ochen

Hi, Just wanna also say that I also enjoy these old school hacks. The modern stuff is easier, but it's always fun to bust out the soldering iron. I might have to attempt this on either the 400 or 800 that I got recently, but are being neglected. Can you post the alternate schematic if possible? Which reminds me that I got an 800xl a bit ago and I think it included a memory upgrade schematic with a name similar to yours printed on it. Maybe it was you? Dated early or mid 80s... just curious.

Hi Nezgar, Seems I have the oldest of the bunch, it looks just like the first pic. The FSM advises to swap parts out at this point, but I was hoping to verify voltage ranges with known good values before thinking of buying replacements. Thanks for the input!

Hi, I used an 810 diagnostics image via aspeqt that gives option to burn-in or adjust. It attempts to track to 16, but same behavior results. I attempted to check track00 directly from the controller, but it seems this one is not wired the same as the 1050. Is there another diagnostics disk option available? Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm trying to revive an 810 drive that keeps powering up to "boot error" screen. I can see the head move down and attempt to read, moves a little bit with a grinding type noise and pulls back to center. I'm using a couple disks single formatted and verified working on 1050 drive. Here are a few things that I've tried so far: 1. Cleaned head a couple times. 2. Cleaned track/slider & greased if it was neccessary. 3. Cleaned all connectors & components with contact cleaner. 4. Adjusted track head from back stop set screw to .01" per FSM. 5. Verified motor RPM within spec per manual. I only have a cheap 1 ch scope so not sure of accuracy. I don't have another 810 drive to swap parts with so wondering if anyone can shed some light on other possible culprits. The FSM doesn't show voltage levels for the RPM test so that would be useful to know. Any ideas? Thanks!

xrbrevin, So I decided to follow along on your adventure, being also of limited abilities, and get my hands dirty. Some folks already mentioned that control is done by the RIOT chip and they are indeed correct. I dusted off an arduino and soldering iron and can confirm no useful activity on the STEP and DIR pins. Wanna save you some time and maybe you can try another approach. Not sure how difficult that will be though. ochen

Hi manterola, Thanks for responding. Got it all sorted out after some caffeine and a bit more reading. Ended up using Multi Filecopy and successfully copied 1050 diagnostics disc. All tests passed! Thanks again

Hello! I've never owned any Atari computer gear and acquired a few items recently. Wondering if someone can shed some light on how to transfer a disk image from PC to 1050 drive. Attempting to use Aspeqt and diy sio2pc with 800xl, but no luck so far. I'm reading through the FAQ, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Ochen