DarkLord

Interesting. I don't think I'd ever heard of that one.

We all thought about pitching in and doing the VR table thing. It seems like it's got a lot of potential but it never panned out....

Yeah, the 3D stuff is great - you ever deal with HeroForge? Expensive but I like their stuff and they keep improving all the time. I got into the cardboard stock stuff (#110) and made some pretty cool things with it. I got really super creative at one point and built bases with thin sheet metal underneath. I then built my cardboard model pieces with magnets inside, so that you could "stick" them anywhere on the bases with nice stability. Honestly, I just enjoy building things and tinkering. I think most of us here have that in common, at least to some degree. As far as the colors go, psychedelic baby, psychedelic. Okay, off topic but here are a few examples of the D&D stuff (keep in mind, everything is #110 stock paper!)

Now. I've got a theoretical question for the experts following this message thread. I'm very happy with the results that we've gotten here so far. But...I'm an Atarian - I always want more and the best, at that. So...is there any reason why the power LED on the top of the Ultrasatan boards couldn't be removed and then use that for one of Leech's most excellent LED's, while also using another LED off of J8 to show drive activity? I know, you're going to say but there's only one LED window on the Mega STe's removable hard drive bay. Right, but I examined a spare that I have, which is cracked but other wise okay, and that plastic window piece just pries right out. Why couldn't we match it up on the inside, using the 2nd one for placement, drawing an outline and making a hole (to match) for a second LED window? Then hook up the drive LED and the power LED to them. Boom - super nice light show for our Mega STe's. Thoughts?

Success. Without damaging the US board, searing my fingers, or burning the house down, I managed to install a 4 pin header in J8. Honestly though, without some of the better tools like the hot air stations 'n stuff, I gave up on removing the existing drive LED's at D11 and D13. For those of you who are sensitive to such things, spoiler alert - don't read this next part. I took one of my X-Acto knives (think super sharp scalpel) that I use when I build set models for D&D and simply cut them out. Solder is soft, after all. <gasp> <horror><shocked looks> Yeah, yeah, I know - but it worked without too much effort and no damage to the board, which was the key part for me. Anyway, here's a few pics:

I've ran into that belief a lot. PP's absolutely right though. I run an Atari ST based BBS that has been going since the early 90's and I've always had a large C partition. In fact, I'm using a 4 gig SCSI drive with something like 8 partitions, all just slightly under 512 megs, including the C drive - it's worked just fine all these years and is still going (HDDriver software). It really does depend on the TOS version/software. Lowest version I have on any of my Atari's is v1.04, so it's not an issue. You really don't want to run anything less than that, especially if you're using any mass storage. Glad you got everything working.

Hadn't seen this before either - put a 3D printed case around it, and bang! you're in business...

Good stuff, thanks for all that information Peter. As far as the STacy and Mega STe goes (both use the same controller), SD card readers are a god-send. Using Alan H's, or Lotharek's adapters, users can blow right past that former 1 gig limit on mass storage.

Probably loose chips/connections then. Best to go ahead, open it up, and check everything.

Some last minute questions about using 2 cards. If you boot up with only your primary card, then insert a card into the 2nd slot, you can see the US flash and recognize it. Do you have to run anything to get TOS to know about it before you hit "Install Devices"? Also, lets say you boot up with your primary card and your 2nd card in the 2nd slot. Everything is recognized and working but if you take the 2nd card out, use it with Win7, Kubuntu, whatever to transfer files, then re-insert it into your US's 2nd slot, do you have to do anything to get TOS to acknowledge the media change? Typically, in the past, "ESC" with something like an open floppy window would update a disk change. Thanks all.

Okay, I think I've got a 2 gig card working as secondary now. I thought I had already prepped the first 2 gig card that I was using but when I went back to it and tried to re-partition it, it gave me this, "Administrative Error" and would not finish. I grabbed a different 2 gig card (these are all Sandisk brand, btw) and it partitioned out fine with no errors. I got the physical manual in today from Uwe Seimet (handy things, manuals ), and made a couple of changes. I turned on ACSI performance, which I'm sure has nothing to do with this. I also clicked 'Preserve Existing Partitions". Not sure what did what, but with the new/2nd card and these changes, when I hit "Install Devices" all partitions now pop up on my desktop and I can also use it with my Win7 box for transfer. Gonna label this card "File Taxi". Thanks everyone, for all the help and information!

Yes. the internal version can be mounted several different ways. Using stand-offs is the usual route. You'll want to replace the LED and get an adapter cable from the original hard drive P/S to the US. There are several pictures and good info here: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/300934-mega-stett-led-replacements/page/6/#comments

So FAT only on the 2nd card and not TOS? Thanks.

And I'd recommend dumping that old clunky hard drive for one of Lotharek's internal Ultrasatan SD card readers: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49 https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=47 HTHs...

Well, this is an internal US, and I used the left slot as primary when I prepped the 4 gig card. This is with the symbol on the US board facing up. (it's actually turned the other way when you install it in the Mega STe's hard drive bay). Wonder which is primary on the US I used in my STacy? They are stacked vertically, on top of each other and I used the top slot. I guess I should try the STacy later and see if 2 cards work with it. It's probably some settings that I've messed with (these things are almost always my fault).

I'm gonna try something semi-radical and if it works out I'll need another yellow LED. I'll let ya know.

There are no dumb questions. Seriously, yep, I did that. Some more (probably) dumb questions: Did you prep both cards with your driver software? If you're using HDDriver, is hddriver.sys on both cards? What do you have checked for bus/devices to be read? Do you keep the primary (boot) card in the left slot or right? Thanks.

Okay, is there a very clear, well defined guide for setting up -2- SD cards for the Ultrasatan. I've been playing around with my internal US and have failed to get 2 working correctly together. I've successfully setup a handful of 2 and 4 gig SD cards by themselves, using HDDriver v11.01. With my Mega STe's hard drive bay open, and the internal US sitting with Lothareks' emblem *up*, I've been using the left hand slot. Works fine, as I said no problems with any single card. When I put another card into the right hand slot though, I can't ever get HDDriver to recognize it. The US does flash the right hand red LED once when I put the card in. I tried just booting up from floppy with HDDriver and the 2 gig card in the left hand slot, then set it up with 4 >500 meg partitions, then restarted with the 4 gig card in the left slot and the 2 gig card in the right slot but it still wasn't shown. Putting that 2 gig card in the left slot and booting up without the 4 gig card does show up. Booting up with the 2 gig card in the left slot and the 4 gig card in the right slot gives 3-4 bombs, requiring a physical reset. Any and all help appreciated. As I mentioned at the start, if there is a guide somewhere online, please point me to it and I'll go from there. Thanks all.

Okay, gonna start a new message thread for this, and not hijack LED's n stuff. https://atariage.com/forums/topic/304895-using-2-sd-cards-with-an-ultrasatan/

I love v2.06 and much prefer it to earlier versions. However, in the interest of compatibility what you may want to do is install a TOS switcher - that way you can boot up into what ever version you need/want. PS Keep in mind, going from TOS v1.6 to v1.62 is a matter of simply swapping 2 chips. It's a bit more difficult to install a TOS switcher.

Not sure. I do not currently have 2 cards in play. I don't think I've ever even used 2 cards at once - how far (gigs) can you do that? I've got a 4 gig card in - can you still use another 4 or 2 gig card? Do you have to use HDDriver (or whatever software you're using) on it as well? Thanks.

So as long as you're powering it (as I did) with an adapter from the original hard disk p/s to the internal US, the switch does nothing...except boot your setup into low res. Alright, thanks for the info guys, appreciated.

Well, I tried flipping the switch from its current position (the way it came when I got it) and it did...nothing, apparently. My Mega STe still booted up from the SD card/US but oddly, in low res. Flipping it back caused it to boot up normally, in med res. Thanks.

Hmm, off topic but what does the red switch on the back of the internal US do? I thought it would be for power but it's not. Thanks.

Are these devices considerably different in the way they behave compared to one of Lotharek's Ultrasatans? I'm using HDDriver v11.01 with a 2 gig and 4 gig Sandisk SD card. I set them to TOS 1.04 and Windows compatibility and divided them up into 4 partition and 8 partitions, respectively. I can transfer either card to my Win7 box and they are recognized there, although it's only the first C partition on each card that is seen. That's good enough for me though, make transfers very easy. I also have a 2 gig card that on my STacy that I use with my Kubuntu Linux laptop, using Mtools for easy access, but it is command line driven and that puts some people off. However, using a config. file, you can access all the partitions on the card. For example, C, D, and E on the card translate to S, T, and U at the command line, so "sudo mdir s:" will show you the C partition directory, etc,... HTHs.