manterola

OK, this is not looking great. I first removed the battery and checked the voltage with and without charge. It looks OK. I also checked the contacts I the battery holder. Once I reinstalled the battery, all my settings were gone (as you might expected). Then I checked the continuity in the connections between the p2 connector and the Sally pins. I discovered that the two connections: phi2 and RW to the two vías close to the PBI are NOT directly connected to the Sally pins...(!?!? Are they buffered? ). In my pictures those are the cables yellow and black respectively. The next two signals I connected close to the antic chip do have direct continuity to reset and halt pins in the Sally chip. Those are the red and blue cables respectively. So my next experiment was to move the yellow and black cables next to the Sally chip. That did not make any change, the system clock in the ultimate 1M conf screen is still stuck. I can change the time and date, and other settings, everything is saved and survive many power cycles, but the clock does not move. I might try to move all my connections now to the connection points close to the upper part of the Pcb as recommended by FJC. I will also check the ribbon cables for continuity... Any other suggestion? BTW, this is a NTSC Chelco 600XL

Thanks all, I'll check the battery and post pictures of the installation. But, I remember using Sparta in the 89 or so and using TIME to set the time and even without RTC the time was running, but obviously lost after a reset, so last night I tried setting the time in the SDX and it was also set but stuck. Anyway, I'll recheck everything, the rest looks like is working fine, I updated twice, just in case last night. Thanks

I updated the U1M right away after installing it to my new 600xl. I follow the instructions and latest FJC firmware. I also followed very closely FJC videos. By pausing the video I noticed that the RTC was running in his 600xl. Is this a problem with my U1M or I have not done something?

What you need is a "sector copier", or the duplicate disk from some DOS menues. In this kind of copy the program goes thru the diskette sector by sector, reading and later writing, no matter what file or part of the file is in any particular sector. Obviously, thing are always a bit more complicated when dealing with copy protection techniques that might be used in a specific diskette yiu want to copy. But in general, when writing a diskette have downloaded from internet, you need to set your sio2pc as D1: and leave the D2: empty. Then set your real disk drive as D2: with an empty real diskette in. Then load the Dos or sector copier from your sio2pc D1: then set the sio2pc D1: with the atr you want to copy and start the sector copier process using D1 as source and D2: as destination. This same can also be made using D1 as the real disk drive and D2: the sio2pc, or setting the sio2pc as D3: , etc. The important think is to be careful of what disk unit number is the source and which one is the destination. I am sure someone else can recommend you a good sector copier.

Not that particular one, but I remember playing one arcade which featured atari 8 bit games versions like Jungle Hunt. That was around year 1989.

Thanks for the replies. I own a Lantronix myself which I used with a DIY rverter interface. Then when I finally got an Atari850 I got all confused regarding which cable to get for the 850 to work with the Lantronix device. I endep up following the pinout of each device and modifying a standard (for PC) serial cable, since I was not sure I was going to get what I needed (also because of frugality). Thanks again, your answers make a lot of sense.

Shouldn't a modem cable (straight) be used with Lantronix devices as they are emulating a modem? Maybe it should, but it is not, and we still need to use a null modem (crossed) cable to talk with the Lantronix....

Finally, after about 45 days I received the rubber feet for the 600XL. I am OK with the result since the feet fit inside the circular space of the XL computers. The shape is a tittle too "square" and not rounded like the original feet, but it satisfies the objective and they were the only ones circular with 10mm diameter I could get. Edit: I got this in Ebay: Furniture knob, round, 10 mm x 5 mm, self-adhesive rubber pads 6 in 1 J5P8 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Furniture-knob-round-10-mm-x-5-mm-self-adhesive-rubber-pads-6-in-1-J5P8/184071800454

At least I need to cover the blue Atari characters with red characters.

Thanks for the answers so far. I'll get the devices probably I the next 10 days, so I still have time to read. I was thinking in a configuration similar to PC-DOS with A and B devices assigned to floppy disk drives and C to hard drives, or something like that. What about the compact flash? I guess a 512MB might be enough for both FAT and Sparta partition (I forgot the name of that one). Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of the weekend

Thanks! So the mystery is solved.. It's quite a nice collection the guy in the link has. I encourage everyone to. Check this out, there are some nice and not known devices, boxes, manuals, etc. The guy also has the manual I remembered in Spanish for the 65xe/130xe. I did not remember it was for both computer models.

Hi Atari enthusiasts, I am very excited since I have finally invested (wasted..? ) the money in the SIDE2 and U1M combo. I kind of understand what I got,obviously, but I would like to ask you more like a general question of the use of this new hardware, before going into the weeds regarding more complex and intricate options : what is the general config and workflow regarding this combo? how the hard drives and floppy drives fit together when using the computer for typical tasks? like writing a document, loading an original game from cart or from original diskette, getting online with bobterm, etc. should I switch my floppy drives to other units?, etc... I would love to hear from you how you use your side2+u1m, what is your typical workflow? In general, during the 80s and early 90s I used dos2.5 os. Basically you boot from that and then run some xex, then you keep turning off your Atari to something different. I also used Sparta 3.2 a bit at the time, and I like it because it was like a PC-DOS, but I never really explored all the features. So my guess is that U1M+SIDE2 is more like a PC-DOS with harddrive paradigm, and you keep running xex using the X command. Beside that, my understanding is limited. I am sure different people use it differently,but it might be some general consensus wrt some drive numbers assignments, partitions, and best practices, etc. Thanks in advance for you support!

I got those linked on Ebay. They are good for XF551, SF314, 1050, Wico joystick, etc. NOT good for 600XL/800XL. Those are smaller like 9.5mm diameter or so. I am waiting some of those smaller ones that I ordered from China , once here I'll report. But really I don't know about the 800 (no xl), but from pictures they look like more in the large side.

@flashjazzcat thanks, I also found your video where you show how to do it. I have major questions regarding the typical general config of the system once you have U1m and how to make it coexist with other drives (more like what is the typical workflow)... But that will be part of another topic.

A couple of questions.. Just to confirm 1.- Can I change the firmware of a regular u1m to FJC? Do I need something special to do it? 2.- same question regarding side2..

I want to add that you can get a good enough adjustment of the screw without oscilloscope. by just trying to match the old position using the paint residues (the gooey stuff) and then moving them tiny amounts until you make it work... now if you have access to an oscilloscope, that is the way to go. I got lucky yesterday and I repaired a mitsumi mech from xf551 by changing the stepper motor and head, then going thru the process of moving the angle of the motor, the zero track position and the pulley (is that the right word?) position adjustment until I got it to work. Probably it is not perfectly aligned, but it was able to read all the diskette I throw at it (some formatted 360KB aka DS/DD), maybe I got lucky.

Mine is Japanese with three screws to hold the mech, and the fit is perfect and easy, by the way. So if put your hands on a working sf314 or sf354 (360kb maximum, only) with 3 screws the conversion to 8 bits is very very straight forward: basically replacing the pcb. I did not about the XE internal version Dropcheck is working on. By the way I have a couple of 5.25 mechs panasonic brand I would like to use to create a couple of xf551 clones, using sf551 pcb, but I am struggling to get a good floppy case, I was thinking in getting some external 5.25 cdrom, and reuse the enclosure, or getting an IBM 4869 drive or old Macintosh drives. I haven't been able to get something good and cheap to use as good enclosure. But that might be part of another topic.

I don't know how you made the pcb fit into a Taiwanese version of the drive case. Congrats for the achievement! Also congrats for the label, I need to do something like that with mine. I am very surprised by the drive select hole you did to the original case, as well. It looks very pro, and it seems like original.

Answering myself: it is not that simple because it si not standard floppy.

Wow, so it looks like we will need to try other platforms disks (commodore, apple, atari st) and convert them to Atari disk format... But are these disks using standard DOS 2.0 or similar format or are they using something proprietary? EDIT: check this out: http://ftp.pigwa.net/stuff/collections/Atari 8bit Preserved Software 2020-01-25/ I guess is the same content of the torrent mentioned before.. right?

Is there a place to get more scenery disks? I would like to get the Washington DC / Baltimore area disk if such thing exists.

A Koala Pad with Spider Eater overlay and Koala painter cartridge.

BTW, the device I am talking about is the one shown on the bottom of the page, the one with the db9 connector. They were used to share a single Atari disk drive and/or printer with multiple Atari computers (no communication b/w the computers). This make a lot of sense in a time and place (Chile around 1989-90) were a disk drive cost were about 1.3 to 1.5 times the cost of a pack with 65XE, joystick and XC12 cassette recorder. And the price of computer pack was already high:about US$500 maybe more (money of today) depending on the exchange rate.

A small flat rate box might be enough, not sure to send u1m and other hardware along USA, at a flat rate of $8.40 includes tracking number, and insurance. And you can order the boxes to your home for free. I might be interested, but I need to check lotharek site to see the prices.

I finally found the device, in a page of "Turbonews" magazine. It was probably locally developed.