Larry

January 16, 2010

I'd never heard there was more than one version -- is it stenciled on the rom or is there a "magic location" in the rom that gives the version?

-Larry

January 9, 2010

Thanks, Carsten! Nice to see how it works.

-Larry

Here is the SIO information for APETIME
SIO Command:	45 93 EE A0
Pufferlength:	6 Bytes

Result in Buffer: DDMMYYHHMMSS
APETIME for Sparta DOS is attached.

January 5, 2010

Hi Cyco130-

I normally use my USB, but I'll hook up one of my serial interfaces and give it a try! Fortunately, my DIY PC still has serial and parallel ports.

Thanks,

Larry

Hi Larry,

You can also try AspeQt if you have a standard Sio2Pc cable and you're adventurous Version 0.3 supports 512 bytes/sector ATR images but it's poorly tested.

January 2, 2010

Hi Marius and Bf2k+

I've never used COPY/R, so wasn't aware that Copy/R would back up 512-byte sectors to 256-byte sectors. I'll have to try that and see how it works for me.

As to Native File Systems that support 512-byte sectors, SDX is the first...

-Larry

Did I miss something?

Which (Native) Atari Filesystem does support 512 byes/sector?

You might want to use a recursive file copier? In SpartaDos there is a tool called HardBack, but that is slower of course than a sector copy.

I know my BlackBox supports 512 bytes/sector, but that is only on HARDWARE level. In SpartaDOS/MyDOS the maximum amount of bytes/sector is 256, so sector copy to ape simply works.

Good luck,

Marius

January 2, 2010

I have always used APE to make backup images of my HD partitions. But now using 512-byte sectors, that poses a problem, since APE currently only supports 256-byte sectors. It seems like the easiest work-around is to split the 512-byte sectors and then just write a new "double-sized" image. Then of course, using the reverse when restoring a partition to the HD.

But before I do this, does anyone already have a utility that does it, or perhaps can think of a different/better way?

I can think of one -- since (IIRC) the KMK-JZ interface supports a master and slave IDE device, one could backup the HD partitions to a separate Compact Flash card. However, I have been using my MIO, so that would not be a good solution for me.

-Larry

December 31, 2009

Thanks!

That's exactly what it is - I use it on both SDX and SD3. It should be on your APE CD or maybe Steve has it on his site. It is one of Steve's programs. If you don't have it, PM me.

December 31, 2009

In another thread, "support for APE time downloader." was mentioned.

I vaguely remember something called "APETIME." But I don't think (as a MyDos user) that I ever knew anything about it. I've looked through the Win APE GUI, but see nothing there about "Time." I also looked through the APE for Dos manual and found APETIME.COM mentioned implying that it is a utility for Sparta 3.2G. But when I looked on my my 3.2G distribution disk, I found no such utility.

What I'm hoping is that APETIME.COM is a utility for APE that takes the time/date from the PC and makes it available to the Atari -- via SIO download to set the time/date in Sparta (SDX). Searching through the SDX manual, I find no reference to APETIME.

Can anyone shed any light on this? Can it be used with SDX (and registered WinAPE)?

Thanks,

Larry

December 29, 2009

Hi Curt-

Just a thought.

I'm familiar with patterns and tooling (for making engine blocks), although no experience with plastics. Is there any possibility that the tooling could be made with inserts so that the same basic tooling could function for both the 1200XL and 800XL? Since there are so many more 800XL's out there than 1200XL's, it might be a way to reduce the overall cost. Then again, maybe not... A poll for 800XL's might give you some idea as to the overall economics.

This is a very cool project and however it turns out, I'm in, but given my druthers, I'd be more interested in the 800XL.

-Larry

December 29, 2009

The so-called "Grass Valley" 810 upgrade?

Original 810's were unreliable to the point that people were hacking the 810's adding data separator circuits from other floppy drives. A guy in our user group had one of these hybrids, and IIRC it had a Percom or TRS data separator hacked in. When I got my first 810 in 1982, fortunately it had the upgrade. It's been a long time, but those boards look like what was in my original 810.

-Larry

Interesting. Another member once asked about these boards in an earlier thread, and it seems that the extra board at the top (part number CO17227) is an Atari daughterboard containing the floppy controller chip and an external data separator. Apparently the early versions of the floppy chip (the 1771 you see on the daughterboard) had inadequate data separators built in, so this board was added to early 810 drives to improve their reliability. Perhaps the EPROM and jumper wires were installed as part of this upgrade.

December 28, 2009

I've been trying to use SDX more recently, and there is a whole lot I don't know about...

In MyDos, one can copy files using wildcards but use the Query (Q) Switch/Modifier to allow selection of only specific files. For example:

C

File source, destination?

D1:*.*,D5:*.*/Q

Then MyDos will list each file that matches the source specification with a ? that requires the user to respond to each query before copying that file to the destination. (Some stand-alone file copiers also do the same thing.) In MyDos, anything but a "Y" will cause the it to list the next file for a copy decision.

Is there an equivalent in SDX for selectively copying files? I can't find one in the SDX manual.

-Larry

December 27, 2009

Let me know how yours is set. I suspect that either P2: or NONE would work OK. The spooler setting probably is irrelevant since going SIO.

-Larry

Hmmm... that sounds strange - I need to test that. I have my MIO spooler enabled also.

December 27, 2009

Thanks for the reply, Fujiman, and you are right -- the manual says you can use P: I also found it works fine with DPRN: and just PRN:

But after some eliminations, I found the culprit was my MIO configuration.

I fell back to MyDos, but it wouldn't print there, either. I re-installed APE, and that made no difference. Then I disconnected the MIO interface and the printer function started working.

So I went to the MIO configuration page for printers and set the printer port number to "NONE" (and disabled the printer buffer).

It immediately started printing! Mystery solved!

-Larry

December 27, 2009

This is a question for someone who uses SDX and also uses APE to do printing through the Winprinter.

I'm trying to print a BASIC listing to the Virtual MX printer in APE. I can't get anything to print. I'm wondering if there is an issue because APE recognizes P: and SDX (I believe) uses PRN: I didn't find an Alias in the manual.

Or perhaps I'm just missing something simple?

-Larry

December 26, 2009

Thanks for both the replies, but Steve, I think you have the answer to my issue. I wiggled the power connector and the color changed. Then I remembered some years ago that I had a 130XE that had the same symptoms. I ultimately removed the power connector from the PCB and replaced it with a new one from Best Electronics. I can remember how tight and solid the new connection felt and that completely cured the issue. I'll try cleaning and re-soldering this one first.

Thanks again,

Larry

For a long time my 800XL faded from "BASIC blue" to a dull aqua color after some minutes. At that point the 800XL would not display blue color though once in a while the color would snap back, but only briefly.

One day I accidentally bumped the power connector and the colors instantly changed. From there it was easy to see that I had a loose connection.

I re-soldered all the joints for the power connector and the problem was solved.

Can't say this will solve your problem but weak solder joints are at least something to consider.

- Steve Sheppard

December 26, 2009

For the past few months I've been using an 800XL as my main computer, upgraded with a Newell 256K, Supervideo 2.1, and the Bob Puff "Stable XL" mods. But this XL has always had an issue with color stability. In my case this XL changes the screen color from a "greenish-blue" to a more "redish-blue" (more purple) after being on for several hours. The only cure is to increase the color level then adjust the tint. Changing only the tint makes the color look way off.

Is anyone aware of a particular cause, and perhaps cure for this?

Thanks,

Larry

December 26, 2009

Yes! Spelunker -- I was close with "mine" but "cave," actually.

Never heard of "Captain Goodnight." I'll have to look for that one. And there were a couple for the C64 that unfortunately never made it to the A8.

-Larry

Is the mine game you are thinking of Spelunker?

(snip...)

Captain Goodnight

~telengard

December 25, 2009

Overall, one of the very best (U.S.) early game portfolio's, I thought. I bought a lot of these games. Some missing from this particular catalog, Karateka (sp?), and wasn't there a very good platform game about a mine (not Miner 2049er). I think that my very favorite was Lode Runner. And of couse, not a game, but who could forget Print Shop -- a title which they still sell today.

Good stuff!

-Larry

Ah, the days when the A8 ruled the software catalog...

Broderbund Software Catalog

A few later titles not included in this

December 24, 2009

I'm evidently missing something. This ATR shows up in APE as 721 sectors and double density. Won't boot; can't be recognized by any Dos I've tried. Maybe that's the point? Or just to use this ATR to read the header info?

-Larry

I was wondering what would other people think about using some of this bytes to provide geometry information about the image. We could even squeeze some flags in there to support SpartaDosX's 512 bytes/sector format, for example a bit for signaling that the first 3 sectors are not 128 bytes

It is possible to conclude for length it exactly ATR. It see example.

Has not to change format of file presently meaning ATR !

December 21, 2009

This is an interesting doc that I haven't seen before, however, it is difficult to read, including the parts values. I tried converting it to WORD, but only about half of the text will come through.

Does anyone have a more legible copy of this -- text would be great so it could be edited as required (also for legibility).

-Larry

Here's an atariage thread with a pdf that describes how to manually upgrade the 16k memory module to 48k:

click here

(snip...)

December 19, 2009

Thanks, Hias-

I do use HISIO.COM to provide Ultra Speed (and beyond!), but I totally forgot that it had the "three-fingered salute" built into it. A very, very nice piece of work!

-Larry

Hi Larry!

Could you recommend some (XL/XE-compatible) that have this feature? I know about MyIDE, but that only works with the MyIDE adapter.

You could use my Highspeed SIO Patch and program the patched OS into an EPROM, it supports cold-boot with SHIFT+RESET and with SHIFT+CONTROL+DELETE (almost like on PCs :-)

so long,

Hias

December 19, 2009

Hi Marius-

Could you recommend some (XL/XE-compatible) that have this feature? I know about MyIDE, but that only works with the MyIDE adapter.

-Larry

Switching off and on "all the time" is a bad thing anyway to do.

I understand you want a solution for this, but you'd better concentrate on a better alternative.

I never switch off and on my atari, because SHIFT + RESET results in a coold boot, thanks for using different OS-es, which give this option.

There is even a work-around for a hardware cold-reset switch, if you do not want to use another OS.

Bob1200XL writes about that hardware cold-reset switch, he might know how to add that.

Greetz

Marius

p.s. using another OS in your Atari gives you also plenty of other benefits.

December 19, 2009

I first read about this issue about the time that the XE's came out. The 4164's were definitely longer than 4116 for re-boot, and then when the 41256's started showing up, they were worse than the 4164's. (That would seem to fit the pattern mentioned by Bob1200xl.)

I've settled on using a Newell-modified 800XL as my main machine, so that is why I was lobbying Warerat to add the simulated cold start feature in the MIO. I am sincerely grateful to him every time I reboot!

-Larry

I was thinking it's something to do with the capacitors in the machine causing the delay. Anyone researched the capacitors and whether their death or ratings affect boot up time?

I noticed years ago that when I added Rambo mem upgrades to 2 of my 800xl's, both of them required longer off times (5 secs or so) than they did before adding the ram. I always assumed it had something to do with the additional memory.

December 15, 2009

In using "pull-up" resistors to select from multiple OS's placed in single eproms, I've seen a variety of recommended values from a low of something like 330 ohms to a max of 4.7K ohms. I've never seem any explanation of how the resistor value is chosen, although I believe that somewhere I read that you should choose the lowest value that worked reliably.

Can someone explain the pro's and con's of "low" versus "high" resistance values in this application? Does it really matter?

-Larry

December 15, 2009

Looks very nice in the VBXE.

It also reminds me quite a bit of my first (and last) video game -- "Treasure Quest" -- also a BASIC/assembler hybrid. (What an original title!) In my game the player commanded a submarine that had to pick up scattered "treasures" while avoiding deadly obstacles and depth charges from patrolling destroyers overhead. The wild success of my game after hours and hours of work and frustration was instrumental in confirming my previous choice of a "day job."

-Larry

I spent several hours yesterday and today working on this. It's a VBXE enhanced version of a game I wrote back around 25 years ago.

It's in Basic + Assembler - probably should have given it a different name given that there's an arcade/home game of the same name.

(snip...)

December 14, 2009

Wow - a minute's a long time for re-boot. I've got some XE's and XL's that take 15-20 seconds, but nothing in that 60-sec. range.

Can you post (or PM) a link to Lotharek's web site?

Thanks,

Larry

I haven't had much time to actually use the 65XE I recently upgraded to 1MB using the kit currently available on Lotharek's website, but it doesn't always boot properly. It passes all the RAM tests I threw at it when I first installed the SIMM, but I've noticed it won't do a rapid powerdown/reboot. Unless I leave it for a good minute or so, it just drops straight back into BASIC when I power it on again, bypassing device polling, the boot sequence, etc. As I say, it seems to be OK if I leave it for a while, but it makes testing other stuff kind of difficult. I'm slightly confused, too: I thought you lost internal BASIC with the 1MB upgrade, since bit 1 of PORTB is now used for bank switching???

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