wildstar87

January 22

The 1200XL is definitely not compatible with the other XLs, the keyboard connector is different, as well as the circuit itself. The 600/800XL have the 4051 chips integrated on the motherboard, where as the 1200XL has these same chips integrated into the keyboard, so the signals from the keyboard connector, are both completely different electrically, as well as physically.

I believe that the XEGS keyboard is interchangeable with the other XE machines, but has to be removed from the actual keyboard case, which ironically is similar to the 1200XL, in that the keyboard case has the 4051 chips integrated into the case, connected to the XE style keyboard.

December 21, 2023

If anyone has some leftover 576 NUC boards, and in the US, I would be interested in purchasing one from you.

December 20, 2023

@tf_hh makes a few SRAM based upgrades. You can also get Syscheck, which is a diagnostic board that plugs into PBI, and it also doubles as a 512k Rambo memory.

https://www.van-radecke.de/STUFF/tfhh_HW_info.pdf

November 9, 2023

7 hours ago, Dropcheck said:

According to Flashjazzcat the Atari 130XE power connector is a match for the later Atari SF314 power connectors that only required +5V. I am trying to see if I can add that connector footprint to the SF551 version. But I don't have a back of connector view and pinout for the pins. Does someone have that?

AFAIK, it's the same Din7 pinout as the XLs.

November 9, 2023

16 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I see you have no ground wires connected to UGV for headers 2 and 6, but you have ground for header 4? Have you tried it with those 2 x headers grounded as well?

In your wiring cvbs is yellow, chroma purple, and green is luma, directly wired to the Din5 pins so that should be good. All continuity checks out for those?

Is the sophia2 pcb underside shorting against the UGV perchance?

Have you tried the setup with the 4050 removed?

Yup, continuity checks out, and again works fine with normal GTIA. All the grounds are already connected in the J1 header, seemed to me that running individual grounds was kind of redundant, as they all connect to the same spot anyway in the Din5. I could see it being convenient if you had separate RCA jacks, or separate S-video connector, but I'm not doing that. Mytek can correct me if I'm wrong, but DMM resistance/continuity checks, those are all connected together, should be electrically the same.

I'll check and see if anything is touching on the backside, though I know Sophia doesn't have any components or open traces on the back of the dip section, and nothing on UGV in the dip pocket is high enough to touch. The one larger resistor that you see in the upper right hand corner, is because I literally could not find a smaller one in stock, for that value.

Haven't tried without the 4050, it's easy enough to pull out of the socket, but since nothing is actually going through it, not sure what effect it would have. The NTSC 600XL, literally does not have those connections, since it doesn't have the Din5 monitor jack by default, normally the Channel 2-3 switch is in this location. This was a previously stock 600XL, so I didn't even bother putting the monitor jack circuitry and ran UGV directly to Din5.

@mytek If there is something that you want me to try out, I might have components handy. When you refer to the color buffer circuit, are you talking about the 4050, or something else? The UAV in my other machine has the UAV plugged into 4050 socket, with 4050 removed. Given that I'm pulling the Color signal from top of R45 based in the install instructions, that seems to pull directly from Color pin on GTIA? Is the UAV then doing some buffering itself, because now looking at 800XL schematics, the Color signal is being pulled before the three 2N3904 circuit.

November 8, 2023

Actually what probably made most of the failures for Atari in the market, was Jack Tramiel. First with his price wars when he was at Commodore, then with the short sighted things he did while at Atari, which included the marketing and distribution. The Amiga would have stayed at Atari, and maybe become a combination of features from the ST and Amiga. With both Midi and Video editing, it would have made more impact in the market. The 8-bit line was kinda screwed as soon as the C64 price wars started, and Commodore owning MOS probably didn't help.

November 8, 2023

I think the only difference desoldering on a 130XE will be the known fragile traces on the XE, as others have mentioned. I would suggest using a vacuum desoldering station if you can, like a ZD-915, or Yihua 948, or equivalent. With these, you want to put the tip of the gun over the leg solder joint, let it melt, and while that's happening, move the tip around slightly to get all the solder melted through the barrel of the through hole, then push the button to start the vacuum, and let it run for a few secs. Then check the leg/pin to see if it has a little movement, which will indicate it shouldn't be still connected.

Repeat for each pin, then I always go back and double check before trying to pull a socket/chip after desoldering, moving each leg slightly on the back side of the board, to make sure it isn't connected by some leftover solder. The chip/socket should be close to, if not just falling out if you do it correctly.

I usually use around 380-400C, because in my experience, you want to get the joint melted quickly. I've damaged more traces by dwelling too long at a lower temperature, trying to get things to melt. Where as at a higher temperature, you are actually spending less time with heat on the joint, and it also has more likely to completely melt the solder to the top side of the board. At a lower temperature it may melt partially through, and so you have to go back an try again.

Also, this is counterintuitive, but I put new solder (leaded, not lead free) on the joint first, to get the 40 year old solder melting first, and also so there is enough solder in the joint to bridge to the top side. Sometimes you actually need more solder in the joint initially, to actually pull the solder out with a vacuum pump, or desoldering station. If the joint is already light on solder, it actually is harder to get the vacuum to work, because there isn't as much of a heat bridge between the tip, and the solder in the rest of the joint. Additional flux can also help with this, to get the solder to flow more effectively.

Pretty much everything else Beeblebrox said applies as well, in regards to basically double checking everything, not forcing anything if it's not moving, getting a good look with plenty of light, and magnification.

One other thing is, you might have to try different methods, or a combination of, depending on the situation. The vacuum desoldering stations are the most effective, followed by the suction pumps, either the ones that have the built-in soldering iron, or just the pumps themselves, and finally solder wick w/flux.

I always put in a new machine pin socket, it's cheap insurance, and much better than a single/dual wipe style socket.

This guy's tricks are actually pretty effective as well. I've tried it, and it works, but only on the smaller stuff. When dealing with a 40 pin DIPs, I haven't had luck with his methods, simply because there is such a large surface area to keep heated up, and you need multiple soldering irons to do it with.

November 7, 2023

Here are the pictures, I removed the DVI cable in some, to get an unobstructed view. Haven't had a chance to check the CVBS, just snapped these really quickly last night.

November 6, 2023

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I may be missing something but are you plugging Sophia2 into the UGV, which in turn is just sitting in the GIA socket, and using it's DVI, but getting black and white?

Or are you just using Sophia 2 for the GTIA replacement, but ugv on Din3 as the output? Is UGV wired to the chroma signal to give the cable chroma?

CVBS (composite), Luma and Chroma should be wired to their respective signal points on the pcb. So on the XE its L7, L9 and L31 respectively and 3 x grounds. Then 4050 is removed.

Also perhaps you need to tweak the settings in the Sophiaconfig software if you are using DVI? Maybe one setting is stopping a colour signal?

Sophia2 is plugged into UGV piggyback, which is plugged into GTIA socket. Wires have been directly run from UGV to DIN 5, not going through 4050. Replacing Sophia with GTIA chip, color works fine. I'll try playing with the Sophia settings to see if that's doing something to the color through CVBS/S-video. I'll also check the CVBS line, I've only been looking that the S-video. Sophia is outputting DVI through it's ribbon cable/DVI connector.

November 6, 2023

It is the UGV that is doesn't have color. DVI is working fine through Sophia. If I remove Sophia and put the GTIA back into UGV, color works fine. I have wired UGV directly to the DIN 5 jack. I'll take pictures when I get back home, but not sure that will help in this instance. I have multiple machines with this configuration installed, all of them are doing the same thing with UGV. Obviously something about the Sophia output is different, but it is working in UAV setups properly. I did have the colored bars due to the W2 jumper before, so removed that.

November 6, 2023

Hi @mytek, I ran into a bit of a strange problem. I'm trying to run UGV with Sophia2, and am not getting any color. Sophia2 works fine with UAV, so I'm guessing for some reason, UGV thinks it's in a PAL system? I tried this in multiple machines, so it doesn't seem to be machine specific. Any ideas? Is there a way to force UGV into NTSC mode?

November 2, 2023

I loved the look of the 130XE, because it was the same as the STs, also liked the extra ram. However, after I got my 600XL upgraded to 256k, with monitor port (by Jeff Popp in my local Atari club), I found myself using that more and more, due to the extra ram, and also, even though it was a Stackpole mylar keyboard, the keyboard was still better than the 130XE keyboard feel wise. Still liked the looks much better, though it was noticeable that the plastic was cheaper feeling.

I'm sure that given the time of release, the 8-bits were on their way out, and the STs were the new shiny pretty thing, so probably didn't help things.

These days I can see design choices in both the XL and XE lines I would change, but still consider the 1200XL as the most beautiful of all of them.

September 15, 2023

Thanks much!

September 15, 2023

On 9/13/2023 at 12:27 AM, Dinadan67 said:

RGB 15khz works fine, i use a cheap DVI->VGA adapter + Lotharek's VGA->SCART cable to connect a Commodore 1084 monitor: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/98341-whats-the-latest-atari-related-things-youve-bought-on-ebay/page/201/#comment-4897729

Can you tell me what settings you used in the special features?

September 13, 2023

17 hours ago, Simius said:

Analog outputs of the Sophia 2 can be configured as 31kHz VGA mode, 15kHz RGB mode or 15kHz YPbPr mode. If you can get an image on your VGA monitor, the analog outputs are working.

Thanks Simius, what would be the proper settings for 15Khz RGB in the Special features? RGB, Sync mode norm or interlace? and I assume Sync out to Csync?

September 12, 2023

19 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

Simius posted an update Sophia 2 manual a few weeks back:

The original feature spec is here:

Features:

- 100% compatible GTIA replacement

- PAL/NTSC encoding

- Independent RGB/YPbPr/VGA and DVI outputs

- eight selectable DVI modes

- 15 loadable 18-bit color palettes

Unless I'm missing something, I thought RGB specifically referred to RGB 15Khz, otherwise I'm not sure what RGB standard we are talking about, because technically VGA is RGB, just at a specific frequency. YPBPr is component RGB, which again is also RGB (sorta) just based on a different standard from my understanding. https://thecablesland.com/ypbpr-vs-rgb/

If it doesn't support 15Khz RGB, to output to ST color monitors, or Commodore/Amiga monitors RGB, then that's a simple answer, but I just want to make sure that's the case.

September 12, 2023

13 hours ago, scorpio_ny said:

From the documentation, it seems that it doesn't support 15Khz RGB, only standard VGA.

Strange, I thought that was why there was a specific RGB mode with interlace, since there is a specific VGA mode. @Simius can you chime in here?

September 11, 2023

Yeah I'm using an DVI to VGA adapter that I had, I have a few others I can try, but I don't think this is the problem. It works in VGA mode, just not 15Khz RGB. It has the 5 pins for the analog section.

September 11, 2023

Tried different settings to get 15Khz RGB working. Trying to verify 2 different monitors for RGB. I have an Amiga 1080 CRT monitor, and a Dell U2410. I'm not getting any response out of either monitor with Sophia. U2410 seems to sort of work with VBXE (though having other issues), I am getting an image though. The 1080, I have switched over to RGB Analog, on the back, and RGB on the front. I'm not getting any picture at all. Tried settings in Sophia, to RGB, and both norm or interlaced settings, though I was able to get VGA out. Any ideas?

September 10, 2023

3 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

@wildstar87 I don't have my Sophia 2 enabled machine in front of me but I believe TAB alternates between the config groups.

Thanks, that was it.

September 10, 2023

Trying to setup Sophia to output RGB 15Khz, running Sconf.exe I don't see a way to change the special features, cursor only rotates through resolutions. I'm missing something..

September 8, 2023

4 hours ago, woj said:

Skipping the shameless advertising and going back to the csync question. @wildstar87 I got my RTK 5x about a month ago and also got very wary of the sync signal levels note. My VBXE installation had it hooked up to 4050 directly and I did resolder it back to the composite signal going out of UAV before I hooked up RTK. It was also at this point I realized that occasional shakes on my LCD TV connected directly through SCART were probably due to the too strong csync signal, and what do you know, after the composite reroute it subsided. As for the image quality on RTK, I got crystal clear picture with the composite sync, so I am not sure you have to go through troubles of scaling down the 4050 signal, just use the composite signal. I only have a picture in the highres mode with interlace triggered by Sophia (RTK will only take proper interlaced signal), but it should give you the idea.

Thanks woj! That's good to know. Now I just have to get a Scart cable, and mod it. I'm crossing my fingers that this will finally work out!

September 7, 2023

I know, but I'm not telling..

September 5, 2023

3 minutes ago, Piotr D. Kaczorowski said:

The new SAVO boards will feature a small circuit designed to filter the SYNC signal in two stages: first by removing noise from the Atari, and second by eliminating reverse noise from the TV cable. The objective is to achieve a very sharp, yet noise-free, CSYNC signal at a peak-to-peak voltage of 300mV

Hmm, based on this, it sounds like I should just make a small sync stripper circuit to do it correctly. But for simplicity's sake, the voltage divider would be quicker. I'm assuming 2 resistors in series running from Csync(4050) to GND, with Csync (OUT) tapped in the middle. What resistors would you suggest? You mention 0.3v, but I've also seen 0.7v or 1v mentioned in the Csync discussions I've seen.

September 5, 2023

5 minutes ago, electron said:

I'm using retrotink 5x with VBXE 1.1 ... since yesterday to be honest. No problem at all, but I don't remember what I have connected as csync ... probably digital 5V CSYNC from 4050 through resistor in series, but i would have to check.

If you could check, that would be great, I just want to prep for success with this.

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