ryanr256

Thanks! -Bob

I was 31 when I started my undergrad in Computer Science. Pascal on a VAX, VAX Assembly, some LISP. Mostly Pascal though. My senior project was a Pascal interpreter written in C. Taught myself C for that. No FORTRAN in my past. Or COBOL for that matter. Most of the programmers in my age group (60+) are mainframers using COBOL. I'm client-server (n-tier), I guess they call it "distributed computing" now?, using .NET. My 800XL, and a friend's Omnimon'd 800, taught me Atari BASIC and 6502 Assembly. I did have a goal to collect all the available programming languages for the Atari. I may have to revisit that one. -Bob

Another fun with electricity story: Years ago my wife and I were rehabbing the house we were living in. Thanfully I'm quite handy and we were able to do a lot of the work ourselves which saved us quite a bit of money. On this particular day I was installing a new circuit breaker in the electrical panel. It's a standard US 200 amp panel with maybe 20 slots for breakers. Of course since I'm "only" plugging in a breaker I do not flip the main off. Yes, I'm working in a hot box. It was a hot and humid day and I was sweating profusely. I tighten the screw holding the wire in the breaker, but dropped the screw driver. I bend down to pick it up and all I remember is seeing a blue flash and waking up on the moving boxes that were about 3 feet from the panel. I sat there for a few minutes and then got up and finished the job. My guess is that when I bent down to get the screw driver, my short, wet hair came close enough to, or even made contact with, the main bus in the panel and, well, I became a path to ground. I don't work in a hot box anymore. -Bob

I posted this on another thread, but it bears repeating: Installed a Newell 256k memory upgrade into a 1200XL. Didn't put it back together completely, just plugged in the keyboard and LEDs to test it. Connected it to the power supply and turned it on and heard a "pop". No power. Looked it over and didn't see anything obvious. Tried another power supply. Same results. I popped the fuses on 4 power supplies troubleshooting before I realized that the motherboard was sitting directly on the metal shielding. I was so focused on the upgrade being the issue that I overlooked the obvious. Now I have to open the power supplies and replace the fuses. -Bob

I guess I'm the odd man out. I'm way down in SW Ohio and I don't have a FujiNet. I think I may have at least 2 800s though. -Bob

The Atari Museum has it now. -Bob

My original 800XL and 1050 disk drive came from the Mtn. Home AFB BX. The pair cost me almost $700. This was early 1983 most likely. Shortly after purchasing, I was PCS'd to Sembach AB, Germany. I remember seeing the Atari computers at the BX in Vogelweh in Germany. -Bob

I did the same. That's why I used the Dremel to cut it open. I could still probably tape it back together. I do want to add a fuse holder to it. -Bob

On this one I wasn't careful. I used a dremel to cut the case. I will be less destructive with the others. -Bob

I'm bringing this back up because, well, I'm an idiot. No, seriously. IDIOT. I hope you all won't revoke my hobbyist card over this. The reason the fuses popped on the power supplies is that I had left the bottom half of the shielding in place and the metal was shorting the pins on the power input. Damn. I cut open one of the bricks and soldered in a new fuse. It popped as soon as I turned on the 1200XL. I put in a new fuse, disconnected the cord from the computer and plugged in the brick. The fuse held. I measured the voltage (AC) at the plug and it was 10.4 volts. I said to myself, "OK something's going on with the computer. A simple memory upgrade shouldn't cause a short in the power." That's when I realized what was happening. So, I get to wear the idiot tag for a while. Now I'll find a fuse holder and a project box to put the guts of the brick in. Damn. -Bob

The surge protector is old. The power supplys were plugged into the surge protector and into the 1200xl/1050s. I turned the surge protector on and the power supplys died. I don't know if a spike from turning the surge protector on caused the issue. Once I open one of the power supplys and am able to easily replace a fuse I can do more testing. I should be able to work on this before the weekend. -Bob

Thanks for the info. -Bob

The tough part is going to be breaking into the brick. I should be able to cut through the plastic pretty easily though. -Bob

The surge protector is the issue. Yes, it needs a decent burial. I'm not getting anything out of the bricks. That's why I'm hoping it's just a blown fuse. -Bob

Finished putting a Newell 256k RAM upgrade into a 1200xl. Flipped the rocker on the surge protector to test the install and I get nothing. Try the 2 1050s plugged into the same strip and nope, no power either. So, I take my spare PS and plug it directly into the wall. The 1200xl's power led comes on. Plug the PS into the surge protector (I should have known better, I know) and I hear a "click" and no power. Looks like they may have just blown a fuse. I'll have to cut them open to find out. Damn. -Bob