moonlight_mile

I hooked up the hxc to the ATR. Got that part working. I was able to boot a mydos image. Slow but it worked. Now, I tried to put the Autoterm.atr (converted to hfe) in drive one of the hxc. It didn’t want to boot. So I booted Autoterm from the sio2sd after it booted, turned drive 1 off on the sio2sd and turned on drive 1 of the HXC and loaded your CPM hfe image. It booted but came back with just the “c”. I think something is still wrong in the 8000. I didn’t open it back up and check the rs232 jumpers yet. Maybe tomorrow. I guess there could still be something wrong with the 1797 controller chip but everything else regarding disk drive operation seems ok. -Craig

Yeah I am going to check the manual and see what the standard config for those jumpers are.

I don’t think I can flash it with anything but hxc software. But not sure. However, I went over to the hxc forums and there were a few entries regarding Atari 8 bit. So i downloaded some of those configs and your hfe file so I will give it a shot. Will let you know how it turns out.

I am not exactly sure the issue is with the floppy and controller. I have two good 1797 chips, same result. I did hook up my hxc2000 sd card reader from my st and the atr did access it but I don’t think either item knows what to do with it as I think the autoboot on the sd card is for the st (or maybe the unit itself). Would the gotek be necessary in your setup?

Well, After getting known good bootable copies of ATR CP/M disks from Jeffery, I still get the Dreaded "C". I have tried the disks on a few different drives, swapped out all the socketed chips for other ones I have to no avail. Obviously, something is incorrect with my ATR. The only thing that hasn't been touched is the Rs232 dip switch block. I don't know if this would actually affect the CP/M but if you think that might cause an issue I can look into it to verify the switch settings. All the Jumpers are set correctly per the manual, and I have tried both my original rom and the one I burned. Anyone have any clue as to what the issue on this ATR-8000 is? Thanks!

Yes it is HFE compat. It connects to the ST with the 34 pin floppy connector. I tried plugging it into the ATR the other day but I got no activity beyond getting power. Though I may have had the jumpers in the wrong places. I am gonna give it another try today or tomorrow. I attached the jumper settings for the st and pc from the manual. I am thinking I probably should use the pc settings. What do you think?

This sounds very very interesting. I have an old hxc2000 that I use for my Atari st. Is it possible to repurpose this as an ATR drive without loosing my Atari St functionality? Below is a pic of one similar to the one I have.

I was a other one kicking and screaming from going to spartados. But when I got my Percom and quads I pretty much was told I had no other choice, as Spartados was the only dos (I knew of) that could format double sided 80 track disks. It took a while but I got the hang of it. I always found it humerus when I tried to CWD (Change working directory) on ms-dos. The guy next to me would be what are you trying to do? Lol. CD made more sense.

Ok, I am waving the white flag. I have copied the cpmfiles oh around 30 times and I can get it to work correctly. I have followed the directions I just can’t seem to figure it out. I thought about getting a Kryoflux or a greaseweazle to image the atr to floppy but I hate to spend the money for 1 disk. Can any kind user out there send me a few premade cp/m disks? I’ll pay for them and/send you some blanks if you like. Any help appreciated! Craig

Glad I’m not the only one stuck with just a “c”. I didn’t even think of trying a ds/dd disk. When your cpmboot runs does it sound like it is writing to the disk or erroring when trying to write? I have just about tried everything I could think of. I’m gonna try a ds/dd disk tomorrow and try your atr. See what happens. What dos and sector copy are you using?

Latest development. Like a moron I suppose xf551 can’t do flippy disks. Anyway, I hooked up one of my tandon drives. This one is a double sided one. But I unhooked the top head (doesn’t work anyway). I was able to format, write and everything. Now, running cpmboot in mydos it just gets stuck in a loop. Running it Spartados clearly does something. It returns to the D1: prompt after running. As when I brought up the ATRMON after trying the mydos disk it errored out. But with the spartados run cpmboot it gives me the “c” after I try to boot the cp/m disk. Now, maybe my disk is ok but something is wrong with the atr. The z80 or the memory chips? Could this affect the booting of the cp/m disk? I am going to take a break then I will go down and swap out some chips. See if it changes anything.

I am going to work on it a bit after work. I have a working tandon 100-1a. Going to try to use that since that is a single sided drive. Going to try to format a few others on the xf. I have been using copymate to sector copy. It is one of the few that allows a source disk past drive two. ( the atr is usually in drive 3 since I have two physical drives connected) This sector copier allow you to not format the disk. Have tried it both ways. I did get scopy to work on Sparta 3.2. That forces a format. Unfortunately, I don’t have a spd-x cart. Since I am going to use the tandon I will only have 1 physical drive connected so I can try another sector copier. Any sure proof sector copier out there? ( I know you answered this Jeff but thought I would throw it out to the rest of the community. )

Yup. That is why I tried doing it in the xf551. Just to make sure. Same result.

Yeah it comes back just with a C. I know the videos are fubar. I am trying to fix em.

Ugh. I am sooooooo close. I don’t think the cpmboot.exe is running correctly. Here are quick videos of my running the exe from spartados and mydos. Then the pic is what happens when I try to boot the CPM disk. I have written the cpmfiles disk with the atr drive and the xf551 just to see what would happen. So what the heck am I doing wrong? IMG_2627.mp4 IMG_2629.mp4

Quick question. When you run the cpmboot.exe are you running that from drive 2 and have the cpmfiles disk in drive 1?

What is the best sector copier to use with the Atr. I have been trying copymate,tomscopy and one other. Been trying to pull the cpmfiles.atr from my sio2sd and my ape device. They both choke. Now if I run it with the xf551 it will usually work but that will cause issues with the atr disk drive. Any suggestions on the best sector copier for use with modern devices and an atr-8000?

It was the 1797. Got my order of 1797s and dram chips. Popped in one of the new 1797 and wala. Double density. I didn’t play around too much with it but at least now I don’t have to have a bunch of sd and dd dos disks. Lol. I am going to work on the cp/m disks tomorrow. Well.... if anyone needs I will have a bunch of extra chips for an atr.

Hmmmm that looks interesting. Well if it comes to working on the 7416s I will pick up one of those pumpers.

Possibly. Here is what I am doing. Clip the black lead of the probe to the chassis and the red clip to the leg of the 7805 voltage regulator. Set the probe to cmos (also tried it as ttl too) and kept the probe on pin 37 of the 1797.

I ordered some 7416s and sockets just in case. Dumb question, can you piggyback the 7416s like we used to do with ram chips to see if the soldered chip is defective? (Get the idea I am try to avoid unsoldering the chips huh? Lol).

Ok. Went back down and played around. Pin 37 isn’t active during boot up. It goes low when I do the first dir. When I ainit or xinit in single density the probe does not light up. When I go xinit in double density it lights up and stays lit. Never goes out until the device Naks and errors out. The head moves a little during the dd format but not the way a normal format head movement.

Checked pin 37. Stays low. Tried formatting and different things and it always stays low.

That is going to be my last resort. I am not relishing unsoldering those chips. I had a hard enough time with the caps. I really don’t want to have to get an unsoldering station. I know a pump will work but from all the videos I have watched they don’t work to well. Later today I am going to swap around the dean chips and hit pin 37 of the 1797 with my logic probe see what it is doing. My new chips won’t be here til Tuesday. Will keep you all informed of my progress. Thanks again for all the help. P.s. how many 7416s are there that have to be replaced?

Aha. I don’t have any 4164s. I popped them out and re-seated them. Maybe I will move them around. See what happens. Anyway I ordered a “new” set as well.