spinnaker15136

Can someone please tell me the original color of keyboard lettering for the Atari 800? I am considering retrobriting my old 800 (read the sticky) but something tells me it might not be needed for the keyboard. They don't really looked yellowed but sort of dark cream. Was that the original color? I thought I saw in that thread that this was pretty much normal, at leat for the 800XL? I wiped them with rubbing alcohol to remove all of the grime but they still appear a bit dingy. Any advice of getting the sheen back? I assume they did not used to look so drab.

Got my RF connector in today. It's alive! A little buzzing but as I recall that is normal with text, Waiting on the 5 pin DIN, hopefully with even better results. Now I need to see if I can get the 810 up and running again.

Just got my 800 out of storage after about 30 years. And it works! Now I need to learn all the tips and tricks all over again. Next stop is to get the disk drive up and running.

Still need to get the 800 backup and running but I was wondering if I should go ahead and replace the filter caps. All but those two 4700 ufds are no sweat. But the two 4600s concern me a bit on replacement. Trying to get ones that firt for one. Has anyone done a preemptive replacement of 400/800

I was referring to the internal board. Yeah looks pretty simple and I have worked with that type of supply many times. As well as using the 7805 in lots of projects. I would love to replace all of the electrolytics but would feel a lot better if I could design my own board and just swap it out.

Sorry missed the link. Thanks

You sell the males? If so what is the cost for males and for cables? In the US. But first I need to get my Atari 800 up and running. I sure wish Atari would have done two things. Have a standard connector for SIO and separate the power supply from the rest of the board.

A buzz. Thanks!

As mentioned can't get RF to work but I don't know if it is my jury rigged connector or what. I have one of those adapters on order. Also just ordered a 5 pin DIN. Darn it had one too for years up until a couple of years ago. Tossed it with the video monitor I hooked up back in the day.

Yes exactly. But one thing. When I press on the system reset all I get is sort of a crackle, Can someone remind me what that sounds like? I also seem to be getting video out. I can see a signal on my scope. Video is the second pin counter clockwise correct?

Cleaned the edge connectors of RAM, ROM and cartridge. Keyboard clack is back. Does this mean the CPU is alive? Or does something else cause the clack?. I was not able to get down into the edge connectors on the mother board real well. Any tips on cleaning those? I don't recall ever cleaning one of those in all of the years I have worked with them.

I did reseat them. But I will give that a try thanks.

BTW Found a link to a schematic here. http://www.jsobola.atari8.info/dereatari/literatdere/400_800sm.pdf Can a mod move this to the Hardware forum? Just noticed it now. Sorry.

I posted on issues of my on 810. @DrVenkman was kind enough to post a link to the service manual. Well it looks like I jumped the gun because the 800 itself is not working. I haven't had the computer out of the box in about 30+ years. At, first, I was not getting RF out but I assumed it was either my jury rigged connector or something with my TV, It was at least encouraging that I had a power light and I could hear the speaker when I pressed on the keyboard. The keyboard sound told me the CPU was alive ( I assume). Well now I have a power light but no keyboard sound anymore. I measured voltages. -5V measure -5.26V. 12V measures 12.1V But 5V is low, Measures 4.9V and saw it bumping 4.89V Would this be enough to cause the CPU not to work? Where can I find a schematic? I tried looking for it on the site @DrVenkman posted but could,'t figure out where the link would be. Also, how do I remove the large, heavy metal shield? Is that one screw for the power supply the only thing holding it down?

Thanks I will have a look. But I have bigger issues. The 800 itself is not working. I think I might post another thread but will aslos have a look at the manuals.]

So what was the Happy mod? I don't remember hearing about this Maybe it came in somewhere after IBM PCs came on to the market?

I am looking at refurbing my Atari 800. I know before I put it on the shelf 30+ years ago, I was having issues with the 810 drive. Other than cleaning the head, are there any tips on refurbing the drive that someone can point me to?

Sorry if it has been asked 100 times before but I am not seeing any up to date posts that answers my questions. I am looking at refurbing my old Atari 800. On the project list is to design an build a SD memory reader disk emulator. Originally I was going to use a Microchip pic since what is what I usually work with. But I thought I saw a post on interest for an Arduino based reader. Has anyone done this? If not is there any interest if I can get it to work? I have not worked with Arduino but I am willing to give it a try if there is interest. Now for my main question. I know after market SIO cables are available. And I know you can 3d print your own. But does anyone sell the connector kits? I don't have a 3D printer. And are the male ends available ? I think that would make for more complete project rather than handing a cable off of it, the way I have seen other projects do. I could kick myself. I used to have an extra cable for a serial interface I built back in the day. I have no idea what happened to that serial interface or the cable. I am also missing a card extender that fit in the memory slot and an old memory card I was looking on expanding. Must of all got lost in a move. Pehaps they were all in the same box. Since it was back before small easy to use mcus, It was basically a dumb interface. I don't even recall how it all worked and how I was able to daisy chain off of the other peripherals but it indeed worked great and I used it for many years from my acoustic coupled modem that I think I got from work before it was tossed out. One thing I remember is I had to write my own OS driver and terminal software.