burkhart87

Similar problem in this thread: My best guess is that multiple removal/clean/insertion cycles of the chips fixed...something... in this 1050. Not very satisfying from a diagnosis standpoint, but, it's not the only ancient piece of hardware that this inadvertant technique has worked upon. For cleaning sockets and pins, I alternated tuner cleaner and DeOxit followed by wiping with foam swabs. It's also very helpful to use some magnifying glasses

I think "Turbo mode" also needs the missing/vaporware "Turbo-charged" software to take advantage of the printer buffer (P. 5 of the manual). P. 14 of the Trak manual talks about the software having to be purchased from "...your local Atari dealer." 😄 So it does not appear that this Turbo software was included on the Trak disk bundled with the drives (the software on these disks is also mostly still missing). The manual comprises some other BS. As an example, the touted diagnostics are alleged to be capable of output of a "...status report on your screen or printer..." 😄, see P. 6. In reality, the "diagnostics" are merely flashing LEDs that tell you its time to "...consult your local dealer" (addendum). Don't misunderstand me, I love my Trak drive for nostalgic and performance reasons, but much of what the manual promises was not delivered in reality.

Yes, the addendum I posted came with my drive above (posts from Sept. 2023), Ver. 1.10 ROM. This drive also has a unique (so far) board with some differences in the power supply and what I believe to be the ground rail when compared to the boards from "later" drives in this thread.

The documentation for TADS was in an addendum provided with the drives. It looks like it was used to switch densities as you say. Trak Addendum.pdf However, it looks like there was at least more than one addendum: So who knows which addendum was bundled with which ROM version, or if all addendums contained the TADS documentation. 🤷‍♂️

I couldn't find a pdf of the addendum anywhere, so I scanned mine. Trak Addendum.pdf It doesn't mention any of the switches controlling Turbo mode, only the diagnostics or printer port.

Yes, some drives must have been shipped with a 2K buffer, i.e. one 2K RAM chip with the other socket empty, although the documentation available indicates all drives had 4K. See the pics of my drive above, w/ one M58725P 2K chip and the other socket empty. All of the other pics I can find of Trak boards show 4K. This got me wondering if the "later" ROMs in the 4K boards require the 4K, as none of the later ROMs (Vers. 1.11, 1.12 and 1.13) worked in my drive, which had the V 1.10 ROM. So, I put another M58725P in my drive with the V 1.13 ROM, and presto, a working drive. V 1.13 recognizes DD disks, then switches from SD to DD when booting, faster than the other ROMs, including Mr. Martians. Other than that, I didn't notice much of a difference, but did not do any stringent testing. If I return the drive to 2K, no bueno as before. Both density LEDs light up at the same time and the drive does not post. I didn't try the V 1.11 or 1.12 ROMs with the 4K.

I may try that just to excersize an Atari 8-bit historical oddity. All these years, programs, games, disks, etc. and I've never needed or used enhanced density. 😄

I'll do it for you if you're willing to ship the disks to me. I'm in Virginia. You can look through my profile for my archiving project thread.

Mr. Martian's TRAK ROM works in my drive, even better than the original V 1.10 at consistently reading DD formatted disks from other drives. 😃 I think I'll just leave it in the drive. I erased and re-flashed M2732A's with V 1.11, 1.12 and 1.13. Same results as before, the drive did not post. FWIW, it seems TRAK drives with Ver. B boards do not work with the later ROMs.

I wrote the V 1.10 file from my drive (i.e. the one posted above) to a blanked M2732A and the drive works with the newly-written V 1.10 ROM. Phew. Next I'll try the same but with Mr. Martian's TRAK ROM:

I get 8CD1672E. And the software told me the file was an "Atari 8-bit cartridge image" 🙂

Sorry, hit the wrong key and it posted before I was done typing.

The symptom: my AT-D2 was not reading or booting properly. It would start the boot process (e.g. a DOS disk) but stop at sector 14. Or, with the TRAK as D2 I could boot a DOS from a working drive then read the D2 directory, but the directory information would often be garbled or incomplete. Anyway, the problem was the 8031, a replacement restored the drive. I started tracing/testing the power circuit as a first step and started a hand-drawn partial schematic. Since no schematic exists, probably I should make a copy for sharing and posterity. I have no idea how to do that though. Any suggestions would help. The ribbon cable connecting the main board with the front panel board broke as soon as I looked at it. This seems to happen to everyone, so beware when you open one of these. I cannot get any of the the other ROMS (1.11, 1.12, 1.13) to work with my drive. Upon powering, they cause both single and double density LEDs to light up and the drive does not post to the SIO. My mainboard is also the earliest I've seen (Rev. B, compare with KHeller's pic in this thread), with a different power supply/relay junction and less of what I think is a ground rail. Maybe this 1.10 ROM needs this Rev.B board. I checked the M2732's I flashed with the later ROMs. They look OK at first glance when compared to the ROM files themselves; i.e. overall file length, first and last 10 or so hex values, "copyright TRAK Microcomputer" ASCII found at the end of some of the ROMs. So I don't think its a case of flashing bad ROMs.

I put the ROM in the thread below, with the other TRAK ROMs:

Here is the Trak V. 1.10 ROM. trak AT v1.10.bin