DavidMil

Amen. My thoughts exactly! David Milsop

If those are 256K RAM chips, that is the Axlon RAMDISK MOD. I believe that David Byrd did that one. Along with modifications to the RAM card there were some changes to the ROM card too. On the lower right corner of the RAM card are there a couple of traces cut by C518? If so, this is the Axlon 256K RAMDISK Modification. This Mod was designed to give you a very fast virtual double density disk drive, so that DUP.sys and MEM.sav could be made resident and switching between programs and DOS would be almost instantaneous. It was designed to run with GENEEMDE (by H. V, Stacey) under DOS II (2.0S). If anybody has that program (not DOS 2.0S) I would like a copy of it too. Thanks, David Milsop

Been dealing with Brad a LONG time. Only time he got a little stern with me was when I ordered about $250 worth of IC's. The problem arose with the amount of each IC (5 to 10 of each). Must have been about 30 different IC's for: 800, 800XL, 130XE, 850, 1050, and a 835 modem. He told me to keep my orders down to 5 to 10 things. Other than that, I now send PDF's only, no more phone calls. About five to ten business days later my stuff shows up on the porch, my card has been charged, and the invoice is in the package. Sometimes it's all there and sometimes it's not. I called him about once and he said if it's not on the invoice, he's sold out of that item. Simple enough. I've been wanting to place another order for a while but with Christmas around the corner and 3 children, 8 grandkids and 3 great grandkids (along with brothers and sister and nieces and nephews) I might have to go back to work next year just to pay for the holidays. My wife told me the other day that next year everyone is getting gift cards. Smart girl! David

From the pictures that were posted on ebay, you can't see anything about cables, power supply, or anything else. I think I'm going to pass on these because I was looking for something about 1200 baud. What started all this: I have three 850's and I've repaired them all and built loop back testers that check the four RS232C ports. Part of the test is sending a string (012ABCD345EFGH678IJKL90MNO) and then verifying that the same string comes back. The test does this at 100, 300, and 1200 baud for each of the four ports before it starts testing the control lines for each port. I'm confident that this part of the 850 test is good, but it would be nice to verify it with a modem. Thank you all for your feedback and Tim for the info on the Signalman modems. David Milsop Kingwood, Texas

I don't live near Pittsburg, but I have an extra 850 that I was going to put on ebay for $40.00 (add $10 if you want a power supply) and I'm guessing from $5 to $10 more for shipping (depending on if you want the power supply). I'm sure that the four RS232C ports work as per Atari specks, but I won't guaranty that the parallel port works as I don't have a printer to test with. My loopback tester only flashes the LEDs, so I can't be certain that the data is transmitting out of the printer port correctly. Let me know if you're interested. You might also give Best Electronics a call to see if they have one. DavidMil

Does anyone know if a Signalman Mark II modem needed a power supply? I saw one on ebay but don't see anything about the power supply. If no one is sure I'll leave a question with the seller. Thanks, DavidMil

I have a friend (Richard) in Alabama that repairs 810's and 1050's. He may be able to help you... his e-mail is: [email protected] David

Not knowing anything about 3D printers, I've often wondered what kind of strength and finish could be accomplished with them. Thanks for the info. DavidMil Kingwood, Texas

I wonder if anyone has started using a 3D printer to make cartridge cases? Might be a good market... Davidmil

Did I understand correctly that you also have a good 1050? If so, have you swapped the transports of both drives to see if the problem moved? This is a good, quick way to verify that the motors are working. DavidMil

This looks really nice! When you say contacts from an old AT power supply are you talking about the 13 metal contact connectors that lock into the female connector? If so, you can buy packages of them from Best Electronics too.

Five years ago some weather computers predicted that more hurricanes would turn north because the waters of the Atlantic Ocean had warmed up so much, At least we in the gulf coast knew what to expect from hurricanes. The poor people on the east coast really don't know how to prepare for one any better then we can deal with a snowstorm. My heart goes out to those people; and when all the damage from the storm has been cleaned and everything is repaired get ready for the worst part... Insurance rates (home & auto) are going to double or triple for several years, and NEVER go down again! Even if nothing happened to you! DavidMil Kingwood, Texas

Only The second time I've seen one of these (at least that I remember). Very nice. Thanks, David

My kids were preteens when I bought my first 800. I would have sold one of them before I would have sold the computer. Thirty five years later.... I still feel that way! DavidMil

14 years ago the fortune 500 company that I worked for bought this phone for me. When I retired four years ago they said I could keep it if I'd transfer the service to myself. I think that the main reason I hate mobile phones is that every time it rang, 99% of the time it was someone having a computer problem. I was on call 24 /7, and people didn't seem to mind if it was 2AM or Christmas day. I'd get an average of ten to 30 after hour calls every week. This went on for ten years before the extra money didn't make it worth all the 'have to be nice to idiot user' conversations! I retired at 60 to prevent my head from exploding! See why I hate cell phones? DavidMil

I remembered that I had an old 800XL motherboard that someone gave to me after they botched up a do it yourself memory upgrade. It was a little dusty but after I cleaned it up this is all I found. On the component side stamped in black ink in the upper right corner (with the power switch facing away from you): CA061854 REV D DOT 454 (I assume this is date of completion as the latest date on any chip is 84 29) In the middle of the board between the cart slot and the video out, in white ink (silkscreen): W-18 94HB on the bottom of the board, just left of dead center, etched in copper: 800XL CO61851 Rev D And that is the sum total of all non-component identification marking on the board. The RF Modulator is missing from this board too so I know there was nothing hidden under it. One other thing: The ATARI ROM chip is C024947A-29 I hope this helps get you started. DavidMil

I'm afraid this is not going to work on my phone. You see it's an old flip phone and doesn't even text. My wife has been after me for years (ten to be exact) to get out of the stone age, but it does all I need it to do... make calls. And $12.00 a month is nice too. DavidMil

Yea, but just try to buy a VHS player. That's a lot harder (but still possible) to buy! DavidMil

Thank you for the source code , Pack007. I can see I'll be burning some late night oil again. It has really be awhile. I really miss the old days when you had to design and program anything that you wanted. When Basic came out I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I had learned on Machine Language (load a,bla bla). Then when I found out that you could incorporate USR calls into Basic, the world was right again. Anyway thanks for the source code. I do agree that trying to put two 850's on at the same time is a waste without some reprograming of the computer and the 850's and most likely would require some additional wiring/rewiring of the 850's. DavidMil

Am interesting idea, but I think you may have a problem getting people to tear down their old Atari's to get that much data. But I still wish you the best of luck. If I have to repair one of my 800's, I'll sure collect the info you want and post it. DavidMil

Well, I'm happy to report that the loopback testers and the software for the four RS232C Ports is now finished. I had to modify the Port 4 loopback tester because the computer can't control the DTR and RTS lines and they are always on at 10 volts. So I added a few resistors and two LEDs to test the two Port 4 control lines. Now I have to build a parallel port tester. I've ordered a few electronic parts and now I have to sit down with the schematics to see how to write the software. I'm glad I'm retired and don't have a lot to do. This type of thing can cause serious hair loss! But it's still fun and helps to keep my mind from turning to mush (something I've seen happen to several of my retired friends). DavidMil

What brought all this on... I have four (well, three now, I think) non-working 850 interfaces. I was going to sell three of them once I was sure that they worked. I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to sell something unless I'm sure it's really working. I have all three manuals that Atari put out for the 850; Users Manual, Field Service Manual, and the 850 Technical Manual. I was thinking about hooking up a Lantronix UDS100 to the 850 when a I found an actual Atari BBS run over the internet by a gentleman in Tenn. I finally gave up on anyone having the cartridge when Brad at Best Electronics said he hadn't seen one in years and I built my own loopback testers. I've been in the process of writing my own software and I'm down to working with some of the control lines (to get them to test both on and off automatically). I used Appendix C (I think it was from the tech manual) to make my loopback testers. Then I found a program in the field service manual to test the send/receive portion for a port and modified it to test all four ports without any user input other than pressing a key to start the test. Believe it or not, I still have my Atari 15 pin to Centronics cable! Only the good Lord knows what happened to my old Epson dot matrix printer. Are you selling yours? I'm afraid I'm a long way from Cleveland (although I was born in Youngstown). I'm in Kingwood Texas now, just northeast of Houston. DavidMil

Well, I replaced one bad cap, one diode, the 7805 voltage reg. (which I think was what damaged several of the chips). I happy to report that all the RS232 ports are working fine. Now I need to find a printer that I can use to test the parallel port. DavidMil

What I'm seeing here, is that each machine had (has) its' strengths and weaknesses. I like My 130XE with 320K (Ha!, I typed Megs the first time) for some things, my 800XL with 256K for others, and my old 800 when I need to program or play MULE. In the mean time, my IBM PC with 640K is used as an anchor for my bass boat. DavidMil

To this day, I think that the Atari 400/800 is the only computer that will allow a family of 4 to sit down together and play a game at the same time. I can't tell you how many hours of fun the four of us had playing MULE. Now that I have the 800 working again, I think Christmas will be a good time to put it up on the 60 inch TV. DavidMil