Gunstar
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Posts posted by Gunstar
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My Ender3 printer arrived today. I laid the parts all out and checked off the list. Everything is here except it says there should be 10 zip-ties and they only gave me 5! Should I return it?
The two spools of PLA filament that I ordered separately managed to arrive today too, so I'm not stuck with just the "sample" PLA filament that came with the printer, thank God, as I don't think there's enough there to print much.😑 On the other hand, I had no idea how large the spools would be! I was expecting much smaller spools!🤤
Anyway, I'm going to be spending the afternoon assembling and learning/testing it.
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@Faicuai Yeah, I just checked the catalog addendum and was going to inform everyone, like you, they are sold out at Best. I looked at MyAtari shop on eBay (B&C site doesn't work anymore) but I didn't see any for sale there.
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12 hours ago, Stephen said:Wow - never heard of this before.
It goes with the Super Salt cartridge. Either B&C or Best E. was/is selling them.
EDIT: Best E. has them in their catalog, don't know if they still have any in stock, but I don't deal with him anymore. If B&C (MyAtari) has them, they aren't listed at the eBay store, and the B&C Computervisions web page store doesn't work anymore...
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6 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:I totally believe you, those PVM broadcast grade monitors are awesome. However, the 1084S is a pretty good all round retro monitor on a number of different systems.
I really like the blacks of the CRT, it really makes colours pop. I was watching some cracktro's last night, kicked back with a coffee, they looked amazing.
I love my 1084S, but the best CRT TV/monitors are Sony Trinitrons (excluding PVM's which I've no experience with, but I would guess that Sony PVM's use their same Trinitron technology).
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I'd say it's at least a top 20% image myself, technically. It's just that it's so "distant" in the subject matter, with such low resolution graphics. I'm pretty sure I was right there or close myself once, when I was driving through back in the late 90's. The scene looks so familiar to me.
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9 minutes ago, StickJock said:I thought that Paperweight was a great demo! The "static" (remember static?) was really realistic! The little "glitches" on the screen, with the accompanying glitchy sound..., it was all really well done.
Maybe I'll have to type it in or find the magazine disk ATR it was on. As I said, I never tried it, at the time I just felt it was a waste of time to spend typing in a program that just makes it look like it's destroying the Atari.
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1 minute ago, Gavin1968 said:Yes! I built one! It worked pretty cool!!! What a blast from the past!
Gavin
Awsome!
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2 minutes ago, ivop said:It had long wave, short wave, and AM/FM. But I just read some wikipedia info on the matter, and SSB seems to be a different modulation technique. Not sure if our receiver had that. Perhaps that was why we didn't get it to receive weather images, and not my mediocre soldering skills
It's easy to miss that it requires the SSB, it's only mentioned once across all the several articles about WEFAX in the magazine, stuck in the middle of a page and paragraph. I read it, but when I went back to look what band the project required again when looking for radios today, I had to practically read it all over again to find it.
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4 minutes ago, ivop said:I remember this was reprinted in the Dutch "Atari Magazine". It was one of the first DIY projects I tried to build, and I failed misserably 😕 Lets say my soldering skills were not developed yet/
I used a so-called "world" radio receiver. As a family, we used to take that one on holidays, and listen to Dutch radio, to the Tour of France, each day. Even when in France
While looking for receivers on ebay and amazon I saw a lot ot the "world" radio receivers, but none of them had the SSB band (required for this project), There are plenty that do, but they aren't referred to as "world" receivers. did your receiver have the single side band?
My family also used to have a radio that was am/fm/shortwave that we used to take on trips too. Though I don't know if it had SSB. I don't know what ever happend to that radio.
Anyone have a used and working portable short wave radio with SSB and a headphone jack that they'd sell me for less than $60? All the ones on ebay and amazon were new, no used ones up for sale.
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I was skimming through my old Antic magazines yesterday and came across the September '86 issue (volume 5, number 5) with article, schematics and programs to build a WEFAX interface. Luckily, WEFAX is still in use for the maritime industry. I remember skimming over the articles back then, but it was before I knew anything about working with electronics so that was it. Today I just ordered the XR 2211 IC for decoding the signal and found a cheap shortwave radio with single side band (SSB) for $60 (most start over a $100 and go up from there, but his one should suffice for this project). I haven't ordered the radio yet as I'm going to see if there are any shortwave radio apps for my Android that have SSB. Anyone know of any? An app should work, since all I need is a headphone jack to plug it into the WEFAX interface. I think it will be fun to get weather info and satellite images on my Atari, and I'll finally have something to use my 24-pin dot-matrix printer too!
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On 9/11/2020 at 12:48 PM, gilsaluki said:I have both those Antics & the Disks. And yes, I still bring them out to play. I loved a lot of the Antic games.
So do I.
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On 9/11/2020 at 12:32 PM, zzip said:hey, my Atari survived "Paperweight", it can survive anything! 😄
I remember that one! I never bothered, seemed a waste of time, but I remember people sending in complaint mail about publishing a program that would destroy your computer and the editor's editorial assuring people it wouldn't really damage your Atari! LOL! Gullible people...was that in an April edition of Antic? (April fools)
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15 hours ago, Dmitry said:oh by the way, even though I saved a few bucks by buying an old drive with jumpers on the back, there are several ebay vendors selling atari/amiga drives already modded for drive 0, and since they warranty it to work, and they are only $50 or so, not a bad choice either, if you don't want to solder.
I'll have to start looking into this...I bought one of Dropcheck's SF551 boards a couple years ago, and I have the board from an ST drive for some parts. I need to find the rest of the parts needed and a drive. The plan is to install it internally in my 1200XL. Though I'm not sure I need a drive to be modded for drive 0. I'm not up on 3.5" disk tech, but if I want to use this drive as drive 1 on my 1200XL does it need to be set for drive 0? I'm used to the standard drive numbering of 1-8 for floppy drives and stuff like my CF card drive on Incognito set for drive 0 (or is that the Fat partion?) I just jumped in on this last page though and need to read the rest of the conversation in this thread...
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I don't have room to set all of mine up, and that's after selling off 75% about 15 years ago and losing half of what I had left in a storage unit robbery. I even built a room especially for it all in the house I've been building over the last 5 years (DIY). I have to add on to my house still and have a second man-cave.
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I think the majority of us retro-naughts appreciate more machines than just what we owned as a kid/young adult these days. I'm in the opposite boat to you @Mazzspeed , wanting to get a C64. As well one or two other classic 8-bits. I skipped the 16-bit generation back in the day, going from my Atari 8-bit to PC's. When I finally got around to owning a Mega STE and Amiga 2000 earlier this century, with Commodore and Atari both dust in the wind, I had no prejudices anymore and I preferred the Amiga to the STE. I've owned a C64 before, and really liked it, but the winner in the 8-bit category for me is the Atari. I guess I became a Jay Miner fan over the years rather than based around a company. I'm surprised that there aren't more C64 fans that prefer the Atari ST line since they were made by some of the same engineers too. To me, the Atari 8-bit is an Amiga jr. and the C64 is an ST jr. In a more spiritual sense, as the ST has no custom SID or VIC II type IC's. The Amiga and Atari 800 are definitely more closely related technically.
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Actually, I'm looking to install them 2x2 in the rear to the right of my DVI port (to the left if looking at the back of the 800), behind/above the PSU board. I am trying to avoid anything mounted/plugged into the sides. I am planning on running wires to the back using DB9 connectors like the DB15's pictured below, mounted to the back case. Maybe it would be better to install them on a board and mount the board, but the board would have to be vertically oriented and mounted to the case with some spacers. Maybe something like the crude representation in bottom picture. I'd have to look and see how much space is between the PSU heat sink and the case. More than likely I'll just mount the DB9's to the back case with cables/wires running to the PIA board and where ever else might be needed. If you can knock up a board to go there, that would be great. These are just crude examples to form a picture in your noggin from stuff I had close at hand.
But we should continue this conversation on AOC and not hijack this thread anymore.
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Well, bad luck for me. Apparently I have a dead Sophia 2! I installed it and put the 800 back together and I got a black screen when I powered up. I just finished taking it all apart again and triple checking all connections, seated IC's etc. but still a black screen. I popped out the Sophia 2 and put my GTIA back in, and BINGO my 800 is working again. I tried this twice.
So... @Simius , can we arrange for a replacement? I can only send the (800 version) Sophia 2 board itself back as the socket is soldered in and the DVI board is...not a quick removal...
Damn! I was so looking forward to trying it out this weekend!
SO...JUST TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE, THAT IS PIN 1 WHERE THE ARROW IS POINTING IN THIS PICTURE? NM, I finally found the board pin 1 orientation picture again...I didn't think I made that mistake...
Just to cover my bases, the standard video outputs should work still, as well as the DVI, correct? I got no signal with DVI out, that's when I switched back to S-video and got the black screen. And the 800 works fine with S-video with the original GTIA plugged back in. I want to make sure it's not just the DVI ribbon cable plugged in backwards to the DVI board. I don't think that's the case, though, as the ribbon cable would have to be facing the wrong way when plugged into the DVI board...again, just hoping it's something simple and stupid so I don't have to send it back and wait for a replacement, I had already been anxiously waiting for months.
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On 1/15/2021 at 2:47 PM, Stephen said:I'm beyond unhappy with the USPS right now. I still don't have anything post issue #141.
I received my #143 a few days ago. But there are other things like my Fujinet and Indus GT upgrade boards that are still in USPS limbo...
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32 minutes ago, Mazzspeed said:If you were to put that beside a true 80 column capable system the difference is substantial. If you were to run a CRT the bloom effect would make that image degrade noticeably to the point where eye fatigue would become an issue. Eye fatigue would most likely still be an issue using software 80 columns on an LCD for extended periods.
Forgive me, I don't have an A8 yet. But as an example of software 80 columns on a CRT, here's the result on my 1084S via S-video using less than ideal colors (consider that the camera does tend to exaggerate the bloom, but you get the idea). The problem is the 4x8 characters and pixel density, it limits the ability to design characters that are truly clear.
Software 80 columns is something I use for limited periods where needed, but in every other situation I use native 40 columns. Can I ask, are you able to provide more specifics regarding your video scaler? Send a PM if it's more appropriate. The result is impressive.
I also have a 1084S...I need to fix the PSU board on it though...as to my upscaler/converter, I recommend Ambery products. I've had both S-video and RGB-to-VGA ones for well over ten years and I love them. Of course the picture on my 1200XL which also has an Supervideo 2.1 upgrade is even better (which is why the 800 got the Sophia 2) through the converter.
My Ambery video-2-VGA (model AV-8) is the white one in the top left corner here (the one without a description, it looks like they have newer varieties now): http://www.ambery.com/analogvideotovgaconverters.html
It looks like mine was replaced with this model:
http://www.ambery.com/dvh4.html
My RGB one IS this white one:
http://www.ambery.com/av-1m.html
They have many varieties and all are top-quality. @hueyjones70 has an Ambery that is video-2-HDMI he loves too.
80-column, hardware or software will start to hurt my eyes and give me a headache after a couple of hours. When using SpartaDOS and programming languages under it, I actually prefer the 64 column mode as an alternative to 40 or 80 column, and no headache or eye strain after a couple of hours (just like 40 column).
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15 minutes ago, Mathy said:Hello guys
The problem with HDMI is that you have to pay something like a royalty if you want to sell something with HDMI on it.
Would it be possible to "shorten" the PCB that holds the DVI connector?
And to save even more space inside the computer, would it be possible to take off the plastic on the outside of the DVI2HDMI? And the connectors?
BTW forget about retrobright or the sun. It'll only weaken the plastic even more/faster. The only thing that keeps our computers looking like new is painting it in the color it came in way back when.
Sincerely
Mathy
I usually do paint badly yellowed computers or ones I've done body work on, but with the 800 I was "trying out" retro-bright and sun-light. I will take your advice and return to my tradition of painting. It took me a long time to finally get the color right for my XL's though...do you, @Mathy , or anyone, know of a brand and color that matches original 400/800 plastic?
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16 hours ago, Mazzspeed said:The problem with software 80 column's is the fact that they're slow solutions (compared to native 40 column) and the fact that every character becomes 4x8 pixels. You either need Sophia and an LCD monitor with a good dot pitch specification, or a quality monochrome CRT monitor in order to create text that is as legible as possible.
I posted this picture a week ago in the 'VBXE Primer' thread. It's my 800 outputting standard S-video to my LCD screen in full color (yes text is black on grey background, but I've used other colors too and it looks just as good; some color variations aren't good but plenty are good) and it's very clear and sharp. I did just install a Sophia 2 in the same 800 and I'll show a comparison of the same software 80 column screen between this S-video and Sophia to HDMI soon. I'd do it now, but there was an issue and I had to take it apart again before I even saw my Sophia 2 output.
I have no problem whatsoever reading this 4x8 80 column screen even viewing it in this image posted below which is about 1/4 the size of my LCD screen. Perfectly legible right here, and I use reading glasses (most of the time), and I'm not wearing them right now and I can still read every word & letter in the image below right now (just slightly blurry to me without glasses). Also, this is the software 80-column from The Last Word processor and I can type about 30 wpm (not great, but not bad) and it has no trouble what-so-ever keeping up with my typing.
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6 minutes ago, Marsupilami said:Because with a Mini HDMI the problem is the same : it's too big. A Micro HDMI will work, but i haven't found a DVI-to-MicroHDMI online.
Sorry, I meant micro HDMI, like you said... how about an HDMI-to-MicroHDMI and plug that into the DVI-to-HDMI adapter you already have?
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If I remember correctly there are some very good reasons why DVI was chosen instead of HDMI or mini HDMI. I think cost was one, but more importantly, I think is because with a DVI you have the option to choose analog RGB or VGA as well as DVI/HDMI and a lot of people prefer RGB or VGA to use with CRT monitors. I've just installed mine, and though for now I'm using an HDMI adapter like you, going to my LCD monitor, I plan on using it for RGB and VGA in the future when I do get my RGB monitor working or get a good CRT VGA monitor. But couldn't you just get a DVI-to-miniHDMI adapter and cable instead of DVI-to-HDMI and feed the mini HDMI cable through the RF hole anyway? At least then there is nothing blocking the PBI port in case you ever want to use it.
I installed mine in my 800, so there are no open areas to feed a cable through like your PBI,,,even though I have a PBI port now (I still need it clear for PBI devices!). But I've already customized my 800 case with alternate SIO and audio/video outs as well as a PBI port, and more are to come, so cutting the case and mounting the DVI port was "par for the course." But didn't want to mount in on the side like in the 8-step installation posted before, as I just cleared the side of all cables but Power, because I never like the side I/O on the 800. Plus, I'm using the old RF channel selector switch as my Pokeymax mono/stereo switch.
I posted these pictures in my on-going 800 upgrade blog too:
P.S. looking at these pictures I posted really shows that my 800 has yellowed again since I did a retro-bright a couple of years ago...time to try the sun-bright option and get her back to a more normal color.
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in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted · Edited by Gunstar
I converted an image of the Smoky Mountains...it's somewhere in these pages...I think it was within the last year, so maybe back about 20 pages back or so?