StickJock

Really nicely done! I didn't realize that cable braid was a thing that you could get. I assumed that you used the outer part of some paracord!

Sounds like you need to reach down between your legs and ease the seat back....

So, you are saying that you really had to "Jump" on this deal! 😀🎸

When I disassembled my 320XE (power switch had stuck & RAM died during 30 years in storage), the keyboard mylar had bonded to the connector. When I unplugged it, it pulled off the conductive material off of several of the traces. I tried several times to fix it with some conductive paint, but eventually ended up buying a new membrane (and power switch) from Brad at Best. On an 800, also in storage for 30+ years, the Mitsumi keyboard membrane had stuck to the PCB so it wasn't flexing enough to make contact (none of the keys worked). Carefully peeling it off of the PCB (used a heat gun on low to help loosen it up) and laying it back down rejuvenated it (although a couple of keys did need some banging on to get back to 100%). Of course, I only did this repair after ordering new 4051s and finding out that they didn't fix it, and then swapping keyboard with a perfectly working, virgin 800 with a stackpole kb to isolate the issue to the kb itself.... So yeah, there can be many reasons a keyboard isn't working properly. If it is a single key, then it is probably an issue with the keyboard itself. If it is an entire row or column (on the scanning matrix, not necessarily on the keyboard itself), then it is either a bad 4051, or a bad connection between the 4051 and the key matrix (like in the connector or the mylar trace going to the connector). If the entire keyboard is dead, it could be the Pokey, the 4051s, or the keyboard itself. Good luck!

Doh! You are correct. Classic off-by-one error - I started counting at 0!

What drive number do you have the 1050 set to? If it is set to #1, then it will "answer" the 600 when it tries to boot. Put a bootable ATR in drive 1 of Aspeqt. Set the 1050 to drive #2 (both slide switches to the right). Turn on the 600 XL. Then you can copy from Aspeqt drive #1 (or 3, 4, etc.) to drive #2 (the 1050).

I've also got two, also in boxes. I have never used them. Are they worth anything?

With the idea of repurposing a storage device made for other devices, I bet that you could use those storage cabinets made for betamax tapes to hold your carts.

I use silicone lube on my 1050s. Spray a little in the cap or in some container, and then use a cotton swab (Q-Tip) to wipe it on the rails and any other moving/rubbing part (like where the tab presses the mechanism down when you close the drive). The non-rail bits won't quiet the drive any, but it should help to reduce wear on those components. While you have the drive open, use another new swab and some denatured alcohol to clean your read/write head.

Follow the link and all shall be revealed. 😀

I never punched the index hole on 5.25" disks, but on the 8" ones I just flexed the envelope a bit and fit the hole punch between the disk media & the envelope. Repeat for the other side.

I didn't have overheating issues with my Ataris. My Sinclair ZX81, however....

That seems pretty handy. Unfortunately, in my case, I am doing my development on actual hw. Brings back lots of memories from the 80s!

I've been away from Atari for three decades and have just been getting back into it recently. So, for fun, I am writing a little game. I recall there being some non-standardness about Atari EOL and EOF characters, so here's my question. I'm generating some tables in Excel, and I would like to import them into Mac/65. It will probably be something like 600+ lines that look like: .byte $xx, $xx, $xx, $xx I know that I can ENTER a file in to MAC/65, and that I can use the ",A" option to enter unnumbered lines and have them auto number. I suppose that I could also just generate line numbers in Excel. Anyway, what I am wondering about is if I need to do some kind of conversion on the file first to have a proper Atari EOL character on each line. Maybe there is already a tool out there that I can use to do the conversion for me? Otherwise, I am sure that I can probably whip up a basic program to input one byte at a time, make the adjustments, and output the file back out. I figure that I can copy the file over to an ATR using RespeQt. Does the text conversion option there convert both ways, or just from Atari to modern? I'm still working on generating all of the data that I need for my tables, but thought I would throw the question out there in the hopes that when I am ready I will have an answer. Thanks!

Along with your built-in joystick, you could also add built-in paddles. Put one on each side.

You can use the code from my PrintSheet post to see how to parse a PrintShop library disk. It has code to find the directory and read each image & print them out eight across, along with their names.

How's this for random? Joystick mech & buttons using a cardboard box as a case! Prototype city!

If I were to do it this weekend, I would scavenge a button from something else. I've got LEDs, although the ones that are less than 40 years old are mostly 3mm. But what color should I use? Of the newer LEDs, I have red, green, yellow, blue & white. I also have some 3mm bi-color LEDs in Red/Green. Both common anode & common cathode. I could replace both LEDs on the board with a bi-color red/green LED so that both are lit red all the time with power (so it looks even more OEM and not unbalanced). The green pins would be lifted & connected to the wire. I think this mod would mean that there is no trace cutting needed on the power board. Hmm.... I would have to do a test to see what they look like with both colors lit up at the same time. I currently have one on my SDMax connected to the Rx & Tx lines, so they blink red on writes & green on reads. Unfortunately, since even reads have to be prefaced by a write to the Uno (it's Rx/Tx to the device, not to the "disk"), reading the virtual disk still has a bunch of quick red blips in a mostly green state. Anyway, it's an idea that may appeal to those who don't like the thought of cutting traces on the power board. But then again, if I understand correctly, I really couldn't test out the ATR button functionality without media on the Incognito, right?

For some reason, when I read this, I heard a deep commercial voice call out, "Trojan Man!" 🤣

So I just got my Incognito in, so Lotharek must be shipping! WooHoo! I was all excited thinking that I have a new project to do this weekend, but then I realized that I haven't received my CF to SDmicro adapter yet. I know, I should have ordered it from Lotharek at the same time, but at the time I was still planning on using a CF card. It was when I realized that I didn't have a reader that I decided to go with the adapter. Anyway, is it worthwhile to go ahead and install the Incognito (it looks so cute compared to the original Personality Card!) before I have any media to use on it? Would I still be able to use the 800 effectively? I got the retro-bug and I have recently been going hybrid-old-school - I have been booting SpartaDos 1.something (1986 version from when I got my US Doubler - the one that works on the 800) from an SDMax, and have been using the 1982 disk based version of Mac/65 to do some coding on the 800. I assume that I would still be able to do this with a media-less Incognito? Even better would be to boot to SpartaDos on the Incognito and use a RAMdisk for my development like I used to do in the 80s on my 320XE, saving files off to the SDMax. I suppose that I could just use the 320XE for development like I did BitD, but there is just something about the 800.... Besides, I've been meaning to take the 320 apart and put the pieces out in the sun to de-yellow. The case doesn't really show any yellowing, but several of the keys are severely yellowed! I would also need to snag a button off of some random scrap PCB as I didn't think to order one. I guess just I assumed that the button, LED & wires shown in the installation guide came with it, even though there is no mention of them on the description page. Totally my fault. But anyway, back to the topic at hand: Should I go ahead and install the Incognito this weekend, or wait for my adapter to arrive (from AliExpress...)?

I am guessing that a two-sided game may not allow for each side to be in a different drive. That is, why would you take the disk out of drive 1, flip it over, and put it in drive 2? This is fundamentally a difference between a 2-disk game, where each disk may be placed into a separate drive, and a 2-sided game, where you can only access one side at a time. When it asks for side 2, move the side 2 image to D1. I think there may be a "rotate" function to do this for you? For your second question, did you boot with a DOS image in D1 to start with? Basic can't access the drive unless you booted to DOS first to install the drivers.

So the thing on the end of your Atari joystick cable is a female connector, but it identifies as male. Maybe that's why the XL line dropped the word "jacks"? 😀

Atari labels them on the front of the 800 "controller jacks". "Jack" sounds like a male term (and, in fact, the Dsub9 ports for the joysticks are male), but one of the more common uses is the headphone jack, where you plug your male "plug" into your female "jack". Isn't language fun? I guess "port" is a gender-neutral term. Serial port, parallel port, USB port, etc.

The 3 PLAs are used when passing a parameter from basic, as in X=USR(1571, 12345). The first PLA will contain the number of 16-bit arguments. Each subsequent pair of PLAs will return one of the 16-bit arguments. Usually this will be at the top of the routine, though, not the bottom, as you would want to use the data passed in.

Before you disassemble your entire keyboard, try the easy stuff first. 1) clean the keyboard connector contacts on the PCB and on the keyboard tail. Pay particular attention to the suspect pins. If that doesn't get it all working, then 2) swap the two 4051s around. Do you have the same bad keys, or did they move to another row or column? If so, then you have a bad 4051.