oryan_dunn

I've got a 410 that I replace all the belts on about 4 or 5 yrs ago. At the time, it worked just fine. Now, my 5yr old wants to play some of the games, so I got the Atari back out. Now, however the cassette deck doesn't work. Issues: * Doesn't play (I know you need to use the load command) The tape attempts to play, you can hear the motor running, but the take-up reel is not consistent. Sometimes you get the correct beeps for loading a cassette, othertimes, it's obviously to slow. * Doesn't fast forward. You can hear the motor spinning, but the take-up reel is locked * Rewind works fine, but when it gets to the start of the tape, it doesn't automatically stop, I think the motor keeps turning, and the belt is just slipping. I took it apart again, and I'm not sure what the issue is. I have a feeling it's probably some of the rubber idler/friction wheels. I'd like to get this working, but I'm not sure I have the time to mess with it. Do the symptoms I describe represent a common and/or easily fixable problem? If not, is there anyone who repairs these?

I removed the DC jack and disassembled it to clean the contacts. It now looks and works like new. https://imgur.com/a/Iqv1rlc

I just wanted to pop in here and give a big THANK YOU for this. My Game Gear also did not work with batteries, but did via the DC jack. Even though the picture doesn't seem to be available, I did pull the service manual and checked, no connection. I jumpered the two leads and it works on batteries now! So, I'm in the process of finding a replacement DC jack.

Honestly, that was my experience, which I think I reported earlier in this thread. My order somehow ended up in purgatory for weeks in his email. I had to call, and even then, he would only ship out the items in my original email. For me to get a couple of the additional items I wanted, I had to put in another order. Super super odd for an otherwise such a personal interaction. Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

tl;dr: I have 3 drives, all 3 drives have speed set to 199.8ms-200.2ms via the Copy ][ Plus program. Floppies formatted in drive A work fine in drive A, disks formatted in drives B and C work fine in drives B and C. Are there any other adjustments to make to bring drive A in family with drives B and C? body: I had earlier asked for advice on programs that could test floppy disks and got some suggestions (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262456-any-floppy-disk-check-programs/). A bit of history. The three drives mentioned above when I first started working on these: A: Apple Disk ][ with Drive 1 sticker (made lots of noise, didn't seem to read any floppies) B: Micro SCI with Drive 2 sticker (seemed to work fine) C Apple Disk ][ without drive sticker (only seemed to spin the disk) I started using ADTPro and created a few disks using the drive A. Those disks worked fine in drive A only. All existing floppies only seemed to work in drive B. Then, I was an idiot and somehow managed to break both drives A and B. After looking around, it seemed I needed new 74LS125 chips. A few days later and a dozen new 74LS125s, I actually got all 3 drives working. Turns out, drive C had a bad chip as well, in fact, when I removed it from the socket, the bottom of the chip fell off. It was well and truly smoked! So, will all 3 drives working and the heads fully cleaned, I used Copy ][ Plus to check things out. I got all 3 drives dialed in to 200.0ms as close as I could. Drives B and C seem to be 100% compatible and seem to read old floppies and new floppies written on drives B and C just fine. Drive A works only with disks written on drive A. Are there any other adjustments other than drive speed that I can adjust to get drive A working?

Thanks! I have a 400 as well, but it has a 48k upgrade. So I assume it'd work in it as well.

Will this cart work with an unmodified 400 or 800? I'm recently getting back into my Atari and am trying my best to sort out all the new accessories and modifications out there now.

Thanks! I'll give that a shot when I get home. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does any software exist to test a floppy disk to tell you if it's still any good? I'm thinking along the lines of something that formats the disk and fills it to check for bad sectors. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Does any software exist to test a floppy disk to tell you if it's still any good? I'm thinking along the lines of something that formats the disk and fills it to check for bad sectors. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I got around to fixing one of my two broken supplies. I installed a case mounted fuse holder so a fuse swap will be simple if were to blow again. I used this fuse holder: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/littelfuse-inc/03420858H/F015-ND/17931 And got a couple of these fuses: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/littelfuse-inc/0313005.MXP/F1769-ND/778306 It works quite well. It was a very tight fit with the fuse holder. I'd have liked to have used a push button reset breaker instead, but I don't think there'd have been any way to fit that in the case.

So, I ended up getting these stabilizer inserts. I had to shave the cross section down since the 400 B-key keyboard is lower profile. Doing that, though, cut off the plastic nubs that held the pieces in the spacebar. I ended up using a pair of pliers to distort the cross section, so when I inserted it into the spacebar they stayed in place. I'm not sure how robust this will be over time. The other thing I had to do was use an exact knife to make the opening bigger since the diameter of the crossbar is larger than a standard stabilizer bar. Overall, it seems to work ok.

Thank you! I obviously can't review for accuracy at this point since I'm new to all of this. The only other row I'd suggest maybe adding is compatibility. I seem to remember reading that one (or maybe more) of the carts didn't work with a stock 800. If that is the case, then a compatibility row would also be important for newbies just starting out.

Ok, that makes sense, it's like an SIO2SD but with a USB drive instead. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the link. I read through it, and maybe I'm a bit slow, but it seems like it does the same thing. The link at the bottom of the page you linked to goes to a German site, so until I get home on a PC, I'll not be able to translate it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That sounds like an excellent thing to elaborate on in a newbie thread. What's the difference? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AA Store? Do you have a link? Wait, if it's the AtariAge store... I'll feel a bit sheepish....

I just wanted to chime in and say thank you for this thread. I have a IIe that I've been trying to get back to a working state. I've got 3 disk drives and probably close to 150 floppy disks and I've not been able to get any software to successfully load. I've cleaned the drives, but they still don't load. I tried ADT via the cassette port and have the same issue as the OP, no drives are shown in the format screen, and my ProDOS disk gives the same error. So, I ran the RAM test as given in one of the linked threads. And sure enough, I get printouts for bad RAM. I've ordered some new RAM, so hopefully that solves my issues. And as a result of that cryptic RAM test code, I just had to dive into my IIe reference manual and figure out how that monitor program actually works (I'm a software engineer for my day job, but the IIe and Atari 8-bits I have predate any sort of understanding or desire to code, so it's fun to learn when you're so close to the hardware).

Also, why does the main AtartAge page not have a section on the top left for the 8 bit line? It looks like there is a section for all the consoles, and a similar wiki for the 8 bit would be nice. Or does it exist and I have somehow overlooked it?

Thanks, I'm definitely leaning that way. I currently don't have a disk drive or any disks. While I really like the idea of getting a real floppy drive, trying to get a fully working drive for a decent price, and building a library of working floppy disks seems like more work than it's worth. I'll be keeping my eye on craigslist for deals. Even if a drive isn't working, if I can get it for cheap enough, it may be worth it. I have no issues fixing electrical or mechanical issues if parts can be had.

Thank you for putting together that resource. The item I was thinking I didn't see listed was The!Cart. From what I can gather, the SIO2XXX options work with stock systems, but the carts may or may not require hardware system modification. I guess it'd be nice to make a table of the options and what systems they work on, what software they can run, etc. Perhaps I could create such a table, but I don't have the knowledge base to do so right now.

Hey guys, I just wanted to ask if anyone else has had an issue with slow shipping quote/time to ship from Best? I've been emailing back and forth with Brad, and while I always receive prompt and friendly responses from him, It took quite a while to even get a quote on what the shipping cost/ final order total would be. During that time, I found a few more items I wanted, so asked for a revised final total, and was told it would take up to 3 weeks to get another quote from the shipping department. Is this a new normal? Or an weird blip in service? All the comments in this thread are from a few years ago, so I didn't know if business has really picked up or if they're just short staffed.

I've seen the post here with very brief descriptions of the various ways to get software onto the Atari: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/176545-topic-for-newbies/ However, I was wondering if there is a decent thread/blog/wiki/etc. detailing the pros and cons of each device and piece of software. I think there may be some newer options not listed there, and from what limited amount I currently know, it seems some may need slightly modified systems. I'm trying to learn as much as possible. I just started listening to the Antic podcast starting at episode 1, and just listened to episode 5 where they detail one of the SIO to PC options which got me seriously thinking about this. I am currently getting back into using my 400 and 800, and am trying to figure out what would be the best first purchase. All I currently have is a 400, 800, and a 410 and do not have a disk drive nor any disks. I would think with one of the modern USB or SD methods that a disk drive wouldn't be something I'd need to get right away.

I just got a pair of paddles of ebay along with Super Breakout. The paddles were basically non-functioning, no matter how I turned it the bar was either to the left or to the right. I disassembled one of them, cleaned all the gunk off the black ring and contacts in the pot and reassembled. After that, it worked just fine in the game. I had seen some reports of people using this game or that, or saying game x wasn't a good game to test with. If you don't have a game, or want a more precise way to test your paddles, put your basic cart in and run the following program: 10 PRINT PADDLE(0), PADDLE(1) : GOTO 10 RUN That will constantly print out the current value of the paddles 1 and 2 connected to joystick port 1. The values will range from 0 to 228, and the values should be steady without you moving the paddle, and should smoothly increase or decrease as you move them. I've since cleaned the other pot, and both work quite well in Super Breakout. I think I may pick up the Castle Crashers game here soon (along with another set of paddles).

I have two C017945 power bricks that both fuses blew (due to the ferrite choke in my 400 coming loose and shorting pins on the circuit board right under where the power enters). I'm looking to add a fuse holder that you can access without opening the power supply, but I'd like to replace the fuse with an exact replacement if possible. I've pulled the fuse out, and taken a picture. Mine is a 5A/250VAC slow blow fuse (made by Littlefuse), but it's interesting as it has a spring in half of it. I've seen this type of fuse described over on stack exchange, but have not seen the name for the type. Does anyone here know the type? I've attached a picture of it. I may try contacting Littlefuse to see if anyone there would be able to identify the fuse.