DarkLord

Okay, the good news is, that I took another stab at repairing the MFP chip where I had tried to upgrade it to the RSVE mod, and I think I've got it working again. Or close enough for government work. This is on my Mega ST... (not the Mega STe with the P/S and/or memory problem). Anyways, we should be back online now...

Well, maybe some models are and some models aren't. Here, I tried wiring it straight up this morning and fried part of my Mega STe's motherboard. I hooked it up like this picture - and it will boot the computer up. Its damaged now though, serial port doesn't work and I get random 2 bomb crashes. Guess I'll wait until I get some more money saved up and try to get Alex at ATY Computers to see if he can salvage what damage I've done. Here, with this model AT P/S, you can NOT hook it straight up, matching color coded wire for color coded wire. The blue Atari (which is apparently +12v) wire has to be hooked up to the yellow (again, +12v) wire from the AT P/S. I'm including a picture showing the (visible) damaged part.

Gonna try to use PC style power supply until I can get a real Mega STe power supply replacement... Got a spare one (older) here right now. Its one of those that the 2 white connectors plug in side by side on at PC motherboard. I've cut off one of the dead Mega STe's power supply harnesses. All the red (+5v) matched up (3 leads) All the black matched up (4 leads) A single white lead matches up That leaves a yellow, blue, and orange on each. My understanding is that blue on Atari P/S's is +12v, and that yellow on the PC power supply is +12v. So I can't just color-code connect, straight across. On my Falcon, before I hooked my CT60 up to it, I had to hook the blue lead (+12v) from the Falcons harness to the yellow on the ATX power supply. I'm assuming (dangerous!) that I have to do that here as well. Which leaves the PC side blue and orange leads. Which leaves the Mega STe side yellow and orange leads. Anyone done this before and can tell me for sure, what goes where before I actually connect and attempt powering up? Thanks much gang!

Not to worry - DarkForce! *will* return, just a matter of time...

No problem, and remember, it was contributed by "Techie" Alison... Hey, that looks like a nice game! Hold on to that thought - DarkForce is down, but never out. We'll be back up just as soon as I work things out. When we do get back online, if you still want, we'll take that as one of our 8bit monthly prize give-aways, and I certainly do appreciate it!

Thanks Dan, I appreciate the offer. Unfortunately, I don't think so. I've got 2 spare 1040 ST P/S's as well as a Falcon one (where I put the ATX P/S in for my CT60) and the plugs don't match up at all. I suppose I could hack around with them and match up the wires by color coding but I kind of hate to get into all that... Thanks again!

But valid, none-the-less...

Well folks, I've got some bad news. The DarkForce! BBS is down until further notice. The Mega STe that I've been using to run the board has apparently suffered another power supply failure. Thats the 2nd one in about 4 months. I had replaced the first one with a used one off Ebay. As far as I can tell, thats the problem. The Mega ST that I usually use is down until I get the MFP chip socketed so I can try the RSVE upgrade I've got. So I'm left without an operational ST to run the board for now. As soon as I get enough funds saved up, I'll either get the Mega ST repaired, or get a new P/S for the Mega STe. I'm sorry for any inconvenience...

Well folks, I've got some bad news. The DarkForce! BBS is down until further notice. The Mega STe that I've been using to run the board has apparently suffered another power supply failure. Thats the 2nd one in about 4 months. I had replaced the first one with a used one off Ebay. As far as I can tell, thats the problem. The Mega ST that I usually use is down until I get the MFP chip socketed so I can try the RSVE upgrade I've got. So I'm left without an operational ST to run the board for now. As soon as I get enough funds saved up, I'll either get the Mega ST repaired, or get a new P/S for the Mega STe. I'm sorry for any inconvenience...

Ummm... can't disagree with the MIDI but the first bitmapped display? The Apple ][ has a bitmapped mode, the Acorn BBC Micro, Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad CPC run purely on a bitmapped display and have no text mode... unless you meant something else by the term? From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_ST "Although the Macintosh was the first widely available computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), it was limited to a monochromatic display on a smaller built-in monitor. The Atari ST was the first computer with a fully bit-mapped color GUI." Thats what I mean...

Okay, glad you weren't... But the ST did have a few firsts, MDI built in, bit-mapped display, etc,... I realize that the Amiga OS multitasked from the get-go, but the original Workbench? Ugh, sucked vacuum hard. Never did like the Amiga OS until v2.0 came out, which was a dramatic improvement. Also, as I noted earlier, for what I would have paid for the Amiga (box) only, $1500.00, I got an ST, a monitor, floppy drive, and a printer, with change left over...for software. The Amiga had awesome hardware, just too darn expensive... See ya...

Agreed with what you said until you got to that last line... You honestly didn't think that nobody was going to disagree with that, did you? Or are you just trolling from sheer boredom???? I'd take any ST over any Commodore 64 any day... Later...

First, let me just say I"m glad to see Atari on there! Second, there's another angle to look at on Jack's infamous "price war"... If not for his pricing, and the low cost of the 520ST, I personally would have never made it into the 16 bit world. The Amiga A1000, while an awesome system, was so far above my income (at that time) at around $1200-1500, that I never would have got one. I'm willing to bet that others were in the same situation... Just a random thought...

Well folks, my ISP is killing me. I've got a dynamic IP address, which has been very stable for 2 years. Maybe 3 address changes in that time. Now, for some reason (techs are clueless as to why, but generally opinion is that its *my* fault), I've had multiple IP address changes in the last 3 or 4 days. I asked about a business account, looking for a static ip address. I'm still waiting for the rep to return my call about that. I've created an account with dyndns. I've got a perl script (ddclient) setup on my main linux box thats supposed to retrieve my ip address everytime I boot up, and every 5 mins thereafter, and update dyndns. Assuming I've got everything setup correctly. SO if everything is working like its supposed to, everyone should be able to telnet into: darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org Please let me know if there are any problems. Thanks everyone, and sorry for any inconvenience.

Hi Stephen. Sorry you've been having problems. I worked all weekend (3 12.5 hour nightshifts) so wasn't able to attend to things in my usual swift manner. Anyways, first problem was my ISP changing my (dynamic) IP address. Usually, its very stable - only changing if I power-cycle my cable-modem or a lengthy power outage. I've only seen something like 3 IP address changes in the last 2 years or so. Until this weekend - and I've seen 3-4 IP address changes in the last 3 days alone. I'm not sure whats going on with that. Not only did it change, but it radically changed from the 24.xxx.xxx.xxx range to the 75.xxx.xxx.xxx one. I called Charter Comms. and talked to a tech about getting a permanent IP address, but I'm supposed to wait for a rep. to call back. I'd love to get one if its affordable, but I've been told by a few other local people that they will want me to upgrade to a very expensive business account. I hope they are wrong. I'm looking at a few other options as well, but I'll just have to wait and see for now. The 2nd problem was my 15 year old son and his "girlfriend" were wrestling around in the room where I keep the BBS hardware. Apparently they jolted the UPS and power was lost to the Mega ST. The UDS10 still had power to it so it was answering, but the BBS of course, couldn't pick up from there. Must have been sheer coincidence that it happened about the time you were calling. Anyways, its back up now. Always check my website if you can't login - its the first place I'll update if there is an IP address change or any other problem. Thanks for calling, and sorry for any inconvenience!

Well, for apparently no good reason other than they can, my semi-lame ISP has assigned a radically different IP address to my BBS setup. The new IP address is: 75.108.103.105 (the old IP address was in the 24.xxx.xxx.xxx range) I've notified my hosting service, so users will shortly be able to logon once again via "bbs.darkforce.org", but until then, you can use the IP address above. Thanks everyone, and sorry for any inconvenience!

Oh, okay - I was just curious. Having *too* much Atari stuff...what a horrible state to be in!

Greetings fellow Atarians! Here are the lucky winners for July 2006: Final Frontier II - Almostrice wins the $75.00! ST Magazine - Pantera wins the 3 mag. subscription! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Prizes for August 2006 include a free 3 mag. subscripton to ST Magazine for some lucky Atari caller! Congratulations to our winners and good luck to all who call for this months prizes...

Greetings fellow Atarians! Here are the lucky winners for July 2006: Final Frontier II - Almostrice wins the $75.00! ST Magazine - Pantera wins the 3 mag. subscription! ------------------------------------------------------------------ Prizes for August 2006 include a free 3 mag. subscripton to ST Magazine for some lucky Atari caller! Congratulations to our winners and good luck to all who call for this months prizes...

Well, I just gotta ask... Why are you selling it? Thanks!

Thanks, I sure do appreciate the offer. Gotta go back to work for a few days, so it will probably be this weekend before I get to take another stab at it. I'll post results as soon as I have them. If the MFP chip has to be replaced, I'll have it socketed. That way I can do all the damage to MFP chips that I want <cough> and I can just easly replace them myself. Like you, I think I have a couple of used ones lying around. BTW, I just want to mention how great offers of help from Atarians like this is. I've had very good experiences from the Atari community, and it deserves mention. Mark Ducksworh is another who has helped immensely with my Falcon and setting up the CT60 on it. Thanks again!

Shame is right but I'll tell ya, I surely do appreciate the offer. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I tried socketing one of those chips on another, older Mega ST MB I had (CPU). It still sticks in my craw to say it, but I screwed it up. I had traces coming up all over the place, blah, blah, blah. It was so bad that Alex, at ATY, a very experienced person, could not fix it, He tried, and its not like Mega ST motherboards grow on freakin' trees, ya know? I still get miserable everytime I think about it. I pulled all the chips, cables, and other various pieces from it, and kept them for spares, then deep sixed the rest... Since then, I'll only attemp the very light jobs, none of the heavy duty stuff.

It was you, just wasn't sure and didn't want to discredit anyone. You're right - if the MFP checks out, then its probably the RSVE. and if it doesn't then it could be both. In which case to be sure, and remove doubt, I'll probably save up my money, buy a new RSVE unit from System Solutions, who still have them listed on their website, and then have Alex Yu at ATY computers, put a socket in for the MFP and plug a new chip in, then start all over again.

Just a quick update. Know a guy at work that actually has some kind of electronics certification. Got him to show me how to use the multimeter. To make it short, pin 1 on the cartridge port is 5V, so I'm okay there. Also, on the recommendation of someone else, I moved the ground off the pad underneath the leg of the P/S. Someone mentioned that might pick up some A/C noise, also, the guy at work said it looked like a "cold" joint. Now, the green wire to pin 7 looks solid. Guy at work said it was bright and shiny, good connection. Same for the brown wire to pin 16. I also took the motherboard up, examined the bottome to see if any tracks/traces had lifted when I heated pin 16. Looks fine. Which leaves me with the worst possible problem. That I might have applied too much heat while removing pin 16's leg and damaging the MFP chip itself. This of course, is assuming that the RSVE unit I have is in good working order. Next step, I'll remove the brown wire from pin 16, attempt to re-attach it, and see if the MFP chip is still working correctly.

Hi. For me, and all I've done to my Falcon (CT60 Falcon/Wizztronics rack case, more) its just a love of the machine. I can't honestly say that there is a single app that I would have done the upgrade for. Although MINT certainly benefited from the increased speed/memory. Some Falcon specific demos actually do run better as well. Also, pic viewers (JPGs esp) are much faster. Lets not forget Aniplay either. I can play MP3s easily, watch videos, etc, much better than my stock Falcon could. Now, in the case of my Mega ST, accelerating it with an AdSpeed makes the BBS software I use much more responsive. I did do that specifically for that reason. So I guess there are still times when there is a valid reason for it...