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ACML

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  1. Thanks for the video. I added two (2x1) SIP extenders to make the 24 pin a pseudo 28 pin socket. Your video gave me the idea to remove those 2x1 SIPs and see if the stock Rev 10 will boot. If that does not work, I need to examine the W8 and W9 traces as DrVenkman points out.
  2. I don't think the sockets are the issue. I think it has more to do with the W6-13 jumpers and the traces. I learned a valuable lesson today. I said that I have accomplished this mod successfully probably 15-20 times, but always using my trusty cheap 1980's Radio Shack 30-40 watt solder wands. Today was different. Today, I decided to try my new solder station YIAUH 939D for the first time. I was using 60/40 tin/lead solder with a melting temp of ~370 deg F. I set the iron to 440 deg F and it melted the solder off the roll, but when I toughed it to the board to heat up the joint to remove the W7 jumper, it did not melt the existing solder. So I increased the temp to 500 and not enough, then 600, not enough, then 700 and it melted the existing solder. On the back burner of my mind, I thought that 700 deg F was a good temp for modern lead free solder, but too high for 60/40 resin tin/lead solder. I think the critical mistake was the tip was to small of mass (very narrow and pointed). That made me need to put more pressure and wait longer than the old Radio Shack 30 watt wand. Basically, I think it destroyed the trace around the through holes. Not good! That will teach me to try something new and untested on a valuable retro main board. I decided to return the W6-9 jumpers and return it to Rev 10 24 pin ROMs. Now, I just get a solid dark green screen. So I bricked the board. I have attached two photos. What it should look like. What it looks like now. Look at the left side of W8 and W9. I think I burnt the trace(s).
  3. I don't know. Both OS(s) 800XL (0000-1FFF) and Omniview (2000-3FFF) appear to work fine.' Clarification: I'm using two 27128 EPROMs for U12 and U13 so the lower half (0000-1FFF) of each is 800XL and the upper half (2000-3FFF) is Omniview.
  4. I just added four SIP 2x1s to extend the 24 to 28 pin. Original sockets still there. I removed W6-9 and jumped W11-13 to go from 24 pin to 28 pin. I retouched my solder pads to make sure they were good and did not bleed over. Still same issue. I can't tell you how many times I've done this mod.
  5. I upgraded a 1200XL from the stock 24 pin ROM (rev 10) to utilize 28 pin EPROMs with both the 800XL and Omniview OS on it. I've done this about 20 times before and have had no issue. As usual, the new OS(s) seems to work fine (repurposed the RF channel 3/4 switch as OS selector) without a cartridge, but when one is inserted, it does not recognize it and won't boot correctly. I did verify the machine would boot the same cartridges prior to the OS mod (see photos). 1) BASIC cart makes the farting boot sound, but no READY prompt (locked up). 2) Defender cart just goes straight to solid black screen. 3) Ultimate cart hangs and internal light just flicker. I've never seen this behavior before. Troubleshooting so far: 1) Swapped Mexican Rockwell SALLY with Synertek and no change. 2) Swapped 74LS08 with 74F08 and no change.
  6. To me, it's more of a kludge solution and is inelegant. Yes it works, but it just doesn't seem right. I'm not usually a flash over function type person, but in this case, maybe. I guess it goes along with my OCD.
  7. I love that the Atari 8-bit community continues to improve and create new devices for the 8-bit line, but I've noticed a trend that most new cartridge based designs are not 1200XL cartridge port friendly. Recent 1200XL compatible designs have been the Ultimate Cart and Uno Cart, but they have to be the correct layout (i.e. buttons on top and case fits 1200XL cavity without modifications. The AVG Cart sounds great, but I can't use it unless it's caseless and even then adding the option SIO cable adaptor is not going to work for a 1200XL. There are plenty of 1200XLs still out there and more and more are coming available on eBay and the Atari community is buying them up. Please, don't forget the 1200XL crowd if you can. Does not fit 1200XL (too wide) Does fit 1200XL Does not fit 1200XL (button on front) Does fit 1200XL Does not fit 1200XL (too wide and cable on side) Does not fit 1200XL (button on front)
  8. My opinion is limited to only those external peripherals I have experience with. If I don't mention your favorite, it's most likely because I have no experience with it. My criteria is usability, cost, and reliability. 1) Fujinet 1.6: Wow! What an amazing peripheral. I use it mainly for two functions, disk drive and printer emulation. It's small, has a passthrough SIO capability and a wireless network connection. It's not too expensive, but it's not the cheapest solution if you are only looking for a drive emulator. 2) SIO2SD: By far my favorite disk drive emulator. It's cheap, super reliable and I just like it's onscreen interface the best. It pretty much plays nice with everything. I actually like the older 2.2 and 2.5 menus better than the newer 3.5 menu. 3) UNO Cart: I also have the Ultimate Cart, but the capabilities it has for $63 is an amazing value. The form factor is 1200XL friendly, you can play the Atari 128K carts (Battlezone, GATO, etc.) without a memory upgrade. It can be Assembler Editor, Rev C BASIC, Action!, MAC/65, Microsoft BASIC II, etc. I sold all my original cartridges as this will emulate them all. Has a great EXE loader for playing games. You can use the RESET button on the top of the cart to change games without cold power cycling the machine every time you want to change a game. 4) Lotharek's SIO splitter: Late to the party, but it's the "original USB hub" from 1979. No more need to worry about dead legged peripherals (SIO2SD, printer interface, 410, etc.). Also has the ability to supply own 5V power so a stock 1200XL can use all the other peripherals. 5) Y/C S-video or Composite to HDMI upscalers: Not a specific Atari peripheral, but allows Ataris to use HDMI without internal mods. I have found cheap ($20-$30) units on Amazon that work great.
  9. I think its just saying it will take a 480i or 480P/576P analog input (S-video or composite) and output (scaled correctly) to 720P or 1080P.
  10. This is inexpensive and works pretty good. Best results are found using S-video input vs composite. https://www.amazon.com/Tendak-Composite-S-Video-Converter-Upscaler/dp/B00V2ULHBS/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=s-video+to+hdmi+converter&qid=1688752044&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
  11. I tried on my 1200XL that has jail bars using Cory's 8-bit Classics s-video cable. Using the above combination, the jail bars actually got worse and more pronounced. So, the signal bleed is inside the 1200XL or my Samsung TV just doesn't want to play nice with an s-video signal. I have installed the ClearPic2002 video upgrade, but that just replaces existing components with ones of a different value or out right removes some from the circuit (no new component locations). Maybe I should try putting in a UAV and see if this monitor still has jail bars.
  12. Link to auctions remaining: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=314632849790&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2562&_ssn=bluebel-66
  13. I noticed several lots of Atari PCBs on auction at eBay with same seller. Location sounded familiar and it turns out it is the inventory of an old Atari friend who was an authorized Atari repair center in the San Diego area. Steve died a couple years ago and his daughter is selling his inventory. I knew Steve in the 80's and 90's and he repaired more than a couple of my 810s and an 800. Noticed of the lots that have sold, people are getting some good deals especially if you want the increasingly harder to get VLSI chips (Sally, Antic, GTIA, Pokey and PIA). Still several lots left and may be more coming . Happy hunting!
  14. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but you can easily pull the white Hi-Tek and yellow Stacklpole plungers straight up with a pair of needle nose pliers. The replacement one pops right back in easily. You just have to take care not to damage the gold finger contacts. Making a replacement plunger is going to be a real challenge as the wall thickness is very small and the surface hardness and smoothness are critical to not binding on the keycap. I'm sure a 3D printer could make the part, just doubt it will be smooth enough on the inner walls to not cause binding on the keycap.
  15. Was the EEPROM 24 pin or did you have to use a 24 to 28 pin adaptor? If it's a simple 24 pin replacement, what is the part number for the 24 pin EEPROM?
  16. Just realizing how much faster Altirra BASIC is compared to Atari Rev C. Even using same OEM floating point routines, Altirra executes so much faster. I guess Avery totally optimized the interpreter. Simply amazing! I love that he found room to add the IF/THEN/ELSE/ENDIF capability. I know the size constraints don't allow for adding, but the two missing things in Atari BASIC left are either a DO/WHILE or DO/UNTIL and the ability to have multi dimensional string arrays. Is that what the Extended version of Altirra BASIC does?
  17. This is what I was afraid of. The 24 pin package and 8KB is not as straight forward as the 28 pin package. I'm asking as by now if it were compatible, I would have read about it by now. An easy way to upgrade a Rev A to Rev C BASIC. To date, I've never heard anyone try it. This might be the reason.
  18. I looking at using two 300ns 2732A EPROMS to replace the two 4KB Rev A ROM chips with Rev C Burned on the EPROMS. Any reason why this would not work?
  19. Can this run on a stock 800? Will it be able to run at 64K.
  20. The hugest improvements to me about Altirra BASIC is that it is Atari BASIC compatible and has an IF/THEN/ELSE/ENDIF function added. The latter most likely lost out due to the 8K maximum, but boy, having that IF/THEN/ELSE would have been huge BITD.
  21. Can you use two 2732A EPROMs and replace the two 4KB ROMs in a socketed BASIC rev A brown cartridge?
  22. Thank you too. Did not know you could extract it from Altirra (Cool).
  23. Thank you. Now I can put it on my Ultimate Cart!
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