a8maestro

What do you get on the screen when you boot the terminal disk? Rick D.

I have been involved with Atari in the Austin area for almost 27 years, but know of no one else here that has more than a passing intertest. Tried several times to get something going. San Antonio had an active group till it fell apart 10 years or so ago, and have had no contact with those left in 5 years or so, though I liked my trips. Same for Houston. HACE is still around, but all are at least PC users, I make a trip there twice a year(next is Dec). BBSes, no idea. RickD

Just a specialized soldering iron, with a holed tip and squeeze bulb used to suck the solder off the pin/pad. Here are pictures from the Radio Shack web site of the type I use: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search Heat, squeeze bulb, place tip over pin, move around till heated, released bulb. There are other tricks to make this work very well such as adding some fresh solder to the pins first. Desoldering braid: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search This will remove all of the solder from the pins/holes, but can take a lot of braid for one chip. Sometimes, have to use on both sides of the board. Rick D.

We will see. Depends on how many control bits people are willing to give up. 256K of banked ram is usually enough for most stuff(unless you are into large databases or a bbs), and commercial software rarely sees more. The small upgrade uses pins 15 and 16, and people seem to want to keep ANTIC control available though rarely used, so whats left after BASIC and the OS? There is a fix for using the diag rom pin for banking after booting. (edit) Mathy N has done a 1 meg upgrade for the XEGS. I do not know where it stands today. Here:http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=88657. (end edit) Rick D.

I am getting info on the XEGS together. I do not yet know how many others are doing anything on XEGS memory upgrades. Antic is lost, CPU remains(natch). Any upgrade that uses PIA pin 15 takes ANTIC control away. The new XE upgrade only reconfigures the circuit for the new drams, both are functionally identical. There may be complex schemes to fix this, the simplest is to leave pin 15 as is, and use pin 11, Basic control instead, putting BASIC on a switch, and/or diag rom boot logic. Page banking scheme has to change too which means lots of commercial software fails. So more switches to fix this. I usually just leave the upgrade as is using pin 15, then as needed for some rare reason I will add a switch for Antic to follow bank memory(only). Rick D.

Hello, can't help with a link at the moment, but our local User Group was one of the largest ATR8000 support sigs around. So I have a large library of software for it in CP/M. Nothing strickly commercial that I know of. Working to get it onto a CD or 2. Rick D.

Hi, All of the work is done on the new memory upgrade for the 130XE that uses 4 64K drams. Turned out very nice. Here are the links: Main More Than Games: http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/mtgcat.htm 130XE 2 dram upgrade, 256K: http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/proda8/adv-ek0040.htm I've updated the standard 130 upgrade too. 130XE 8 dram upgrade, 256K: http://www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/proda8/adv-ek0006.htm Rick D.

The 1 bit 64K and 256K, and 4 bit 64K dram all have 256 cycle refresh. The 4 bit 256K dram has 512 cycle refresh, so the refresh mod has to be applied. This is what fixed my upgrade so I can get pcbs made. Rick D. (EDIT: I have posted info/links on my 130XE 256K memory upgrades on Sep 04 new topic.)

No. What that will do is copy all of the files that matches D2:ga** to D1:new. You'll end up with 1 file or possibly get an error if the name is used by a directory. Should be D2:ga**, D1:new: Don't forget the trailing colon. And the NEW directory has to already be created. Rick D.

Well, two of my favorite multiplayer games are Dandy Dungeon, up to 4 on a single computer, and Maze of Agdagon(midi maze like) using Gamelink II, which can have up to 8 players with own computers. Rick D.

AUG 27, 2007..... The 256K memory upgrade prototype I tested with a borrowed 130XE(Thx Larry W), using 2 drams for the upper bank has passed all of the tests. I am having PCBs made which will arrive on Aug 29. So I'll have pcb, kit, and assembled available. Advert on my site. I am also updating the standard 130XE upgrade, 256K using 8 drams. Rick D.

Well, looking at ram specs has shown me a possible cause, and a solution. If that doesn't work, I have 2 other ideas. Rick

Not really a mistake. The title of the article is misleading and should have been changed a decade ago. The version being posted on my site will have a better title. I need to finish other things first. The current 4 bit Dram 130XE upgrade has peculiarities I am running out of ideas on. Though they spark old memory bits. Rick.

Thanks for considering it. It looks like the XEGM is almost the same as a 65XE. I think just the mmu is different. Perhaps sometime we can start a thread here and see what the interest would be. I got busy last week with a project but I will check and let you know tomorrow if I have a 4 chip 130XE. Looks like all 4 of my 130XEs are 16 chips. Well, I guess it gives me something else to search for and add to the collection! Can somone point me in the right direction? I have a 65 xe, board says 65xe rev c. What do I need or get a kit to put it to 320k or higher? this is what you need to do ( these instructions are for the65 and 130XE): http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/atari/130xe320K.html Actually, that link is for the 65XE (8 DRAM) only. It means the upgrade is 130XE compatable. The actual 130XE to 320K upgrade is MUCH simpler. But the 65XE upgrade is the one I will look into for use in the XEGS. It should also work in the 2 Dram 65XE. Note that the 130XE upgrade replaces ram in the 2nd row, all of which is banked ram. The 65XE upgrades have to bank the extra ram into a address window within the same ram, so its more complex. Its more like upgrading an 800XL. Rick D.

Hi, As of around 1990 or so, there did not seem to be any packet radio software for the Atari 8. A friend of mine was a ham radio enthuiast. We were going to see about porting something over. He got ill. We never did. Rick D

Creating an XEGS version is something to look into, but I don't know if it has the ram circuitry the XE already has since it has 128K. It may be there but being used by other rom functions. An XEGS is something I do have now. A memory upgrade is not something in my current list of hardware projects. I'd need to know if there is interest to add it. A daughter board could be made, maybe the existing drams could be moved, with 256K added. Don't know. Rick D.

Hello, I have just released a new set of items. The EASI/O SPIDER. It is a professionally made circuit board that holds up to 4 SIO jacks and/or 5 SIO cables. With other features including an EASI/O port, internal upgrade header, prototyping area, and external power support. View the information at...www.a8maestro.com/sites/mtgcat/proda8/a8-p1.htm. Please see the current email on the page for any questions. More new Items coming this summer.....Stay tuned. Thanks, Rick D.

Sorry for the delay Cybernoid,....nope just a max232 and a 7400. Standard stuff. A possible faster interface is somewhere down the pipeline. Rick D.

Hi, I have 1 I know, possibly another one in an 800. Not something I used in my 800s much. Though I used the XL/XE versions more. What sort of questions. I might be able to do tests. Rick D.

Hi, I've developed a ram upgrade, to put 256K chips in the second bank of 2 sockets..its a plug in daughter board with only three wires to solder. Can't just drop in chips, the pinouts are different. But, I don't have this type of xe to test the prototype on. Rick D.

......... > I haven't tested the ATR8000 yet. It has lots of paperwork and some software for it. There is paperwork for the Co-Power >88 but I don't think it's there. It's not the piggyback board on the main unit, right? The Co-Power is a module that attaches to the bottom of the case, under the main board, with cables feeding around to a daughterboard on top. Its for MS DOS.(CP/M is probably worth a look at if you are in to it. MSDOS is really not. When it crashes, you have to reboot the atari and the atr8000, then boot cpm, then boot msdos. Really frustrating.) >The ATR8000 case has a "64" sticker on it. Means you have a 64K (maxed) ram version. Rick D.

Hello, If you are using OCRed instructions, then you may have 1 or more wiring errors. Here is my schematic of the Windhover, 1985 (Scott Peterson,?) 320K XE mod... http://www.a8maestro.com/atari/info/memory/mem130xe1.jpg. Hope this helps. Rick D.

How does one submit stuff for this list? I have 6 items I can list. Thanks, Rick D.

Yes, as said, probably a broken solder joint. While open, I'd resolder the power jack as well. All of my "dead" lynxes were fixed just by doing this. Rick.

Well, if you are any good at soldering..I'd open the lynx and resolder the pins on the brightness pot. And the power jack while at it. I do not remember if the backlight is a cft. But its pins may be resolderable as well. Rick D.