cwilbar

it has the weak sector.... it could employ a timing protection as well. Beyond the weak sector, I don't recall there being anything else from back in the day when I backed it up using Archiver and an alnico magnet 🙂

It should just be a press fit. Though since it plugs into multiple sockets and looks like it is using square pins, it likely is a tight fit to begin with.... add time to the equation, and it will likely take a bit of effort. Try to reach under the board so any force you use is located close the where the sockets plug in and doesn't flex the PCB much.

Long overdue response to @Nezgar... Superbunny uses a weak sector? .... there is a sector that reads back differently each time it is read. I actually duplicated the disk with an 810 Archiver years ago.... I would set the index hole on the target diskette, write the track with the random sector, then I believe I had a piece of paper where I made multiple lines based on a division of 360 degrees by the sector count with extra lines in between. I would then run a small alnico magnet from the desk center to the outside along one of those lines. I'd then read the track back in Archiver until I found the right sector and didn't damage the header/etc. I then duplicated the remainder of the disk. It worked great ! So, I'm unsure why @MrMartian's ROM on Indus GT doesn't load this game.... I don't know if would break the loading of all games with weak sectors, or if it is something to Superbunny (maybe the MrMartian firmware returns a different status back ? and the Superbunny protection checks that in addition to the random data ?)

@pixelmischief is right. My comment was on the number of items you find on places like eBay with ridiculous prices..... that don't sell.... Maybe that might be a bit greedy if they snare an unsuspecting careless shopper.... but that is part of capitalism. Buyer beware. But I do wonder if these no selling auctions have a psychological impact in pricing. "Market programming" 🙂 It won't make things suddenly 10x more valuable.... but for items that don't show up often, it probably does influence prices as people jump at the chance and ovepay vs if they waited. If enough people are influenced the same way, then the ridiculous listings are causing the pricing to go up, outside of supply/demand. That part is plain annoying. It is what it is though. And old Atari gear could suffer a price collapse at any time based on supply/demand/economy/interest. Other collector markets suffer the same trends. There are deals to be had though... there are enough marketplaces (eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, yard sale, thrift stores, etc) that if you're patient good deals come along.

As long as you were not off by a pin, and didn't hit something with static, I'd think nothing should blow. Is your image from S-video (Luma/Chroma), or composite ? If S-video, try composite to see if you have color there.

eBay must have changed their cost structure at some point.... as while it wasn't expensive... nobody liked paying listing fee after listing fee if an item didn't sell.... Now I see so much on eBay that I doubt ever sells. I don't think eBay does much about it, as psychologically it probably had driven up prices. And higher prices are good for eBay. eBay is not what it once was. While I still buy things from eBay.... I do miss the old eBay days (which was like a world wide fleak market/garage sale/etc). Thankfully many of the things I look for don't pop up 10 tons of erroneous results from commercial 'dumpers'. And then I hate when I buy something and receive something drop shipped from elsewhere. Doesn't happen often (to me) thankfully.

If you think the issue is around the memory related circuits, there is a plug in sram upgrade (I think there is 1 wire to solder) that Lotharek sells. If your current RAM is 64K, then this will eliminate that piggyback board, the delayline, the ram chips on the board, and a few other chips too. Price is under $20 US IIRC (though that does not include shipping). Just another option depending on how difficult it is to fix.

In the arcade scene "The Real Bob Roberts" used to include lagniappe with the arcade parts. Wasn't necessarily candy/food. Some have gotten moon pies (I don't recall getting one of those). I can recall a couple of orders where I received a pair of wire strippers. Still have those 🙂 Pity anyone who still has an old moon pie 🙂

Ordered mine from TBA. For those stateside who want one, this is the cheaper option until (/if?) international shipping returns to normal. Gladly giving up my portion of the candy for the savings in shipping 🙂

They don't do 1.44M. But they you can pick 77 track 1.0M formatting and do that on 1.2M 5.25 drives and I believe on the 3.5" 1.44M drive. Maybe someone here has direct experience. I've only run 360K on 5.25" and 720K on 3.5" disks myself. There are several ATR8000 threads, and I believe this has been discussed on one or more of them previously.

Haven't done it on an XF551, but I've cut strips of double sided sticky foam tape. its a harder foam than the original stuff, but I've had good luck with it. I also don't think that that shield is important to operation. It protects the head (delicate connection wires are often exposed with that missing), and blocks stray signals. But I have a PC drive or two where the shield is missing, and no issues in them operating properly. Maybe someone can comment on XF551s in particular in regards to this piece.

I doubt the application would require titanium 🙂 But the idea of a hard stainless steel is good. I think the only other bit is surface finish. If made too smooth it might not work well. I bet new originals have a bit of texture. If you pursue it, start a thread on the topic for people to follow.

curious of anyone has ever made a 'rom disk'. Then a large (paged) cartridge could have an area that works like a RAM disk. It would still be quite a conversion.... and if course if you need to write to the 'disk' it wouldn't be useful.... but a cart image that made part of its area accessible as a 'rom disk' would be cool 🙂

As I recall looking at this earlier, the UPS/FedEx shipping to the states was quite expensive. Has this changed at all ? If not, are there any plans to have a stateside distributor, or is somebody planning on redistributing within the US too bring shipping costs down ? I'd like to get one, but until I either have a larger order or the shipping situation improves I've put it on hold 😞 .

I'd have to compare my Wico and my Atari trackballs to arcade trackballs. It would not surprise me if the parts (at least on the Atari units) were from the arcade vision (i.e. Centipede trackballs). Not sure about Wico. An interesting option would be to have a machinist make new shafts out of something a bit harder. Though that is going to get expensive for just a pair.

No experience with these, but I think there are 2 voltage rails inside.... maybe only one of them is working ? If you have a voltmeter, it would be worth checking the output of the 7805 regulator, and the other power rail. Maybe you'll get lucky, and you have a bad regulator ?

The sorts of issues described here do sound like potential PCB issues (cracked trace, through hole plating break, etc). One thing I ran into (with an 800XL) was that the system had odd issues powering up (freezing with single color screen, occasionally other behavior). I found that when I had the upper RFI shield off, it worked flawlessly every time. I don't know that if this can happen in an 1200XL, but the 800XL I worked on, what was happening is the right side of the shield a the front was shorting against one of the resistor legs in that area and preventing the machine from operating. I don't think you've got the same case... but it might not hurt while you seek/wait for a replacement board/system. You never know. A year ago I'd never have even thought of trying it.... and in my case I figured that out in mine by pure accident (and thankfully made the connection so I could finally figure out what was happening). Best of luck.... sounds like a very frustrating situation (I have a couple of 1050s I need to get back to that have frustrating issues to locate.... so I moved onto other things for a while).

guess I've gotten lucky on the Ataris I've worked on in regards to sockets. I've seen sockets like those posted above on arcade boards. Single wipe sockets are never ideal, but on Atari 8bits I've just been lucky enough that they have all been in good shape (as good as a single wip socket can get anyway 🙂 ).

I haven't heard of sockets going bad on the Atari 8bits. Though if you are changing a chip, obviously always put in a socket 🙂 Now I have heard of and had a few issues with some of the single wipe sockets used on arcade PCBs, though in my case they usually respond well to a cleaning as long as they are not corroded. You could have bad RAM and ROM... especially if a dreaded ingot was used with the system at one time (and it wasn't producing the proper voltage still). I think I only have one ingot, and it produces correct voltage, but I don't use it after everything I've read about them. Do you have another XL you can swap parts with ? Might want to check the MMU (which I believe should be socketed). Not sure if it can cause what you are seeing, but it is used in addressing.

I have this, and tested it, but opted in the end to make a 'factory' 64KL 600XL (as if Atari had done it). Works well, and IIRC you can eliminate a number of parts from the mainboard if you go that rouote. I also installed a UAV. Clearance is a bit tight with some resistors IIRC.... I think I soldered the double ended pins to provide as much length as possible, but I may have used double ended pins that didn't come witth the board. You can also add an extra socket to get more height (probably the easiest route).

Last time I had to open one of these sealed PSUs, I used a combination of a small block of wood, a hammer, and a rubber mallet. Just kept banging my way around breaking the glue little by little until I was able to separate it. Its a bit 'brutal'..... but there are no scars from the operation, and there is little inside to get damaged from all the banging. It beats having to dremel it, and it beats trying to use a knife..... and it beats prying it open making a mess out of it. There is only a transformer, wire, and a fuse. Any fuse will work as long as it is the right amp rating. Adding a fuse holder (if there is room, I can't recall) so the fuse can be changed externally.... then glue it back together. It will never need opening it, as if something other than the fuse goes..... its likely toast.

looks like a home made multi OS selector. the rotary switch probably had 4 or more positions. 3 positions should have booted 3 different OS chips. One (modified) for Ultra Speed SIO routines I'm guessing. Unsure about the other.... maybe OSB for quick compatibility with non XL compliant software ? You should be able to swap the OS chip out for the others, and maybe you can determine something more about them that way.

That is good advice. And since you don't have a desoldering iron, I'd recommend the clip the chip legs and then remove the remaining leg pieces one at a time with tweezers or needle nose pliers. Then you can clean the holes out with braid and you'll be ready for a socket and chip. For sockets, get dual wipe or machined pin, avoid single wipe sockets.

I only wish I had started sorting and organizing long before I got to the stage of 'collection' (read: hoard) I have today 🙂 Getting better at it now that I purchased a bunch of storage shelves from an auto dealer parts department that was closing 🙂

I'm willing to be most all power supplies (in this class) are made in China these days.... the only difference is probably the QC standards dictated by the company ordering the power supply 🙂 I have a friend in a particular service industry that installs equipment at customer premise.... when equipment gets turned in, he accumulates the power supplies.... every now and then when I need a 5V or 12V power supply, I raid the loose ones he carries in the truck 🙂 Plus I have a nasty habbit around "e-waste" of taking anything remotely useful or desirable (once repaired 🙂 ). So, I have WAY TOO MUCH stuff :-).... I have boxes of different sized power supplies. I have a 5V box, a 12V box, a laptop supply box, and an 'other' box 🙂, comes in real handy sometimes 🙂