re-atari

Is Stefan Wachter active on the ABBUC-forum, or has ABBUC already tried to get in touch with him? Seems to me he is a really valuable source of information not only about disk protection techniques, but the hardware side of both the diskdrives and Happy/Speedy/Turbo upgrades as well. It would be cool to read his stories about his A8 years and the development of his programs. re-atari

A pal of mine, Guus Assmann, designed a similar upgrade already back in '86-'87. He also included a hardware realtime clock, could be either a OKI 5832 or a Motorola 146818, and a 6520/6821 PIA based printer port. Schematics and PCB layout were published in Atari Magazine (NL). The PCB was really big. I wonder if The Byte Attic was inspired by his design. If so, it would be nice of him to mention it and give credit where credit is due. re-atari

This subject was already discussed here some 6 years ago. Take a look at: Depotting can be done with Nitromors, though I'm not sure if it will work in this particular case. re-atari

Thanx, the error in post 4 is corrected now! re-atari

There's a (rare) 2763 eprom on the PCB, should be compatible with a 2764. The partnrs. on the other eproms are not clearly readable, though. Which file(s) is/are the dumps of these 4 eproms? Try to draw a schematic of this cartridge, interesting to see what it's supposed to do. re-atari

I fully understand your reluctance to desolder the eprom, seeing the 'quality' of the traces I would be anxious about damaging it too. De hele print is nogal een amateuristisch 'bak- en braadwerk', verbazingwekkend dat de speeder werkt! re-atari

BTW: I made a typo in post 4. I incorrectly wrote that pin 27 of the 27128 eprom is connected to +5V via a 10K resistor and to GND via a wire or switch, but should have written pin 26 (A13 on 27128, NC on 2764). Sadly I can't correct this typo in post 4. re-atari

Ach ja, had het kunnen weten dat de drive in 'oldrunner' mode de commando's om de firmware te dumpen niet kan uitvoeren... I'd like to see a photo of the solder side of your CC7. It will resemble the speeder on the atached photos. I should have the pinout of the track display pinheader on the left side of the PCB in my archive somewhere, will take a look.

I can confirm the speeder in the 1st post is an Irata speeder. I found a few photos of an original one in my archive. They seem to be identical in both components and layout. See the attached photos. I think yours is a homebrew or (more likely) a preproduction one, as the (c) and (m) text notices are missing from the solder side and component side and it's missing the typical green solder mask. As the through holes are metallised, it looks like a professionally built PCB, though. Strange to find this on a homebrew one, as PCB's with metallised through holes were quite expensive to produce back then. For homebrew purposes soldering a piece of wire on both sides of the PCB sufficed just as well. Sadly I don't have a romdump of the original Irata speeder in my archive, it'd be interesting to see if and to what extend your rom differs with the rom of the original. re-atari

More than 10 years ago I had a little project to try connecting a PC drive to a 1050 PCB. From the TM-50 and TM-100 PC drive schematics I had learned that the 1050's electronics are very similar. Roughly said everything between the front of the 1050's PCB and the 5 large IC's (CPU, FDC, RIOT etc.) is identical to the TM-50/TM-100. Due to the TM-100 being a double head drive, said circuitry is present twice on it. I abandoned the project due to lack of time and prospects of incompatibilities. There should be some posts by me on this subject hidden deeply in AA's archive. Sadly I lost both the TM-50 and the TM-100 PC drive schematics when one of the harddrives in my 2-bay NAS died all of a sudden without any warning (thanks Seagate for installing cheapskate desktop harddrives in your BlackArmor NAS...). I'm sure the schematics are still available for download somewhere, but just can't remember where I had found them back then. IIRC it was on a website about early TRS-80 models. re-atari

The attached document (in German language) by Bernhard Engl might give you some inspiration. Take note he did not build the described interface, it was more of a survey if and how building a 1050 clone using a PC drive could be done. re-atari tech-doc_1050-klon.pdf

The enhancement in post #1 looks like a Irata speeder. The enhancement in post #2 is definitely a Copy Card 7 clone, a Happy compatible speeder. A hardware hacker enhanced it with a track display, which the original CC7 did not have. The header with Amphenol connector provides all pins to connect 3 led's indicating density and a 2 digit trackdisplay. This display could either be a common cathode or common anode type. You'd select the type through a wire jumper on the PCB. Apparently the 1050's previous owner thought it useful to connect the track display via the sub-D connector at the back. Didn't you receive the trackdisplay together with the 1050? The CC7 clone has a 27128 eprom, which has 16K devided in 2 8K blocks. One block contains the Happy compatible firmware, the other 'oldrunner' firmware to make the drive behave like a standard 1050 (sometimes needed for running copyprotected software). Eprom pin 26 is connected via a 10K resistor to +5V and a wire or switch to GND. You'd choose the standard firmware or the 'oldrunner' firmware by closing or opening this switch. It would be interesting to see the eprom's contents, but you'd need to make a dump of the 2 blocks of the firmware to have the entire contents. Groeten, re-atari

Hi Lenore, I haven't logged in for quite a while, so missed this question. Sadly I haven't been able to find a ROM dump. I did contact Richard2112 by PM or email, but IIRC he never got back to me. Maybe my mail got lost somewhere along the way. Workrelated requirements got in the way shortly afterwards, and I never got back to the subject later on. re-atari

I guess it's slightly off-topic, but there's an interview on Youtube with Dona Bailey, Centipede's original creator/programmer. Check it out at: re-atari

You do how the black tulip mania ended, don't you? The crowd madness all of sudden collapsed completely overnight without any specific reason, prices of tulip bulbs plummeting to only a fraction of what they were before. It caused a lot of people to lose lots of money or even go bankrupt. I'd call it the first documented pyramid scheme (or scam) in history, caused by speculation fuelled by greed of the 'not so initiated' in the trade. Something similar has happened with another hobby of mine, collecting (Marklin) model trains, which I've been doing since the 1970's. About 20 years ago model trains were discovered as a good way of investment, with predictable consequenses for the 'esteemed value' of items. Right up to pure speculation with certain models built in the 50's and 60's (like the CCS800 Crocodile locomotive). The last couple of years common sense has gradually sunk in along with (or maybe because of) a flood of collections for sale, eg. after a collector's death, and the investment hype quickly faded away. Because of this prices have been falling ever since, especially so with the models that were once regarded as a good investment item. Personally I have never really cared about the value of my model train collection, just enjoy the beauty of watching them on display in the cabinet on the wall. Never felt the urge to get carried away in the investment hype, and pay overinflated prices for specific items just for the sake of owning them, either. Value is just a matter of perception and a result of your own definition. The 1200XL madness will probably fall through as well. Until then, if you don't think the items on eBay are worth the asking price, just ignore the gold digger sellers and let it pass. re-atari