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320K 130 XE, who can upgrade?


sniperstorm

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Has anyone upgraded a 65XE with the 320K Peterson method? Best charges $38.55 for their kit plus shipping. Apparently only possible with the 8 chip version of the 65XE and not the 2 chip version which were the later release.

Edited by Tezz
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And Best do a kit for 20 bux

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/130xe.htm

 

I used this Best kit to do my 320K upgrade, I don't remember if the instructions were the Peterson mod or another, but they are the same as one of the 320K mods downloadable from the net. I of course knew this when I purchased it, it's just a more convenient way of getting everything you need in one place. Well worth the price, and with tax should just make the $20 minimum Best E. has on mail order sales.

 

I'm actually getting ready to sell mine over this coming weekend. Mine is a fully restored 130XE with a new paint job, with true-to-original color, professionally done. Also a brand-new Keyboard, PAL Antic upgrade (so it's compatible with all the cool Euro demos that require 128-320k, like Numen, as well as virtually any NTSC or PAL software), Pokey stereo and of course the 320k. look for it for auction starting sometime between Feb. 23rd and 25th

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And Best do a kit for 20 bux

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/130xe.htm

 

I used this Best kit to do my 320K upgrade, I don't remember if the instructions were the Peterson mod or another, but they are the same as one of the 320K mods downloadable from the net. I of course knew this when I purchased it, it's just a more convenient way of getting everything you need in one place. Well worth the price, and with tax should just make the $20 minimum Best E. has on mail order sales.

 

I'm actually getting ready to sell mine over this coming weekend. Mine is a fully restored 130XE with a new paint job, with true-to-original color, professionally done. Also a brand-new Keyboard, PAL Antic upgrade (so it's compatible with all the cool Euro demos that require 128-320k, like Numen, as well as virtually any NTSC or PAL software), Pokey stereo and of course the 320k. look for it for auction starting sometime between Feb. 23rd and 25th

 

Pics? what do you use to paint it

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The Peterson mod describes a 65xe/130xe upgrade so what's the difference between the two upgrades? is it just more mem chips required? Best charges $20 for the 130xe upgrade but $38.55 for the 65xe upgrade? i don't know what's required differently for the 65xe upgrade? the mem chips are only $0.88 each so why is there an $18.55 difference in bests solution? as far as I can see from the docs even with the required Atari custom chip, it'll only cost a few dollars to diy

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I did several 65XE to 320XE upgrades. The only difference is the custom IC. I bought 1/2 a dozen of these from Best at a computer show at Wembley when Brad used to visit the UK. Cleaning out the empty memory bank of solder on the motherboard is the main pig with these. A mate gave me a desolder station with an electric pump eventually, bless him. The price is probably related to how often these get requested and earning a crust more than pure material cost. I have no idea if the kits include socket or desolder wick....

 

Algie

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And Best do a kit for 20 bux

http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/130xe.htm

 

I used this Best kit to do my 320K upgrade, I don't remember if the instructions were the Peterson mod or another, but they are the same as one of the 320K mods downloadable from the net. I of course knew this when I purchased it, it's just a more convenient way of getting everything you need in one place. Well worth the price, and with tax should just make the $20 minimum Best E. has on mail order sales.

 

I'm actually getting ready to sell mine over this coming weekend. Mine is a fully restored 130XE with a new paint job, with true-to-original color, professionally done. Also a brand-new Keyboard, PAL Antic upgrade (so it's compatible with all the cool Euro demos that require 128-320k, like Numen, as well as virtually any NTSC or PAL software), Pokey stereo and of course the 320k. look for it for auction starting sometime between Feb. 23rd and 25th

 

Pics? what do you use to paint it

 

There will be full pics on the auction. I use high-quality enamel spray paint, professionally applied. If I didn't tell you, you would never know it had ever been painted by looking at it, even upon live inspection. It looks like a stock 130XE in mint condition (even has a new Atari plate/badge I got from MetalGuy66). The reason it was repainted was due to severe sun-yellowing across half of it. That's also the main reason the keyboard was replaced with a new one, the old one worked, but looked terrrible from sun-yellowing. This was a labor-of-love restoration and upgrade project from the start. Below is a picture of it as it is now, except I have a new Atari plate/badge on it with the Atari name in original blazing red, the plate/badge in this picture is the old one, with a faded Atari name that's more orange than red.

post-149-1172347632_thumb.jpg

Edited by Gunstar
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There will be full pics on the auction. I use high-quality enamel spray paint, professionally applied. If I didn't tell you, you would never know it had ever been painted by looking at it, even upon live inspection. It looks like a stock 130XE in mint condition (even has a new Atari plate/badge I got from MetalGuy66). The reason it was repainted was due to severe sun-yellowing across half of it. That's also the main reason the keyboard was replaced with a new one, the old one worked, but looked terrrible from sun-yellowing. This was a labor-of-love restoration and upgrade project from the start. It can be seen now, here on AA in the "Show us your Atari in it's REAL natural habitat" thread.
That's sounds like an impressive finish. I've resprayed cases in the past and did a pc laptop a few weeks back with silver enamel spray. The finish with the enamel spray is great however it doesn't ware at all so I have to use a sealer spray over it which is not easy to get a good finish with. I've tried using a cutting compound to even the coat out but that wasn't great. How did you achieve your finish? did you use a spray that is hard waring without sealer? The photo looks good btw ;) Regards, Tezz Edited by Tezz
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I've heard that rubbing the case down with very fine wire wool will get most of the sun yellowing out as the chemical change to the plastic with the uv damage only effects the very surface so I intend to use this method when my 65XE's arrive. If they're in a bad state that is. I've also read that soaking the case in water with a bleaching tablet made to go in washing machines can take the surface uv damage out too but I would doubt that suggestion

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There will be full pics on the auction. I use high-quality enamel spray paint, professionally applied. If I didn't tell you, you would never know it had ever been painted by looking at it, even upon live inspection. It looks like a stock 130XE in mint condition (even has a new Atari plate/badge I got from MetalGuy66). The reason it was repainted was due to severe sun-yellowing across half of it. That's also the main reason the keyboard was replaced with a new one, the old one worked, but looked terrrible from sun-yellowing. This was a labor-of-love restoration and upgrade project from the start. It can be seen now, here on AA in the "Show us your Atari in it's REAL natural habitat" thread.
That's sounds like an impressive finish. I've resprayed cases in the past and did a pc laptop a few weeks back with silver enamel spray. The finish with the enamel spray is great however it doesn't ware at all so I have to use a sealer spray over it which is not easy to get a good finish with. I've tried using a cutting compound to even the coat out but that wasn't great. How did you achieve your finish? did you use a spray that is hard waring without sealer? The photo looks good btw ;) Regards, Tezz

 

It is Rustoleum indoor-outdoor enamel that is made for metal, wood, plastic and other surfaces. It is a hard enough finish that it doesn't need a sealer coat. I've been using it(130XE) for about a year now and it still looks the same, the paint has not rubbed off or anything.

 

There is nothing that will take out sun-yellowing without removing some of the plastic which in turn destroys the original textured finish. Re-painting is the best way to go if you know how to paint it properly for even, streak/drip-free coats, and it preserves the surface texture too. I don't even like the idea of using a sealer as it will then be too thick and the plastic's texture will be lost. Just start with quality enamel spraypaint and that is all you need along with skill at painting properly. In most cases a good job can be accomplished just by strictly following the spray instructions on the can. Don't be anxious.

Edited by Gunstar
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I've heard that rubbing the case down with very fine wire wool will get most of the sun yellowing out as the chemical change to the plastic with the uv damage only effects the very surface so I intend to use this method when my 65XE's arrive. If they're in a bad state that is. I've also read that soaking the case in water with a bleaching tablet made to go in washing machines can take the surface uv damage out too but I would doubt that suggestion

 

I wouldn't recommend wire wool, it may remove the sun-yellowed layer, but it will destroy the texture and it will look like it has been sanded down with wire wool. Not what I would call a restorative process. Painting is the way to go, and is a common alternative to colored plastic in the electronics industry anyway. Many electronic items, even if they are made of plastic instead of metal, are still painted at the factory. Many cellphones are like this, and the Atari Lynx model one is another example.

 

On the other hand, not all yellowing is due to the sun, sometimes it is from cigarette smoke, and this CAN be removed with a strong cleaning agent. I just recently got a 520ST that was yellowed in this way, but after an extensive cleaning, with 'AWSOME' all purpose concentrated cleaner, degreaser and spot remover, the 520ST looks like new again.

Edited by Gunstar
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I wouldn't recommend wire wool, it may remove the sun-yellowed layer, but it will destroy the texture and it will look like it has been sanded down with wire wool. Not what I would call a restorative process. Painting is the way to go, and is a common alternative to colored plastic in the electronics industry anyway. Many electronic items, even if they are made of plastic instead of metal, are still painted at the factory. Many cellphones are like this, and the Atari Lynx model one is another example.
Yes, that's very true! A lot of the plastic components are sprayed. In part of my job I used design and build laptops for a Spanish company and all off the case parts were indeed sprayed. particularly noticable on the latches for the case lid which had overspray on the parts you couldn't see inside in chasis. A few years back when all these newer non beige pc cases were appearing we used to regularly spray the drive bezels and other parts as it took a while for the colour options to catch up with the other stuff. I suppose many others did that too.
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On the other hand, not all yellowing is due to the sun, sometimes it is from cigarette smoke, and this CAN be removed with a strong cleaning agent. I just recently got a 520ST that was yellowed in this way, but after an extensive cleaning, with 'AWSOME' all purpose concentrated cleaner, degreaser and spot remover, the 520ST looks like new again.
I'm hoping that's gonna be possible for mine. I just bought 4 Atari STs 4 800XLs and 3 65XEs. I'm only keeping one of the 65XE's which i'm gonna restore and upgrade, the rest will be restored and released into the wild :P ... just kidding.. well back into good Atari homes I hope at least :D
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What is the advantage of having 320k? Are there any applications that can take advantage of the extra memory over 128k?

Well, there's not a huge amount taking advantage of 320k, some demos do like Numen for example. with development still happening here for this machine like emulators and some games which are pushing the possiblilities of the A8, requiring more than 128k. The emulators such as Atari800Win+ simulate the RAM upgrades so the extra memory is being utilised moreso these days as well
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What is the advantage of having 320k? Are there any applications that can take advantage of the extra memory over 128k?

 

There are demos and such that use up to 320k, though most fall between the 128-256k ram. But becuase of emulators and flash memory technology(as well as memory upgrades on real machines becoming much more common), new software is being created to take advantage of 128K or more memory (like The XE Space Harrier game in development right now). But, there have also been utlilities around for a decade or two like 'Snapshot' which allows you to load two or more completely different programs into memory at once, depending on memory capacity, and swap between them on the fly at a touch of a button. Also many long games, like RPGs, that were once spread across 2 or more disks, with repeated loading, are now being adapted to both high memory cartridges like the Atarimax 8Mb flash cartridge, or Sunmark's own large memory cartridges as well as for extended memory computers/emulators to load the entire code and data into the machine at once and do away with disk loading and swapping. Last but not least, the extra memory can also be used as Ramdisk virtual memory disk drives, which is an option used since the beginning of memory upgrades all the way back the the Axlon 128K board for the original 800 computer. Many older utility suites like Synfile+/Syncalc+, some wordprocessors, etc. will look for/or can be set-up to use ALL memory available.

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SOLD! Man, that went FAST! I put it up for auction about 1:00 A.M. and I checked at about 11 this morning and it already sold! I think I should have asked for more, but I just wasn't sure what it would go for. I'll be lucky if I made my investment in money on the restoration&upgrade back, and definately time, but I didn't keep track. It was a labor of love though... http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...p;rd=1&rd=1

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