tf_hh

Ok, I can´t give a 100% guarantee, but I didn´t know any reason why it shouldn´t. Actual I use a 1050 with MegaSpeedy as drive 1...4 (switches at the front for easy access), a second 1050 with the original Super Archiver and BitWriter boards from the Eighties (also switchable) and, at last, a bare 1050 PCB equipped with my replica. All works fine - with a total of approx 3 meters SIO cables. So when there´s trouble, then - so I think I can say - the reason is not this replica, but other things like SIO length, not-removed smoothing caps and so on.

Maybe (it seems so) there are different versions. In europe the first title ("Archon 1") was published by Ariolasoft - a german record company with a computer´s software spin-off using the same name. This game used "only" skewed sectors and can be copied with the Super Archiver 3.12 "Skew Mode" version (the normal 3.02 doesn´t do it!). Normally the 3.02 and 3.12 was published on one hard-protected disk. But there are open versions in the wild... The 3.03 only supports medium density, when I´m right. Archon 2: Adept was published (in europe) by Electronic Arts. There are a hand full of EA titles using the same protection scheme and only - as fair as I know - the BitWriter does it. Maybe Super Archiver 3.03, but didn´t try that. The BitWriter tool V1.4 (dated 05/05/88) is the last and not protected version I know. Jurgen

At least 10 pieces, otherwise costs will explode :-(

The real advantage IS the possibility of writing a track-by-once bitwise. This includes all things like more than 40 sector headers for example (Super Archiver Software can´t do this), disrupted sectors and skewed sectors with maximum track length used. The Super Archiver hasn´t the memory (just 2 KByte is used due limitation of 6507 CPU and direct access) to write a full track by once, so there are always little glitches in timing - some protections tests exactly this. For example, the EA title "Archon 2: Adept" could only by copied with the BitWriter. There are some more software titles. The Super Archiver supports slow-mode read/write at 270 RPM (like B. Engls "Turbo 1050" it does), but the BitWriter supplies also 275 and 282 RPM. When reading copy-protected disks, these more speeds gives more possibility to detect what´s (wrong) written on that track. That´s all I know or have analyzed by scope. Maybe the software does more than I wrote here. I ask Bob Puff to get permission (he does give it to me), but he hasn´t any documents any longer. So we can only try it out... Jurgen

Maybe it works, but I haven´t test it. It makes no sense, until you have an Inocgnito installed. SDX 4.4x is kind of useless without memory expansion or less the memory under the operating system. A standard 800 have only 48 KByte, no memory under the O.S. and no modern memory expansion. When you have an Axlon compatible memory expansion installed, it should work - but as already said, no test until now. Jurgen

Hi all, I would like to start an interest poll for my newest project, a full working replica of the BitWriter 1050 (which also includes the Super Archiver as needed by The BitWriter - of course). What you need to use this PCB: A none modified (i.e. no Happy, no Speedy, no other enhancement) Atari 1050 drive Some solder skills (it´s easy) What´s the goal of using this hardware: You get a Super Archiver 1050 You get a BitWriter 1050 You can copy mostly all copy-protected games for backup or software preservation Reading/Writing/Formatting Double Density Highspeed SIO ... and what´s not: Anything better than a Speedy, a Happy or a MegaSpeedy The top point to use such a solution is to preserve original game disks as wanted by collectors and general software preservation. Of course you will find nearly all games cracked or modified in other ways to run, but it wasn´t the real thing. The BitWriter reads and writes the disks bit by bit, so missing bits, timing issues and other nice copy protection schemes were just copied as they are. The price will be in the range between 40 and 50 euros (or approx. 45 up to 56 US-Dollar) and it´s depending on the amount of orders. Timeline for this offer: Interest poll until the end of February 2016. If you want one (or more), please write it here I check for prices of all parts, calculate the final price and will write it here Payments via PayPal are collected until March, the 15th. 2016 I order the PCBs, all parts and so on Delivery or parts to me and then assembly may take 4-8 weeks depending on several sources and my spare time Shipping to you will be done approx. in the mid of April 2016 Shipping costs for one piece worldwide: 6 euros (registered letter, refund in case of lost or damage max. 30 euros!) 9 euros (insured registered letter, refund in case of lost or damage up to 200 euros) If more than one piece is ordered, the shipping costs will increase a bit If you´ve any questions, please ask. I´m not every day online at AtariAge, it´s always better to write an email to [email protected] instead of sending a PN! Maybe the final delivery will be done earlier as last year with my Sys-Check, but I will give the maximum time first, better to be faster than slower as expected... Many thanks for helping and realizing this project to Guus Assmann and Michael Alers! BR, Jurgen

Hi, Some questions... I don´t (!) want to blame this, but where´s the difference between the lot of video mods already running in the wild? Which video amplifier or generator you are using? I rebuild some times the solution by low_budget (see schematics in attachment) and it´s the best solution I´ve seen until now - on also every atari (computer or console) using a CTIA or GTIA. Next, all screenshots shown are from tube monitors. Using a tube, in most cases the picture is already very good using S-Video (XE, XEGS, XL "rose") or a simple "Supervideo" mod must be done to get a good picture. Totally different any result appears when using LCD/TFT monitors or television. And that´s what today is mostly used. So it would be very important to see some screenshots from 2 or 3 different TFT/LCD monitors. The low_budget solution for example has a very sharp, clear und impressive picture on Sony or Philips TFT televisions, but runs bad on a lot of china lowprice devices. Otherwise a lot of these cheap china devices (no name TVs or so) like "Funai" produces a very good picture on a lot of unmodified Atari or need just a simple Supervideo mod. Unfortunenately all of these mods become more and more useless, because more and more TFT/LCD monitors only accept Composite-Video, but not S-Video Would be nice to see more... Regards, Jurgen

... because normally such a happy clone should be built-in a 1050 and never see the sun

The new version is ready for SDX versions up to 512 KByte. Actually it uses the 256 KB SDX 4.47 compilation.

Hi, Fratzengeballer hits the point I think. There are some expansions for the Atari systems with only a very small "customer base", so thats not really interesting to write programs for. IMHO a memory expansion for more comfort is nice. A stereo POKEY solution also, but this is not a problem, as I didn´t know any game or demo which requires a dual POKEY. Rapidus and all other speed-it-up solutions are... quite useless (MY PERSONAL OPINION!). I want 8-bit, the real thing. When I want more technical base speed, I take an Amiga. For the most 8-bit fans I know the low speeds and technical options are THE challenge why they code on 8-bit with <2 MHz and 64 KByte of RAM. IMHO the VBXE expansion is something "alien" (I like it, I have it, it´s a great project) - software must be specially coded for it and at this time only a very few games and demos are availible. I´ve built-in over 10 pieces in the last years for ABBUC members, all of them use it primary as a "good quality video output solution" - for a not so small price. A VBXE 3.0 - release with state-of-the-art FPGA and HDMI (!) output would be very nice. Using modern chips like the Altera MAX10 should it make possible to create a newer VBXE with a price around 50 Euros. This is - as a lot of users say - the range very more people would buy it. And when the "customer base" is high enough, more coder would accept it and program for it. So... back to threadstart... a nice idea, not the first. But I see here no real "use case" for it. Real hardware, real (old) machines or something new like FPGA solution using foft´s core. Just my 2 cents...

Hi, As already written, the JP1-JP4 position are not important. One very silly idea, but... I´ve done that one time and same kind of failure appears... do you have really remove the 6810 SRAM? It´s the IC next to the 6532 VIA. When inserting the MegaSpeedy, this RAM must be removed - counterwise to all other 1050 enhancements.... BR, Jurgen

Hi, Maybe it´s a good idea to use the LS138 directly. This behavior might be a problem accessing VBXE´s control registers at $D6xx. I think you´ve connected the desired pin from the 8-pin VBXE connector with your U1MB. So try to connect it directly with pin 9 of the 74LS138 (placed bottom of the MMU). In the VBXE manual (Lotharek version) there´s until today an error and the usage of pin 8 written - but that´s wrong, pin 8 is ground. Good luck, Jurgen

Hi, Just two hints... if you have a Happy 1050 (clone) anywhere, they have a 6502B CPU mostly on board. You can use it for testing. But I prefer to clean all connectors first. I´ve built a lot of Incognitos into 800 computers and when there were trouble, mostly it depends on bad contacts. Detach the CPU board, clean the contacts with a rubber. The edge connector itself should be cleaned with a toothbrush or with some folded clean, white paper. Move it up and down into the space between the contact guides, never left to right, only up and down. Repeat this also to the personality slot connector (where the Incognito is plugged in). Also try (this is not a cure-all, but in two cases it had helped me) changing the both 74LS243 ICs to another one. BR, Juergen

Hi, Thanks for feedback. Actually Sys-Check V1.3 only tests the main memory (64 KByte). In the future I will support also testing the extended memory. To test to expanded memory in the 130 XE there´s an easy way: Just cross the both 33 Ohm resistors above the 16 pin "EMMU" (CO25953) IC. Crossing them exchanges main bank with extended bank. Sys-Check then also detects bad memory. Juergen

... maybe possible in release version 42

Hi, Thanks for feedback. As I noticed in the technical manual, it´s not recommanded to use Sys-Check together with an U1MB. The reason is the kind of low-level access both expansion do to the whole system. It MUST cause problems. On the other way, there´s no need to use Sys-Check on an U1MB equipped Atari XL/XE really... So it´s always better to use Sys-Check on systems without U1MB. When you want to do diagnostics on a dead computer with U1MB, it´s the best way to deactivate U1MB first. Detach the both ribbon cables, just plug in old MMU and OS-ROM and system should start, if the U1MB is the source of trouble. Otherwise THEN Sys-Check may be attached to search for bad RAM and so on. BR, Juergen

Hi, Totally aggree. I don´t want to blame this hardware development from TORI... but... why the hell using an OPL3? Maybe he´s to young to remember the early years of PC´s soung empire of Soundblaster 2.0 and similar cards, but my ears begin to bleed only when I remember the bunch of horrible "tunes" on the PC using OPL3 sounds. IMHO every YM2149 or so sounds better... BR, Juergen

Hi, Sorry, documentation is not my best side The Sys-Check flasher flashes actually only 16K firmware/OS versions and always write them twice into on 32K physical slot. As long there´s no 32K Sys-Check firmware this is enough, when I make such a big new firmware, a new flasher will come BR, Juergen

Hi, That´s not the point. I have ALL different models of XL/XE in NTSC, PAL or SECAM at home. Also some rare versions like 65XE with "900 XL" marked PCB, without ECI but PAL (and PAL from factory - not additional soldered the needed parts in after manufacturing the whole device). Except the 1200XL - this is the only one I haven´t. I wish one for a long time to be complete and to test my hardware experiments also on a 1200XL. But 100 euros and more is to much. That´s it BR, Juergen

Hi, I got a lot of feedback about successful assembly of the Sys-Check kit - thanks again. But... no feedback until now for the flasher software. I´m curious about results... has anybody use it? Usage is clear, something wrong? Or has it works as intended? Regards, Juergen

Hi, Unfortunately I didn´t own a 1200 XL. Hard to get here in germany and mostly totally overpriced. The result depends on the interaction with U1MB. This behavior appears on all installations I´ve tested Sys-Check together with an U1MB. Maybe the source of this effect depends on the total emulation of the MMU by U1MB. I think in some cases the draining-down of REFresh will not be processed by U1MB, because normally this should not happen. Same effects sometimes appears with the Turbo Freezer, which also doesn´t work together with an U1MB equipped computer in *some* cases. This is the reason why I prefer to deactivate/built-off some big expansions like U1MB if the computer is really dead... BR, Juergen

Hi, First words: Cool idea, I like it. But.. when going on with such a "big" project, then I think it´s time to make it really round What about not only including SIO21050 (for PC usage I think), also include a SIO2SD? Maybe some idea like this here (I used bob´s photo): Mounting the drive to the lowest possible position, there´s enough space for a small 2x 20 or 2x 24 standard character display. Some miniature tactile or better push-button switches (like on the Turbofreezer 2011) to enable/disable complete drive and/or SIO2SD with the ability to change the drive ID from the front. This will be perfect Just an idea... BR, Juergen

Hi, Didn´t you get my email with the link to the building instructions? Sometimes U.S. mail services classifies my GMX.DE email address as spam In the attachment you will find the building instructions. Best regards, Juergen Building instructions Sys-Check II English.pdf

Hi, Thanks for feedback to all! Lotharek, without having a look on real hardware now, I think this might be a conceptional thing. When I remember right, the addresslines on the XE mainboards are routed from cartridge/ECI, CPU to the bottom (ROMs) and then left to the Freddy. So the Freddy is the other "end" point. If not, then you couldn´t have a picture, because LS138 also is not connected to A8 and hardware I/O can´t be accessed right. So when only Freddy is "cut" from A8, then RAM access might be correct - but with "holes" every 256 bytes. Is the RAM faulty in this computer? Maybe not really. But this behavior forwards me to a better idea for RAM-testing... after writing ones and zeros to RAM to test, I will add writing a page number and re-test it when complete memory is tested. If the page numbers aren´t equal, there´s any kind of addressing failure, which might cause by an missing trace on the PCB or broken pin like on your socket. Next firmware version is coming asap :-) Best regards, Juergen

Hi, I have a few kits left. If you want one, please write to [email protected] Also post me your country and state for calculating shipping costs. Best regards, Juergen