+orpheuswaking Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 Ok here is the scoop, I have a dead NTSC 130XE (Bad PSU fried it) and a working PAL 65XE but I'm in the US and I don't have a display for any PAL machines... So I have some ideas for my working 800XL machines... I was thinking about the Nir Dal PAL mod for my NTSC 800XL so that I can use the Euro demos and stuff... My questions are if I follow his upgrade and put the PAL antic into the NTSC and get the OS patched will it then output onto a regular NTSC display or am I still needing a PAL display... (was going to steal the ANtic out of the 65XE, along with the Pokey to do the dual pokey upgrade) The other question is what might be salvagable from the 130XE ??? or would all the chips be fried from the bad PSU??? Thanks to all the tech heads in here that I know will point me in the right direction... Also MyIDE internal with IDE-CF or SIO2SD???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) My understanding is that the PAL Antic should generate near enough to a PAL display (ie - 50 frames per second). So, if the TV you have won't handle PAL then I'd doubt that such a modded machine would work on it. I don't see why you'd need a patched OS - the XL/XE OS is universal - it determines whether a machine is PAL/NTSC via the PAL register on ANTIC, and will adjust stuff like keyboard repeat and SIO bps rates accordingly. Edited July 5, 2007 by Rybags Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urchlay Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 None of the chips in either the 65XE or 130XE are going to be socketed... they'll all have to be desoldered. The bad power supply that fried the 130XE, what did it actually do? I just fixed a dead 800XL that was fried by getting 12V power where it was supposed to get 5V. One of the 8 RAM chips was bad, the PIA, the GTIA, and the OS ROM. Everything else was fine... so I'd say the odds of your 130XE being fixable (or being a source of salvageable parts) are pretty good. Most likely, one or more RAMs are bad (the 130XEs mostly have lowest-bidder crappy RAM, so they may all be bad). If you've got a working socketed machine (even an 800XL), you can desolder and test most of the 130XE's chips (the MMU will be different, but the CPU, ANTIC, GTIA, RAM, etc. should be the same). For each chip you desolder, you'll want to solder a socket to the board in its place. Believe it or not, I found a good selection of IC sockets at the local Radio Shack. The only sizes I couldn't find were 24-pin and 28-pin... but they have 40-pin sockets, which you can (carefully) cut down to 24 or 28 pins. The PAL Antic mod still needs a display that can do 50 frames/sec. Unless you swap the GTIA, it'll be a hybrid signal: PAL framerate, but with NTSC color encoding. You might be able to find an older TV or monitor that can display it... didn't you once say you tried a PAL 800XL on one of your monitors and it was black & white but otherwise visible? If so, that monitor will probably work fine with a PAL Antic modded NTSC Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted July 5, 2007 Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) Repairing & modding a damaged Atari is fun, but I don't like breaking a working one in the process, there are plenty of sources for parts. As far as display... I had a PAL 600XL that wasn't working. I repaired it then modified the video circuit to match a working NTSC 600XL I had. It displayed fine. I don't remember swaping out the Antic or GTIA, but... I liked it better than the NTSC 600XL because it had the monitor port. The PAL 65XE has the PBI connector so that is a plus compaired to a NTSC 65XE. Did you already start disassembly or would you sell it? Edited July 5, 2007 by Defender II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 Repairing & modding a damaged Atari is fun, but I don't like breaking a working one in the process, there are plenty of sources for parts. As far as display... I had a PAL 600XL that wasn't working. I repaired it then modified the video circuit to match a working NTSC 600XL I had. It displayed fine. I don't remember swaping out the Antic or GTIA, but... I liked it better than the NTSC 600XL because it had the monitor port. The PAL 65XE has the PBI connector so that is a plus compaired to a NTSC 65XE. Did you already start disassembly or would you sell it? Haven't touched a thing yet Not sure if I will... I'm willing to sell or trade for parts when I finally get to it... OR trade for a repair job on my dead 130XE (or other upgrade work) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urborg Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 If you have working 65XE mounted on 130XE board you can probably easy upgrade its memory to 128KB using chips from 130XE. You need to relocate memory chips (in 65 xe there are empty spaces, because only half of the memory chips are mounted) and chip which is memory driver for an extended memory (in 65XE you have only 3 resistors in place when this chip should be mounted). I don't know if it is possible in 800xl because I don't have such a model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted July 6, 2007 Author Share Posted July 6, 2007 the 65XE is PAL and I don't need a PAL machine, also I took it apart and it's not a 130 board (or at least I don't see 130 anywhere on it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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