moonlight_mile

Guys, I have an Sio2sd (from lotherek) I got it probably 2 years ago. On certain .atr disk images it stalls while booting. This has happened since I got it and just thought they are bad disk images or something. But recently, I got a floppy drive and was writing files to a blank disk image and it will stall while writing and reading (I am using Sparta 3.2d). Now if I hit the break key it will finish reading or writing the file, sometimes I have to hit the break key multiple times. This trick does not work when it stalls booting an image. (Most of the images I have tried to boot are various versions of Spartados) I went into Altirra recently to see if all those spartados disk images that stall are truly bad or there is something going on with my Sio2sd. Well, they all seem to boot up no problem. I am guessing maybe my setting are goofed up. I have top drive off and device Id at 0. Could there be other settings that are causing this issue? I did try to update the firmware with the latest from http://sio2sd-dev.gucio.pl/but when I try to update the firmware it says no firmware on the sd card. I am using a stock 130xe. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Quick question: what is a good Atari 8 bit atascii text file viewer? I got some to access some of my bbs backip disks and would like to look at the atascii files but I can't remember what text editor I used to use back in the 80s. Thanks.

I hate to dredge up and old thread, but has anyone ever gotten a picture of the Percom Doubler Board for the Atari drives? I communicated with Roger Arrick from the robomargo Percom site and he is pretty sure the picture on his webpage was the TRS-80 doubler board. He did tell me he left Percom by the time the Atari DDA was mentioned in Hi-Res magazine so he can't be 100% sure if the TRS 80 board was identical or similar to the Atari DDA board. Craig

Thanks for all the info. Those little adapters are really cool and if I had a lot of disks to archive I would definitely get one of those little devices. Doc yes I will probably take you up on your offer just seeing what I can accomplish on my own. I am getting the sio2pc (hopefully soon). I am hoping to get it to play nice with my Percom. Will the aspeqt app let me read those disks into the pc or is that strictly only with the APE Pro-system?

Hey guys, Want to give a special shout out to The Doctor for really helping me get back up to speed, along with asking a lot of Questions. Now, I have a few disks that I think are from my old bbs. I really am trying to at least see what is on them. I got a Percom (low and behold I recently realized I had an rfd44 and not an at-88) it won't read the disks. (It will read two other disks from the same set I found with some type of music files). I did have bill Lange try them on his 1050, which I think he said were double density. But didn't work. Is there a program that can manually map a disc sector by sector and track by track even if the drive doesn't want to read it? I am figuring if I can find out what is in the directory it will determine if it is worth my while to pursue archiving the disks? Obviously, I tried disk wizard II but since it won't read the disk it doesn't show me anything. Any help appreciated. -craig

I actually figured it out 5 minutes After I posted this. I have to figure out to get it to work. Thanks again.

Guys, Is there a way to turn "off" disk 1 on the Sio2sd after booting it up from the device itself? Thanks for any help. Ps I have been scouring the net for any additional Sio2sd documentation but this doesn't seem to be addressed.

Gave it a shot in Sparta 3.2. Didn't work. So after talking with the doctor I ordered an sio2pc from atarimax. That should at least be able to allow me to boot up an image and then turn off the sio2pc and allow the disk to have full control. Will let you all know when I get it and how things are progressing. Thanks for all the input.

Ok. I got to go down and play a little. Here are the latest issues. When trying to read my mystery disks in dos 2.0 (or 2.5. I found a disk with this dos) the error is 138. If memory serves didn't that usually read as Unformatted disk? And if Atari dos can't read Sparta dos directories that could be why dos 2.x is spitting out this error. I tried to put the SpartaDos 1.1 atr in drive 1 of my Sio2sd. The Sio2sd daisy chained to the Percom. However, without the Percom turned on the Sio2sd will light up but is inaccessible to the computer. So... I left the Percom on without a disk in the drive, booted spartaDos up on the Sio2sd. Once that was completed I removed the sd card did a directory command on drive 1 and it just gives the old raspberries sound and isn't able to access the Percom. Now, thinking about it, the Percom I have now has the extender board on it, ( I am guessing to make it easier for drive selection?). I am almost positive the one I had running my bbs on did not have the extender board, just the ribbon cable from the drives to the controller board. I am guessing I used the jumpers on the drives to select what drive numbers were assigned to each drive. Do you know if there is a setting on the extender board to set the drive as drive 2? I was messing around with a few jumpers on the extender board but had no luck. Sorry this got so long. I did manage to get myself a teac quad density drive (just in case the disks are actually qd). But I still need a way of getting the real floppies and the Sio2sd to talk to each other. Will look forward to any input.

I think the error was 138. But not sure. Probably won't be able to check it until Sunday. Since a Percom can only ever be drive 1. Is there a way to boot a Sparta dos atr from my Sio2sd and then "turn off" the Sio2sd drive 1 and turn on the percom so I can try to pull up a directory or make a spartados disk?

I think there is an outside chance it may have been formatted on a quad density drive. I got a Percom up and running and only have the original tandon drive. So I might try to get my hands on an old quad density drive. I just wanted to make sure that the directories weren't incompatable with dos 2.0. When I put in the disks and do a directory I it just tries to read the directory and then errors out. Thanks for the info.

This may be a dumb question but I am gonna ask it anyway. If back in the late/mid 80s I formatted a disk with spartados (and wrote to it with spartados) Can atari dos 2.0 read the disk?

Hey Guys, I recently acquired a Percom At88-S1. I gave it a nice cleaning. It was pretty dusty. It contains the double density board and the extender board that protrudes out the back. (The one I had back in the 80s didn't have the extender board). I went to hook it up to my 130 XE and realized I didn't have a SIO cable so I ordered one. (Should be here next week). Anyway, I plugged in the Percom just so see what it would do. It powers up but the drive keeps spinning. Is this normal behavior? The Percom I had years ago was used to run my BBS and I don't have any recollection of the drives constantly spinning. I also manually moved the read/write head and it didn't re-center the head with or without a disk inserted. Could all this be because it isn't hooked up to the computer or does it sound like a bad drive. It has a Tandon TM100-1A installed. Any help appreciated. Craig.

Hey Guys, I recently acquired a Percom At88-S1. I gave it a nice cleaning. It was pretty dusty. It contains the double density board and the extender board that protrudes out the back. (The one I had back in the 80s didn't have the extender board). I went to hook it up to my 130 XE and realized I didn't have a SIO cable so I ordered one. (Should be here next week). Anyway, I plugged in the Percom just so see what it would do. It powers up but the drive keeps spinning. Is this normal behavior? The Percom I had years ago was used to run my BBS and I don't have any recollection of the drives constantly spinning. I also manually moved the read/write head and it didn't re-center the head with or without a disk inserted. Could all this be because it isn't hooked up to the computer or does it sound like a bad drive. It has a Tandon TM100-1A installed. Any help appreciated. Craig.

Hey guys, I am dabbling in picking up a real floppy drive for my a8. I used to have a percom in the good ol' days. I like to get another percom. Seems like I missed all the percoms on eBay recently. So.... If anyone has a working percom disk drive that they would like to part with I am interested. Thanks!

Nope go ahead.

That would be me.

Didn't the trs80 have that kind of edge connector for joysticks?

I did pop on today (username:jimbronie) in atascii mode. I got that 170 error also on the msg bases.

Can we get a pic of your rig?

There was also a room with walls everywhere and you couldn't move but I didn't get a pic of that. So far my v3 is working good. Gotta sit down and map the bunker so I can get out in time.

Here is an interesting craigslist ad in my area. I never saw a 2600XE!! Lol! http://allentown.craigslist.org/vgm/5251209797.html

Here is something just as scary. http://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/331685420440

Seemed to work. Just I didn't make it back out of the castle in time!!! Ugh! Thanks for the advice.

I was using "v2". Giving v3 a shot. Will let you know how I it works out. Thanks!!!