Mariano DM Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Im planning to get an ST and give it an update. I guess the first step would be replacing the floppy drive for an usb reader. I see a ton of different gotek models in several price ranges. Is there a recommended model to reflash? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 I would rather go on some modern hard disk system - so mass storage with SD cards. UltraSatan is most popular, and is well supported by SW. Price is little higher than Gotek, but you will get much more. With Gotek it may be complicated - I see lot of posts about diverse problems. Even gaming from some hard disk adapter is no problem now, all best and quality games are already adapted/patched. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodak80 Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 The key with Floppy emulators is that you will need either FlashFloppy or HxC firmware installed on them to use them with an Atari computer. There are guides out there on updating a standard Gotek device to install the FlashFloppy firmware and HxC is updated by purchasing a license to update the device. If you can find one pre-loaded with either firmware then you usually pay a premium on the price. Any floppy emulator withour these firmwares will struggle to work with an Atari computer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Don’t forget about the NetUSBee mass storage option. Read/write speeds will be slower than UltraSatan though. However, with NetUSBee you can also add a modern mouse and keyboard along with a USB powered flash based storage device. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 Flashing the gotek does not look like a bad option, probably I can test the usb method in the video. I can print the mount brackets. UltraSatan There are only avalilable from Poland and UK. Looking for local ones. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 Check eBay if you want to buy something from within the US. Every now and then one or two used units will pop up. I've ordered from Lotharek's eBay store before and everything arrived safe and sound. Delivery will probably take a week and a half. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+eebuckeye Posted April 24, 2019 Share Posted April 24, 2019 I have the UltraSatan which I like, however, it seems that just getting the Gotek would have been easiest with the floppy images instead of finding the hard drive installable images, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 UltraSatan it is got an used one on eBay with case and cable. I always get my stuff from Lotharek really fast, but if you bundle several items to save on shipping, it tends to be delayed in customs. My sio2pc took 2 weeks, but the side2cart and splitter was delayed for 1 month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 I use tcpser and respeQT in a Raspberry Pi for my 8-bitter. Had the crazy idea of doing something similar with the ST. Modem should not be that hard, as there are RS232 to USB adapters. But hard disk/floppy emulation requires more that that. Have you ever tried something similar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jefffulton Posted April 25, 2019 Share Posted April 25, 2019 Gotek with Firmware (easy to install and get firmware) for 1MB or less. Ultra Satan for 2MB+. I have both in a 4 Meg STE and just the Gotek in 1040STFM, Both work great, Most disk images will work with the disk image loader on the Ultra Satan, but you need 2MB to ensure the 1MB games will all work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted April 27, 2019 Author Share Posted April 27, 2019 (edited) Thanks a lot for your pointers, take a look at this beauty. As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done for my vacation: 1) Open it and clean it 2) Yellowing is not that bad, so no retrobright for now 3)Make it work with my composite/svideo tv or vga monitor 4)wait for UltraSatan to come Suggestions for ext floppy drive accepted, maybe make it a case for the rpi ? cheers ! Edited April 27, 2019 by Mariano DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 27, 2019 Share Posted April 27, 2019 Check out my recent thread for your question #3. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/289781-found-a-working-scart-hdmi-adapter-on-amazon/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Great ! I was looking fot that info. I think since I'm in USA, (so SCART stuff, no 15khz monitors around), I'd have to go the VGA route. I was wondering what it was the "missing" circuitry in some revisions. https://youtu.be/bPXe-0wGrIY?t=184 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6BQ5 Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 Going down the VGA route will require you to use an older display that supports the lower 15 kHz horizontal sync signals. These aren't always easy to find. You can use a "scan doubler" that doubles the signal frequency so it can work with modern display. If I remember correctly the horizontal sync signal coming from older video circuits like that of the Atari and Amiga are 15.675 kHz. A doubler will take you to 31.35 kHz. Hopefully I got the numbers right. These doublers are also known as CGA to VGA converters. Most of the ones I have tried are inexpensive and uncased. Some are cased. I have never tried one that is labeled as this. Some people love them, some people think they're crap. The missing components would create what is known as CSYNC signal. This signal contains the horizontal and vertical sync signals on one line. Sometimes the line would also contain a composite video signal if the machine has a RF TV signal modulator. Check out the description of pin 2 of the video output. https://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/interfaces.php#atari_video_connector If you're handy with a a soldering iron then installation is pretty straightforward from what I understand. After soldering them in you can use the converter box I mentioned in my last post. I never bumped into this since I run STe machines. Who knows ... maybe you got lucky and your machine has this installed already? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 Great ! I was looking fot that info. I think since I'm in USA, (so SCART stuff, no 15khz monitors around), I'd have to go the VGA route. I was wondering what it was the "missing" circuitry in some revisions. https://youtu.be/bPXe-0wGrIY?t=184 Described in this thread, with schematic : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/289781-found-a-working-scart-hdmi-adapter-on-amazon/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParanoidLittleMan Posted April 28, 2019 Share Posted April 28, 2019 Going down the VGA route will require you to use an older display that supports the lower 15 kHz horizontal sync signals. These aren't always easy to find. You can use a "scan doubler" that doubles the signal frequency so it can work with modern display. If I remember correctly the horizontal sync signal coming from older video circuits like that of the Atari and Amiga are 15.675 kHz. A doubler will take you to 31.35 kHz. Hopefully I got the numbers right. These doublers are also known as CGA to VGA converters. Most of the ones I have tried are inexpensive and uncased. Some are cased. I have never tried one that is labeled as this. Some people love them, some people think they're crap. The missing components would create what is known as CSYNC signal. This signal contains the horizontal and vertical sync signals on one line. Sometimes the line would also contain a composite video signal if the machine has a RF TV signal modulator. Check out the description of pin 2 of the video output. https://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/interfaces.php#atari_video_connector If you're handy with a a soldering iron then installation is pretty straightforward from what I understand. After soldering them in you can use the converter box I mentioned in my last post. I never bumped into this since I run STe machines. Who knows ... maybe you got lucky and your machine has this installed already? Those scandoublers are relative simple, but quality is not that good. Everything has it's price. That info-coach article claims some strange things. I never seen ST without +12V on pin 8 of video connector, and I seen a lot of it, inside too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 You will want to get an SF354 as it's 720k. That way you can format disks on a PC and copy files to it to use on the ST if you want. A lot of disk images are 720k anyway. That was the biggest mistake Atari did releasing the 520ST with the SF354 as that is what became the default format for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forrest Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 SF314 is the 720K, double-sided drive. SF354 is the 360K, single-sided drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted June 3, 2019 Author Share Posted June 3, 2019 Update: getting there. Ultrasatan working, now to partition 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
256 colors Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 From the things i keep hearing when these things don't work they should be called Ultra Anti Christ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mariano DM Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 Hail Ultra Lord of the Insufficient Light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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