ajacocks

Folks, I have a (mostly) working Atari 520ste with a badly broken case. It was quite broken when I got it, and had been repaired with some very strange glue/tape hybrid work. I removed that, reset the broken pieces that I had, and set the case back together with CA. However, even after completing that, the case is still missing some largish pieces around the power supply, and the thin plastic that attaches the keyboard surround to the back of the case is badly broken, and will require reinforcement, and probably won’t ever look good again. Additionally, all of the plastic standoffs on the bottom of the case are shattered, and mostly missing. First, does anyone have a spare STe case that they’re willing to part with? Second, while I did find a 3d model for a 520/1040 case (https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-print-models/gadgets/pc-laptop/atari-1040-st-enclosure-3d-print-model), I believe that the ST and STe cases are significantly different. Does anyone have a thought on what the differences are? I looked, but don’t see any other sources for newly-made cases. Thanks! - Alex

Feel free to make the mod, if you want. The CAD files are included. - Alex

That PSU is quite a bit lighter in shade than the 800XL that I have. Is that close to the correct original color? - Alex

Hmm. Let me think about it. I have a 1200XL, 600XL, and 800XL, but not a 1050. What is the “queen” PSU? - Alex

It’s actually a bit light. The top is Printed Solid’s Jesse Premium PLA Beige 500: https://www.printedsolid.com/products/jessie-pla-1-75mm-x-1kg-beige-500?variant=39502756380757 A better color is what I used earlier, before I ran out, which is plain Inland PLA Plus tan. - Alex

Here is a link to the published model: https://www.printables.com/model/399196-atari-850-interface-module-chassis An XL styled chassis? Did Atari sell such an animal, or would this be a new design? - Alex

Thanks much, folks. I might be up for making some more designs, soon. - Alex

And the case is done! I’m quite happy with how it came out. Again, comments are welcome. I’ll post a link to the STLs when I get them uploaded. - Alex

I have a rather sad Atari 850, which suffered some significant damage while it was being transported. So, I decided to design a replacement case for it. I'm almost finished the bottom, which looks like this: The recreation of the font that Atari used was the most effort! That took me at least 5 hours to just photograph, resize and recreate the letters: Any comments are welcome! - Alex

I know the ST/TT doesn't need 24 KHz, but has anyone tried this Dell LCD with EGA or similar? It might be great with my x68000, if so. - Alex

The Vintage Computing Federation has a museum located at the InfoAge science center, in Wall Township, New Jersey, USA. We have an amazing collection of artifacts on display that help to teach computing history to our many visitors. The IBM 1130 is an early example of what became commonly known as minicomputers (smaller than room-size); one computer for one person. It is also unique in the sense that there are only a small number in existence, and few are functional. We take pride in the fact that many, in fact most, artifacts displayed in our museum are functional and provide an interactive experience for our museum visitors. We now have an opportunity to add the IBM 1130 to the list of functional artifacts! Please consider helping us to restore this amazing artifact: https://vcfed.org/2022/10/15/ibm-1130-repair-fundraiser/ Feel free to share this with like-minded individuals and organizations who may also be interested in helping to preserve computing history. - Alex

Dr. Baker sells them here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/173811028957?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=jYl9O95rQnK&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=3DKn6OtyTH2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY - Alex

Yep, and here is my NUC happily in its case: - Alex

Yep, it was exactly as you said @mytek. My flash was clearly bad. I’m not sure how that could be, but I’m guessing it had to do with my search for a flash tool that worked with my clone PICkit 2. I used PICkit2+ just now, and flashed the non-watchdog firmware, and presto! I confirmed that all the other boot and shutdown modes work as expected, and they indeed do. Picture quality is better than it looks, as I photographed the screen of my testing TN battery powered LCD. All basic functionality checks out, with good composite picture, audio out and fully responsive keyboard. I then flashed the normal firmware, and that works 100%, as well. Much appreciated! Now, I need to test the FujiNet that I built for it, and do some programming. - Alex

Thanks for the comment, @mytek. I got my PIC 16F1847 from RS Components, so it's from a major supplier. I actually bought 20, because they were so hard to find, so if folks need one to build a NUC, let me know, and I'd be happy to share. I'll try reflashing it with the non-watchdog firmware, and try it out. I'm quite experienced with microcontroller flashing, but not with PICs, so it's quite possible that I just programmed it incorrectly. I'll post a screenshot of my programming setup when I reprogram, later this evening. I have a PICkit 2 clone programmer, which clearly does work, but I had to go through a bunch of different software versions, since only the open source command-line pk2cmd seemed to work, but I wasn't sure about the correct command line options for it. I eventually found PICkit- which seemed to work, and while I was having problems, purchased PICkitPlus. I haven't tried PICkitPlus yet. I attempted to use multiple versions of MPLab and MPLab X IPE, on both Windows 10 and Linux, but none of them would detect my PICkit 2. Of course, the pk2cmd and PICkit- both saw and recognized it properly. By the way, I really enjoyed the building process. It was quite a pleasure to build, and I think that it came out really nicely. - Alex

A friend of mine had an AES when it was new, and I was always extremely curious about this console/arcade hybrid, but never even saw one in person, until I was an adult. I just got a top loader Neo Geo CD, and it comes with nothing, so I’m working to build a power supply, and to find a controller. I’m also in the market for non-fighting games, which I know will sound strange. I’m quite excited to try out the Neo Geo and see what I have been missing, all of these years. - Alex

Based on this link: https://atariwiki.org/wiki/attach/Articles/Atari_8-Bit_Error-Codes.pdf I’m guessing that the error might be “12 Line not found: referenced line number does not exist”. I’m not sure if this is due to the weird way that I am powering the system on, or not. - Alex

Interesting. The issue is definitely the PS/2 interface, because if I ground out Q3’s G pin, the NUC comes on, and boots up. It ends up with an error that I still need to troubleshoot, but that’s real progress! The error message is: A ERROR- 12 AT LINE 3612 Which says to me that there’s some issue reading one of the ROMs, or accessing some part of the low 64k of RAM. I’ve attached a video of the boot process, showing that video and audio seem to be working 100%. - Alex IMG_0035.MOV

Thanks, @Panther. I’ll remove the Atari chips, and try it. My power LEDs are indeed not coming on. Interesting about the left alt key…I’ll try the right one. - Alex

I just finished building a 576NUC+, and boy am I impressed how much functionality is packed into the board! It was rather straight forward to assemble, even given how densely populated it is. Kudos to all the folks who have worked so hard on this project! I'm looking for a debugging interface for the device, as I'm having some initial power-up issues that may well be the 12Vdc PSUs that I have on hand. Does anyone have a suggestion there? I see +12V on the barrel plug and on the adjacent diode, and +5V on the other side of the regulator, so at least initial power is coming in. However, I only get a PS/2 keyboard blink at plug insertion, and none of the power-up sequences seem to work. I did verify the programming on all of the devices that required it, so I don't _think_ that is the issue. Is there an easy way to get debug info from the TKII module? Attached are some pictures of the board, and again, I am super impressed by this project! - Alex

Sounds like great progress. - Alex

I'm interested in a full set of boards as well, Marek. - Alex

Aaron, I printed it face-down, on a textured PEI build surface. - Alex

Amusingly, I don't actually have a 5200, so I can't say if it would fit, or not. I built these controllers as a gift for a friend. If anyone has a spare functional 5200 that they would be willing to part with, I'd be happy to develop a mounting solution. - Alex

I'm fairly new to the ST, but I picked up 3 STs, in a lot, recently. I got a 520stfm, a 520stm, and a 520st. I didn't get any monitors, or video cables, with them, though. Given that situation, the first thing that I did was to make up a DIN-13 to composite video + audio cable. The quality of output I got from that was acceptable (but not great) at low res, and terrible at medium res. Looking to improve my output, I bought a an NEW v2.0 Atari ST DIN13 to VGA Adaptor Low-Medium/High Switchable with Audio Out and, after reading that my Extron RGB-HDMI 300a was capable of going beyond the spec of 30 kHz, I tried it out. I think that the results speak for themselves. You can see some jailbars, particularly in high res, but if I take a bit of time to adjust the phase, those should go away. These images are the defaults, with zero tuning. - Alex