Firmware update question for owners of the Lotharek SIO2SD drive

[_The Doctor__]

You need to hold shift button down on the SIO2SD at power up of Atari to set the config screen options in the SIO2SD for the software to boot up on the Atari. The next time you boot / power on it will follow that rule.

Edited January 9, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[SS]

I tried that. I followed Lotharek's YouTube instruction video carefully but don't seem to have that option on my device.

[jmccorm]

Some of the really old firmware did NOT follow that rule for installing an update. I know this from first-hand experience. This week, I finally updated the firmware from, I want to say it was 2.5, up to the 3.1rc2 rev. To be honest, it didn't seem to perform any better or worse, but it added some new boot option, and the user interface changed.

 

How I activated the upgrade seemed to involve double-tapping one of the buttons, releasing it, and then holding down a third button? Or I think I had to hold down two buttons at once? Yeah, I know, that probably isn't enough to work with. But if you find someone who is really knowledgeable on these, they can give you the update instructions for the really old firmware, which is probably what you need.

 

I hope this gets you going in the right direction.

[_The Doctor__]

This is from all over the place including Philsan's lists on what to do..

 

no the shift-shift method is for closer to now firmwares not older years ago firmwares..

 

Format an SD (standard not special 2 gb or less not HC/MMC ultra encrypted if doing firmware updates) card (FAT 12, 16 or 32 file system, problem w/ fat on older firmware)

Copy into it sio2sdv35.xex that you find into SIO2SD website inside Configurator_3.5.zip and rename it sio2sd.xex

Make a folder named Atari

Put into that Atari folder your ATR or XEX files

Insert SD card into SIO2SD

 

Turn on Atari computer

 

On SIO2SD double press SHIFT button (that means twice in a row) (aka grey button on SIO2SD Micro/PC Combo)

"CFG TOOL mode" will appear on the SIO2SD LCD display

Press K1 button (Drive button on SIO2SD Micro) to enter "cfgtool mode:"

select with K2 button (File button on SIO2SD Micro) words "every startup"

Press K3 button (ESC button on SIO2SD Micro)

Press K1 button (Drive button on SIO2SD Micro) to go to "topdrive mode"

select with K2 button (File button on SIO2SD Micro) toggle it to "off"

Turn off Atari computer, wait 12-15 seconds

Turn on computer

 

This way every time you turn on your Atari the on screen menu will be loaded, unless something happens and it forgets, it does happen just do it again.

 

ON-SCREEN LOADER INSTRUCTIONS (v3.5)

ARROWS/JOYSTICK around to select file .xex or disk image .atr

KEYS 1-8 mount selected/highlighted file/image into drives 1-8

CTRL+T lets you toggle between real drives / virtual drives

ESC moves back in directory tree

X (long press) restart computer with selected images

RETURN/FIRE enters a directory or loads file/disk image into a slot

While loading programs that don't need Basic, keep pressed OPTION key for a few seconds

When you leave on-screen loader, you can swap disk images from real drives to virtual drives pressing SIO2SD's SHIFT button + K3 button (grey button + Esc button on SIO2SD Micro).

 

This is from all over the place including Philsan's lists on what to do..

Edited January 9, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[SS]

Right now my main problem is finding a copy of the 3.1 or 3.5 firmware since the sio2sd.gucio.pl site is giving me a 404 error. I haven't even tried updating it because I can't find it. Lotharek doesn't seem to have his own version of the firmware as a local download on his site either.

[_The Doctor__]

Try this for now, https://web.archive.org/web/20171115102003/http://sio2sd.gucio.pl/wiki/English

 

remember we need mirrors of everything in these days community! it's all gone in a flash a blink ahhhhh

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170706171722/http://sio2sd.gucio.pl:80/wiki/SoftwareAVR_en

 

etc etc

Edited January 9, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[manterola]

Just in case it is useful: I remember wasting hours trying to update my Sio2SD. I did not know the current version but I knew it wasn't the last one. The Sio2SD worked with the SD card 1gb I installed, but I wanted the last version of the firmware . So tried and tried and it never took the firmware file. What it worked was going thru all the SD cards I had and formatted all using the official secure digital formatter for windows, then I created the ATARI directory and copied the firmware. Just with 1 out of 4 SD cards I tried it worked! Somehow the firmware update thing is picky about the SD cards. The one that worked was a Nokia SD card I got from an old phone someone trashed, 2gb capacity.

Good luck

[ijor]

Try this for now, https://web.archive.org/web/20171115102003/http://sio2sd.gucio.pl/wiki/English

 

remember we need mirrors of everything in these days community! it's all gone in a flash a blink ahhhhh

 

https://web.archive.org/web/20170706171722/http://sio2sd.gucio.pl:80/wiki/SoftwareAVR_en

 

Thanks, was looking for that. But can't see the firmware source on the archive. Am I missing something?

[_The Doctor__]

The programmer bin should be downloadable, the on card one sadly is not as for the source I don't know. use the time adjust on the wayback bar and try again.

also try http://mirrors.pdp-11.ru/_atari/sio2sd.gucio.pl_/wiki/

be careful I don't know what happens on these sites...

 

http://mirrors.pdp-11.ru/_atari/sio2sd.gucio.pl_/wiki/AbandonedPages.html

 

http://mirrors.pdp-11.ru/_atari/sio2sd.gucio.pl_/wiki/English.html

 

you will have download the bins from either the raw sections of the first mirror link posted as they do not link to the html or the last link below may be easier at the bottom

 

how is it possible this was not put on pigwa or anywhere else for that matter, this is how we lose it all folks..... use this link below and scroll down to get all the avr bins

 

http://mirrors.pdp-11.ru/_atari/sio2sd.gucio.pl/wiki/

 

click text get bin! change to correct file name by trimming off lead in text leaving only real file name after the =

it will be there and work

 

The Doctor is a tricky guy all your webz belong to us

Edited January 28, 2018 by _The Doctor__