Calibus

Looks like the same rev CPU card I have. Mine is wired identically.

I assume you mean something is being shorted while the Incognito is plugged - since when I revert - it seems fine. Granted, I've only done limited testing with this 800 - but it seems to work fine with a BASIC cart and Star Raiders when I reverted it.

With an incognito - do you normally get the memory test (?) sound effect on power up? I definitely don't hear anything. When I put the OS ROM back in and 48K of RAM - I definitely heard it on startup before either going into Memo Pad or BASIC or whatever else I tested it with. I will definitely try a cart when I have a chance - with the Incognito plugged in. I didn't have the keyboard plugged in - but I can try that also.

I bought an Atari 800 a couple years ago - and found out about this great thing called the Incognito - which sadly wasn't being sold any more and was super expensive on ebay. So - during this past summer when I saw the post on FB that Lotharek was doing a new run - I fell over myself throwing money at him. I was cheap on the postage - no tracking - but it made its way to me eventually. In the meantime I watched FJC's installation videos - so I was all set when mine arrived. Last weekend, I finally cleared enough space on my bench to open up the 800 and started installing it. I got to the part in the video where he does the quick power up check. So - I hooked mine up - powered it up - and got this on my monitor I powered it off quick and double checked my connections. Everything seemed OK to me - so I took a bunch of pictures and showed them to FJC to see if a second pair of eyes would reveal my goof. He spotted I have swapped the connections from P5 Pins 3 & 4 - the ones to the resistors. So - when I got home that day - I wired them up correctly - and tried again. Same thing - blue screen with squiqqlies. It was at this point that I studied his example connections on the CPU card - and saw that it looked quite different than mine. I was confident that I followed the instructions though - and connected the wires to the right pins on the chip I identified as the Antic via a part number lookup on google. So - some more back and forth PMs and we realized I had a different rev CPU board than he did. Maybe mine is normal for NTSC machines? On both my CPU cards (I also have a parts 800 that arrived smashed from ebay) pin 1 of the large 40 pin chips is towards the card edge connector. My CPU cards are oriented in the same layout as in the 800 service manual I downloaded. I reverted my 800 temporarily back to an OS card and 48K - and it booted up fine into notepad. So I at least didn't kill the machine. I emailed Lotharek and he assured me that every Incognito is tested prior to being shipped. So - I've pestered Jonathan enough these past three days - and I thought I might see if anyone else has any ideas what might be wrong. Hopefully I didn't kill the Incognito with my wire swap accident. Mine did come with a populated JTAG header - so if there is something I can do via that - it's an option. I did originally plug the CPU and Incognito cards in the motherboard correctly - I double checked the video to see what the orientation was prior to applying power. I also had the P4 cable connected properly - the 74LS42 replacement. I have both jumper wires on the motherboard correct - I double checked against the video. (Ref from the memory card slot to the personality module slot & RNMI to Reset) Any ideas? Does anyone else have it working with this style of CPU card? I also have a TL866 if I needed to reprogram something. Help? Jim

Pretty rusty here, but if I recall, by default 4 pages of memory are allocated in ECB. Try "PCLEAR 0" and then check memory. Sounds like this is a 16K unit.

Order ID 19804 Ordered on August 8th - received shipping notice yesterday morning.

If Ed Snider has any available, he'll sell you one - or he'll let you know when he does have some. https://thezippsterzone.com/

I'm guessing you are referring to the Color Computer or "CoCo"? Normally, the older monochrome Z-80 based computer is referred to as a Model 1... Color Computers on wikipedia Yep - definitely sounds like a CoCo to me - since the Z-80 machines didn't have cartridge slots. Both of those games were for the 3rd version of the CoCo - or the CoCo 3 only.

The SD card based drive to get is a CocoSDC. Looks like Ed is showing a couple available on his website here: https://thezippsterzone.com/buy/ More good stuff can be found here: Cloud 9

Wooohoo - I'm in Barberton, hopefully that 1x is mine.

Actually, there were three items rattling around inside the case when I opened it. #1 - the mystery angled piece #2 - the sliced piece of rubber bumper #3 - a lock washer from one of the two screws holding the heat sink. One of the heat sink screws was merely loose - but still had the nut and washer, the other screw had lost its nut - but since it butts against the bottom of the case, it didn't go anywhere. I looked everywhere and couldn't find the missing nut. Definitely didn't lodge itself in the floppy drive mechanicals.

Hi, I won what appeared to be a pristine drive from a seller on ebay, and prior to trying it - I shook it and heard something rattling inside. I opened it up, and found this small angled piece of metal. In this picture, it is laying next to one of the rubber bumpers that lines up with the floppy disk frame. The bumper appears to be sliced, I'm guessing due to being dropped, which may have resulted in this piece of metal becoming loose. Any ideas where it goes? I have another 1050 drive of unknown condition and I'm not seeing this part inside it - but I may be just overlooking it... Jim

Yep, Lotharek actually emailed me this picture yesterday - I wondered where it came from. Even w/out translating from Polish - this picture is all I needed. It would be nice if future runs of the board had pin 1 indicated though... Jim

Sometimes the best answers are the simplest ones, I'll send him an email and cross my fingers... Jim

Did you buy just the unit - or one with half an SIO cable? I recently bought just the unit - and can't figure out how to wire it up to my SIO plug, since the green terminal header on the SIO2SD is completely void of any markings. No indication of which pin is pin 1 etc...

nope - no square pin through holes on the bottom of the board under the green header. I'd already checked before asking here...

No to both questions. Thus my asking here. Jim

I recently purchased an SIO2SD from Lotharek, but I am stumped as to how to wire it up properly to my SIO cable. I *know* I need to connect pins 10, 4, 7, 3, 5 from the SIO cable - but there is no indication on the SIO2SD which screw down terminal connector is "1" for example, so I can't simply follow a schematic such as this one: http://www.eurotronik.pl/pages/sio2sd.php?m2=103 In my picture - which pin is "1"? I don't want to apply the 5v to the wrong pin and fry this... thanks! Jim

Can anyone suggest a graphic demo that illustrates the graphics modes available? For example - something that displays "Graphics Mode #23 " and then goes and displays a picture / screen shot of a game / simple animation / etc. My sum total experience with the Atari 8bits so far is the Asteroids and Star Raiders carts my 800 came with - and I'm pretty sure it can do better than the blocky graphics used in those games. AND it would be nice to hear the sound capabilities - I've read so much about these computers over the years, I'm anxious to see and hear what my 800, 800XL and 1200XL are capable of. thanks! Jim

OK, go ahead and line up and tell me "I told you so" I swapped out R63 for one of the jumpers I removed when I installed my U1MB, and the SIO is now working perfectly with the Atarimax SIO2PC-USB device. *sigh* All's well that ends well I guess Jim

If this is directed to me, I'm not sure what you are referring to as an XE MMU. I still have the XL MMU I removed the 1200XL prior to installing the U1MB and the two ROMs. I purposely haven't reverted the 1200XL back to stock configuration due to the jumpers I moved around to modify the ROM addressing. While I am comfortable soldering, I'm leery of doing more than necessary since there is always the slight chance of causing a problem and I'd hate to make matters worse. Believe me, I am kicking myself for neglecting to test the SIO port prior to performing any mods - I had never used the SIO port until recently, so it wasn't like a habit to even think about it.... When my 800XL arrives, I am definitely planning on giving it a thorough checkout before cracking the case... And only AFTER I have verified the SIO works - opening it up and scoping the TX pin to see how it compares to the 1200XL.

I'll probably try the R63 mod, at this point, I don't have anything to lose. Unfortunately, due to busy evenings, probably will not be able to try it for a day or so.

Since I'm currently using an AtariMax SIO2PC-USB device - R63 doesn't come into play. Bummer. I guess I'm stuck then until I can get a trace of a good working SIO transmission, since I can't tell if there is anything wrong with mine - nothing to compare it to.

It was set as private - which I misinterpreted as being viewable if the link was provided. It's now just set to "unlisted" - so hopefully that link works now. No, I haven't touched R63 as per the suggestion by DrVenkman that it shouldn't be a factor. However, I'm willing to do so.

I took a scope probe to SIO TX this afternoon. I figured that if TX wasn't working, then I needn't bother looking at RX. (I'm sure APE etc isn't seeing anything from the 1200XL - so there shouldn't be anything on RX at this time...) I couldn't figure out how to properly store a trace and extract it from my 'scope - so I held my phone in front of it while I powered on the 1200XL. The trace immediately goes to 5v, and then has a brief surge of traffic (traffic is between 5v and 4v - I assume that is normal?) Pauses, and then another brief surge of traffic. Does this look normal? This is the exact same signal I see coming out of the POKEY itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMCdmj4PwVg