toddtmw

If you look at my first picture, the other end of the green wire goes to a chip marked CS2917 8229. Googling that brought me here: http://pdf.eepw.com.cn/c20090821/946d6ba599b35855a9cbaf906b7d9f0e.pdf, which says it is a frequency to voltage converter especially suitable for motor speed control. Seems pretty likely it was changing the speed of the drive, but there is no way to access that thing externally. This thing was very obviously disassembled in the past. The RF shield was not fully reattached and some of the screws that hold that side board on (and the RF shield on) were missing. Perhaps, they left the top of the drive unscrewed and pulled it off to adjust the speed? Is it possible this was part of the way the original Happy drives worked? (You had to adjust the pot until it got to a certain setting when you installed it, but then didn't really have to mess with it after that?)

What went wrong with your printer? I don't know much about the Davinci, but I'm pretty sure I could replace every part on my Quidi X-One 2. I kind of feel like I'm back in the 8-bit days with 9-pin slow-ass dot matirx printers. Can't wait to see how this progresses. I have to believe in 10-20 years (probably less), we will be printing color 3-d objects as fast as we laser print color pages now. They already have 3-d printers that combine with inkjet ink to do full-color 3-d printing.

You should totally get one. They are very reasonbly priced these days. The one I got was only $400. Filament is really cheap. I wieghed the large disk tree I made, and based on its weight, it costs less than $3 in materials. (Of course, it took about 24 hours (over several days) to actually print it.) The smaller one will print a little faster, and cost a little less.

Thanks! I'll reassemble it and see what I can find out.

So, it looks like it is hard to find CS8900A development board. Can we play this with Altirra? If so, does anyone have a tutorial on how to get it set up? Thanks!

Does this look better? If anyone has a decent Atar name and Atari Logo in Tinkercad they want to share, I'd be happy to incorporate it into this.

Also, I just printed the first tier of the new shorter tree. It will be about half as tall and I think it will work out much better.

I've learned a little more about converting graphics to 3-d since I started this. Let me mock something up and post a screenshot to see if it looks more like what you would expect.

I had stuck it on a shelf because of other priorities. Your message reminded me of it, so I decided to go look. This is what I found. (Click to see full-size images) It looks like it has a Happy mod? I've never seen one in an 810 before. Is this what they look like? Is this the whole mod? Any idea what that wire is doing? I guess I could put it all back together and see if the Happy software detects it as a happy drive. Should there be a sticker over the square indow on that one chip? Any other advice? Thanks.

BITD, I had a disk holder (I think it was from Rubbermaid) that had ten tiers to hold disks in a step fashion so that you could easily access your ten most-used disks. I had been looking for somethign similar and had made something very clunky out of Lego. But, I got a 3-D printer for Christmas, so I designed and printed one myself. If anyone is interested in printing their own, I published it in Thingiverse here. Once I got this all assembled, it's actually taller than I think I wanted it to be, so I am working on a shorter one. I have the basic design of that done, but it will take me a while to print and assemble it to make sure it all works out. Once I get that published, I will post a link here in case anyone wants to print that one. If you do print this, I'd love to see pictures. I would have liked to do this with each tier a different color (an Atari Rainbow!) but I do not have enought filament colors and buying ten different filament colors gets pretty pricey. Hope others find this useful! -Todd

BITD, a friend that had an Apple ][ had a PAC Man clone that required you to turn the monitor sideways to play it. It was a great experience, but his dad got mad because he was concerned it would overheat since the vents were on the top. (And now the side...)

There are some on eBay that look like the might work, but Ive never tried one. https://m.ebay.com/itm/AC-Adapter-For-Vintage-Atari-Part-NUMBER-850-1010-1020-1050-XF551-game-systems/152680579415?epid=2210848502&hash=item238c78c157:g:iwsAAOSwauJZepN5

No. That outputs DC and the 1200xl needs an AC input.

Im looking to 3-D print some sio cables. Can anyone recommend a good reasonably priced wire source? (A link to an actual product would be awesome!) Thank you.

Theyre asking us to buy a car before we even know its a car!

Were supposed to preorder something that we have no idea what it even is? Is this thing run by Tom Sawyer?

I'm looking to add a soldering iron to my christmas list. Looking for recommendations. The one I have seems to have a tip that is too big and the dial doesn't list temperatures on it. I'm not sure if my problems soldering are because of a lack of skill or a lack of quality instruments (I know, a poor musician blames his instruments, but I would argue a poor musician can do better with a good instrument than a poor one. ) Anyway, what are some of the "best" solderers on this board using? Thanks! -Todd

I'm picking out a 1200XL for you not an ordinary 1200XL for you. Bet an extra great 1200XL, with plastic and stripes and a best-mylar-built-right-in!

I purchased a happy mod earlier this year. I have put it in 2 drives and in both cases, the drives have failed weeks later with very light usage. I have been using a non-happy modded drive off and on for months with no issues. Could be a conincidencs. I'd love to hear what others think. -Todd

I'd like to see AA post a sticky topic about the various web stores that are available. It could be heavily moderated, if necessary, and offer objective reviews of the feedback the community has received. If you are the type of person that craves instant feedback and plenty of hand-holding, you should be able to determine after reading the thread, that AtariMax may not be your best bet. But, if you want to support a long-time contributor to the Atari Community and you are more laid back about communication and speed of delivery, then perhaps you would consider it.

IMHO, Lotharek's device is a much better option if for no other reason than it is an open solution that has a chance to be supported after the original vendor decides to exit the business. And it will arrive faster than the AtariMax version.

Last time I checked the AtariMax forums it had been almost a year since Steve posted there.

Check your SPAM filter. I've expereineced the slow response to follow up queries, but I've always gotten an Automated e-mail when I originally placed an order. (And if the initial e-mails are in SPAM, any responses may be too.) Having said that, I have personally decided not to order from Atarimax anymore. I prefer to support people that are more responsive.

I'd love to see a device that lets you hook a 3.5" (HD!) USB floppy to a computer. Then, we could get the experience of floppies, using 20-year-old technology, rather than 30-year-old technology. We could still make disks and label them and store them, but also have them be slightly more modern.

Mine says "Master Cartridge".