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a8maestro

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Posts posted by a8maestro

  4. Posted · Edited by a8maestro

    I have updated the page, the POST OFFICE is now ready. The link below is fixed as well, I hope.

     

     

    Lords of Space is next.

     

    Rick

     

     

     

    I have started scanning the manuals for this. "Connect" and "City" are ready as text only files in different formats.

    At http://atari.a8maest...ball/ballsa.htm

     

    Rick D

    Any links to my old atari site at www.a8maestro.com/atari are dead. It is now atari.a8maestro.com, with some things moved.

  5. Posted

    I did this drawing for my kit...

    http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/proda8/adv-ek0042.htm

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I recently ordered two 4464 chips to upgrade the RAM in my 600XL. I was reading the instructions, but I found those ASCII pictures a bit confusing.

     

    Does any have any pictures of the steps it takes to upgrade the RAM, or is anyone willing to take pictures? The ASCII pictures might make more sense once I actually start doing it, but I have worries.

     

    One other thing, too: Any tips on how to unscrew those hex nuts that are holding down the metal shielding? They are placed in such a way it's hard to get any of my tools on them.

    post-6076-0-32098500-1309836721_thumb.jpg

  7. Posted

    Hi,

     

    Yes, I am still here. I only have 4 to 5 hours a week to make things, and some things take a long time as I have to start from scratch. I got the full time job because things had died down to where I was spending almost no time on orders. Wouldn't you know I'd have a rush the first week of the new job while still working the old one for a couple of weeks longer!

     

    I am trying to fill orders first come, but making extra for stock as well. One at a time is ineficient. Long bouts of (now slow) emailing back and forth with questions puts that order(if one) at the end of the queue.

     

    The biggest delay has been in getting the tube cases for the A8 and Jaguar AV BOB made...a whole new faster and more accurate system has resulted. And 50 cases in stage one. But I still need good weather to paint and finish them. A set of those orders is in final assembly.

     

    Orders have been going out in batches per my main web page.

     

    I don't know about paypal "redirect" issues. As stated earlier, since I have no way to protect my paypal email address on my web pages from spam, all email sent to it is considered trash. I have to go and look at paypal for orders. My responses will be from my site or from gmail due to some places that don't like my website.

     

    And again as stated, if you don't want to wait, don't order. I will eventually read emails. If there is one that wants a refund, I'll process it. My current policy on Paypal disputes is a refund and the order gets trashed-I just don't have the time to mess with it. Obviously you didn't read the main web page notes. If you have a dispute and still want the product, cancel the dispute.

     

    Even if it were not for work, Thanksgiving thru New Years is way hectic. Less free time than normal.

     

    I am trying to post updates on my main page.

     

    I am catching up and building to a big new batch of shipments soon.

     

     

    Rick D

    MTG

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    With no disk drives attached to the ATR8000 My 800XL does the Atari fart and then drops to BASIC. No attempt to boot a disk.

     

    Not sure what would happen if the internal jumpers are set for the "RS-232 Terminal" instead of "Atari". Jumpers J7 and J10 determine the usage of the SIO port.

     

    For normal SIO port functionality J7 jumpers should be on pins 1-3 and 2-4. J10 jumper on 1-2.

     

    Does your ATR8000 happen to have a hard disk interface? It might be trying to boot that.

     

    If you get past your error condition the ATR8000's printer buffer should be active. You would be able to issue an LPRINT "whatever" command from BASIC without errors if the ATR8000 is being acknowledged. If it's not responding you will get "Error - 138".

     

    -Steve Sheppard

     

    I've double confirmed the jumper settings and they are as you describe. There is no hard disk interface card or any other card other than the main logic board. The ROM is version 3.02+. I have re-seated all of the socketed chips. The power supply rails are a nice clean 4.93v with no ripple.

     

    When powered up, it makes one disk-type beep, then pauses about 2 seconds, beeps again, prints BOOT ERROR, pauses 2 seconds, and repeats.

     

    To confirm, this will work on an 800XL, right? I can't remember if these units were 400/800 only wor if they worked on newer machines.

     

     

    The ATR8x00 will work on all atari 8 bit computers that can use sio peripherals.

     

    Rick

  9. Posted

    Hello,

    I acquired an ATR8000 quite some time ago. I've finally cleaned it up and I'm attempting to get it up and running, but I'm running in to a few problems, and I was hoping someone can send me in the right direction.

     

    I've confirmed that the unit I have is the 64k model, but I have no documentation, drives, or disks with it. I've pulled the EPROM and compared the contents with the image I found elsewhere on this forum, and they match perfectly. When I plug it in to my Atari (I've tried an 800, 800XL and 1200XL) with no other peripherals, I get a couple of beeps like it's attempting to load something from the ATR8000, then I just get BOOT ERROR down the screen.

     

    From what I can gather, the unit is meant to load a device driver in to memory - I assume that's what it's trying to do? I don't have any drives hooked up when I try this (none connected to the ATR8000 and no Atari drives either).

     

    Am I meant to have a drive and may be a boot disk? I assume I need a boot disk for CP/M, which I'd love to get if anyone has a copy.

     

    I'd appreciate any suggestions or comments on how I can verify if my ATR8000 is working, before I go on the hunt for some old floppy drives to hook up to it.

     

     

    Hi,

    In Atari mode, the ATR8x00 acts like a peripheral controller. It doesn't boot any driver. It already knows about drives and printers. You do have to load a driver so the Atari can use R:, but the ATR is ready for that too.

     

    It will want a standard, non atari, drive to boot from, numbered 0/1.

     

    If you want to boot CP/M, then you will need several disks to setup the Atari as a terminal, and the ATR as a CP/M computer. I am working on a set for an order and will make more.

     

    The manual for the ATR8000 is online here...http://atari.a8maestro.com/info/8ball/atr8x00/atr8kman.txt. The CP/M manual is not part of this manual. I add info as I get it or make it to...http://atari.a8maestro.com/info/8ball/ballho.htm.

     

     

    Rick

  10. Posted

    I emailed Rick yesterday to see if he had any ATR8000s for sale. In the mean time I did some more experimenting. I've added a floppy drive to the unit, and I think I've got it jumpered correctly. The drive will spin up, and the red activity light on the drive will blink in unison with the Atari beeps, but I still get the boot errors. However, the floppy drive is destroying the data on any disk I put in it. I can freshly format and copy DOS to a disk in my 1050, but if I try booting it with the ATR, the disk is unreadable in a 1050 again. It doesn't physically destroy the disk because I can reformat it and re-use it. I can't be sure that I don't have a bad floppy drive, but I'm beginning to suspect I have a bad disk controller in the ATR. I guess I'm going to have to wait until I can get another unit so I can try swapping a few things.

     

    Thanks for the ideas and suggestions everyone.

     

     

    have you heard back form him at all? I've gotten no response :(

     

     

     

    Hello,

     

    I am still around. But after starting a new job at the end of August, I got a rush of orders. Some 8 orders and 20 or items I did not have made(one item in almost 2 years because I needed to make the case). I am just now finally getting them finished. I rarely get to look at email more than once or twice a week. Because of the holiday, less than that.

     

     

    I will catch up.

     

     

    As far as the ATR-8000, I do have another tested good unit.

     

    You can have a problem with either the drive or the atr8000. Format the 1050 disk 5 to 10 times in a row to see what happens. Or do a full 'format, write data, read data' cycle(even with DOS to make sure it boots each time) 5 to 10 times on a disk with the 1050 to check out the media.

     

    Use a damp head cleaner on both drives.

     

    All of these things are nearing end of life. One of the reasons I have tossed out so many commercial and used floppies-I have ~1000 new ones to keep me a few more years.

     

     

    Rick

  11. Posted

    Omniview XL/XE can create a real looking ramdrive. Up to double sided/double density with 256K, with a 130XE format memory upgrade.

     

    I have a Mydos boot disk set up for 2: 1 is a 720 sector 810 dive(6 banks), the other uses the rest of the banks for a regular Mydos ramdisk.

     

    There are a lot of things that need "J" disk dup, and the destination has to act real.

     

    a8maestro

  12. Posted · Edited by a8maestro

    I am just wondering if anyone is interested in meeting up and talking classic computers/game systems somewhere in/near Austin, TX.

     

    Places include Gattis pizza, Lakeline Mall, Barton Creek Mall.

     

    A8maestro

  17. Posted

    Hi,

     

    Still looking for people that have an interest in making, selling, and buying things, for any older arcade, computer, console, or handheld system. Including MAME. Especially in the Central Texas area.

     

    I still do a lot, but finding others hit a roadblock a long time ago. Are they just not out there any more?

     

    Visit:http://gamer.a8maestro.com/index.html.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Rick D.

  19. Posted

    Not as much needed for typical uses of file transfer or getting on the internet now. But, if you like to do things in the real world, you can still use if for X10, information displays, caller id, data loggers, electronic calipers. The point is not to always use the most modern means, but to have fun.

     

    The printer port is handy if you don't always want a PC turned on next to the A8.

     

    Rick

  21. Posted

    Hi, Are you using the AT-846 interface? You may need to open it and reseat any socketed chips. And check for bad solder joints, broken wires, leaking caps, corrosion.

     

    Rick D.

     

     

     

    Okay, update. I got a Citizen 120D dot-matrix printer that works fine with my other classic computers, but not on my Atari. I am using a 9.3v DC positive tip Atari power supply, (part number CO18187) and I keep getting error 138.

     

    I think it's a power problem, I might do the trick to use printer power. I just am not sure how to do it, the manual isn't very clear...

  22. Posted

    So, basically, we could call the SDrive the "little brother" of the SIO2SD. I like and use both of them, but I guess you have to choose by yourself now (or also buy both, like me :-)

    Yes, good writeup.

     

    I'd say in short to anyone -

     

    SDrive supports one drive, with four image 'slots' - which are not modifiable once you have 'booted' your application/game.

     

    SIO2SD supports four drives

     

    SIO2USB supports three drives

     

    SIO2PC (USB/serial) / APE supports eight drives

     

    Actually, SDrive supports 4 drives, D1: thru D4: all active at the same time, with D2-D4 swappable with D1 at any time.

     

    Rick D.

  23. Posted · Edited by a8maestro

    Is there an easy way to create ATR disks with a PC? Failing that, whats the simplest way with an Atari computer, assuming that if I use the Atari I can then read the ATR disks with a PC?

     

    I've found a few FAQ's on this, but most seems to be outdated or list so many steps it's not practical. I have a box full of Atari 8-bit disks that I'd like to turn into ATR's. Also, as far as hardware I have a serial SIO, and access to a 1040 and Indus GT drive (along with the 5 1/4 drive in my old PC). I'm willing to buy some new hardware/software if that's what it takes.

     

    Any help or advice would be appreciated.

    Its easy to create new .ATRs using APE. I used an older DOS version. Just use the Create command, and set the size for what you need, and give it a name.

     

    For Sdrive I needed blanks of various sizes disks, so created one in each. These are the source blanks disks. I copied them over, initialized them, and copied back to the pc(safe storage). I have a zip file on my site with each disk, and a copy of Mydos. Its at http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/proda8/...blank.zip. They need to be unzipped and initilaized in the DOS of your choice if it isn't Mydos. Then just make copies as you need, and give each a new name. Make sure to have spares when using apps as you can't just grab one from a box.

     

    Support APE!

     

    Rick D.

  24. Posted

    It runs quite nicely. Spent one Sunday afternoon while I was on chat letting it run a demo .ATR. Drunken Chessboard is quite nice.

     

    So, kits, circuit boards, and program atmega mpus are now at my site.

     

    I have also posted my efforts at programming, and started info on using it.

    http://morethangames.a8maestro.com/proda8/adv-ek0130.htm

    Should be enough extra info on how to make it yourself, and/or assemble it, use it.

     

    Thanks for info.

     

    Rick D.

  25. Posted · Edited by a8maestro

    I have been working on making a few sdrives since chat around November 08. After about a month of recovering from and auto accident, I finally got the chips programmed this week after more than a week of trying(computer #3 worked). While the leds work the way they are supposed to, the sdrive does not respond to the xl at all. Checked boards and circuits many ways, and nothing seems wrong. May be a case of I'll have to do it all 10 times to finally get it to work(as was programming).

     

    And I am only guessing at what I need on the root dir of the sdcard other sdrive.atr, no good instructions.

     

    Rick D.

     

    All you need in the root of the SD card is SDRIVE.ATR. As long as the firmware is on the chips correctly and things are wired up, it pretty much just works. One doesn't actually need any buttons nor LEDs to make it work, and everything the DIP and toggle switches do could wired up that way while connecting the SD card.

     

    (Did you set the fuses right on the AVR? If not, it won't run / run right...)

     

    ===========================

    Never mind! Problem Solved! Magnifiers are great for finding a bad solder at the dip switch. Thx.

    =============================

    From the video, I did put sdrive.atr on the root. I also added a couple of folders just to browse. I assume this works since the 4 drive LEDs go on when I insert the card, which the doc says the atmega read that file as the special drive.

    For the Fuses, I am going by the Fuses.gif in the sdrive zip file. I will try again, but I seem to recall an error when writing the security bits.

     

    Thanks,

    Rick

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