rockdoc2010

"Version #1(upper left), the White Brick, has a white top and dark brown bottom, 4" X 8" & 2 1/2" high. Version #1was shipped with early 600XL/800XL computers. Output 5 VDC at 1.5 Amp. Atari Part# C061982. Very reliable. Very Rare" so this is the one to use?

I bought a 600xl off Ebay for twenty bucks with black screen changed out delay line IC and works like a charm!! kudos!! My first valid repair! Douglas

So I have a "Chelco 1983 rev 8B" board and it has 4 green chicklet shaped capacitors that appear that will get it the way with my 1meg upgrade. I could change them with low profile but am i loosing electrical benefit if i do? Douglas

your absolutely correct.I have been testing 600xl with 64k upgrades and you need to wait at least one minute before it will go to a true reboot

well i had the same problem! infant mortality did the 64k upgrade and all was good turned the system back on and i got tearing of video on right side of screen also got shift of red and blue when doing the self test it didnt work! i swapped all the sugested chips.. no joy i moved the upgrade to a new 600xl , and it all worked as advertized! Flawless IT IS WINTER AND I DO HAVE CATS

Well I am going to install the speakers that came with the portable dvd player otherwize I wouldnt be able to watch a dvd.. the dvd player would simply be installed within the case with the A8, but i want to use those speakers for A8 output as well. I have the simple stereo mod and i am thinking of hooking up the dvd output audio/as well as A8 audio to the internal speakers. I guess i should have restated my question.. it should have been.. can a cd drive be used as a data storage that can be accesed by A8? my dvd player can read pics and music but i think programs are probably not doable Douglas

I am building a "laptop" atari that will have a portable dvd player installed so i can watch a dvd when i am not running the computer. Although this unit does not have an ide interface, my unit will play an mp3 disk or photos but i am interested in if it is possible to drive a cd player as a storage medium for a future project. I would suspect that the driver would be the biggest problem. Douglas

I am wondering if the Atari 1064 64K "cartridge" will be compatible with the 64K 2 chip mod that i have successfully installed? 128K? thanks Douglas

Bob1200xl hey it looks like you have an OS board, an ide to SD board and an ide to compact flash card. that appears to be complicated. But i am interested in an internal compact flash solution. any suggestions would be good thanks Douglas

i am looking for an ide interface that i can mount internally i have a unit from Simon but he dont support his equipment. i want to install an internal laptop ide hard drive.. period! i dont want flash cards, i dont want mmc devices I have a 1 meg ultimate, sio to sd, sio to pc, I just want to use my laptop drives in an internal installation any help or suggestions? Douglas

can you please tell me where you got the 2.0 vid upgrade? I am thinking that this is the majority of my problem.. BTW your monochrome is probably a lack of a chromo wire Douglas

I love my cats.. I love my Eight bit computer parts! I can't truly through across the room.. legally or humanely.. (Humane.. strange concept.. there cats) if you live in the desert and its winter time and the humidity is in the 20% range.. DON'T PET YOUR CAT! BANISH THE CAT or find somewhere not so zappy to your chips! I have since bought an antistatic mat, wrist coupling bracelet that is plugged right into the ground line of my house ground.. CATS!! Douglas

Well it didn't work the first attempt. I completed the MOD and got a BLACK SCREEN it turns out and I was sure that it might be the problem I destroyed the memory chips that I removed from a XEGS board. Thank god that I buy spare chips.. I always buy extra chips and I had a different project with extra chips.. SO the memory chips that I bought from JAMECO and the extra controller chips and VOILLA!! Works good last a long time!! Douglas

sorry to burst your bubble but unless you have a CRT style television or monitor it will not work. Since they went over to digital TV the scanning format has changed.

I am planning on installing a SIO2USB and possibly a SIO2SD as well as a PR connection within a 1200xl. do I have to daisy chain each item that is internally mounted or can I just jump on to the bus and ensure that each item gets the 4 lines required as they all have there own "ID"?? just attach the required lines to the SIO pins on the motherboard? I was planning on installing a SIO socket that had pins bent up as to allow internal access to the mother board and then use the SIO port as third in line.. Additionally.. is there a preference or mandatory placement on the bus that certain items should go? I usually had printers at the end of the chain but the PR connection seems to want to be first if I interpret the manual correctly. Thanks for the input! Douglas

WOW, Made'est' Thou Look! Great little case! I Just gutted a 1027 Case for a 600XL specific "peripherals pack" that could hold a hard drive, P:R interface, 1020 printer. It shouldn't be a problem as I have already determined the 1020 will fit on one side but its control board would need to be on the opposite side. The SIO would need to be removed from the board to access them and be ported to the location on the back of thje 1027 case. If you place the 1020 control PCB directly in the same location( reversed power plug locale) the SIO ports fit well but the unity hogs up usable space. Now the only thing is what to do with the remaining real estate on top of the case?? One of those rear view backup camera monitors that fit in the back of mini-van seats!! The come with two composite video inputs, one for kids entertainment and the other for the dash cam. I bought one for 30$ on ebay and it works pretty well but this model has a wide screen so when you go SDTV you get insightly bars on the side. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SLDF7O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&tag=atariage&creativeASIN=B007SLDF7O&linkCode=as2 Just a test at the moment.. actually looking at an 11" that would work much better.

Well I am almost ready to start installation of several items into a 1200XL and 600XL I have the following.. SIO2USB interface (One internal installable and another left for the rest of my systems) Atarimax 512K memory upgrade for xl systems Ultimate 1MB 2K14 Lotharek (really happy it has flashable ROM slots) SIO2SD internal Lotharek (seemingly very flexible but i need to build a SIO2SD cable I think because it uses serial vs USB) MYIDE 1 for 1200XL by Atarimax/Mr-Atari (with Atari Basic C on eprom) this might be usable on a different system but not sure exactly VBXE 2.1 for XL systems Lotharek Stereo board for XL Systems Lotharek They will obliviously need to attach to the same locations so I need to determine the following.. Applying a 64k upgrade to the 600XL first, can you use a 1064 in addition to that? Can the Ultimate be fitted into a 600XL case? Any conflicts with the 64k upgrade? Can The Simple Stereo be fitted into a 600Xl case? No room for a hard drive so its probably stuck with the SIO2SD option On the 1200XL Atarimax 512k upgrade is probably specific to this computer..it might be for sale!! The IDE interface will work on 1200XL or XEGS. I have a second XEGS style controller that needs to be traded for an 65/130XE style controller. The Ultimate and Atarimax 512 cant be in the 1200 at the same time so If I balk on the 512K then I will have flashable carts and a hard drive and memory. MYIDE 1 internal IDE with Atari Basic Rev C on eprom for 1200XL and 512K upgrade will give me decent memory and a hard drive. but no flash for OSS BasicXE (or others) install. I know that program is larger than atari basic that came with the IDE interface and there is the Extensions disk that needs to be installed in a physical disk (the soon to be installed hard drive?) The eprom is a M2764A and I was wondering if it could hold the BasicXE OSS cartridge ROM in place of atari basic rev C image that is installed. I can use the SIO2SD to autoload rom images I think so the OSS Basic XE issue is probably mute. I like the fact that once you set up the unit it really needs no more intervention, AWESOME due to the fact there was a lack of internal installment options, like an SD cable that would allow for distance between the units for installation of an SD socket in tight locations. SparkFUN has a socket that I will be having to figure out a wiring solution that will attach to the board or preferably slide into the microSD socket on the unit. I basically want the 1200XL to be a powerhouse yet I do want the more portable 600xl to be provided with internal memory and storage. If anyone knows of conflicts that may arise I would love to hear from you!! Thanks Douglas

He's posted a selfie of his lewd hacker porn!

I just bought a replacement belt last week from Best and the clerk asked me if I had a tandon mech or the "chinese" one. . Took about thirty minutes to install it and no it does not stretch! Fixed two 1020's and the 1050 for 39$ but the 15$ a pop for the 1020 gears is a killer!! But they worked and at an average of 40$ for the 1020's I get to roll the dice on ebay the fact we still have a source for New Atari parts has me giggling every time I hear that tiny thing squawk away interupting itself to auto load a fresh pen.. oops sorry fresh working pens are hard to find

WOW! My head is spinning at the intensity of this thread. Two years ago when I bought my internal MYIDE for my 1200XL there were some installation issues. I finally did get past the black screen that was probably caused by gleefully performing way to many updates simultaneously, svid mods to 2.1, myide, atarimax 512k upgrade,being an angry drunk when I got green screens or black screens... finely returning it to where it would say 'Waiting for IDE" and not even having a location picked out for the hard drive. Graduated from university and worked like crazy for a year and a half only to find that my unit is now obsolete and I havent even had the chance to play one of these umpteen thousands of titles that have become available after the release of PC to ATARI technology. The eprom (how quaint!) that has mydos, mybios should still do the job just fine but I only got bumped up to Atari Basic rev C. during that offering in FEB of 2012. The SIO2USB unit that I have will serve my trifecta of XE computers that all arrived from BEST basically NEW IN BOX and working.. what a concept! I have the same amount of time split between the 1200xl and the 130xe programming in basic, oss basic xl and then oss basic xe for a short time as I was shipped off to patrol the worlds oceans once I was told I had to stop playing and grow up. But I was one of only 5 owners of a computer on board the Aircraft Carrier for two more years until I went ST for three years until things changed to the point of the last time I fired up Dos2.5 was back in 86' I am going to put the 512K upgrade and the MYIDE as previously planned, adding an internally mounted SIO2USB all into to 1200XL. I have just received the SIO2SD for internal mounting, An ultimate 1mb 2K14, a VBXE2.1 for the XL and stereo to go along with the 200 Euros I spent the last two months.. I've never even seen a Euro or one that was peeing either. So the decisions are heading straight to a dead heat between the desk yacht 1200XL that provides a great perch for my sporty 600xl as to who really gets the upgrades. The 1027 that I just gutted out will be a perfect hang on back addition for the 600xl for the numerous improvements that just cant be crammed into that MG. It has the space for the 1020, a hard drive power for the three items to also include battery power and a 8" widescreen TV color TFT LED for when your tired of programming and its time for games. Anyway Thanks for the intense three pages of thread in the last few days of discourse as I am pretty much just tasked with shaping a program of implementing the mods appropriate for my needs and nefarious machinations of acquiring a fleet of mutated machines.

yeah I pretty much agree on that because I just put two printers back into service even with questionable/split combination gears and a sprung spring and they seem to be working great. I gotta say the reason I love the little suckers is that Atari provided me the means to do color line drawn graphics on an x-y plotter during the birth of the industry and the heyday of plotters has died of since then supplying us with vintage professional equipment to build 3-D plotters with. The 1020 FSM is damn near the highest quality and most informative manual I have seen them make, now If I can only find that diagnostic disc that goes with it. CPS Diagnostic diskette with T1020.bas and I will be repairing them things just for the fun of watching them wiggle and hearing them squak.

Well It should not be too far off the wish list. Digital voice construction, text to speech and synthesizing tones and music is HOT right now due to the AVR and ARM microcontrollers Siri is talking to millions with an almost perfect voice. Google the EMCIE voice monster. I am having the last couple of parts on the way for my final chapter of building the CTS256A-AL2/SPO256A-AL2 code to speech phonetic allephone processor syntizer doohicky that I paid like 45$ for the chips back in 1984. It would have been a royal pain to figure out how to flash the eeprom and the 4016 chip was another twenty bucks then. I now gave three different chip types going to be produced into various circuits so that my arduino will be bitching about his life to everyone who walks past his sensors.. get your AY-3-8910 for 11.75$ at B&C or BEST as there is a stand alone board that plays ST midi synth tunes and all the other seemingly cool easy to handle chips are still massively under-manufactured. I need to different ones in addition to the 3.12mhz crystal for my dinosaur "voicebox" that I found the chips for two weeks ago when I went after a stash of 1050 chips I pulled out during a floppy upgrade I did back in 84. I just threw 16$ at Lothorek for printing a PCB and figuring out how to give me stereo by adding a POKEY chip so I am sure one of these motivated atari/electro\modding gurus will have us paying happily for a remake of that unit that as well. But on a good note... my 600xl will have a hard drive, output to svga, probably be slated for a laptop conversion and will be carrying on conversations with me and my cats and possibly be correctly and efficiently talking to the birds. We got to do something with those micro controllers since the market for girl robot parts has all dried up.

Clarification on the last image.. THESE are not available thru BE. This is an additional gear drama unfolding before us. Best has very tiny 1.5mm inner diam spline shaft gears that mount directly to the drive shaft of the paper feed and carriage stepper motors. Douglas

Don't fret the service manual. I just bought it brand new and it has decent troubleshooting but your kinda on your own with the gears. I just changed them out on one of my printers but a set of two is 15$ at best and yes they are in stock. GOOD instructions included New development if you ask me... the gears are well made however they only replace the driving spline gear of the servo motors. paper feed and carraige. two gears per set. on the paper feed side there is a idle gear and another gear that is a composite of two gear components and a torsion spring that sits under the gear between the gear and metal bulkhead that the platen shaft is traversing. It SEEMS as though the springs job is to provide enough tension to grip the platen shaft. I have seen that the inner component gear that surrounds the platen shaft ALSO splits down its axis becoming not so grippy anymore. the spring also dislodges and rides dangling on the shaft doing no work. I will post images in a few days when my USB microscope arrives. I have one mechanism that has the spring still in place but the platen gear is slightly cracked. I have another that has the spring riding on the shaft. it takes three people with micro tools to reset the spring and I am not even totally sure how it is mounted. There are no details in the exploded diagram and the Tandy manual has the correct part number but the same detail as the 1020 manual. I think that the tension is provided so that the slippage can occur during over zealous users pulling paper thru the unit while it is powered up and the stepper is engaged and locked in place. Good Luck! I will inform of my spring setting progress and efficacy in the near future.

we will know more soon enough, turns out that the drive belt was not tight enough. "at Q4" may be an incorrect description. I was stating that the point at which I checked the doubled voltage I was reading 23.25 when the manual says I should be getting 22.4 The voltages all seem to be within 10% of their required value's The motor resistances were double checked. When I tried to start it up it seems that the tach information is not coming from the motor itself but from the spindle, which would make sense as my belt was intermittently working. When the new belt goes in we will see if that will do the job.