Most liked posts in thread: What's new Pussycat too?

Glad you sorted out the drives speed, and better still ditched the naff Disc's always going to be a problem going forward as most are about 30 years old if not more.
I've tended to find that discs that don't work in say a BBC drive with 80 tracks will work at 40 and so on. the exception being the HD 51/4" disc's ment to staore when formatted 1.2MBytes on a PC, these don't seem to play ball with any lower capacity drives at all .

 

Hi Matt
Yes they are the one for the 800, plugs into the original 6520 Socket, with the additional 6520 placed alongside, towards the Pokey, forces the use of PokeyMAX for stereo the board has space for an additional 6520/6821 plus additional decoder out lines, and All the Portlines. Port A, B, CA, CB
But you will be limited to only the address spaces in the D3xx range excluding D300-D30F (original 6520)
And addresses D380-D3FF as I believe Incognito uses these for some of it's additional features.
As I've used 16Byte blocks you can add an additional 7 devices, (128Bytes of space /16Bytes = 8 blocks minus one for original 6520) One additional 6520 on board if wanted leaving 6 mounted elsewhere. The 74LS138 which used to reside on the personality board has been replaced with a surface mount chip on the Incognito, you could still solder to this for D600, D700 but not sure if they are used, certainly D100 is used by the CF card interface.
The 800XL, 1200XL, 65/130XE all designed to plug into the original LS138 socket, adding a very small board with an additional 138, you can select which address block you wish to decode with this. Default D3xx but need a wire jumper or DuPont connectors to change.

 

It sounds great! I can't wait!

 

Andy.
Firstly, the Syscheck II will go out to you on loan tomorrow and secondly I might be able to lay my hands on the Atari graphics demo disk you enquire about...somewhere. If I get chance, and my back doesn't give up, I'll try and trace and send you an ATR. Cheers. Ouch - sorry to hear about the steep import duties, Graham - it really is a kick in the clingle dangles, mate. They hit you every which way and it really does take the shine off our purchases.

 

Ruddy hell, mate.
With a couple of these fitted, I reckon you just might be able to fly to Alpha Centauri...and back!

Excellent project. I shall get my finger out this very afternoon and give old Richie's CPC464 a ruddy good dusting down from the retro cupboard where it is stored amongst my other family heirlooms, cat biscuits and supply of pain killers for shafted backs!

Wee video to follow, 464 fans!

 

Wow, that is terrible, though if my government isn't stealing in the same way, there are plenty of ways they do. For example, the old owner of Chevy Blazer I purchased did not renew tags and license on it for 5 years...guess who got stuck with all the back taxes and fees to get it legal again.

 

Wow how can that be that you are liable, or is it something that should be checked when you buy a vechcle, some friends of that have purchased a car from a dealer, involved in a road accident; the police checked the car, it was a ringer and had been stolen several years before, they'd had it for maybe 6 months. It was lucky they purchased from a dealer as they ended up with paying them back and having the car conviscated, as a dealer he was also investigated as to whu they had missed that the car wasn't what it should have been.
Another friend about 5 years ago ourchased a car tuened out it was the front on one car and the back of another, and the whole roof from another. Again they eventually got there money back as it was from a dealer.
If any had been a private purchase then your stuffed, it's down to you to check.

 

I was shocked that I was liable too. But this is a State of Oklahoma law and I never came across such a thing in any other state I lived my adult driver life, including Illinois, Wisconsin, California, Texas and Oklahoma where I have had vehicles licensed. I haven't dealt with vehicles that had expired tags from a previous owner in every state, but I have in a couple and you weren't responsible for anything in the vehicles previous history.

 

Sods law i'm away and can't check out the demo's
but home in a few days

 

I lived in Canyon Lake,Texas for 11-12 years, right in-between Austin and San Antonio. But yes, Texas highways have higher speed limits than most (not all) states, and many more personal liberties and freedoms in regards to fire-arms and a lot of other things that many states either outright deny or require classes/training/licensing/taxes that for most people is too much trouble or too expensive; exactly the way the state government likes it. I'd still be in Texas if I didn't own land and a home in Oklahoma now.

But Oklahoma is mostly like Texas, but it's a much poorer state due to decades of mismanagement so if they can stick it to you for more money in some ways they do. But they just went the opposite way with fire-arms in the past two years. Before you did have to be licensed for conceal-carry (which is a one-day class and $50-75 dollars for the class and another $25 for the license, so no too bad), while that is still available and required if you want your fire-arm to be concealed, the law has changed to free open-carry and no license needed for the person, though the guns must still be licensed. Before if you had a licensed gun, but no conceal-carry license, the gun could not leave or be used off your own property.

And of course, if you are an up-standing, law-abiding citizen who buys guns through legal outlets and not the black market, like criminals use, then you have to pass a national back ground check before you can purchase the fire-arm.

 

Yea I know all about the back-ground checks etc, as I'd been in discussion with Paul, whom thought it easy to get a licence in the UK.
In UK Law the checks are onerous, but I feel that they should be, however I'm a little surprised at open carry that's more like Texas, But also a good deterant . (Well I'm kinda guessing at this point)
New York appears to be a state that makes anything difficult....
It's extreamly difficult to judge the best way to go in regarding firearms, allowing access to all at least evens the playing field, I.E. citizens are at least equal to criminals , in the UK the balance falls in favor of illegal firearms and the criminals that own them.
I'd alway er on the side of a handgun in a knife fight.
Same with a handgun and an Assult rifle
Same again an Assult rifle and a I'll call it a sniper rifle but single shot very accurate at range Rifle.
but I could continue until we get to multiple wathead Nuclear missiles ...
However still topped by a strike from a meteor hitting earth as history has shown...
Dirty Harry is lost in this 'race' if you can call it that.

 

Hi Matt
Pleased it's arrived safely. Working on the decoder again to fit 800, looks like there will be a need to change the usually green cap's between the PIA & Pokey otherwise have to use stacked sockets, which then gets in the way of the aluminium casing. There wouldn’t be a problem on a 'naked' board; on a robotic vehicle though.

 

Hey

The latest craze ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/timotyem...5RkAAOSwxxpfjyXa&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562
Seems we have some A'Hole that sells Retro computers in bits,
Mother board, Case, Keyboard & Shield all for sale as seperate items..
Total ..
I'll let you check ..

 

I'd imagine most councils are trying to get extra income any way they can, taxing the drivers is an easy con as is putting up travel fares all in the name of COVID.

I expect nothing less from the con artists that rule our lives..

 

That's the EU sharing ideas

Well how else are they going to generate enough money to pay themselves... After all, they are helping save our lives, travelling to see if there eye sight is o.k. (Well ludicrous in my eyes ) and making sure to infect a train full of people ... now these politicians are real people and they are still in a job.. Only had to say sorry..

Paul just tell them sorry and quote above.. I’m sure they would have let you off..

Oh. F&%k what the emoticon for sarcasm

 

There's a language selector on there..If I remember right..

 

Yes, the website has an English option, though every page you click on seems to load everything twice, so it's a bit slow. If you are a member, there are also English PDF versions of ABBUC magazine on there too, so I have hard-copies in German and PDF's in English. I don't think there are English versions of their special edition magazine(s) though, like the Sondermagazin ABBUC supplemental. But I could be miss-remembering or it will be implemented in the future. I don't go there often myself, I think I've actually found time and remembered to read the English version of one or two. I need to do that.

I did go and download a new ATR of the disk side that wouldn't boot though. It has a new shooter on it that looks really cool (a new version of the shooter Oxygen(?) is also on one of the disk sides). I haven't tried either yet, I've been busy with other things, and when I did have time for the hobby lately, I've been trouble shooting my 1200XL and other peripherals I've put off because I only use them with the 1200XL; Like one of my 1050's that I recently upgraded to a Happy, which I had hoped would solve the issue, but didn't. The 1050 won't stop spinning after power-up, and no mention of this issue in the FSM. So I did some multi-meter testing and ordered a couple of parts I believe to be the problem, in the bags pictured below. The capacitors are what I ordered to replace the bad one in the 1200XL, which I hope will solve it's problems. I probably won't get too them until this weekend.

 

Brilliant, Vulcanman.

Here's to a safer, happier year ahead - and sharper, clearer video output to 2021, fella!

Please do post some before and afters, Andy.

 

What a shame, Matt. I can see that that was an ace model and if only..., eh, mate, if only?

Here's hoping you might get lucky and spot another at a reasonable price.

These babies are invaluable to you "boffins" who really delve deep into the guts of our micros as without them a lot of fault-finding must totally be either blind or via guess work?

 

Unless you are buying and selling for a profit, you are right, your are SICK! Or just a ******!
What is it that makes you decide to sell them once you have one if you want one so bad in the first place? (besides just being loony-if there is a besides)
I've bought and sold computers/consoles before and bought them again, but the reason was purely financial circumstances at the time. Otherwise if I sell something it's because I don't want it and then don't buy one again.

I say good for you though in getting another C64 (for the LAST time dammit!!), get her fixed if she needs it and KEEP THE DAMN THING! (and the next time you decide to sell it off again, just remember that you'll just end up buying another, so DON"T SELL YOU CHEEKY BASTARD!)

But I've caught myself, for now, as far as the Oscilloscope goes, now that I've been reminded of the cost for a decent one!

I did actually find my old Oscilloscope for sale on ebay, by a seller here in Oklahoma too, that is an absolutely incredible price compared to the same from others and all the other vintage ones I just browsed, but it's working condition is unknown except that it powers on. I almost clicked the buy-it-now, as shipping to me isn't bad either since it's only 100 miles away, but just put it on my watch list for now...I decided not to click buy-it-now because the last thing I need is an Oscilloscope that need to be repaired, and would probably require an Oscilloscope to help repair it!!!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-5103N-Oscilloscope-3-PLUG-INS/253540552555

It might work fine, but I wouldn't know until it arrived. Putting it on my watch list allows me to stop myself, with the idea that I can go back and buy anytime, while hopefully letting it be sold out from under me so I don't go and spend money I shouldn't. Self-psychological treatment that...yes, I'm also a nutter and ******, but at least I too, can admit my issues just like you, so that's the first step to recovery of our addictions to the hobby! After all, one needs to find a point, a line in the sand, where we say to ourselves "I've got all I need to enjoy my hobby, so go enjoy it and stop wasting time and money!"

My RadioShack digital multi-meter actually has an RS232 out and software for a digital Oscilloscope program on my computer, so I don't really need more than that for what I do, but the software won't work on anything beyond WinXP, so I don't have it to use until I get my old PC up and running with WinXP again. But the PSU has some bad capacitors I have to replace first...

I think I'll just worry about getting my PC running again and use the RS Oscilloscope software for now...keep myself in check with buying stuff I may want, but don't really need...especially with Christmas a couple weeks away, I need to be buying gifts for others and not myself! I already just spent $200 on a new smart phone for myself for a Christmas present, and am expecting my 800 version of the Sophia 2 board will ready to purchase before Christmas too, and that's another PLN350...whatever that translates into $$.

 

Hi Matt
Yes they are nice scopes, just a minor warning if it's their in the new year , with the moduals included you will have approximatly 80 valves inside.. I'm sure some will o.k however older style electroletic capacitors, with time get leaky i.e. there resistance decreaces (from gigaOhms to !00'sMOhm's), this will cause more current to be drawn by the valve, and eventually they will be out of spec or not fuction. (And not cheap)
I'm in the process of ordering up replacement capacitors for an older oscilliscope, this one only about 10 valves . capacitors so far just over $30 US. (High voltage capacitors are expensive for known good makes not from China)
I'm lucky in that I can test mine, as I have other oscilliscopes, and this one I'll convert to a vector scope.

P.S Like Andy I get those itchy fingers, OO what to waste my money on next .. Sophia2 .. Left Poland Monday still not arrived in GB so who knows how they are transporting it, on foot I suspect ..

All the Best to you ALL
Hope I'll be out of isolation as had several 'scares' in a row but so far negative.. I am however going completly Nuts ..

 

Thanks for the link to the Sophia 2 tech docs @Graham .

I'm still waiting on the PM/email that the 800 version of Sopia 2 is ready to ship myself.
Is there a more complete user guide/tech reference manual available for the Sophia 2? Or is that something one gets a link to when they buy the board?

Anyway, I was looking at the tech docs you linked, and maybe you can verify something for me? Am I correct in believing that the RGB signals/lines off the Sophia 2 are standard ~15kHz and that only if bit 7 is set does Sophia 2 adjust for 31kHz VGA output? I'm planning on using the analog video outs. VGA to start, but once I get my CBM 1080S-P monitor working I'd like to use RGB on it. My current LCD monitors will only display DVI/HDMI in wide-screen 16:9 ratio stretching the Atari's image. But with VGA I can select a 4:3 screen ratio letter-boxed on my monitors.

I'm curious about the hardware side of the Sophia 2 though, and if Sophia 2 auto-detects what type of analog or digital output is being used or if jumpers are required, etc.

The Sophia 2 image in your blog is different, too, than the one Simius shows on AA:



The one in your blog:

 

Never mind on the question, I was reading the Sophia 2 thread further and see that the video out and resolution settings must be done via the software tool and I presume saves the settings to Sophia 2 firmware flash memory or whatever. At least until FJC completes the Incognito plug-in for it.

 

The one with 1 connector is what is shipped..

 

Yep I've put up an image from some while back, it is a Sophia2 as is marked as such however it's clearly not the final version, it appears that the programming jumper (the smaller ten pin one) has been substituted for a bare six pin header block.
Just checked update on my parcel and Royal Mail have at least processed it as of this morning, 8 days after leaving Poland
Matt you can use the software linked in the blog to alter the settings of Sophia2 and yes Bit Seven changes the Scan frequency when set to Horizontal rate of 31KHz and a verticle of either 50/60Hz when in this mode Bit 6 is ignored which would alter the RGB Sync's when used as RGB Analogue opposed to RGB VGA