sup8pdct
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Posts posted by sup8pdct
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I have the manual for DDT that is part of Mac65. I wasn't aware of DDT with atari macro assembler.
I can scan it if you wish.
James
HiI am looking for a copy of the original DDT manual, written when DDT was designed to work with the Atari Macro Assembler (not the newer EDDT).
Does anyone have a scanned copy, or know where there is one?
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It is a shame that no other atari (or 3rd party) dos used the bad sector list the drive provides. How many 3rd party drives (including rom upgrades) provide a bad sector list?
James
I remember reading a blurb about the formating power of DOS 3 VS any other Atari DOS in that if you had a funky disk that would not format for you as a last attempt before round filing the floppy, you might try a DOS 3 format on it. And it worked! Don't ask me how or why, it might have just been happenstance but it's worked for me often like that.IIRC the article was written by Paul Alhart in AIM and it caused more than a little outright laughter and ridicule in the group when it was read aloud. But at home alone, I at least tried it and found it to be good advice. Otherwise I have no use for DOS 3, except to keep it alive.
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I think antic ran an artical similar to this (maybe the same) It changed the vtoc table so it wouldn't be write compatiable with normal dos 2, ie moved the bytes for the votc lower down and added to the end. This was done to get enough room to fit all the extra sectors on the vtoc.
Dos 2.5 uses sector 1024 for the 2nd vtoc sector of a possiable 1040 on the disk.
James
I think Compute! might have ran it.It allowed use of the extra sectors but I don't think it maintained proper compatability, either with normal DOS 2.0s or DOS 2.5.
IIRC, it just extended the normal VTOC sector allocation bitmap within the same sector (360), as opposed to DOS 2.5 which put it at 721 (?) which ensured better backward compatability if you happened to use older DOSes to try and read the disk.
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OK, I won't deny it. I'm guilty of being lazy on this.The design is finished and I have yet to find any XL/XE software that doesn't run on it (ANTIC mode, extended RAM, etc). Best way to go on this I think is to finish laying out the board and get an estimate for the parts. Ideally I'd like to make a run of 30-50 so the price point isn't high for everyone. And maybe offer some kind of installation service for those who don't want to open up their machine and solder wires. You could of course go back to stock by unplugging the connector and using the original 800 cards again.
I'd just need a show of hands as to how many I need to make. PCBs would be provided fully assembled and tested-- you'd just have to solder in the wiring harness for those of you DIYers.
Yes please. Mine is PAL.
James
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I do have a pretty rare XF551 with the CSS Enhancer that restores "flippy" function. But other than that, I've found the simplest solution if to make my own "flippies." This is also the reason that I think the best use of an XF551 is to make a 720K drive so there is no issue with the "B" side of a disk. The "Hyper-XF" (720K) is quite a nice mod!-Larry
I have one of those too. very handy.
It uses the AC input to do the timing, so there are 2 versions, 50Hz and 60Hz.
It shouldn't be to hard to build one.
James
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I can did out the code if you like.James
Yes, please! Any examples would be great.
just found on my harddisc. Stuff is from the day when I played with SIO trackloading myself.Thanks for that!
here it is.
Very much a hack. it copies the os rom to ram (XL) and modifys it a bit to be able to play music during SIO using the OS sio vector.
Please note a lack of comments.
It may not be the best code but it does work.
James
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I am looking to write come code that uses RMT to play music and still allows accesses to SIO devices (D:, R:, etc). I am not necessarily look to do music during boot loading, just being able to play music while doing XIO routines. Is this possible? And, which Pokey channels can I use or leave alone. Can I just write a RMT module that does not affect channels 1 and 2?I found some info here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?s...mp;hl=music+sio
but I am still unclear.
Thx for the help,`
I have actually done it many years ago. the music routine and data i borrowed from a game with 2 voices removed, and the sio loader i used was just a bit of setup then jumped to the os handler directly to handle the rest, ie not a published vector. bad part was it would only run on one OS version.
I can did out the code if you like.
James
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According to Mathy, the only way he could get the ACARD to operate error free on any of his black-boxes (he has like 4 or 5 of them) was to REMOVE the parity mod from the black box, and configure the Acard for non-parity.I remember reading somewhere (long time ago) that parity was only used for the data frame, not the command frame.
Tho I could be wrong.
Can any one confirm this one way or the other?
James
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One thing I would try is to clean the edge connector on the XL with a normal eraser. geting one small enough to fit might be a bit hard.
After 25+ years, the connector may have some dirt in the wrong spot.
Connect/disconect several times may also help.
James
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bridge at all times, instead of "alternating" between all 4.(This is what James Bradford was talking about in the above referenced faq... It may seem like a stupid/trivial concern, but trust me, it needs all the help it can get.. especially if its a 1meg model)
It is nice to see that I am sometimes right in a round about kind of way.
And said info is included in a Faq.
Not bad for someone who failed english and it is my only language.
Tip. When I used Atariwriter +, I put the spell checker data disk image on a MIO ramdisk and set it as D2:. Should see it fly through the text then.
James
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For the Blackbox, one uses the floppy format sub menu avilable when you press the menu button on the BB.
There you can select the option of mydos or spartados.
The SDX format command is good for this too but is quicker to press the button.
As for the HDI, I have no idea. the SDX menu should work.
James
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You bet and almost 99 percent of the 60 percent were for power supply issues!Naah.. There were ALOT more issues with that design than power supplies... Most of them did eventually melt down if the rectifier diodes werent upgraded, but there were quite a few stability/funtionality issues as well.. You can get a real good idea of this by examining the difference between the build-spec of various serial numbered units.. But there were some inherant problems that never got worked out.. And some that only manifested themselves with certain combinations of other hardware.. Like Steve Said, Mike Gustafson Himself commented that he was surprised that it even worked..
I know that one. My first MIO (256K) was fine till I added a harddrive. $FF would appear randomly through the file, directory etc.
Only way to get it reliable was to make the cable between comp and MIO 300mm long. I sent it back and asked for a 1meg one. Much better.
MEtalGuy66 has seen a picture of it and he has said it is the best one he has seen and also the highest serial number unit.
Only problem I had was getting a good 6502 to cope with all the upgrades and flaky rom just recently.
James
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Hi!I would like to create a bootdisk from a binary file. In case: I have a certain .COM file which i want to convert to a booting ATR disk.
I know there is a PC tool for this, but I don't have acces to a pc at this moment (I have a mac).
Ofcourse I could use a DOS and rename my com file to autorun.sys or a boot-menu... but that costs boottime every time i boot the disk.
I would like to do this without a PC/Mac, but if that is the only way... ok. Please let me know which tool that can do.
Thanks
Marius
Do you want to keep it as a file that can be loaded from dos or just a single bootable file per disk?
If the former, there is a binary file loader in Superdos AUX.SYS that can use highspeed SIO to load the file and run it. I cannot remember, if the loader only sees a single file, it will load it straightaway or you have to select it from a menu regardless.
This dos menu loader is good because it uses the first 3 sectors on the disk and the last 3 sectors of the directory for it self so it doesn't take any file space and it can be written after the disk has been filled.
If you want the latter, then you may run into a problem if the file you want to load is longer then 32K, The os boot sector routine can only handle 128 byte sectors and can only load 256 sectors. Larger files will require a custom written boot loader unless the pc file of which you speak of does this.
Both methods do have a problem if the file you want loaded overwrites the boot loaders ie games.
The OS boot loader doesn't have this problem.
Every boot disk has a 6 byte header on sector 1.
Byte 1. normally $0
byte 2. number of sectors to load.
bytes 3,4. address to load to starting with byte 1
bytes 5,6. run address
The os jumps to Byte 7 for init routine which generally ends with CLC RTS
James
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BTW, i'm unfamiliar with the extra LED's (L1, L2). What are these for?They are for status leds.
Led1 is for keyboard disable on (Ctl F1) and the 2nd is for international charactor set on (Ctl F4).
The same code is used in the XL/XE but atari didn't add the keys or the leds.
The 2 Leds are controlled from PortB.
Thanks. I actually downloaded the manual to find out, since no one responded very quickly. They actually added some nice extra features to this machine. I particularly like the ability to turn off Antic via keystroke. Was this possible on the other machines by any means using key combinations? The only way I knew of was poking "559" with "0" directly in a program.
None that I know of.
If you are ok with pulling the XE/XE apart and with soldering 4 wires, you can make 4 push buttons work as the function keys. Of course, installing any os upgrade you will loose the function keys (as far as i am aware).
Drilling holes in my top case to fit four buttons isn't what I would do.
I used to know which positions on the keyboard connector to use, but it has been many years and my memory is somewhat fading.
James
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BTW, i'm unfamiliar with the extra LED's (L1, L2). What are these for?They are for status leds.
Led1 is for keyboard disable on (Ctl F1) and the 2nd is for international charactor set on (Ctl F4).
The same code is used in the XL/XE but atari didn't add the keys or the leds.
The 2 Leds are controlled from PortB.
James
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I'm a bit confused - are all 8-bit Ataris equal in features (graphics, sound)?So a 400XL from 1979 has the same features as a 130XE from the mid-80ies (ignoring memory size)?
The only real difference would be the deletion of 2 joystick ports in the XL and XE
And reassigned to memory management duties. (2 leds on 1200XL)
Only other thing is the lightpen input on the 400. it is only on joystick port 4. All others have the lightpen on all joyports.
James
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I'm trying to get my Atari 800XL to work with the TV Tuner card in my PC. I get a picture on channel 3, but it's really not very clear and is not a suitable option by any means. I may have to look into building an s-video cable for the 800XL and bypass the tuner on the card. I'll see.Anyway, while testing a bunch of stuff, I pulled out a random 5.25" floppy disk from my rather large collection of Atari software. This particular disk was a backup copy of Bellcom Theme Disk #351 -- Terix. I popped it into my 1050 disk drive (one that works) and powered up the old XL. It booted. I was greeted with the familiar but long forgotten Bellcom boot menu where I pressed the select key a couple times to boot tetrix.obj. It worked!
These old 5.25" floppy disks have sat collecting dust for at least the last ten years (Not to mention that I received them as a Christmas gift about ten years prior to packing them away for ten years) and they still work.
I still have heaps of floppies i havent used yet and lots that I have. they all are out in the shed that gets very hot and some times has very high humidity due to to water.
ie treated very badly.
The only ones I have real trouble with are Le Floppy. the magnetic coating comes right off leaving the depries on the head of the drive and a clear line on floppy it self.
About 12 years ago, I copied all floppies to atr images except the copy protected ones. Some took several goes in 3 different drives before I got the whole lot.
I broke out some brand new gestetner (nashua?) disks and they formated perfictaly and they would be 18 years old.
James
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Indus GT from what i remember uses a variant of the 1050 mech (except the indus one is double sided capable)No. the indus mech is NOT double sided capable.
It does however have the Index hole detect and it doesn't have the door close switch.
Otherwise they are very similar.
James
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Hope i can remember it all.
400 with 16K
800 with 48K
800 with 64K and axlon 256 upgrade
800xl with 256K rambo
800xl with superram
800xl
800xl
600xl
130xe
65xegs
1200XL
1090xl
1050 with happy
1050 with super archiver
1050 with supermax
810 with archiver
810
MIO
BB with floppy board
xf551 duel drive
XF551 with update
xf551
XDM801
star nx 1000
SIO2SD
1020
several tape drives
850
indus GT
James
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There is a capactor issue, but there can be other problems. Does the head move when powered up?
If not, it sounds like a lack of 12v. if the head does move, then it would be a motor/ motor drive problem.
The 12V problem can be linked to 2 of the large capactors and 2 diodes as well as a regulator.
James
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Are there any options today for getting stuff like 3 1/2 inch drives or a clock cart for Spartdos X for the 8-bits? I know there are a number of hard drive solutions for the 8-bits available but being able to use a 3 1/2 floppy would be very useful today as well.Plus since Sunmark no longer makes the clock cart this is a needed thing also, especially now with the new Spartados X.
Are these two things available anywhere that I might have missed?
Allan
One option for the 3.5 drive is to get a XF551 and mod it. There are instructions and kits around to do this. tho this is only for 720K
2nd option would be to get a parrallel interface device that supports 3.5 drives. One such device is the BlackBox with floppy board.
This will support 1.4 meg 3.5 drives.
With USB stick and SD card interfaces avilable now, why would you want one?
How easy is it to get 3.5 floppies today?
cannot help with the RTC tho i do believe some people in Europe have done something with a SDX, RTC combo that is internal.
James
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Hi all,Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?
I had access to one back in '85, borrowed it from a friend to replace my troublesome CardCo interface. At one occasion I opened it up out of curiosity and drew out the schematic. Turned out to be a relatively simple design featuring a romless Z8. Could not dump the contents of the rom (2316 2Kb maskrom), though, as it was soldered in. IIRC the (single sided) PCB's layout contained an error, I think it had 2 swapped address lines compared to the reference design for the Z8.
I'm thinking of rebuilding one myself just for the fun of it, but I need the rom contents. Does anybody have these available? Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.
re-atari
here are pics of my interface.
hope they are of some use.
James
p.s what is the processor type? Have found a datasheet of one that apears to have the same pinout Z86C21.
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Hi all,Has anybody already dumped the contents of the rom inside the APE-face printer interface and is willing to upload?
I had access to one back in '85, borrowed it from a friend to replace my troublesome CardCo interface. At one occasion I opened it up out of curiosity and drew out the schematic. Turned out to be a relatively simple design featuring a romless Z8. Could not dump the contents of the rom (2316 2Kb maskrom), though, as it was soldered in. IIRC the (single sided) PCB's layout contained an error, I think it had 2 swapped address lines compared to the reference design for the Z8.
I'm thinking of rebuilding one myself just for the fun of it, but I need the rom contents. Does anybody have these available? Also, if anybody has them, images of the top and bottom of the PCB would be very helpful as well, so I can verify if the layout indeed had an error.
re-atari
I just fished mine out and had a look. It has only 1 chip in it. Cannot get a number off it due to it not having one, only has apeface copyright notice.
The board has space for 2 extra chips, one 24pin rom size and a 2nd that is 22 pin. I can take pics of this one if you like . it is Apeface XLP.
James
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first thing I would do is to check/replace the capactors on the power supply board. This power supply board supplies +5v, +12v and -5v.
I have one and on mine, the video and audio go into a lm3086 (i think from memory) transistor array on the mother board. I found cross talk between the video to the audio section.
Replacing this chip helped my case but it wasn't a complete fix
James
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SpartaDOS X 4.42
in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted
That is interesting. I have never had any problems with Mac65 and SDX. I cannot remember if I had 4.19 or not.
I did however swap processors till I got a good one to run SDX, Rtime8, mac65 and mio all at once.
I must say my mac65 is a special that I made that also has action,basicxl and basicxe.
James