manterola

BTW, best computer supposedly has the XL/XE keyboard connector... Just sayin'

I am sure the guys who can and are willing to get stuff from Best Electronic can also make a business in dealing with the owner of BE. Just kidding, but that is another option: "Hey, please order this and this from BE, I will pay you a fee!"

Yes, I did clean the mylar which was nasty. I guess in this point the main problem is how to connect (reliably) to keyboard mylar without using the original FPC connector. The connector-less solution looks the most promising, as long as we know what is the coating applied to the PCB contact points. Something like the image attached.

Hi all, I got an old, ugly, rusty and dirty 800XL which came with the XC11 cassette drive I was interested in. So I cleaned, got rid of the rust and changed the RAM ICs (and since I got 41256 which were cheaper it is now 256KB) which were the reason why the computer was not starting. I also added the line for the chroma to the monitor output connector and it worked!... except for the keyboard. Long story short: After several attempts (conductive pen, cleaning, etc ) I fixed the keyboard by cutting the end of the mylar connector in several trials until it worked.. but the mylar was too short, and on top of that some of the pins of the edge 24 contacts connector in the motherboard started to fail. I got rid of the connector and added a row of pin headers in the motherboard and tried to find the connector. I couldn't. (I have found a couple of part numbers for 24pin 2.54 pitch non-zip connectors, but nobody sell them) My idea was to build a keyboard extension, with a new edge FPC connector in one side (to connect to the keyboard mylar) and female pin headers in the other (to connect to the new pin headers in the motherboard). I built the extension anyway using the old original connector, but now I have more keys failing and also in the keyboard self test I got the top "4" key (F4 1200xl key?) activated intermittently (this is a 800XL so no F4). I don't know how to proceed after my failure with this. I can always use this computer for parts or get another one to complete this one, but the whole point was to "save" this poor 800XL from the junk graveyard and I don't even wanted it, but it actually looks great now (all clean, nice exterior, great svideo output and also 256KB ram) Do you know any source of the keyboard connector? for type 4 mylar stackpole version? Does someone plan to produce new mylars for this XL type 4 keyboards? What about creating a special PCB with an paths like a edge connector (like cartridges) with 24 contacts and 2.54 pitch, and mechanically fix this to the mylar? I have seen these type of solutions before but I don't know which kind of finishing is done to the edge contacts so it can work (make good reliable contact) with the "paths" of the mylar. Any other creative idea on how to replace this .... connector? do you think is there any hope going in to the special PCB route? Thanks in advance for your comments!

Mypicodos is more than 3 sector menu programs,it is more sophisticated, it can start bas , xex programas , it support long files names, etc. Anyway, here is a copy in atr of a 720k 3.5" diskette with games. Some games did not work, I guess the source files were corrupted..? gamesmypicodos_720K.atr

Not me, mine is good and working. I've tried 3 different mechs, all working. It might be the jumper to set 8040/8050 or some component with defects. Other easy errors to make is related with the diode, resistor network and crystal positions. It is very cool: high speed in spartados and mydos, and 2800+ sectors avaliable

I tried cutting with a knife and force a little with a screwdriver. Bad idea, it was to tight and glued together that the plastic broke (not the glue). The good part is that I replaced the fuse and now I have a new power supply for my xf551.

The Atr I posted has the pirates chest treasure menu. It is good for dos 2.5 with enhanced and single densities. For double density you may need to use mypicodos. As far as I remember, I created the disk in mydos, then added the games to the diskette. Until the disk is almost full. Then I followed the instructions from mypicodos website, and that's the part I don't remember quite well. I guess there was a tool to add the menu to the already created diskette. I will try to do it tonight with one of my 720kb diskettes and post it here, just in case you have any problem.

Now that this thread is more or less settle regarding the previous issue I would like to bring up the following questions, since there are many current and old topics regarding SD Maxx. I want to build one SD Maxx at the lower price possible, but getting the parts from ebay/amazon (I would prefer to avoid aliexpress) (China, SE Asia included since I can afford patience). I am mostly clear about the main board (there are many cheap arduino clone), but I got confused by the screen. Most screens are >3 or 2.8", but SD Maxx site mentioned 2.4" but that looks like difficult to source, which it weird. Where can I get cheap 2.4" screens? or can I use larger ones? what about the 3d cases availables? are designed for 2.4" or larger screens? Can I use a clone board with microUSB connector? instead of the more common with big USB connector? (I dont remember the name , maybe USB B connector?) If this is not the correct thread to raise these questions, please redirect me to the correct one... Thanks in advance!

My guess is a bad socket as well. With multi tester in continuity test (beep) check continuity between each pin shoulder of the os rom chip (or any other chip like basic rom chip) and the next connecting point in the mother board or component(like resistor or other chip). I am almost sure you will find one leg that is not making good contact with the rest of the motherboard, because you re seat the chips and behavior changed. Something similar happened to me, when I re seat them I got different problem. You need to use Sam's book schematics or atari original schematics to help you to find the component which is connected with each particular pin of the osrom chip. Once you find the problematic pin you can use a small screwdriver to push and help to make the connection of the pin and test your basic program again, if it work, you identified the problem, now you need to change the socket for a new one.

Finally! I got a 800XL with type 1 keyboard! It comes with Xf551 and XC12. I am so happy to put my hand on a XC12 after all these years. I got my 65XE with XC12 when I was a teenager and I haven't put my hands on that recorder since then. The XC12 used to be very common in my country and also very reliable from my point of view. Now I need someone to bring it all of these to USA ....!..! Any tips of passing thru customs and border security with "vintage electronics"?

Remember the idea of creating a 3.5 drive for XL line of computer and devices? I remember that someone posted a 1050 styled kyroflux case. I found it and I guess it can be modified or even used like that as a first prototype. It is a great starting point, but it might need some work to make it SF551 board compatible. As you can see in the link, the kyroflux board goes under the floppy drive itself. Something similar could be done for SF551 as long as the height of the board is not too much. The back openings may need some work as well. I think is will look very cool and usable for large collection of games, images ans some demos. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3287420

If you have Linux it can be done with some work. Maybe you can post the newsroom disk with your creation and I can try to make a pdf of it. If I succeed I can expplain the methodology and tools.

Large (and redundant) images coming. I guess one of the sources of problem are the orientation of the resistor network RN1, the diodes and the oscilator since there are not that obvious/easy to make a mistake. Notice that I set the processor type to 8040 to make it work even when using an 8050.

I can do that tonight.

BTW, the main problem wit HK Chelco 1010s is not the melted belt. The flat belt sourcing is solved, and the cleaning the messy but doable (both Chelco 1010s I got both came with the melted belt). But also both came with a cracked little pinion or gear, so it works as long as you keep it upside down, otherwise the wheel with the metallic center falls down. Check this thread where we discussed about this common problem. I hope it is not your case.

Here is the belt I got for the 1010 version with flat belt. As you can see in one of the pictures, this 1010 is made by Chelco, just like the one you posted. I could not find the official size of the belt so I measured the best I could. It is working correctly, or good enough for me. This is the site I order my belts, I remember I ordered 3 belts, like one size up and one size down, just in case since there are cheap, after adding the shipping costs are not that cheap but the unit price is good. Enjoy! https://www.audiolabga.com/data_html/79-10.55.html

It looks like your have the 1010 version with flat belt, or am I wrong? I got that kind of belt from an audio repair parts website. I'll check my records and post here. As far as I remember, there is a Japanese 1010 version and there are two 1010 made in Hong Kong versions. So check carefully which 1010 you have

I would love to know how to reproduce those ST/XE era badges. For know I am just planning to print a sticker label to cover the blue "Atari" fonts with red "Atari". "SF354" part of the badge is another story, since it is raised and metallic finish.Another proof of concept I did was using a laptop slim floppy drive to replace the original sf354 mechanics. The idea is that the eject button in some of this drives are very flat, thin and close to the opening for the floppy disk itself, so a small modification using a metal file can be made to enlarge the opening in the faceplate. The real slanted eject button will need to be glued and will serve no purpose, just make the disk drive look complete. Check the pictures.

Since I wanted to test the overall alignment and basically do a prove of concept, I used contact cement, thinking that later once I have the whole floppy drive mech aligned with respect to the sf354 face plate, I will have to use epoxy glue to fix it permanently. I haven't done the fit of the drive mech. to the sf354 case since I am not sure what to buy to rise the level of the drive to make it match the faceplate. But so far, the contact glue worked much better than I thought and I might keep it.

In our discussion about the sf551 board (developed by Dropcheck) other person mentioned using the board to include a floppy drive inside the 1200XL computer. None of this is practical, but it is still super cool. Just putting a disk and do DIR and see 2800+ sectors available is cool. BTW, I was able to use the sf551 board and connect my atari 8 bits to those slim laptop floppy drives. It worked great! Those drives mech. are very quiet and very small. So a good option when no much space is available. You just need the information to modify a flat ribbon cable in order to make the drive respond to DS0. If someone is interested I'd share the info, it is quite straightforward. Regards.

Any news regarding this? I also remember someone wanted to use one of this SF551 board to put a floppy drive inside a 130XE (similar to Ataris STFM). On other news, I modified my standard Samsung internal 1.44MB floppy drive to match the sf354 case which has a big eject button in the middle and the LED in the right side (as opposed to the regular practice later on: eject button on the right side and LED in the left side). I am doing this because the original mech of many SF354 are one sided and mostly broken. Pictures coming soon. Edit: Sorry for the rotated pictures. I suspect the new resizer I used did not keep the EXIF info of the images. Anyway, you can get the idea: I cutted the metallic piece of the original mech, and attached to the Samsung mech. Then I re assembled the whole think. I still need to rise the position of the Samsung mech. since it is too low. Not sure yet how to do that.. maybe some plastic pieces like Legos, or screw post... or something else? Regards!

What about the one in oshpark? You need to get the ram chips 41256 and some 74LSxxx logic chips. You get 256kb total.

In my opinion, no use. That's why I think is important to get a sf314: so you get no only the functionality, but also the cool factor of the XE grey design. And that is a big part of the retro experience

I tried several ones and none worked for me. Maybe I did something wrong. I'll upload a video of what I got. But it is basically corrupted images and sound with a band (pm?) moving slowly from top to bottom.