Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'sio2pc'.
-
atari 8bits creating a USB2SIO cable and installing Respeqt
hloberg posted a blog entry in HLO projects
Creating a SIO2PC cable for the Atari 8-bits with RespeQt is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get virtual drives for the Atari and also one of the best. He's a little how to on creating the cable and getting RespeQt up and running. Not to long ago I built an S-Drive for the Atari (see this blog). Also a fairly cheap and good virtual drive solution. It's portable and easy to use. But it does have one drawback, for me anyway. I do a lot of my development on my PC using Altirra and cross-compilers. So if I want to test a file on real-iron I have to pull the SD card from the S-drive, upload the file from the PC to the SD-card, remove the SD-card from the PC then put it back in the S-drive, fire up the Atari and load in the file to the Atari. A bit cumbersome procedure because of how fiddly it is to pull and re-insert that SD card in my S-drive. But with the SIO2PC and the RespeQt I can leave the Atari attached to the PC and just run the file straight on the Atari, no fiddling with cards. What you will need. You will need an SIO2PC cable and a copy of RespeQt. If you are running RespeQt on Windows you will also need a USB driver. There are several ways to create a SIO2PC cable. I chose the one recommended in the RespeQt documentation. A 'FTDI USB to Serial Adapter TTL Cable 5V 6 Pin UART Female Header Converter FT232' pictured here: I got my USB cable from eBay for $16 shipped. Lots of other places also carries the same or similar cable for about that price. You will also need some way to attach the USB cable to the Atari. I got an SIO plug head at vintagecomputercenter for $6+shipping. Any old SIO cable could work as well but I didn't have an old SIO cable at the time. Assembling the SIO2PC cable. First off 'The modern Atari 8-bit computer' does an excellent tutorial on creating a cable and setting up the RespeQt software. Watch Here. I would watch this first then but come back to this blog as he does skim over some important details. Back, good. Now when I got my USB cable it turned out that the colors of the wires weren't the colors listed by 'modern Atari' or in the RespeQt documentation. Bummer. So I had to do a little more research and create me a chart that could be used with my wire colors on my USB. Here's what I made: SIO (pin) my USB cable type green (5) (yellow) RXD black (4) (black) GND orange (3) (orange) TXD looking from the back of the connector You only need to connect three lines from the SIO to the USB; RXD, TXD and Ground. The color chart above was from a SIO2MIDI project someone once posted. The colors on the SIO 'should' always be the same. On the USB, maybe. Check your documentation that comes with your USB for it's color to signal type. I cut the head off the USB cable then tested fitted the USB cable to the SIO plugs and inserted them into the SIO head unit. Then I tested plugging in the SIO head into the Atari. Fit was good. Now on to the software. Setting up the RespeQt sofware If you are using RespeQt on a Windows 7-11 machine you will need a driver: CDM21228_Setup.zip Run the setup software for the driver on your PC before installing the RespeQt software. This will create the virtual COM port you that will need for RespeQqt. At this point you can attach the SIO2PC into a USB port on your PC. It 'should' find the right driver and create a virtual COM port on your PC. Now the RespeQt software. get it here: https://github.com/RespeQt/RespeQt Be sure you download the latest release and READ the bug list. v5.3 has a bug that will brick 'THE CART!' if you try flashing a copy to it. There are multiple packages for multiple PCs. I downloaded the Win64 package and it came with all kinds of goodies. In the package was the RespeQt software and all the .dlls needed, three ATASCII fonts for Windows (load them), a manual, how to create a USB2PC cable, how to compile the program and several Atari 8-bit programs, of which, I so far haven't needed (you might so check them out). To run the RespeQt software you will only need to copy the RespeQt directory from the .ZIP onto someplace on your PC. To execute the RespeQt software just click on the RespeQt.exe. This will start the setup routine for the software. For the FTDI USB pick the virtual COM port the driver software created. Then chose HANDSHAKE method of 'Software(SIO2BT)'. I found this handshake method the most stable but you can also choose NONE which is a bit faster but can be a bit unstable at times. The setup screen: The handshake of SOFTWARE(SIO2BT) loads the Atari software at about standard Atari drive speeds. Not fast, but also not too slow. I tested some high speed SIO routines but none seemed to work. If you set the handshake to NONE the high speed routines do work but under certain situations I had trouble loading. Note: printing doesn't currently work in Windows version. Try to print will usually result in crashing the program. The programmer is aware of this issue and is working on a fix. After you have tested the cable and the software you can now close up and solder the SIO plug head. Note the little bit of tape I used around the cable so the shell would clamp the wire tightly. The only real problem I had with the shell is the supplied screw was too short. I got another screw and it worked fine. Summary RespeQt has a lot of capabilities to it. I can run .ATR files, it can load from PC directories, it can be set to boot OSB automatically and bunch more. I managed to load almost all of my files except 'Music Construction Set' which is my only .ATX file. .ATX support is still under development. A side project from another set of programmers, which may or may not come to fruition, is including an N: network device. Would be nice. That's it, cheap and very useful, the RespeQT with an SIO2PC. -
I have been back using my Atari 800 XL for about six months now. I bought a MyIDE cart to backup all my old floppies. Most of them were still readable. I did not really like the MyIDE cart though. Well, the cart is fine, it's mainly the patched O.S. It's a pity it doesn't support mixing SIO and IDE devices very well. So, I dug out my old SIO2PC cables. I had one MAX232 version and one using an MC1489. Both looked like crap (they were soldered very badly) so I decided to rebuild one. I "designed" a small PCB for the MAX232 version. Here it is: Schematic: PCB: (normal and mirrored version) Component placement:
-
- 2
-
- sio2pc
- electronics
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hello guys After drooling over AtariMax's "SIO2PC Universal USB DUAL SIO Jacks", I finally bought one a couple of month ago. Without noticing that AtariMax doesn't seem to have Mac software available. So now the question is: How do I get this to work on the iMac (running High Sierra public beta 2)? Sincerely Mathy
-
Hi Everyone, I'm ~30 years late to the party but I finally bought my first Atari computer this week, the 800XL!! As a complete beginner to Atari and this whole scene I'm excited but also a little confused and would love some advice. The computer came with a 1010 Cassette deck (I've replaced the belts) and about 8 games on cassette - the computer and tape deck work fine but unfortunately none of the games load, I keep getting BOOT ERROR - so I haven't been been able to do anything on it yet The main purpose of this is for games, programming (basic and assembly) and the general fun of discovering what this thing can do. I have seen many great looking devices such as: sio2pc, sio2bt, sio2sd, Ultimate 1MB, Side2, Pokey Stereo Sound Where do I start, what should I get? importantly, who should I get these things from and what should I avoid? Please tell me which devices you have yourself, what you found the most and least useful and your recommendations. Thanks to everyone in advance - hopefully this post can help future noobs like me. All the best - I look forward to some good advice!
-
Can the serial version be used to connect a modem or other RS232 device to the Atari? Is there an R handler for it? I looked around but didn't find an answer. Looking for a relatively cheap way to add RS232 port without having to buy an 850 or PR. Thanx Wade
-
It's been a while since posting, but I found some time to (re-)start the daunting task of archiving my fl[oi]ppy collection. As I am in possession of both a Raspberry Pi (raspi) and SIO2PC hardware, I thought about putting both to good use. Archiving my floppy collection is something I think of as good use. I wrote about my setup here before, so I will leave the details of installing the raspi and sio2bsd toolkit out of this post, if you need help with either, check my other posts, or send a PM. For the Atari side of things, I start with booting the recommended 'Copymate XE 3.7'. I have two 1050's connected to my Atari (D1 and D2), so after booting the copymate application from the raspi, I kill the sio2bsd application and run the diskarchive.sh script I wrote for the archiving job. The script is a quick hack to speed up the job a bit of manually starting sio2bsd all the time. In the script, there are three variables that need to be adapted to your own setup: BLANCO=( "/var/www/html/disks/Blank_MD130k.atr" "/var/www/html/disks/Blank_SD90k.atr" "/var/www/html/disks/Blank_DD180k.atr" ) DISKDIR="/var/www/html/disks/_personal/" SIOPARM="-s /dev/ttyUSB0 - - - ${DISKDIR}" The BLANCO array contains a list of blank disks that I created that are copied to a new location with the name you enter for your disk. Note that the order of the image locations matter, as they are used later in the script if you need to switch to another density for the destination disk. I default to the 130k image when using the script. String DISKDIR tells where to store the archive of images you're about to create. In this direcory, for each image you will create, there will be three files: .atr (the actual image), .nfo (the one line descriptive text you entered, more about that later) and .log (the output of the sio2bsd tool during the creation of the image). The other string SIOPARM has the parameters for the sio2bsd program used. Remember, if you use a level converter to the GPIO ports of your raspi, you need to change ttyUSB0 to ttyAMA0. In the above example settings, the image drive will be D4. Copymate XE When the application starts, it display usage information, but after you press a key on that screen, the program guides itself on the main screen. Tip: If you haven't started the script and/or turned on your drives, do that first (and make sure the script is actualy running sio2bsd (enter disk name and description)) then press the RESET button on the Atari so the program will redetect(?) the active drives. diskarchive.sh I think the script is self explanatory to me that is, but then again, I wrote it. It asks for some info before starting the sio2bsd program, but remember, it will kill all running instances of sio2bsd! So when you run the script, it prompts for the 'Disk Name', the filename that will be stored (threefold) in the archive directory. Stick to letters and numbers, no spaces and you'll be fine. Up next is the 'One line description for the disk', where you can enter some text describing the content of the disk. Don't make it too complex but the input is less restrictive than the Disk Name. Now the script will spin up sio2bsd on D4 so copymate can write to it. Make sure the Source and Destination drives on the Atari are correct and press START to start archiving your first disk. If for some reason, your source floppy is not in the enhanced density format but is single density, press the s key and the script will restart sio2bsd with a blank SD image, if that is what the second item in the BLANCO array is. Once the copy is completed, press any key (but the 'e', 's' and 'd' keys) to continue to the next disk. If you're done archiving for the day, enter 'q' as disk name, to quit the script. You'll find the script attached to this post. Copy it to a location you prefer (your home directory on the raspi ?) and run it as root (sudo ~/diskarchive.sh). NOTE: I haven't bothered to remove the message './diskarchive.sh: line 3: 2201 Killed sio2bsd ${SIOPARM}${DISK}.atr 2>&1 > ${DISKDIR}${DISK}.log' you'll see when switching disks. If it really is a concern, let me know. diskarchive.zip
-
I have an Atari 800XL and a 1050 drive. I have old games, written when I was in junior high, and I would like to move them to the PC, where I can casually enjoy them via emulation. Likewise, I have recently hacked a couple A8 games (Popeye and Donkey Kong Jr). I would like to be able to enjoy them on my ACTUAL 800XL hardware. I really liked the idea of Lotharek's SIO2SD. However, I heard it can be tedious to cycle through a lot of software with 1 line of text and 4 buttons. Even though it would require my laptop nearby, I think I am leaning toward the SIO2PC/SIO2USB solution. The problem is that there are two different items with the same name. (One uses caps in the product name). Which one is the most versatile and uses the best software. AtariMax has an SIO2USB, and I have been eyeing that for a long time. My understanding is that it uses WinAPE software. Lotharek has an sio2usb. It is tiny -- the size of an sio plug. I am not sure what software works with it, but he seems to have a lot of good stuff. So WHICH ONE? I would like to be able to use .atr AND .xex files. Can either of these units handle both formats? Which one has easier to use software? Will either one be better for transferring my old games TO the PC? (Will they both act as a 1050 emulator to my PC?) Is it possible that neither of these will work for my purpose, and I need to go SIO2SD? Finally, are there any solutions I am missing? I have searched SIO2USB and SIO2PC in the forums, and I seem to get way too many irrelevant posts..
-
Using the SIO2PC, is it possible to save BASIC programs from my Atari 800XL to PC? I can send ATR images from PC to Atari, but can it go other way round? Do I need DOS or something? Thanks, sorry if this seems like a silly question
- 9 replies
-
- 1
-
- atari800xl
- sio2pc
-
(and 2 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hello I'm rather new to this, and I was wanting a little help. I recently bought an Atari 800xl and 1050 because they were going cheap and I loved it and the software packaged. However, I soon bought a SIO2PC thinking I could get ATR images off internet and run them on atari. I bought the serial cable model, and a serial adapter (I thought my pc had a serial port, alas, only usb) but when running the APE it throws up the error "[device manager] rs232 driver failed to initialize (usb only mode enabled)". The drivers are correctly installed as far as I'm aware, it says the serial adapter is in COM port 4, I don't know if this makes a difference. Thanks for your time
-
Hi again... Sorry to keep posting so much, but I'm in the market for an SIO2PC cable, and I noticed there are several manufacturers. I've kind of narrowed it down to the Atarimax http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/ or Atari8warez http://www.atari8warez.com/support.html versions. The Atarimax seems to be the original and "gold standard", but it's quite expensive. I'd probably get the serial port one if I went that direction, since it's much cheaper. Would that work with a standard serial to usb adapter if necessary? I'm also reading that there's no Linux support and you have to pay for the APE software? Is that true? The Atari8warez one is much cheaper, especially for USB, but I'm not sure if the software is as good as Atarimax's APE. I presume that the interface software for these things are propretary, and I can't use Atarimax's APE with Atari8warez's product... or is the interface universal and it doesn't matter what software I use on what hardware? Any comments, opinions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
-
Hey, people. I have the entire Scott Adams Graphic Adventure (S.A.G.A.) collection for the Atari 800. My son's gotten into them as well, and I want to set them up for him on an emulator, but I've been unable to find disk images for most of these games (the text adventures are readily available but the graphical versions seem hard to find,) and my FC5025 won't read the second side of the disks. Does somebody have these? Or is it time for me to buck up and get an SIO2PC thingy of some sort? Thanks! Reverend -=ShoEboX=-
- 7 replies
-
- s.a.g.a.
- adventure international
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hi all, Someone asked about this, so I thought I'd make a quick video to show it off. This is my sio2pc setup that I recently put together. Here. Basically, a mini-itx mobo w/ i5 processor. 2 2600daptors(mounted inside case). dual-port sio2pc from atarimax(also mounted inside). running altirra and ape(registered). touch screen interface. pretty tight fit with the power supply and all... probably could have had plenty more room if I'd thought it out better in advance, but it runs cool enough.
-
I am interested in making my own SIO2PC. I came across the FTDI Friend from Adafruit for $14.75. Would that board work? I see the signal logic level is 3.3V by default, but I think the Atari SIO port is 5V. If the logic levels are okay, then I should just be able to use jumper wire to connect the headers directly to pins on the SIO port, right?
-
Doing a refit of one of my SIO2SD units (Retr0Brite, new LCD, etc), and I fancy adding activity lights on the SIO2PC component: I did this on a unit I made for AA member Philsan, but that one had an AtariMax SIO2PC in it, with ready-made hook-ups for the LEDs. This one is the standard home-made MAX232/RS232 version. What I have in mind is two additional LEDs on the front: one for transmit, one for receive. Any ideas how best to wire these up to the back of the DB9?
-
Well I got sio2pc working awesome. It's set up for two different laptops one fairly modern dell and an old old toshiba. Idealy I want to take my dell out of the mix all together. Reason is I use my dell constently in the living room and I dont like moving it back and forth to the game room. Although my old toshiba does what I want it to do its far from ideal. The main reason is I have yet to get Aspeqt running on it. Now this laptop is very old its running windows 95. I have no problem running winape on it other then the fact that winape is kinda anoying. I did try to install Aspeqt on there but I get a message saying its missing a .dll file. I have not experimented any further then that. Before I open this can of worms my question is can I even run Aspeqt under win 95 or am I just gona run into another problem after I install the .dll file? Next question Id kinda like to get rid of win 95 altogether. Is there possibly some legacy version of linux that I could run Aspeqt under on a pc this old? And finaly would I be better off just giving up on the old toshiba all together? Id realy like to put it to some use and I think using it as a dedicated virtual drive for my atari would be sweet. So I thought id ask the gurus if this was possible or just a pipe dream. Thanks for your help.
-
A while back I was trying to figure out a way to daisy chain both my sio2pc devices just because I was sick of disconnecting and reconnecting them. I do switch between the two depending on what im trying to do. I started a thread but never really got the answers I needed. Then a little while back at a thrift store I found something that gave me some inspiration. It's a belkin data switch from 1999 (good news its y2k compliant). It's just a parallel port switcher but I figured I could turn it into an sio switch for my sio2pc rs232 and my sio2pc usb. So I did. I just hooked up the switch at the sio end of both my sio2pc devices. Anyway I thought I'd show it off just cuz I think its pretty sweet. So here are some pics. Also I was wondering if anyone knew how to put an led on an sio2pc device using the 14c89 chip. Id kinda like to have a little led above each of the two inputs that gets all blinky when I'm transferring data. That would be really sweet.
-
If I have 2 sio2pc cables is there a way that I can daisy chain one into the other? The idea being my 1050 boots dos as D1: My laptop A is D2: via serial rs232 interface. My computer B is D3: via sio2pc rs232 to usb interface. The idea seems simple enough to me but the both these are chain enders. How hard would it be to daisy chain one into the other permanently. In a way where I could theoretically use one the other or both? That's what I'm working with. Its pretty pretty basic stuff the simplest 14c82 chip. This should be possible right it seems like it should be kinda basic stuff. Or am I way off on that?
-
built my SIO2PC RS232... Still got alot to learn...
Dripfree posted a topic in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Well I finally had success tonight. I built my SIO2PC RS232 adapter and after a little trial and error I got it to load Sparta dos. I am incredibly excited now because this is going to really open up a lot of doors for me and my little 800xl. I see that I still got a lot to learn and Id like some info from you guys to help me along. First what file types does ape accept? So far I have only tried ATR. files just cuz I noticed that was what the DOS files that came with it were. Can it handle ATX. or XEX.? If not is there a convertor? I would just do the trial and error method like I usually do but I'm using an old Toshiba laptop I had lying around to interface with my 800. Its the only pc I got with a RS232 port plus I didn't have any other use for It so now its gona be a dedicated extension of my Atari. The only way I have to transfer files to it is by burning cd's. So I don't want to work by trial and error or I'm gona make alot of coasters. Where Is the best place to get files known to work well with ape. I have got a handful from http://atarionline.pl I have had about a 50/50 success rate. Boulder Dash and Tetris worked. Ballblazer wont load, and Rescue on Fractalus loaded but then crashed about 30 seconds into the game. I did finish this thing late and haven't had to much time to play with it. I wanted to type this up before I went to bed so hopefully Ill get some pointers I can try when I get home from work tomorrow. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks much Dripfree. -
From the album: Atari stuff
This 600 XL features: - Supervideo 2.1 XL - Candle´s Ultimate 1 MB - Dual Pokey Stereopcb - SIO2PC all stuff was perfectly put into this device by tfhh/abbuc! thanks© JvR.
-
- ultimate 1mb
- 600 xl
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with: