cwilbar

good to know.... though most high speed chargers I think would be overkill for an A8, only need 2amps ? or less depending on upgrades, right ? still good to know, even though Muprhy's law states that I will be the one with a high speed charger that gets stuck in overdrive 🙂

Shielded cables (as mentioned) are not necessary for power (unlike USB data). 5.2V as others indicated will likely be fine. I'd be careful with any 'smart' power supplies, which iPad chargers and the like would be. Newer ones I think can produce multiple voltages/amps ratings. If something goes sideways you don't want it to up the output and fry the Atari. I don't know about your specific charger, but it would be something to look into. Modern phone chargers for instance can do this... it's how they can get faster charging w/o upping the current (of which you can only push so much over those wires/connectors).

I'll look to get some photos showing the jumpers, and I'll figure out which chips I removed to cut traces. I won't be removing the chips to show the cut traces, but I think I can probably determine what was cut. IIRC it was a ground, and it went between two of the chip legs. It was this way on at least one, if not 2 chips. It kept me hunting for a while, as I did not expect that, as schematics which show grounding vs how the grounding is achieved on the PCB are not represented on the schematic 🙂

Not sure who made the one in the Atari, but back in the day I believe that CK made a series of switches like this, and generally they were of good quality. I have no idea if they are still made and of the quality from years gone by. Too bad that one is stuck solid. Have you tried spraying a bit of contact cleaner on the shaft and trying to work the shaft up and down to see if will free up at all ? I'm guessing it is not likely, but might be worth a try.

It might be hard, as I did not document the process. It is the same wiring as the 'standard' upgrade using wires on the top side, but doing it on the bottom side. The cut traces are to deal with the chip legs that IIRC correctly are lifted in the conventional upgrade. Issue is, that under 1 or 2 chips, there are traces shorting a couple of legs together, hence needing to pull the chips (and any associated sockets) in order to get to them to sever the required traces. I can always look at my 600XL and determine which chips I pulled as I'll be able to see which ones were resoldered. I could also document the jumpers on the bottom and where I put them. If you feel that would be helpful, let me know, and I'll plan on doing that.

Maybe you're not picking brains yet.... but you have a few ways to go on memory in a 600XL.... There are some memory upgrades (well, at least one) that don't require upgrading to 64K first.... sadly I don't remember what it/they is/are. Then upgrades like Ultimate 1MB (which I did on my 600XL) require you get too 64K first. If you have to get to 64K first (or if you only care about getting to 64K), there are 3 ways to go: 1. The 'easy way' using 64K x 4 DRAMs (well covered in the forums) 2. The 'hard way' using 64K x 4 DRAMs (the way I went which I haven't seen any instruction on) 3. The easiest way using a 64K SRAM solution available from @lotharek's store. I had a hard time between 2 and 3, and in the end chose #2 as in my mind I was wiring the 600XL the way Atari should have. It involved pulling up one or two chips, cutting some traces, one or two jumpers on the bottom side of the PCB, plus the 2 RAM chips. Now my 600XL shows no memory mod from the top and if there is a memory problem, just pull and replace the DRAM chips. #1 is easy and #3 is nice solution and is quick/easy upgrade as well. If you have an NTSC one, you'll definitely want to add the 5 pin monitor port, and either fill out the missing circuitry or put in a UAV video upgrade (which is what I did). Enjoy bringing your 600XL to the upgraded level you desire. It is a nice small footprint Atari. As with most things, there are multiple ways to go, so collect advice, research the solutions and go for it !

Most PC (back from the AT era) on/off power buttons were usually DPDT push on/push off and when on would not return all the way out. Plus the pins would be on the wrong end of the switch. Most ATX systems used a momentary switch which was usually an SPST momentary switch. The XEGS uses a SPDT push/push switch (push on1/push on2). That is not to say there isn't a PC out there that migt have used a switch like this, but it would have probably have to have been an AT class PC and I have a lot of experience with those and have never seen anything like this.... but certainly might have been possible (though not sure if the amp rating of a switch like in the XEGS would be enough for a PC ???? never looked into that).

Nice clean install there ! 🙂

really liked that video.... thought it was a great solution with zero case mods for the XEGS. Will probably do the same to mine at a point. As @flashjazzcat indicated though.... since your 800XL has the DIN5 monitor jack, you don't need to 'hack' up the case/etc. The pins are already there. You will need to do a mod, or get a UAV, and do some internal wiring (and finally have the right video cable), and you're set. I went the UAV route for my 600XL (and had to mod my case since I'm in 'NTSC world', PAL users already have the jack on 600XLs !). If cost is the issue, there are mods out there to improve the video and add s-video (Y/C) which will require mostly time, not so much money. Best of luck in whichever route you go. You can always go the cheap route now, and it would not prevent you from going with a Sophia 2 in the future (or an RGB Sophia 1) when you're ready to go RGB.

Not sure if this is possible.... but if the switch is on/on and the problem is due to the one set of contacts the Atari is using for the on (of on/off), then it could be desoldered and reversed so the other internal on switch (normally unused) is being used. This would only work of course if the failure is due to the contacts of the current 'on' side of the switch failing.... and not if the mechanical toggling of the two positions is the cause of the failure. Just an idea to throw out there. You could use a DVM to check conductivity of the two poles in the alternating switches to see if the other (unused) side is still working and toggling.... if so, you should be able to reverse the switch that is already there. My XEGS switch will probably go... as you literally need to push it all the way down, and it almost has a time delay to toggle the internals of the switch. I only use it so much, so not enough for me to dig up a replacement, tear it all apart and replace it.... I'll do that once (if) it actually fails :-).

I did finally locate one of these. I need to figure out where to get a ribbon, plus when pressing the 'form feed'? button, the stepper is erratic, like it is getting an AC waveform rather than proper stepper pulses. Multiple screws that hold the aluminum plat to the bottom are stripped out which I need to come up with a solution for, and for some reason the copper metal guide for the ribbon on the right side of the head is missing.... might have to fabricate something eventually (not sure if Best or other vendors would have that). All in all, it has those flaws and a coupld of cosmetic 'dings'..... but all in all, I'm glad to have found one. Now just to get it working in tip top shape again.

Anyone out there have some 41256 RAM they don't need anymore ? 100 - 150 ns timing should be fine. Don't mind if they are NOS, pulls, etc. Looking for a quantity of these for some projects. Let me know if you have any, or if you know of a vendor with good pricing, etc. Thanks.

The Atari 810 I believe existed in 1979. Not sure when it was readily available. The copyright on the ATR is 1982. So the ATR did not come out before Atari's disk drive solution. Definitely check anything socketed. I have not looked at the ATR8000s SIO implementation, so not sure if there are any general failure items there. If you have a DVM, you may want to check the regulated voltage(s) and make sure there is no AC ripple, but I'd think you'd have bigger problems than the SIO not working if that was the case. Hopefully a reseating of socketed chips helps.

IIRC, the ATR8000 can do serial (using it w/o an Atari) or SIO. Was this last used on an Atari (vs with a terminal) ? Probably grasping at straws there, but I recall reading something about that. Can't recall if there are jumper(s) or dip switch(es) for that..... but worth a look in the docs. I never used my ATR on a terminal. Amazingly after over 30 years of storage, my ATR8000 still works (along with the 720K 3.5" drive I was using with it, and the handfull of boot disk games (no protection in tact) that I wrote to the disks :-). I expected to have difficulty, but it worked great (other than the usual rattle/hum caused by the internal transformer).

You might be asking early.... but even if you're not buying now, any education on the matter will help you later anyway 🙂 If you are going to use a CRT, RGB is 'king'. However, not all CRTs support RGB (at least in the staes, few 15KHz capable monitors support it in my experience (except maybe for arcade monitors 🙂 ). In UK, I believe most CRTs supported SCART, and SCART has RGB. So, if you want the best CRT picture you'll want to investigate along those lines. That said, at least in the US (NTSC land), s-video on a CRT with a quality video cable produces a very nice picture. Going to s-video over most composite outputs is a big jump in quality, rgb less of a jump over s-video, but an improvement if you can use it. If you're going to go digital, the best is the sophia upgrade (either the current ones, or the new sophia 2 when it comes out). There is an RGB Sophia upgrade, and IIRC Sophia 2 is going to support RGB too (but double check that). UAV is very nice if you're looking for clean composite and s-video output. But find a UK distributor (one is mentioned on one of the threads), as taxes (VAT), and other duties (not to mention COVID shipping rates) will probably double the cost.

I'd have to look at what I did, but I noticed this on my isntall (in a 600XL). I can't recall if I stacked in an additional DIP socket, or I might have used different pin headers to have it get a bit more height when installed.

when you tried the 410 (you didn't indicated the entire peripheral configuration, or what did not work on the 410) did you have the ATR plugged into the SIO chain ? When troubleshooting, you want only one device on the chain. If something is bad it disrupt the entire SIO chain.

Doing a bit of research, this appears to pre-date the Area 51. Athlon processors were released in June 1999 but were slot A processors. Socket A processors weren't released to 2000. The best guess I can come up with is this may be an Alienware blade that someone upgraded the mainboard and processor (and probably other parts inside). The wayback machine shows March 2000 the website was citing praise they were receiving for the Area 51. Sadly the wayback machine's archival of that site has all the graphics broken, and looks like much information was embedded in the site graphically. The service/etc sticker on the back is not consistent with what I found pictured from an early area 51 system, so it would pre-date the Area 51. More evidence that it's guts were tampered with at some point. Too bad, but it appears the only verifiable genuine part is likely the case itself. Still, pretty cool no doubt. If it was mine and I could determine that not much remained of the original, I'd keep it for the case and make it more modern (w/o cutting/etc it) or make it a vintage rig I'd use.... either way it would 'show off' the early Alienware case.

I have some parts (tested working) for the IBM Portable PC (model 5155). For those that do not know the IBM PC Portable is an 8088 PC/XT class system (as I understand it the mainboard is an early version of the IBM PC XT mainboard). It has a built in monitor (Amber monochrome being driven by a CGA card using an internal composite video connection). 1. Mainboard with 256K RAM 2. Power Supply 3. monitor (internal monochrome screen) 4. CGA card (has the internal pin header for the above monitor) 5. I have misc internal bits/hardware (the internal 'frame', cable guide, etc. I haven't set any prices yet (as I haven't researched what the going rates are yet). Anyone who is looking for any of the above parts, feel free to PM me and we can discuss it. Also open to trading for Atari 8 bit systems, parts, peripherals, original games, etc. Will ship to US only. Can arrange for a meet foro local pickup as well (local to zip 02067). -- Curt

neat tower. I laughed when I read big + heavy..... as I gutted an Alienware tower that was in an ewaste pile where I worked at the time. Turns out a bad video card sidelined it.... but it was over 2 years ago, and the case weighed a ton. Id had special vents at the top, it had a custom controller setup to control fans, vent openings/etc/etc. I took the mainboard with cpu, 2 Radeon graphics cards (they were top end units back in the day), memory. I should have taken the optical drive (specs show it should have been a blue-ray)... and the hard drives were gone. One of the graphics cards was bad. But in the end I got a 4.0GHz overclocked i7 with memory, 1000 watt power supply, one (older) high end radeon card, and some other misc parts.... for free.... I could have never taken that alienware tower home via the train.... way too big and heavy. Seeing this old Alienware is interesting. Had no idea they used FIC boards and what appears to be a cheaper case with custom front on it. Is it badged Alienware on the back and was that the original mainboard ? Or does it just have the logo up front. You have it nicely setup as well.

I have a 600XL. I've upgraded the base memory to 64K, installed Ultimate 1MB, Ultimate Atari Video, and installed and wired the monitor port. The 600XL makes for a very nice small footprint XL series computer. If you ever want to go 'wild' with upgrades, stereo, VBXE, cpu accelerator, etc, etc it can get a bit tight fitting everything in there. So if you think you'll ever go 'wild', it will be easier to start with an 800XL 🙂 While there are different video upgrades out there... I don't know what is best in the 600XL (and this is likely different between NTSC and PAL, as well as what display you'll be using), but I'm very pleased with the UAV upgrade personally. If you are going to be using LCD display, the Sophia upgrade will give you digital video (DVI) (there is a RGB version as well, plus there is an upcoming Sophia 2 which will support both).

I too was going to put the link to console5.com on the kit, though I have not bought any of their kits yet, so I don't know what capacitors (brand, specs, etc) they include. If you want to buy your own (to spec out best rated caps/etc) from the DigiKey, Mouser, etc, then console5 lists the caps on this page: https://console5.com/wiki/Atari_800

You do not need to punch an index hole. You can set index for reads to disabled and try imaging it. It then depends on your floppy drive and its jumper settings (some drives can be set for index/rdy which may or may not affect if they work reading w/o an index hole (I have not tried)). I can confirm that panasonic ju-455 will read w/o an index pulse. If you search for posts by me, I listed a few others that do this to (TEAC FD-54B and a Toshiba drive). But my Toshiba drive failed on me, and the TEAC has a speed issue when writing. That leaves me running the panasonic which has worked wonderfully.

I never had a chance to meet him, but I certainly knew him by name, watched some vids of him, read posts, etc. Sucks to lose someone so into Atari and the knowledge he amassed and shared. Condolences to his family. Whatever loss we all share by his passing pales in comparison to what they must be going through. He was taken too soon. RIP

Is your Bruce Lee a combo C64/Atari disk with C64 on the front, and Atari on the back ????? If you are trying to read the backside then you need to not require index pulse on read. And your floppy drive may still betray you (I tested all of mine, and only 3 or 4 would read the backside.... the remaining ones would act the part.... but I'd end up with an 'blank' ATX file). If you are trying to read the front.... check your disk, make sure that somehow the index hole has not gotten blocked. The Atari doesn't need it but the SCP uses it (unless your drive will permit you to ignore it).