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I used a cheap-o ebay SD breakout board identical to this one, with a small breadboard between it and the arduino to allow pin configuration. I've been looking at this LCD and button combo shield, wondering if it would work with a bit of pin reassignment in the config.h file. Still have to add the SD breakout, but it would make a nice compact project with a lot less work.

I've used the prolific breakout board, and it works fine, though speeds may be limited compared to the slightly more expensive ftdi. If you want fast SIO, get the latter. Also, with the prolific board I had to add an extra connection directly to the chip to get a CMD pin available. I actually spent tonight setting up a basic sio2arduino based on Farb's excellent work. Got it working with basic reset button. Next step is to add LCD and 4 selection buttons. By the way, I have no idea what I'm doing, so if I can do it successfully, anyone can.

I've fixed many LCD monitors and a few PC motherboards that were suffering from bad caps, but it never would have occurred to me that a floppy drive might be faulty from the same cause. Thanks for posting this, Gadget!

Mr. Price; It was the summer of '85 or '86 when a friend and I discovered AR. That summer was consumed by phone calls back and forth with each new discovery, and lots of graph paper as we attempted to map out the entire City. I can think of very few titles in the intervening years that have even come close to the thrill and immersion we felt with that game. So I'm very glad to have this opportunity to say Thank You. My original Atari 400, and accompanying disks, are long gone but I held on to all the graph paper maps and manuals. Couldn't bear to get rid of them.

Yeah, nostalgia, as has already been mentioned. If I could choose to own any 8-bit Atari, it would be a 400, 48K, with upgraded keyboard. Why? Because that's what my first 8-bit was in its final iteration. And a couple 810s. Second choice would be the 1450XLD, because that's the computer I lusted for behind my 400's back.

Archive.org is now hosting TOSEC (The Old School Emulation Centre) files, and includes a large collection of downloadable Odyssey2 roms. Maybe the O2 collection is complete with the links already posted, but hopefully the link will be a help filling in any other rom collections. http://archive.org/details/tosec

2010.12.20 v3.0 My RGB cable was missing one of the sync lines, so I moved the ground line over on the connector, and used a separate wire with alligator clips for ground. My setup involved a fair amount of half-assery, so I suspect with proper connectors, etc. I may have had better more consistent results.

Not personally, but there were a few threads at Atari Forum where this converter had been tried, and with mixed results. Some people it worked okay for, others not. I've tried one of the GBS-8220 converters, and it worked well with my STfm, but not my STf, and it's still fussy to set up.

Time to sell off all my old Atari 8-bit items. Asking only $100 for all this stuff. Medical problems, space constraints, etc. Atari 800XL - s-video upgraded, some version of supervideo was done at some point, too. Atari 600XL - 64K upgrade, composite/s-video upgraded. (both the above have slightly modified cases to cases to incorporate the s-video and other connectors) Atari 400 - original condition, 16K. Have 48K board, too, but it's flaky and only shows 32K and graphics glitches on screen. Original box, but it's in rough shape. 1050 disk drives (x2), only have one SIO cable. One of the 1050s is missing the silver name tag trim. Hardware above is in good working condition other than as noted. Very clean inside and out, little to no yellowing, scratches or dings. - 65XE case parts and keyboard, motherboard is missing components. 65XE original box, in rough shape - power supplies for the above, plus a bunch of the larger 9VAC brick PSUs - pile of carts, nothing rare or unique - SIO2PC built into old Pocket Modem with long cat-5 cable to serial PC connection - several disk cases of copied floppies - a few joysticks and other odds and ends, RF cables, and a XM modem. - three 410 recorders, one in parts, all need belts. Located in Brantford, Ontario, about an hour south of Toronto. Hoping $100 price makes it worth the drive for someone.

That seems like a good idea, given that some of the Atari power supplies I've come across are aging poorly and no longer outputting a proper +5V. One of them, which I believe fried several chips on my XE, was putting out almost 6V. I suppose it was foolish of me to not first check the voltage on a newly acquired 8-bit, but at the time I had no idea just how sensitive the XE internals were. There's also quite a few Instructables on converting AT/ATX PC PSUs to multi-purpose "benchtop" power supplies, including adding LM317 regulators to add a variable source. One further option is a mini-itx adapter board. They can use silent laptop AC adapters for 12V input, and offer the standard 12V, 5V, 3.3V, etc. on output. That starts to get pricey compared to a regulator, though.

If you're going to use a lot of applications, then TOS 2.06 would be a good choice. You'll get slightly better game compatibility with TOS 1.6. And if you do upgrade your memory to 4MB, you could always load TOS 2.06 off a floppy at boot time when you need it.

Haven't come across any, but if you're running an Intel-based Mac, you might be able to use the PC VST with a wrapper: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wacvst/

@Bryan; the only power is what's coming from the USB bus, if that's what you mean. The only SIO connections are TX, RX, GND and CMD. @Mathy; thanks for the clarification. I've seen the sio2usb term applied to "sio2pc via usb" in other areas, but I can see how it can cause confusion with the device in your photo.

Just for a lark, I picked up a PL2303 based usb to serial converter with some other goodies recently. The boards, with some prototyping cable, are going for about $1.80 on ebay with free shipping. The only drawback to using these boards with the Atari is the only offer TX/RX, VCC and ground, but no ring indicator, CTS or other option for the Atari's command pin. So I soldered a fine wire to pin 6 of the chip, which is its RI output, stuck it into a prototyping board, and connected the four necessary pins to my 600XL's sio cable. I loaded up Aspeqt on the PC side, set it to use RI, and darned if it didn't work first try. I guess the thread title's possibly misleading in that you'd still need to source proper connectors, cable, and such, but all that can be gathered from salvage with the exception of a sio connector, if you don't want to add a foreign connector to the back of your Atari.

I have to manually add the second disk to the emulator's drive two, or swap disks where the game only supports a single drive. Gamebase adds some convenience, though. It copies all the disk images for a multi-disk game to whatever temp directory you've chosen under Tools / front end options. So at least you don't have to tunnel through directories.

I find the additional material is great for discovering games that I'd never encountered before. I've had collections of floppy images for years, but never even looked as some of the titles since all I've had to go on is a filename, though I always took it for granted that "pushypig.sux" probably did. With Gamebase, I get photos of the gameplay, and where available instructions, historical info, magazine ads, maps (great seeing all the info provided for the Alternate Reality series). @carmel_andrews; It would be a mistake to include the Gamebase executable with each collection. The whole point is each collection is like a plug-in or database that can be easily added to any existing, and up to date, Gamebase installation. The Atari ST Gamebase is quite good, too, and helped me track down a few games by screenshot that I couldn't remember the name of.

Thanks, Bob! Got it sorted out. I've only got as far as composite output, but what I'm seeing is remarkably clean looking.

I'm attempting the Ken Sumrall svideo/composite mod linked in the OP, but am having trouble interpreting what connections he's referring to in one part of the intructions. I've removed my RF modulator, and as instructed, am looking at the board topside from the front of the computer. According to the instructions: So I assume that's the rightmost of the 4 pins where the RF had connected to the motherboard, correct? But that sounds like he's referring to the exact same pin! If anyone has done this, or can offer any clarity, I'd be really appreciative. The rest of the instructions are straightforward enough.

Sanding grade = zero. If you're working on old equipment, it's better to find something gentler than sandpaper, which will permanently scratch the contacts, creating a larger surface area for continued oxidizing. Some of the old computer mags used to recommend a pencil eraser to clean cartridge contacts. Even toothpaste on some paper towel or a q-tip would be safer than sandpaper. Auto parts stores will have something like AutoSol (Canadian stores Partsource and Lee Valley Tools both stock it), which is a non-abrasive metal cleaner and polish. Good for your bike chrome, too.

Wouldn't Ghostlink be considered somewhat comparable to sio2pc? Close but maybe not quite as versatile:

If you want to run pre-PPC, Basilisk II is your best bet. Sheepshaver would be a better choice if you needed PowerPC emulation. Sheepshaver is based partially on Basilisk, so setup of both emulators is the same. Basilisk II is reasonably stable, at least for applications. I haven't run any games other than some simple ones like Jetpack. Also an emaculation link like Forrest's; a good setup guide is here: http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/68k_software

Picked up mine at the museum tonight. Very impressed with all the effort that's gone into the packaging. It looks great! Thanks!

It makes a lot of sense. I moderate the Marketplace section on another computer board, and we discourage "PM Sent" posts. Why? Because the marketplace section is different from the other sections of the board. It's intended for the sole purpose of selling items and is not an area for discussions. Long threads of PM Sent and other comments conveys nothing about whether the item is sold or pending, but it makes any potential buyer scroll through the thread to see whether the seller posts that the item is sold. Unless the post asks or conveys additional information about the item (eg, where are you located? Is it the Rev. 1 or 2 board) it's just noise in a thread that benefits from being short and to the point. As others have suggested, put the onus on the seller. Sold the item? Post that it's sold. Now everyone knows. I ran into a similar discussion in which someone angrily insisted that if you put an item on your ebay Watched list, you should be obligated to place a bid otherwise you were somehow being deceitful.

It's a really impressive device, and I've joined their mailing list in attempt to ensure I can snag at least two of the boards soon as they're available for purchase. Just saw a demo of it running XBMC at full 1080p, so I think there's finally a small and electricity-sipping replacement for my original Xbox. The big issue with Atari augmentation is not so much the hardware as getting someone to develop software. An Arduino could perform a lot of the same tasks we'd assign to the Raspberry (excluding full system emulation), like drive emulation, additional interfaces, etc., and it's been available for cheap for years but so far it looks like only one person has stepped up to do some coding so far. That's not a criticism of anyone, or our community at large, it's just the number of people who could take on the task by way of talent, motivation, and having the free time, is going to be painfully small.

Making some room for other projects. The 130XE in the auction has been mostly socketed. All of the RAM and at about half the main chips are now removable. Everything works. The XF551 has some yellowing. The SDrive is a home-made job - and looks it - but does what it's supposed to. Board has ICSP so it can be flash upgraded if necessary. It's a one-off; I'm not planning on building any others. ebay auction numbers: 180792970607 - 130XE system 180793000770 - sdrive Just search on ebay for those numbers. I thought that easier than providing a link which would take viewers to a localized ebay.ca. Auctions end Sunday Jan 22 evening EST. Thanks and best regards, edit: D'oh. If a mod could move this from Wanted and into For Sale, I'd be very grateful.