where I got to see the Vectrex running, and Tempest running - and it was at Hammersmith, London that I purchased my Atari 800 48k computer with 410 cassette recorder, Star Raiders and Pacman carts with Shamus, Baja Buggies, Race in Space and Matchracer on cassette. I lived in Hull, northern England for 10 months before heading home. I had my Atari 800 converted from Pal A to Pal B before leaving for home - to Dunedin, New Zealand. I did purchase a 810 disk drive a few months before leaving. I was very much into the gaming side - being very keen on coin-op videogames, especially those with the amazing graphics at that time. Galaga and Zaxxon being keen favourites - then Xevious. I would not say that I was that good at playing them - because I tend not to pump a lot of money into playing them - but enough to sample what the game is like playing. Very few games I persevered with, like Super Zaxxon because it's one tough game and Zaxxon was a favourite of mine. I met Andrew Bradfield in early 1984 - he was into his Atari 400 16K computer and bought various cartridge games for it. I had a whole load of games because of my contact with a friend in the UK (a retired Bus driver - whom I met, while living in Hull). And so, I would transfer what 16K games I had, he could run. He had special short length tapes - so that he could record one game per side on them. He was still at High School at this time - did a milk run after school - how he paid for his Atari 400, and those game cartridges he had purchased. He moved onto an Atari 800 as soon as he could - and a 1050 disk drive. I recall that he wanted to test that the 1050 could load the copied games off disk - while still in the store. This cheesed off the retailer who was there, watching. About a year or so later Andrew started on learning assembly language programming - I think he did work on a game/progam in BASIC? But I never saw it running. Maybe he lost it because of it being on tape? I have my doubts now that he would ever finish/complete a game/program in BASIC - because he wasn't really into a high level language - such as BASIC. Around this time I got into producing two Atari zines as such. In late 85' Go Atari was produced, which was 32 pages, and Go Atari News was 12 pages produced in early 1986. They contained the usual kind of stuff most User Group magazines have in their content. I'll include a few pages here as samples. View attachment 1276 View attachment 1277 Saving - this is a WIP Comments: 1 Oct 13, 2024
Sinclair QL 512KB upgrade Vyper68 Chief Officer, Male, from Hurworth U.K. Blog Posts: 2 Here as promised are the photos from my efforts to expand my QL to 640KB and also fit the new power board to replace the 7805 regulator. You can see the original board and then the "slimline" version I had to produce on the fly after it became clear the original sat way too high to fit inside the case. This probably explains why people bought the expansions that fitted the Eurocard connector. You can also see the replacement Microdrive ribbon cables, these are parts from Farnell and work a lot better than the originals as they have proper metal ends to fit into the sockets rather than the tinned wire ends of the original cables that had no strength to them to push into the sockets. The final couple of photos show the QL after all the upgrades fitted and the Minerva boot screen showing available RAM. Comments: 3 Oct 13, 2024
If only Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine Captain, Male, from Hell hole council estate Blog Posts: 3 Can you volunteer neighbours for euthanasia? Comments: 1 Oct 13, 2024
Dragon 32 Blog Vyper68 Chief Officer, Male, from Hurworth U.K. Blog Posts: 2 So thanks to Andy I am now the proud owner of a Dragon 32. This computer which was manufactured in Wales ( hence the name ) is very similar to the popular American Co-Co computer to the point where some software would run without modification and others with only minor amendments. So for Graham here are the pictures I promised. Comments: 6 Oct 13, 2024
IBM XT Just for Richie Graham Chief Officer, Male, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, England Blog Posts: 6 Only photos' Sorry about the background's, I will come back and edit the pictures at some point. Desk currently taken up with XEGS bits all over the place. IBM XT Model 5160 introduced by IBM on 8th March 1983 This one is an early one Dated 26th November 1984 The XT was discontinued in the spring of 1987 T View attachment 1144 View attachment 1145 View attachment 1146 View attachment 1147 View attachment 1148 View attachment 1149 View attachment 1150 View attachment 1151 View attachment 1152 View attachment 1153 View attachment 1154 View attachment 1155 View attachment 1156 View attachment 1157 View attachment 1158 View attachment 1159 View attachment 1160 View attachment 1161 View attachment 1162 View attachment 1163 View attachment 1164 View attachment 1165 View attachment 1166 View attachment 1167 View attachment 1168 View attachment 1169 View attachment 1170 View attachment 1172 View attachment 1173 View attachment 1174 View attachment 1175 View attachment 1176 View attachment 1177 View attachment 1178 Comments: 2 Oct 13, 2024
A little about what\'s happening at the moment with some history thrown in .. Graham Chief Officer, Male, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, England Blog Posts: 6 Maybe peep's can see just how much this glandular fever has affected me. Gone from zooming around with a rocket up my backside to trying to pull along what feels like a 10 ten block of lead. I've always stated I've never been a lazy sod, and recently I've been missing out, with no get up and go, It just wasn't me. Things are getting better and seemed to be sustained improvement. Recently been asked to help a new Drama group with there lighting and Sound, something I gave up when I split from my Ex. (It's an amiciable split, but at the time I thought it best to give it up as she was on the commitee) I had been doing the lighting and helping with setting up the sound for a fair number of years and picked up several what have been dubbed NOSCARS, i.e a take on OSCARS, but given out by NODA for the EAST region (The National Operatic and Dramatic Association) Apart from the fact I had some kind of flair for getting the lighting looking good, using lighting level,colour and timing, it also gave me a chance to use my electronics & programming skills. I built within a comic spider, the electronics both to recieve the Radio based DMX signal, and use that to control lighting effects to the spiders eyes and fangs. I'd also built the DMX transmitter and added that to the professional theatre's equipment. Well I guess I have to organise myself, Drama production if it goes ahead it'll be mid Feb 2021. The guy writing the play, ad acting as Director, has promised to work with me in regard actor's movement on stage etc. Important as going from a proper full sized theatre, to a village hall stage with limited lighting equipment. Thankfully maybe a few hours each week (on Zoom) at the moment bit more time needed nearer production date. Also been asked by a good friend to help him with returning to Motorbike racing after over a 20 year Gap I'll be building engines, looking after the bike I guess in the pit swapping tyres, chains an' sprokets etc. Well it won’t all be just me; Mike runs a motorcycle business and is very happy working on bikes, but maybe not so much building up race engines. In my youth, I have built and redesign several manufactured engines, V8 Mercrusier's (Chevy car engine's marinised) for Round the Isle of White racing boats, V8 & Straight 6's for Drag Racing, several race engines for saloon car racing, And I'm not sure if any of my road cars had engines that hadn't been played with is some way. I used to do some of this with another guy, He had aspirations and ended up working in F1 initially Benetton, later Renault and then Red Bull Racing, He was my Best man but disappeared of the face of the world following his parting from his better half. I know Mike wants’ me to sit down and check all the information we have been given for the bike, things like the gear ration and sprocket sizes to give different top speed's and work out what’s best for each circuit we visit, The math is o.k. but depends on how Mike wants the bike setup, better acceleration from corners or ultimate top speed towards the end of the longest straight, or a compromise of the two, so the info, might not be much use. That will be my biggest learning curve as I couldn't do that with the saloon car racing I was involved with. (we did with Drag racing but once found the sweet spot stayed with those gears) We now have different tyre compounds, intermediate and Wets' plus tyre blankets to deal with so a lot of pit equipment and wheels in addition to the Bike, Mike's just happy to have me doing the rebuilds as reading through the very complete Honda works manual there are some exotic materials used, and can only be reused several times, some parts are single use and replace. All of the engine build history is missing so the first engine build will be expensive with all new bolts, bearings, pistons, rings etc etc. from then on, it's keeping careful records of the parts changed, reused etc. Engine life is about 1400-1500 miles between rebuilds, and I'll have a two week gap, so maybe only a week for a full rebuild, before refitting and checking all o.k for next practice/ race. I'm sure it will impinge on some other area's as shooting competitions tend to run at weekends as well, however I'll be supporting Mike, and may only miss a few shoots. I’m only pleased that there are 24 Hours in a day, so at least I can spend sometime playing with my Atarti’s as well. Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
A New XEGS circuit board Build 3/10/2020 Graham Chief Officer, Male, from Wormley, Hertfordshire, England Blog Posts: 6 3/10/2020 Well a few weeks have nearly passed, and due to personal issues havn't had a chance to update. Currently it's not working as I'd not got either an XEGS MMU nor it's ROM. I did try adding a U1MB to no avail, all the components came out of my spares box so there may well be failed chips among them, and something I'll now do is check them one at a time, in another computer Once I have a known good set I'll retest. 20/09/2020 Well it's been powered up, all the voltages checked to each socket, all good.. I've added the 555 timer used in the reset circuit and the 74LS74 in the PAL clock circuit, Reset works fine, checked master oscillator and seeing the input to where Freddie usually plugs in. added a 'Freddie' replacement.. checked and main system clock and now also the PAL clock all good. Added the rest of the Atari LSI's , a RAM replacement board and a Sophia DVI... Until I got to the MMU & OS ROM ... And... nowhere to be seen. I'll have to wire in an U1MB to test Doh .. nearly there .. ( Oh and that will be without a keyboard so may have to knock up a TKII and use a PC keyboard until I've decided what to do.. (as no connectors other than power and SIO ( SIO isolated at the moment as no filters added)) I suppose the good news is no magic smoke ... Well not yet anyway .. 19/09/2020 Firstly; as all the PDF's now attached to a Resource https://atari-owner.com/club/resources/xegs-circuit-diagrams.68/ I decided to remove all the screen shots I'd been working on. Secondly; whilst I was in KiCAD and laying out ‘stuff’, I thought I’d better sort out the power switch for the XEGS, currently it uses a mechanical push button, which operates a switch mounted on the Mother Board (M/B), and this is also supported with a small metal frame soldered to the M/B. One problem I have is that the frames aren’t available and the switches are expensive as not used on any other Atari. (unlike the Joystick & keyboard ports (near all & 5200). So I decided on a more modern take, something that’s found on the 1088XEL computer, a simple push button that latches an electronic circuit switching the Computer on and off. The design can be used on any computer that has an external 5V supply. The intension on the XEGS is to make 3 or 4 small circuit boards that solder to each other to form the support pillar and switch, these will carry SMD components (only due to size, excepting the power FET). A 6mm square tactile push button will be fitted on the top board to allow the original post that used to operate the mechanical switch to operate it, the side supports for this top board hold the circuit components, and another likely used to connect the original switch holes in the M/B. Although this may end up as being the FET leads. I’ve included an image of the circuit, but I’ve as yet not built is, and KiCAD wants a circuit diagram for each piece of circuit board used so not being very friendly. View attachment 1355 18/09/2020 I've now posted the updated Schematics as a resource, hopefully I've found all of the error's however If anyone finds an error please contact me. Just a quick update of what the board looks like at the moment. View attachment 1341 17/09/2020 WOW Digi-Key parts arrive two day to be processed, shipped from America, and delivered in this country ... 15/09/2020 Digi-Key parts ordered.. waiting on BEST. So Practically finalised the re production of the XEGS Circuit Diagrams, these have taken a little longer, as I’ve been rechecking the bare circuit board I have, against the circuit I’ve drawn. It’s at least as accurate as I can get with the board I’m using, and although this is rev A. Its look like some of the components are missing off a Version 3 (and bodge wired in) so I’m guessing this is an earlier board. I hope that I’ve ironed out all of the issues I’ve found, but I may have introduced some other minor errors. I’ve made sure all the Circuits have the same label names from one sheet to another, thought this would be useful as wasn’t entirely accurate from the one I started with. I’m still modifying some of the lay out and a bit peeved that I can’t copy from one page to another within the program. I also got a little fed up just using a PC program and a Multimeter, and Pam got fed up with the Beep Beep Beep.. I’ve been back to the soldering Iron, and ... found I’ve a few components I’m missing.. wish I’d found out before, anyway just been sorting out a Digi key order. I also need to finish off the order to BEST as I’ve some items to order, along with some items for Richie. Thankfully I can still build the majority without a keyboard or joystick ports as examples.TK-II can be plugged in for now. 06/09/2020 Having drawn the Keyboard circuit and the Keyboards Matrix out, I today spent some time checking through this by opening up an XEGS keyboard. All the circuitry appears to be good, excepting the wiring shown from the Keyboard Socket on the Mother board, going to the Connector on the other end of the cable. The first pins all seem correct but Pins 9-15 are in the main incorrect including wrong power pins. Just in case of confusion I'm using the Pin numbers printed against the connector on the Mother Board, against those on the PCB connector. I'll recheck again and update my schematics before I post, I'll also check the Matrix but this should be correct and bar the LED the same as 65/130XE. 05/09/2020 I've been away this last week, but I did take some of the schmatics away with me, I use labels to show a signal one one page going to another , no different to Jerzy has used. What I've been doing is validating the ones I've used however a few didn't match and I've now found most of the offenders. I've also completed a copy of Jersey's Keyboard Matrix and Keyboard circuit, I'll need to check this against real hardware but I've at least got some drawings to start with, and adjust if required. I've also update some of the other's already produced in a effort to make these clearer. And when required recreated the circuit symbols, with the Legs of the chip in an order that allow the diagrams clarity, However I can't remove all the crossing over that sometimes happens. I've also created a symbol for the Modulator. That's about it for now. 31/08/2020 So I've now been opening each of the schematics, any issues I've been slowly resolving, I'd found a fair number of issues the power supply page now shows Four separate points that have individual filtering, rather than three, I added the PAL clock circuit which was missing entirely, made sure that the components have their correct designations to match the circuit board, and of course the correct Values. I’ve created new symbols so I now have a library with all the Atari LSI's, used along with usual components, capacitors, transistors etc. I’ll add parts to this in line with some of the upgrades I intend to produce, such as the O.S. Controller, PIA/VIA extension boards etc. I’m having a few issues with some of the labels that have been used, i.e. say a Label for D0-D7 appears this will be the same and easy to check across all pages, however not all of these match up correctly so I’ll have to go through them all and validate on each page. I’ve also not reproduced the keyboard schematic nor the keyboard matrix, the matrix is easy as the same keyboard as a 65/130XE but the circuit board in the keyboard itself needs to be reproduced, similar to the rest of the Atari’s but does signal it’s presence so it starts BASIC with the keyboard attached, or Missile command if not (on a standard XEGS we are talking about) I’ve just noticed I’d not put the modulator on any page, I’ll have to tack this on a page with some space. However the main work is completed. 29/08/2020 Well I've finished producing the main drawings in KiCAD now, I do have to recheck some bits as some part directly copied from the original's produced by Jerzey Sobola. Things still to check. All the Power references need to check if it states +5A or +5B it is actually from that branch, the same with all the global tags, I need to go through each drawing and make sure inputs / outputs, bi directional and all the names match. Also the resistor networks have their values swapped about and even wrongly associated that’s still to do and update plus I'll add the pin each is on. ie RP1-1 first resistor on RP1 and RP3-5 5th resistor in RP3 as an example For now I'll attached them:- Update Deleted see https://atari-owner.com/club/resources/xegs-circuit-diagrams.68/ 24/08/2020 Famous last words well not just yet I hope, but plans made not come to light as yet.. I was looking to build up several of the circuits with a view to powering it up.. Except there were no drawing of the PAL clock circuit among the schematics I have draw up by Jerzy Sobola. Hence I've spent most of my time checking and double checking, One the values used two where they are and the component identification. And then drawing up the schematic (still to do) Somewhere I got sidetracked.. I however I have completed most of what I'll describe as the main schematics Power (this includes Audio and Reset circuit on same sheet as well) Memory decoding (ROM, MMU, 74ls138) CPU’s (SALLY, ANTIC, FREDDIE, Master clock) Video (GITA, 4050, Along with discrete components, |Colour adjust) I’ve still a lot to do, however some of these are easier to do such as the RAM memory, keyboard cross connections etc. The main ones I’ll need to do next are those with PIA & Pokey on them. Deleted see https://atari-owner.com/club/resources/xegs-circuit-diagrams.68/ 22/08/2020 Well not a great deal completed on the XEGS Board see Below, however finding evermore issues with the circuit diagrams, with the same lable such as C55 being used for both a decoupling capacitor 100nFor 0.1uF (should be C60) and a 100uF electrolytic capacitor, and thats just one example, finding a few components extra shown on Diagrams, along with those missing .. Deleted see https://atari-owner.com/club/resources/xegs-circuit-diagrams.68/ I needed a break for a bit, going from soldering iron, to KiCad on PC back to soldering iron etc.. I'll have another go, and finish off the PAL clock circuit along with the Colo(u)r adjust circuit, I may even check voltages and plug in some components and see if it boots to Basic 23/8/2020 Oh I forgot I'll need the reset circuit finished as well 19/8/2020 I've spent some time reproducing Jerzy Sobola's circuit diagrams, I've not gone to far, and one I still have to correct all the part labels as the the colour adjustment circuit was a copy of the 130XE and bare no relation to those labels in the XEGS. Deleted see https://atari-owner.com/club/resources/xegs-circuit-diagrams.68/ 16/8/2020 I've actually started on the build, fitted a few sockets for I.C's I knew will be needed. started on the Power input circuit, came to doing the capacitor's.... Well I've produced a list based on ME removing them from a completely trashed board some while back, and as some parts of the circuit will now be redundant, such as the branch going to the modulator, I 've been going by the XEGS circuit diagrams produced Jerzy Sobola, I did know, there were several small anomalities, for instance one bit of the diagram was copied from the 130XE diagram complete with all the wrong resistor, capacitor etc labels As I was comparing them, and fitting components as I went, I found evem more issues, however they are a great starting point, but i'll now be redrawing them in KiCAD I've reproduced this, some may note that we have two capacitors marked as "C2" as an example. And C13 the 'wrong C2, (left of C4) and C3 are all next to each other, and electrically directly connected, C3 however is correct, and C1 on all three XEGS I have is 1000uF not 470uF. L4 and C45 & C46 are not required. View attachment 1117 Here is the original much broken XEGS View attachment 1114 I originally created a Media Album to go along with this Blog, however after consultation with both Matt Baker and Tim Kline; going forward I will be adding pictures as I build and test as I go along, these will appear within in the Blog itself as above and the Media Album has now been deleted. "Original.. I'll add photos including the original Circuit Diagrams produced by Jerzy SOBOLA I will gradually build this up with information as to the upgrades included from the start, along with those bits I'll be leaving off of the original board. I'll reproduce the Circuit showing what components have been left out. " As mentioned above I'll have to do these correctly in KiCAD. The three main upgrades will be – U1MB PokeyMAX for stereo Sophia or Sophia2 for DVI Video Maybe something like this View attachment 1113 Possible internal upgrades for later on TKII PS/2 keyboard interface MIDI / S2 or X2 Synth CF or SD Card interface based on 1088 XEL/XLD interface. The build, will also make use of 64K static memory rather than DRAM, and a replacement for Freddie If the Sophia2 turns up then I won’t need any PAL colour clock nor any colour adjustment circuitry (to be checked) Well A few of my Build thoughts. As I'll be using an SRAM module from Lotharek, Neither the DRAM chips or any circuitry that supports them will be required, "I'll be posting modified Circuit diagrams showing the components I'll be leaving out." Actually Newly draw ones. Having viewed the Circuit diagrams, the first I looked at was the DRAM see Below View attachment 1116 It appears that none of these components will be used, so saving a bunch of 33 Ohm resistors and the DRAM Updated 7/07/2020 I'll be using high quality turned pin sockets for all of the components throughout, along with very good quality decoupling capacitors for each IC fitted, I'll be adding those I need initially along with few items recovered from a broken XEGS mother board. I'll be building up the power circuitry first and making sure this has a nice and clean output, most of the parts will be new, however power switch and one of the inductors will be re used. Sockets will be fitted for CPU, Antic, GITA, Pokey, PIA, 74LS138 address decoder and MMU, O.S for connection of U1MB. (https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=56 ) The 64K Base Memory (Static or SRAM) will sit on a daughter board supplied by Lotharek (https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=291) in the CPU socket, with the CPU plugged into this. All of the Video circuitry from the LUM0-LUM 3, Csync, & Colour lines on GITA will for now be left out, as the Sophia will produce its own output on DVI independent of GITA itself. If Sophia 2 is available then I'll not even need to supply a PAL colour clock, as this is inbuilt to Sophia 2 (and replaces GITA entirely) Freddie is used to provide a clock via a divider chain, along with DRAM refresh signals, I hope to replace this with a custom divider or there is a Freddie replacement to go with Lotharek's SRAM replacement (https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=233) which has a divider chain built in, along with the DRAM refresh which is not needed and may introduce noise. Famous last Word's "Quick note as that as I've been reading and checking Jerzy Sobola's schematics I've found a number of errors, some will be slight different between versions of the XEGS, however some area's appears to be copied from say the 65XE, 130XE with the same component references. I'll try and correct these but I will have to reproduce from scratch." They will all be reproduced, but corrected for the boards I have I'll be adding more to the Blog Soon View attachment 1115 Comments: 2 Oct 13, 2024
Is eBay a nice place after all? Klyde Deckhand, Male, from France Blog Posts: 1 eBay is one of the best places to find vintage material that makes us so happy. But as everyone here has experienced, eBay also attracts scammers, sellers or buyers, who deliver items that are far from the description that was made, or who buy your equipment, complain that it is not suitable, and do not return everything, or in poor condition ... However, sometimes it happens that one can meet very nice sellers with good surprises. here is what happened to me recently: I had taken over this compilation of games for Amstrad CPC "Arcade Hits", especially for the Durrell's "Lotus Turbo Esprit" game on eBay. I have memories of playing to this game with my best friend on his Amstrad CPC when we were 15 years old. The compilation was advertised at 15.00 € but I contacted the seller who accepted my offer for 10.00 € (excluding shipping), but only by Paypal payment as friends or relatives. I know the risks of accepting this payment method which cancels the buyer protection but 10.00 € is not a big deal. So I paid, and the seller quickly sent me a message telling me that he will send the package the next day. A week later, the package was still not delivered. I tried to contact the seller on eBay but of course ... no response from him. I then admitted that I had lost 10.00 € since I had no recourse against him, by not having used the classic eBay payment method. But last week, three weeks after I contacted him, the seller sent me a message saying that he was sorry but that he forgot to send the package! And to apologize, he said he would add a surprise into the package. The package finally arrived today, and not only there was the "Arcade Hits" disk but also 3 other Amstrad CPC games: "Manchester United Europe", "World Cup Year 90" which is a compilation of football (soccer) game, and "Disk 50" (?) which is a compilation of different small games. In the end, I thought I was scammed, but the seller was finally sympathetic, despite his oversight, by sending me these 4 game disks for only... 10.00 €! So, is eBay a nice place after all? Comments: 9 Oct 13, 2024
Is it real or is it Memorex Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine Captain, Male, from Hell hole council estate Blog Posts: 3 There is indeed a problem with telling old stories, are they true, are they embellished, has the story changed by memory issues etc etc. Every one of these is possible, and even multiple parts of all of them. Time as we all start to find out isn't kind to our bodies, life's stresses also invade and destroy simple parts of us, memory is usually the first to feel the mental effects. I've started to notice that myself but at the moment I live a very stressful life but I do try to relate what I know as clearly as I can, I make mistakes, usually its because I've heard something and taken it 'as fact' only to be thankfully corrected but when it comes to experiences I personally have had I don't embellish, its simply not my way, If I say I worked for Atari User then there's proof to see, but then again for me telling a pack of lies serves zero purpose, trying to remember what version of the truth I told would drive me insane, if I say something happened then that's the way it happened, I may forget some words from conversations but the event was real and as said. Me personally, I've had a very odd life, never run of the mill, some parts were shear hell, some incredibly sad and others incredibly great. Trust me, mental health stuff isn't good, stress isn't good and life can be a cruel bastard but I think I've had enough positives to outweigh the negatives. I've met people whom I regard as icons in different fields, I've been in the right place at the right time a lot but also very much in the wrong place too many times. While I still inhabit this world I'll just be the same old me, sure if I win the lottery I'll make my family safe and maybe have a few treats but I'll not change, I'm now sort of set in stone. I was brought up with certain values that I uphold daily, decency, honesty and respect. I'll end with a true story about a guy I once worked with at Maplin, his name was Dave and Dave told anyone who would listen that he USED to be in the S.A.S. but was discharged with an injury that left shrapnel in his shoulder. Now one night all of us from work went out and had some beers (can't stand beer now) now one of the others guys from the shop had his mate whose name I can't remember I think it was Tony. Now Tony was a beefy guy, strong as an ox and very straight forward but became a little argumentative when beered up. So dave is doing the old SAS story and Tony is calling him a liar so Dave says "Well I have shrapnel in the should and I have no feeling in this part of the arm" at which point Tony grabs Dave's arm and sinks his teeth straight in to the supposedly numb part, Dave screamed like a man whose arm was not numb and in some agony to which Tony says "bloody liar"........And that is why I think people should keep their stories to as exact as it was in the first place, there's always a 'Tony' looking to prove a point. Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
A bit about me... Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine Captain, Male, from Hell hole council estate Blog Posts: 3 Just some background that most of you know anyway, as I head toward 59 this year I look back a how it all started, NO, not the mum and dad and what they did stuff but how I got in to computing etc and what made me the retro lover I am today. I was always interested in technical stuff, as a kid I took apart the alarm clock, it was one of those flip over numbers types and I just had to know how it worked. I proved I was excellent at taking it apart in to a million bits but then realised I had made no effort to remember how it went back together, I tried and also discovered I was too thick to work out how to reassemble it. My parents were not so happy about my attempts at conquering the electronics industry, so I got a belt on my arse. It didn't dampen my interests but had to be very selective what I turned my eye to. I left school with a huge 1 O'Level in art and various poor grades in Maths and English, I wasn't about to start making an empire but I wanted to work as soon as possible, there were Hi fi's I wanted, girls, a camera, girls, a car, GIRLS but the money wasn't great but began working in a Special Needs school as a teaching assistant, basically a dogs body but I loved it, no two days were the same and apart from bites, my thumb being turned backwards and all that sort of stuff I actually liked the work and would have stayed but I had started to get the computer bug and the ZX80 was out about the same time I got married so I got one with what little savings I had made. I truly had no idea what to expect, home computers were brand new to the world, the nearest I had to that was a Grandstand pong machine, I had no clue about programming but the idea of a computer was amazing so I struggled with the ZX80 and later went to a ZX81 with wobbly ram pack, the ram pack was my first purchase with my first credit card. After the 81 I saw a Vic20 and its colour graphics, had to have one. I then started going in to Maplins, an electronics retailer who did the Atari line, brand new as it was. And then an incredible incident happened that would change my life. I'm originally from Belfast and the troubles forced us to leave in the middle of the night but my older brother who was 9yrs older had already left and moved to England to do his education, he was one who got the smarts. So there was many years where I had not seen him but one night Cindy and I went to the cinema in London, the film we wanted to see was sold out so we watched Blade Runner instead, so there me and cindy watching but I notice the bloke next to me is looking at me oddly, now he looked familiar but nothing was said but as we left we were behind the guy and I went up and said "you look familiar" to which he says "Paul?" and yeah, it was my brother. What were the odds of that, wrong film, same cinema, same day, same time slot and sat next to him. We chatted and I told him where we were etc as he had not kept in touch as him and my old man didn't get on. So we plan a meet at our mums flat and he brings over an Atari 400 and lends it to me. I was then hooked. At the same time Maplins needed a salesman and I had teched up on the Atari by then and because I was always in there using the computers and helping others I got the job. The rest is history, I met so many of my idols in person, had dealings in the pirate scene, was best mates with the first computer pirate to be taken to court in the UK and all around had a great time and owned so many machines. I loved my Atari but I went were the games were so had no allegiance to Atari, I got a C64, an Amiga and then the era of the more powerful home consoles arrived, Playstation, Xbox, Gamecube and all the others, I loved them all and own most till this day. The others I emulated but have slowly got the real things thanks to some great swaps with people on Atari sector, in fact just yesterday I put a 1TB drive in to an old crystal Xbox. Like many I have had losses of gear and joys of getting it back, I still love this hobby, its allowed me to meet so many wonderful people on forums like here and swapped stories with like minded souls. So that's me, I can't say to look at all machines enough times, being a fan boy just leaves you missing out on great games and machines. Happy playing!! Comments: 2 Oct 13, 2024
Atari 800 upgrade and modification blog M.D.Baker Chief Officer, Male, from Kellyville Oklahoma USA Blog Posts: 3 Atari 800 hacking, modding, upgrading This blog is all about my adventures in modding my Atari 800. So far I have installed an Incognito board and a dual-Pokey upgrade (less the actual audio output). And I did some repairs on the keyboard and modified a shift key to be more balanced and sturdy by inserting and extra plunger and spring in an empty key spot below it. Hopefully this will solve a design problem that causes the plunger to crack and stop the new plunger from cracking in the outside corners that make the shift key bind. As I've mentioned elsewhere before, all current and future upgrades and mods are from now on going to be installed by me using Dupont connectors as seen in the pictures below, and eventually I intend to retro-fit all my upgrades in this way, for easy removal and installation for trouble shooting. Below are pictures of these installations. I had her back together already, but the keyboard didn't work, and after rechecking my dual Pokey installation, have come to the conclusion that I used a bad 74LS14 IC, and have now replaced it with a new 74HC14 and am about to power it up, after I finish this blog segment, and see if the keyboard works. The Incognito worked fine. View attachment 356 View attachment 376 View attachment 358 View attachment 359 View attachment 361 View attachment 375 View attachment 363 View attachment 364 View attachment 366 View attachment 367 View attachment 368 View attachment 369 View attachment 370 View attachment 371 View attachment 372 View attachment 373 View attachment 374 View attachment 377 View attachment 378 Well, after months of postponing my 800 upgrades and mods, due to an unknown issue that turned out to be the keyboard, I'm back at it. The keyboard is yet to be fixed or replaced, but the project is moving forward without it for the time being. So, after the successful incognito installation, the stereo upgrade was and is the next step, though the original plans for a DIY dual-Pokey have been changed to a Pokeymax Quad+covox audio upgrade. Quite a leap from just stereo, but I want the best. The Pokeymax is plugged in the socket and is currently working as a standard Pokey until I get a couple of wires connected to the CPU and audio output with a simple pre-amp circuit to bring it up to line-level audio. I am also installing a second SIO port and due to the placement of these new I/O ports I am combining the Pokeymax audio out with the SIO out on the same circuit board. So the first step on the new board was to attach the SIO connector (one of half a dozen new 3D printed ones I bought from The Brewing Academy) to the board and a cable to the new SIO port that is connected at the other end to the original SIO port, continuing the SIO daisy-chain internally in the 800. I went with shielded VGA cabling since I have plenty on hand and it's the best thing to use to ensure no interference in close proximity to the motherboard. The cable is directly soldered to the new SIO connector and it's board, but I installed Dupont connectors to the SIO port on the 800's PSU board for easy removal and installation in the future. I fanned out the pins on the back of the SIO so I had room to plug in the Dupont connectors with the capacitor for the PSU in the way. The next step will be to install a headphone jack stereo audio out to the new circuit board and attach a wire harness to the Pokeymax that will run to the new board. View attachment 1430 View attachment 1431 View attachment 1432 View attachment 1433 View attachment 1434 View attachment 1435 View attachment 1437 View attachment 1436 Continuing the upgrades, I have now attached the wire harness to the Pokeymax, with three wires going to the CPU on the CPU board and three wires going to the SIO/Stereo out board. I used a headphone jack style stereo audio out so it would fit on the board with the SIO port, and both will fit nicely where I make cut-outs for them on the underside of the case, leading out the back left recessed area of the 800 case underside. Again I use DuPont connectors at the audio out for easy separation from the motherboard and CPU board. The only thing left for the Pokeymax upgrade is to make a spot for the audio out wires to go through the heavy shielding. I suppose I'll have to drill a hole through the shielding near the Pokeymax chip. And I just remembered I need to connect the headphone jack's ground to ground on the SIO connector which is connected to ground through the cable to the PSU to ensure proper grounding. View attachment 1468 View attachment 1469 View attachment 1470 View attachment 1471 View attachment 1472 View attachment 1473 Next will be S-video, composite and mono audio out board directly opposite the 2nd SIO/audio out board, it will be hidden underneath the PSU board and connected to the original monitor port in close proximity. Once that board is done, then I will cut out spots for all the new I/O connectors in the 800's bottom case, then mount the boards and I/O connectors. As promised in the last paragraph, I've made a DIY S-video/Composite/mono audio out board. Like the second SIO, these are just direct lines from the nearby monitor jack. As per usual now, at least one end is attached with Dupont Connectors so that all upgrades and boards can be easily separated if need be. I had left/right audio jacks on hand, so the red one has been re-purposed for composite video (I only want this for NTSC high-res games for artifact colors). The mono audio out is white. Instead of attaching a switch to one of the Pokeymax lines to change between mono and Quad-stereo out, I left it so Quad-stereo is always on as I will use the mono out for programs that don't use stereo. And of course, the main reason for the DIY mod board, is a real S-video jack. The S-video on both my Atari's gets fed through either video-to-VGA or video-to-HDMI outs and they don't make the adapters with separate chroma/luma lines. But my 1200XL uses a break-out-box for video which does have separate chroma/luma for when I get my CBM 1084S monitor repaired which does have these inputs. The 800 will always be connected to a converter. But now, except for the power jack, I no longer have to have cables coming out the side of my 800 getting in my way on the desktop. All other I/O will now be discretely placed in the recesses on the underside of the 800 with all cables hidden and running out the back like XL/XE machines. Though I'm out of space there now, since the 800's motherboard fills the rest of the bottom case, my PBI and extra controller ports will have to be mounted to the rear left side of the 800 coming directly out of the back. So all that is left for these upgrades and mods is to cut port holes in the 800's case and mount the boards. View attachment 1474 View attachment 1475 View attachment 1476 View attachment 1478 Here are pictures of my two I/O boards mounted in the case. I used E6000 Industrial adhesive, which is like an epoxy, but remains slightly "rubbery," and after curing for 24 hours the boards will be completely secure. This was my final solution for my PBI in my 1200XL how it's mounted and is holding the PBI in place tight, for over two years with PBI devices plugged and unplugged over that time. The second photo, left to right are my new S-video, mono audio and composite video jacks. The third picture, left to right, SIO port and Pokeymax stereo audio out via mini phono jack. View attachment 1479 View attachment 1480 View attachment 1481 So what is left? Other upgrades/mods intended for the 800 are an internal Turbo Freezer (still waiting to arrive in the post) which will also serve as my PBI port out the back of the 800 using it's PBI pass-thru edge connector. Also Dual or possibly triple PIA board (waiting to arrive in the post) for the possibility of many more controller ports for my external projects. The final upgrade to the 800 will be a Sophia 2 board (waiting for it to be available). And, of course the keyboard will have to be repaired or replaced, but in the mean time, a TK-II PS/2 keyboard interface (waiting for it to arrive in the post) will be temporarily installed so I have a keyboard to use with the 800 until the original is back in place. Then I will call the modded 800 complete. By the way, the keyboard has been repaired and now works perfectly! Well, I've been continuing my 800 upgrades this week. The 800 has been converted to PAL, requirements were a PAL crystal on the motherboard, a PAL CPU board I have, and of course,.the Incognito can run on NTSC or PAL. I've also upgraded the 800 with a PBI port. It was already upgraded with full PBI capabilities from the Incognito, but there is a 50-pin (SCSI?) style connector on it that is the gateway to PBI devices being connected. As with my DIY PBI upgrade on my 1200XL, I created and actual PBI edge-connector port on the rear of the 800. With the 1200XL, I salvaged parts from a 600XL for the mod/upgrade. With the 800 I was able to use the a XE ECI-to-PBI adapter that I don't need for an XE and never will, that came with my Turbo Freezer 2011. I still have to get the connector and 50-wire ribbon cable to connect to the Incognito and create the physical buss. On the 1200XL I purchased a length of 50-wire rainbow ribbon cable for it, and of course had to make all connections directly to the IC's, instead of a connector to plug in. I also made an enclosure for the Turbo Freezer's PBI board, with a connector on it for the actual Turbo Freezer housed in a cartridge case. I just used an old, small, project box that has been laying around for years, the board didn't quite fit, so it has "wings" out the side, but I think it still looks better than a bare board, and I'll paint it to match the 800. Anyway, here are some pictures and I'll go into more detail later. View attachment 1568 View attachment 1569 View attachment 1570 View attachment 1571 View attachment 1572 View attachment 1573 View attachment 1574 Pictures of the PBI upgrade continuing below, I'll write up more about it later, as well as above, when it's 100% done, I still have to install a SCSI male connector on the XE pass-thru PBI board so both ends of the cable can be unplugged for easy removal and installation. View attachment 1619 View attachment 1626 View attachment 1620 Two more upgrades will be the last upgrades for this 800, then I will consider it a completed project. The first is a Sophia 2 video board, which arrived a few days ago and I have finished installing it. Below are the pictures. Internally it's just a matter of removing the original GTIA IC and installing the Sophia 2 board in it's place, however, the Sophia 2 came with a precision socket, and although I could have just plugged it into the original socket, I decided to go with the recommendation of installing the precision socket So this involved a lot of de-soldering and soldering, but it was a success. I forgot to take a picture of the Sophia 2 board before I put the 800's shielding back on. I had to cut a small rectangular area from the bottom of the 800's shielding, so the Sophia 's ribbon cable could pass through. I then had to cut a hole in the rear of the 800 to mount the DVI connector. due to a lack of room where I decided to install the DVI port, I installed it vertically so that it would bit between the motherboard's heavy shielding and the PSU board's heat sink. As usual I connect the board to the inside of the case using my trusty E6000 industrial strength adhesive. Using the adhesive is quite a bit like using hot glue, minus the glue gun and it's about 1000 times as strong and is not easily removed by hand or fall off in time like hot glue does. But, it is still very easy to remove and clean up with a good razor knife. This allows me to add boards and connectors with no drilling holes and using screws or bolts so it is much less evasive and much quicker to do, except you need to wait 24 hours for full strength before you go applying pressure (like plugging in plugs). Now all that is left is to plug the ribbon cable into the DVI board then plug in the Sophia 2 to a monitor. I don't have monitors with DVI, so I use a simple DVI to HDMI adapter plug. One last thing is to use the Sophia 2 setup software to choose a resolution and screen ratio. I will of course be using 4:3 screen ratio so the Atari screen looks as it should. This restricts me to one DVI resolution, 1024x960. This is fine as since the Atari's display is a maximum of 320x240, any DVI resolution (or VGA) is more than enough. View attachment 1752 View attachment 1753 View attachment 1754 The one upgrade left to come is a dual-PIA board to upgrade to 2 PIA's. An uncommon upgrade that probably 99.8% fo Atari users wouldn't care for (I only know of myself and @Graham who is designing the boards). I'll be using the second PIA to add more Atari controller ports so I'll have 6-8 controller ports (depending if I'm in 800 mode or XL/XE mode). My reason for wanting all these ports is strictly for connecting exterior projects to the Atari, the first being parts that will eventually become a robot with an 800 on board with the same PIA upgrade so there are enough lines to cover any control mechanisms I need for the robot. While building and testing my robot, it's extremities and sensors will be attached via AtariLab Interfaces and RCA cables. Once the robot is ready to be autonomous, the controller ports will use standard plugs connected to the robot instead of AtariLab Interfaces Comments: 18 Oct 13, 2024
My Atari 8-bit systems in detail M.D.Baker Chief Officer, Male, from Kellyville Oklahoma USA Blog Posts: 3 Atari 1200XL system 1200XL internal upgrades: PBI, APE Warp+ 32-in-1 OS, XL/XE MMU, Internal BASIC, Dual POKEY stereo with pre-amp board and stereo headphone output, SuperVideo 2.1 video upgrade, +5v SIO fix, Hi-speed SIO mod, keyboard fix, Pal GTIA conversion board, PAL GTIA, PAL ANTIC, cartridge port mod, Internal RGB LED lighting. 1200XL external upgrades: Syscheck XL 2.1 PBI board with custom case: (4 OS switcher, 512K sram (576K total system ram)), Super SDX cartridge (SDX 4.8, battery backed Real Time Clock), MyIDE II cartridge: (full PBI compatibility, 512K sram, MyBIOS 4.9, FAT32 partition, APT partitions for SDX HDD drives 5-15, On-board OSS language carts and diagnostic SALT roms), RIX break-out-box audio/video output. 1088K total programmable memory internally & externally! Peripherals: 1050 disk drive with Happy double density Warp speed x3 57K SIO, built-in 1050toPC and SIO2PC RS232 com ports, front drive # switch and SIO activity LED's, internal LED lighting 1050 disk drive with Happy (see above) and front drive # switch, internal LED lighting. 1030 modem 1020 plotter 1010 tape drive with Rambit Turbo-tape upgrade, Stereo external I/O mod, Power switch mod, SIO activity light mod. CA-2001 DD 180K Indus GT clone drive with built-in CP/M mode with 64K memory. Custom XL paint job "1027" R.D. XL/XE eprom burner supporting 2732-27512 eproms with custom XL case. SDrive-MAX SIO2SD floppy drive emulator w/custom XL case Panasonic KX-P2023 24-pin dot-matirix printer w/custom XL paint job CX-40 joysticks x2 with Stick Stand w/modified SpyHunter oil/smoke button CX-22 track-ball CX-77 touch tablet CX-20 driving controller CX-30 Paddle controllers Super-Sketch analog drawing board STFM-1 XL painted mouse Starmaster Joystick x2 Wico Command Control joystick Custom XL painted PC speakers Atari 800 system Atari 800 internal upgrades*: Incognito ( CF drive; HDD APT partitions, full PBI compatibility, SDX 4.8 w/RTC on-board, 1MB memory upgrade, 64K flash memory, 4 OS switcher, full XL/XE compatibility), Dual POKEY stereo upgrade, Dual PIA upgrade, audio/video output upgrade, cart port mod for The!Cart, internal LED lighting External upgrades: The!Cart w/512K sram, 128MB flash memory. 1088K programmable memory internally, 512K external, total programmable memory 1600K! Peripherals: 810 SD disk drive Indus GT x2 DD high-speed drives CX-77 touch-pad AtariLab Interfaces x3 Tandy mouse PC speakers *work in progress Comments: 0 Oct 13, 2024
The Adventures of an Atari Owner Timothy Kline Administrator, Male, from Michigan Blog Posts: 3 My personal Blog. Comments: 1 Oct 13, 2024