sloopy

O.o ok... /me wanders away... sloopy.

How man RF Modulators did Atari build? sloopy.

Sebastian, my "rant", as you and some other people put it, is not specificaly about U1MB, it is the general understanding that "the Atari is poorly designed, but our upgrades are better, so blame it on your Atari, or on your soldering skills" concept. I disagree with all that no matter how many people disagrees with me. As Bob rightfuly put it, we don't know exactly what's going on, and when we don't know we tend to send the blame the to easiest target, either the Atari or the user who upgraded his computer... Believe me if I was convinced the problem lies with the U1MB you would have been first to know , yes I will take your advise and check my connections once or maybe twice again but that does not stop me telling what I believe is wrong. And blaming every problem to Atari is wrong... There is one thing that I will complain about immediately however. And it's your lack of documentation with the shipments, that is in my opinion is a big oversight (as you well know not everybody is an electronics technician). How can you blame an installer if you don't even ship an installation instruction with your device.?? U1MB isn't exactly Plug-and-Play you know...... And telling me that Atariage is full of threads about U1MB installation will not cut it. I did not pay for hunting instructions on AA. We 'blame it on the unknown' because the problem still exists, and its not in the 'known'... Try hooking up your logic analyzer and looking at many machines and see the problem... Things are supposed to happen in a definitive order X, Y, Z... in definitive times X+t1+Y+t2+Z, now if t1 and t2 are the same for 60% of all A8's, and they are what Atari has documented what is supposed to happen... then the other 40% of machine must have a problem. This is especially true if they DONT FOLLOW THE DESIGN SPEC! the slogan 'Power without the Price' was from the 'Jacked' Atari, not Warner... And Atari Corp had nothing to do with the design of the 400/800/1200XL/600XL/800XL, and very little in the 130XE... Maybe working with your electronics, and repairing and modifying ataris is a activity you need to work at to get more experience? sloopy.

It has the right connector for the XL/XE, and as long as the specs are correct it should be ok... Another good source of a PSU is externally powered USB hubs, these are usually [email protected], and pretty cheap. I can get them from a local discount store for around $10-12USD... Then it is simple matter of putting your connector from the old one on the new one... sloopy.

Give it time, it will get to the point where things will be so expensive, people will lose interest... sloopy.

If you mount it upside down the bits might fall out, and all over the A8's mobo... Then you will have a big mess... sloopy.

I thought adding memory to a 65XE was really hard? Similar to what you did when you added memory to that XEGS? In NTSC land adding mem in a 65XE is hard, relatively speaking... PAL 65XE's are (almost always) 130XE's without the ext mem and EMMU installed, so its just a matter of installing the DRAMs, and EMMU. NTSC 65XE, and 800XL are the same for the most part, you need to replace the DRAMs and put in the support circuits... using something like the U1mb or the Hias 512k SRAM upgrades are two of the easiest The XEGS is the worst of the bunch, as the 64kx4bit DRAMs it uses arent pin compatible with the 256kx4bit DRAMs. So, where as the 800XL and NTSC 65XE you can replace the 64kx1bits with 256kx1bit, and add circuitry, the XEGS you really need to either use a self contained upgrade that holds the RAM, or you need to do alot of solder work... Also note, the 600XL (both PAL and NTSC) use the 4bit DRAMs like the XEGS, but the 16kx4bit are upwardly compatible so 64k upgrade is simple, but adding ext ram to the 600XL gives the similar issues to the XEGS, with the exception of the Hias 512k SRAM upgrade is easier since it can be piggybacked on the OS or BASIC... sloopy.

An 800XE is just a 65XE with a different model name sticker... There is no real reason to get an 800XL if you already have a 130XE/65XE(PAL), as the main diff to software is the ext mem in the 130XE... which can be added to the 65XE (easily) and to the 800XL (not as easy, but not difficult at all). And if you add a Ultimate 1Mb from Candle, to both the 800XL and the 130XE, the only difference would be the keyboard... For the most part, anything that works on the 800XL will work on the 130XE, and the other way too, if the 800XL has ext mem added... sloopy.

wow... sloopy.

something like this: http://uk.farnell.com/itw-chemtronics/cw2000/nickel-conductive-pen/dp/1663187 should be able to find one cheaper tho... sloopy.

If you look at the bottom of this page: http://www.futurlec.com/ICRAM.shtml 41256 41256 256k Video RAM Yes 1 $0.95 these are the right ones, but you should be able to find them in the US with cheaper/faster shipping... (there is nothing wrong with getting them at Futurlec, its just the are over seas so shipping is either cheap/long or pricey/fast, and yes I order from them, I get my sockets from them) finally i remembered it... http://www.bgmicro.com/ICS41256120.aspx for the sockets: http://www.bgmicro.com/SOC16MP.aspx or ask them if these are 'double wipe', if they are then they will work also: http://www.bgmicro.com/soc1038.aspx and lastly, dont try to do this yourself if you have no soldering experience, especially if the 130XE is a Rev 3 or Rev4 (shows rev number to the left of the kb conn), as these boards are rather fragile and its easy to lift a trace/pad on them... sloopy.

Get some 41256's, run a line across all the pin 1's to ground... Later when you decide to upgrade to a '320 XE' you can follow this thousand words mixed up into a pic... Ignore the wire on the base ram, it shows the pin 1's connected, but its not drawn correctly... sloopy.

S S 0 1 2 3 4 H A B Start Select Option F1 F2 F3 F4 Help Atari Break ( no A8 except the 1200XL has the Fx keys...) Pushing it in all the way or partway in shouldnt matter. sounds like there is issues with the mylar, you can go ahead and mess with it some more and try cleaning it internally (a tedious and not always successful task), or just grab a brand new KB from B&C for $25... sloopy.

Altho boisy has said he has sold quite a few, no one has really come forward with any kind of app/demo beyond the one Slor made... I think part of it is you need time, This is something that the full 'power' of it cant be unlocked immediately as how many people are really familiar with the 6809 (no Atari computer used this CPU), or the Atari 8bit hardware (which is rather different from most machines that have a 6809 as the main CPU)... I am one of the 'official installers' and no one has asked me to do an install of one tho... Hopefully they will get to be more common, and some code/apps/games etc will show up... sloopy.

Ok forget about the VBXE and get to work on that sloop ... Just kiddin of course, you value your life, don't ya.... It kills a joke when you explain it... but thats what U1mb can be... sloopy.

I think a small board with 1Meg of Ext ram, SDX and FJC's GUI on it would be great!!! if you can, add a RTC too! ;'D sloopy.

If you need the firmware updated to the newest version, to do the SIDE-PBI emulation, let me know... or anyone with an incognito has the xilinx programmer also... sloopy.

Almost certainly, since the new BIOS hasn't been released to anyone yet, AFAIK. Candle released the files, mine, and Polbit's U1mb's are programmed with the new firmware/BIOS, and anyone else who has the xilinx programmer... sloopy.

Yeah - Ultimate can be set to basically provide the PBI ROM that the SIDE cart lacks. This could be adapted to work with any "dumb" interface which merely maps hardware registers onto the I/O space. The advantages are numerous: 1) You can use the stock OS ROM 2) The entire system is 100 per cent PBI-legal 3) You can switch off the functionality via the Ultimate BIOS menu 4) ATR mounting is provided at the PBI level I've more or less finished the PBI ROM, but there's still a bit more work to do on tying the ATR functionality in with the Ultimate 1MB BIOS. FJC, Larry may have an older bios in his U1mb which doesnt have the SIDE/PBI routines in it? sloopy.

its a standard phillips ( X ) screw driver, just remove the 4 screws on the bottom hold it together while you turn it over lift the top cover off lift the keyboard from the top where the function keys are, and look behind it you will see the KB ribbon on the front right, pull the ribbon out by holding it on both sides a close to the connector as possible, and slowly and firmly pulling up in a side-side rocking motion... clean the contacts (pencil eraser, then 90% alky if you have it) insertion is same as removal, but make 100% SURE you hold the ribbon as close to the contacts as possible when inserting it... put the top on, flip over, install screws... and the fact that the LED isnt on makes it more likely the ribbon cable has issues as opposed to the 4051's or POKEY... but dont rule them out, its jut the conn is more likely... sloopy.

Check the KB connector is not loose, although unusual for it to come out just sitting there, its the most likely thing to make the KB and the power LED non-functional... as for recommended repair, Flashjazzcat would be 'local', as he is in the the UK... sloopy.

Because it doesnt 'operate' at 5V, it is just 'tolerant' of a 5v signal being sent to it... and it isnt 5v 'compatible', as it puts out a 3.3v level, which altho most TTL devices will accept as a 'Logic High', it still is not 5V... sloopy.

The XC95144XL is cheaper, and much easier to find? sloopy.

I was discussing something similar with someone not too long ago, cant remember who tho... But I was thinking something that goes in to the OS ROM spot, would be a better solution, as a cart may not be accessible, and you know if there is any kind of life the OS ROM would get run first... sloopy.

Uhm,,.....So there you have it. It may be not so good a method, but I've heard of it, and it is worth a try, don't believe it can hurt, if you're careful. If you have MT DRAMs, you might want to consider another computer. Either way, MT or no MT, you have to open up the computer to find out. I'm sending the chips in the morning either way. most 130XE's have MT DRAMs... better to replace them, then get another machine that will die from DRAM problems... sloopy.