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mechanerd

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Everything posted by mechanerd

  1. Then there is free sio male cable end which you can 3d print yourself. The pins that work can be atx power supply pins on a wire to inset or Molex part # 08-50-0105 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1831769 Someone on the facebook side pointed me in the right direction.
  2. You might want to dig into the archive I posted. There are .atr images of the originals for Midi Music System 1.0 and some commercial releases from ANTIC magazine.
  3. I run mule all night long on computer demo mode and watch the computer players be Republithug to each other. It uses almost all the ram on an atari 800, animates the pokey, and player missiles with periodical pauses. I just turn the sound volume down and let er cook.
  4. Star Raiders was a great test after recap and re regulator job on an 800.. The red alert screen on star raiders tests to see if the color bloom loss of focus issue is fixed. The screen should be able to go red to blue (with shields on) and not change the screen in focus or aspect ratio. You can actually steer the decelerating ship towards an enemy and bang them while the screen is red. Using a luma chroma or composite output is best. Just replace the caps for 4700uf, 2200uf, 470uf, and 10uf and the 7805/7812.
  5. There are a few boards still running out there. A few responders on Facebook said that they still use them. It is truly best to only hook the luma up to get a decent 80 col text without the artifacting.
  6. F#Ready sent me an atr with a romsaver by Frankenstein utility on it. So I ran it and dumped the OS roms and basic in his format. Attached for his blog reply. I was able to post pictures of the card there, but not the image file. romsaver.atr
  7. mechanerd

    Ramrod OS board Atari 800

    Pictures of the Newell Industries Ramrod OS board. The last two sockets on the right can host 2x2kb static ram, or the Omnimon, or the Omniview 80 column upgrade.
  8. From the album: Ramrod OS board Atari 800

    Ramrod OS board for the Atari 800. The last two sockets on right can host 2x2kb static ram, the omnimon monitor, or omniview. CDY Consulting, David Young is the author.
  9. From the album: Ramrod OS board Atari 800

    Ramrod OS board for the Atari 800. The last two sockets on right can host 2x2kb static ram, the omnimon monitor, or omniview. CDY Consulting, David Young is the author.
  10. I got the Ramrod OS card to run with the two eproms for the OS, one original C012399B Atari ROM, and then the Omniview add on ROM.. When I got the thing, the last two sockets selectable had 2 2KB Toshiba SRAMS installed. The docs on archive.org were part of the solution. I have the installation instructions with what dip switch settings do for the banks to turn on. The last two sockets can have the Omnimon 4KB eprom, or 2 banks of 2KB SRAM, or the Omniview mod eprom. So I installed the Omniview eprom and it ran. Albeit the card only boots with some jiggling in the OS slot. They didn't include a case to align the fingers on the slot very well. I was very careful and got it to turn on most of the time. If I were to sell this thing, I would hack an OS cart case to make it fit corectly with the tension on the slot in the right angle. Then add a fan to cool it better. Calling X=USR(49152) in BASIC, aka jumping to $C001 does put it in the 80 column mode. However the instructions are correct, you really want to use just the Luminance only signal to get rid of the artifacting at 320x192 graphics mode 8 that the text is displayed in. It looks ok on a 1702 Commodore monitor, but inverse video in full composite. (Pink text on a white background, LOL) The 32" Samsung 1080 flat panel I have did a better job of displaying it. I don't have a copy of letter perfect or Atari Writer modified to fully test it, I am scrounging for the files later today. Here's the dump, I think the minor OS mods for cassette baud rate, beep rate, keyclick repeat rate, and typomatic rate were changed. I will poke at it with a hex editor and omnimon to see what's what. There was a mention of a Omnimon add on board that piggybacks in the last socket in the manual. I do not have that to include in the dump image. However, one could make a hybrid image by loading it in a RAM upgrade in that bank , provided the RAM upgrade makes space for it from c800-cfff ? Now that would be interesting, an XL/XE computer with a true OS B, 80 col, and Omniview, and Omnimon installed. ?? Hope this helps. Attached is the scans from the installation manual PS Another link to determine which ROM is which. https://www.wudsn.com/productions/atari800/atariromchecker/help/AtariROMChecker.html C000_CFFF.rom D800_FFFF.rom Omniview_installation_manual.zip
  11. Right. Just trying to contribute the Omnimon XE .rom code if it wasn't out there. Why reinvent the wheel. I just didn't notice it around. I suspected it resides in C000-CFFF, but I was not sure if it fiddled with the hardware registers in the D800-DFFF range also. I didn't think it would be as easy to add to a blank cart for a read. I have a friend with an eprom reader if I can bribe him with some beer. I love the fact that you can select/reset press and stop execution. For say editing the number of lives in a game or other mischief. I have the Onmiview card which has a slot for the optional Omnimon 800 to be added. The manual has a bunch of options via DIP switches. I will be making scans of the manual to add to archive.org as I see the documentation isn't complete. I already snapped high res pictures of the board to illustrate the parts and tracings on both sides. When I am done testing the card, I think I will make an auction for card, or the card installed and running in one of my last three Atari 800s for sale. Attached Omnimon XE Rev 2.1 #0003 dumped from a modded 130XE for what it's worth. omnixe.rom
  12. How about calling it the "Vangelis interface" in honor of the famous synth artist who made all those wonderful movie themes?
  13. I found the Basic XL turbo 1.5 needed.. It was in the programming area. By Happy Computer.. Ostrwoski.. I fixed his Chicken game when it was posted in Antic magazine a long ago.. My friend and I figured it out over an afternoon and wrote them a letter. You are right about software copy protection.. I did cursory look a few cartridges and saw overwrite in the rom area.. :} I was able to fix one 8KB rom file to a .EXE and it boots with RespeQT as a simple rename to an .xex file. I won't say which cart it was, but it was one that went bad. I own the original. Attached is also the basic description of boot headers to make executable files from the Omnimon XL manual. It works the same for either version, and the file headers make sense to me once again. In there he describes how to make an exe out of non copyright BASIC cart. tbasic.atr Full text of _Atari Omnimon XL users guide_.html
  14. Necrobump. I came across a 130XE with the Omnimon XE installed. The old BBS operator for Action Annex used it to fix and tweak things. I noticed on archive.org the manuals and docs for the XL version. I have two old eproms also that appear to the be the 400/800 version (white label, red text, no version number) As I restore some of the 800s I will test the rom and see what it is exactly. I was thinking of just putting it in the cart slot to read it on the 130xe Omnimon. Also, in this collection is an Omniview card for an 800. I can dump the Omnimon XE rom for anyone that wants a copy. I am not sure where it loads exactly, I do know the switch to toggle it on and off works. I need to dust off my copy of "mapping the Atari " again after 30 years.
  15. Is there a version of Turbo Basic XL with the fixes compiled and ready to run? I could use the runtime for the old copy of the Action Annex BBS written in BASIC XL. I really want to run the actual hardware and not the emulator. Eventually I want to migrate to Altirra. I came across a Happy Computer 1.5 Turbo Basic by Ostrowski but it dumps the BBS code . I don't have the actual cartridge anymore for plain Turbo Basic XL or Basic XL. It's been a very long time since I compiled 6502 ASM. I could dust off the Macro Assembler. I'll trade you the Midi Music System source code I came across. I need to contact the author and see if it's freeware or abandonware, or ??
  16. Here is the posting about the Action Annex BBS archive. I finally finished it. 4500 Atari 8bit songs, about 1000 ST 8bit .mus and ST .MID files, software for the 8bit. http://atariage.com/...-bbs/?p=3909830
  17. Here is the posting about the Action Annex BBS archive. I finally finished it. 4500 Atari 8bit songs, about 1000 ST 8bit .mus and ST .MID files, software for the 8bit. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/272773-recovered-clip-art-for-the-st-from-the-action-annex-bbs/?p=3909830
  18. I physically don't have the drive anymore. It was sold or tossed before I got into the storage unit stuff. Sorry that I came through confusing. Right, fixing the stiction problem. You are correct. I rescued a bunch of PC hard disks that were pre-MR head by freezing them and thawing. The most notorious was that Quantum 5.25" wide IDE. I would freeze then tap those and get the data off of them before they quit spinning. The other fun was just changing boards on the bottom of the drive before they started putting analog encoding unique to each drive.
  19. Here's my contribution to the Atari collection. An archive of the Action Annex BBS from 1982-1996. Focusing mostly on music, desktop publishing art, a few demos, and some basic software tools related to music. It's not 100% complete, I have 50 3.5" st disks that need the Kryoflux. Omnifloppy or the IBM .ST image maker could not read them. I will update as I recover the last of the music catalog. "The lost Annex Files...." will the title. But still it's 17mb of zipped files with a catalog of sorts. If there was a label or song titles. I typed them in as disk.txt for each disk as a sub directory. There are dupes, about 150 on each set, but I wanted to keep the set as it was imaged. Includes ST Clipart, ST MIDI files, and a few other older music formatted files (CMF, CMS, mode 0 MIDI) A larger Atari 8bit music which is 95% .MUS files for the Midi Music System 1.0 and 3.0 software. Plays on the MIDI Max and MIDI Mate. Most of the files for the ST side were converted to MIDI, so the missing catalog disks for the MD series on the ST can be found in the 8bit collection. That is why I imaged everything. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/272773-recovered-clip-art-for-the-st-from-the-action-annex-bbs/?p=3909830 Code contributor to the Action Annex BBS, the hardware for it still runs. Both the 800 and 130XE. I need to look this one set of disks over, but I need to verify that I have the source code the MMS 3.0 software which was fixed by Mike Calvin. I need to find out if Hybrid Arts open sourced the code, or abandon-wared the binaries. Anyone know? I want to see Donna's music on archive.org, so I can say to Mike that her music will live on the net forever. She had a flair for picking the right instruments, effects, and mixing of songs. Her violin and piano expertise made all the difference. She passed away in June 2015. I don't know if the copyright music guys are going to like the MIDI versions of songs. That's a good question. Most of the songs were pre-ASCAP, public domain from the pre-1950's. Also there are turn of the 20th Century sheet music typed in from public domain books, and purchased at auctions. Some of which was restored from originals for libraries in the area. Cheers!!
  20. You are correct sir! Oldest trick in the book.! I remember helping someone make a jig to hole punch and put the timing hole at the 1:30 o clock position or so.
  21. You are going to love this. Mike Calvin worked with the author and fixed a few bugs. I think I have a complete copy of the source code. I have a typed letter from the author thanking Mike for fixing how the MIDI streams were encoded.I haven't dug into what the revisions were or if my file date is better because it's newer. I don't have any synths to play on right now. So, let me know.
  22. I used to sell electronic parts and tools to OEMs and MROs with a retail front end. I had all the Weller and Hakko stuff in stock. All the tips. It's a matter of skill, you can use a cheap iron after lots of practice and you know how your brand of solder and irons work. Once you get the tricks down, it's like riding a bicycle. Most artisans and musicians are already in the mechanical finger dexterity class of doctors and watchmakers. With that said, for general through hole stuff the WES series from Weller or Hakko works great. Get a dial on that iron and practice on some cheap kits to solder together to learn. If you frazzle a Velleman kit for $15 it's no big deal versus a collectible board like an Atari etc. It doesn't do you any good to have an iron unless you know how to take stuff apart with it for repair. This is the majority of the time I spent is being careful to remove the dead components. So, focus also on de-soldering push button pumps and braid. Soldapullit clones with a teflon tip work great for <$20 for most sockets and stubborn pools of solder. Get a few stainless drill bits and used stainless dental picks. Solder won't stick and you can light push the solder out before the pad lifts off the board. Solder wick will usually get most of it out. A sewing needle with pliers will work in a pinch. Also, the older 1970 and 80s solder was harder with more Antimony in it, and gets hard as it ages. You can always add a touch of fresh 60/40 to mix in with it to lower the overall metling point. The flux from the new solder added makes it viscous enough to suck off the board or use the braid. I never did get around to using hot air, but if you are doing this all the time, go for kits from China. They do work. That's my 0.02 from fixing thousands of joints from motherboards, TV, stereos, guitars, appliances, and making stuff "Tandy Tough' on the bench.
  23. Here is my forum posting for the archive of the Action Annex BBS 206-892-8969, 1982-1996, now disconnected. I just finished the archives and the following message has the files. 17mb zipped, about 3000 ST, 4500 ATari 8bit files It includes 8-bit files, mostly music, Atari ST MIDI files, and a collection of clip art. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/272773-recovered-clip-art-for-the-st-from-the-action-annex-bbs/?p=3909830 The remaining hardware was sold off and two Amazon tablets were donated to the Sharehouse homeless shelter. A bunch of yarn scarfs and hats made from my ex-wife were made from Donna's leftover yarn and donated also. I still have the BBS 800 and the 130XE. not sure if I have the time to get it back online through the net. Cheers.
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