sup8pdct

After a bit of work, have finally got a rev B Pal rom complete with the floating point routines. The rom file that generally comes the emulators is ntsc and has a few changes in it which i believe was to do with the translator disk for the XL. Eg; don't write to $D301, don't check for special carts. I am blessed with both atari original Rev A and Rev B source listings so was easy to find and fix the changes. Also having 2 different local hacked versions of rev B was the most help James ATARIOSBpal.zip

You want instructions for supermon? James

Heh. i thought you forgot. How wrong was I? Those roms pictured are Rev A. The part numbers match and I also campared the dump you have with an image of rev A roms avilable with several emulators. Exact match. James

Could i please have a picture of the WART (wcrt?) board? ie main board. Am interested in the differences between the two. WART = Weird Atari Rotating Thing. James

No to both. The code has been removed that boots CP/M. Just use a larger eprom and put both in, selectable with a switch. James

I have done about 3 of these. What I did was to split each 16K game in half. Then append all the upper half to gether, same with the lower half makeing sure that each game half aligned with each other. I then burnt 2 27512 eproms, marking each low and high. I then got a 16K atari cart, modded it to take 2 eproms. I soldered resistors to the upper 3 address lines of both eproms to ground. Got a 4 way dip switch, made one side at +5v, the other side soldered to both eproms with wires. Had to set up a list on the front of the cart for the dip switch combo for each game. Also did the same for 8k cart games as well. James

I have had mixed results using HD disks mostly in the negative. I have heard that HD disks need a stronger head current to write properly. James

So what prize do we all win? James

You can start with checking for a dirty head. You said you have installed the happy mod, I would check you have the connector from the head is the right way around and is on the pins properly just in case. (thick black earth brade to the rear from memory) Another thing to try tho unlikely is to reseat/replace the FDC (2793 or 2797) Other posiabilitys are problems with the circuit board or the head itself. James

Can you please quote the rom part numbers for me please if you get the chance? There are 3 in total. James

Every 800 and my 400 I have ever seen has had rev A in it. a cross referance with best catalog with the part numbers confirms this. Also, the rom part number also included either the letter A for rev A and B for rev B. The annoying part is that the floating point Math rom had the rev B part number. The 400 (my first computer) also has the rev A bug that has to do with the cassette. Am not saying rev B never arrived here, just saying I personally have never seen it in rom. James

Would like a peek at the inside, see what is happening. Maybe the seller would take a picture of the inside James

The field service manual only lists a tandon mech for the atari, so it could be a commodore version. Unless someone has swapped the mech....... James

I would love to help but every 800 i have ever come across has rev A roms. I do have a modded rev B that includes Supermon and another modded rev B that includes the John Nickols monintor. The supermon resides at $Cxxx and the board includes a switch to enable the monintor so the rev B can work without supermon present. The JN monintor is 8K in 2 4k banks, It is hidden till called so it should work provided the required key combination isn't pressed. I can send you one or both of these if you want me to. I think the FP routines (rom) are not included with the rom files. James How about a PAL 800 in your hands? Thanks for offer-- I'd only need the personality module for five minutes. I was hoping someone could just dump their existing ROM.

Bugger about the rom It is only 2K so will only apear in a small window as long as the chip select lines are the right way round. I just fired up my 810 to remember what it is supposed to do at turn on. The head is supposed to step back to track zero then to track 40 (mine has the archiver chip in it so could be different). Noted yours has a data seperater board. Maybe something is wrong the 6532 in your drive. Just make sure the 2 5 pin sockets are on the right header pins on the side board. The rear one goes to the head stepper motor. Could try swaping the 3086 chip. James

You said the head only steps once. I would start by swaping the common major chips with a working 1050 then looking at the driver chip for the stepper motor. Scope the power rails for ripple. If you have an atari cart with chip sockets, remove the rom and put it in one socket and see if the rom compares ok with a known good one. James.

Guess your multimeter doesn't have a logic function like mine does. The scope.... DROOL!!!!!!! James

The contacts are gold plated over the copper track under it, so i wouldn't do that unless the contact is worn away. James I have tried with isopropyl alchol and head cleaner, but nothing...its not works! I will try to rebuild the contacts using varnish of silver...i hope to be luck. thx Maurizio

Do you have a logic probe? One trick that sometimes works for me is to check each data and address line from the processor while going to see if each is pulsing. The ram, processor and 6532 are common with the 1050. Maybe an option there if you are willing to swap them. James

Sounds like both drives need to be looked at from the inside so pulling them apart is a must do. The 810 is different to the 1050 in the fact that the 810 can have 2 or 4 boards. the 4 board model has an extra plug in board on the side board under the shielding. The 810 is also a little harder to pull apart. Try the usual stuff that applies to the 1050, capactors, voltages etc. A 810 also normally parks it's head at track 40 (closest to the spindle) and doesn't have a track zero sensor, just a stop (hence the grind when the head bangs against the stop) james

First thing I would do is to is to check the power supply is suppling 5V when the consol is switched on. Try with out the keyboard connected. (reset could be held for some reason). If still nothing then more work is required. Maybe ask some close to you from this list to have a look. James

I have found a chip here that may be the one used. A 4031B. Need to test it to make sure but it has been kicking around in the draw for years so it may be dead from static. James

The paper clip dongle is a type of serial input/output memory chip. I made (copied) one many years ago but as usual, have either lost it or used the socket for something else. Paper clip easy to crack tho. the code to change actually ends up at $C000. The code sends a byte to the chip (keyboard input?) then recieves the byte back and displays it. I have just found the remains of the dongle i made, pins 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 are used on the joystick port and are connected as follows. 1 -2 & 11 2 -3 & 10 3 -4 & 15 4 - 6 6 - 7 , 1 ,12,13,14 7 - 16 8 - 8 I cannot remember what type of chip it was. James

The little interface that I was selling (took it over from the guy who designed it) was a add on plug in to the rom board. remove all 3 roms and the LS138, plug this board in and solder 2 wires. the rom/ram switching was handled on board via a LS74 and some decoding logic to $D301. The orignal PIA was left alone as an input for joyports 3 and 4. The os was a slightly modded os/B and Supermon. 2 switches are provided. one for extra ram enable/disable and Supermon enable/disable. James

I personally had done this years ago. Had to add the NMI reset, 4 joystick ports, 8 paddles and memo pad. Lucky there was just enough room to add them after deleting the selftest call and basic on/off and over writing the copyright and date notice at the very start of the rom. I had done this for a little add on board called Super 800 xl emulator That was made here in australia. It was a bit of a hack and only added ram under the roms. I didn't keep what I had done tho James