Atari 7800 w/devOS BIOS working with modern PC's?

[+GroovyBee]

I didn't do any programming last weekend, because I got a bit side-tracked. Since you seem to be looking for a USB version, I was looking into the possibilities of building one. After some searching I found out that FTDI offers a serial-to-USB cable that works at TTL levels. It would be ideal for this purpose, since it would make building the serial cable as easy as building the old parallel cable was. But ordering a single cable from FTDI directly would be quite expensive due to the high costs for shipping and money transfer. Therefore I wasted the rest of the weeking trying to find a cheaper source. Unfortunately I haven't really found one yet.

 

Farnell do them in the UK :-

 

ttl-232r-3v3

 

Should be easy enough to get hold of them (just select "Global Sites" in the top right of the home page).

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Interesting, which model were you looking at? I might try contacting their US office and see how much a couple cables cost.

 

Mitch

I'm not sure yet. At first I thought the TTL-232R-5V-WE cable would be best, because you only need to solder a DB9f connector to it in oder to get a working cable for the DevOS system. But I'm not sure there are DB9 connectors that would fit nicely into the 7800 controller ports. So maybe the TTL-232R-5V-PCB might be a better option, as you could solder an old Atari joystick cable with the proper plug to it?

[+selgus]

I'm not sure yet. At first I thought the TTL-232R-5V-WE cable would be best, because you only need to solder a DB9f connector to it in oder to get a working cable for the DevOS system. But I'm not sure there are DB9 connectors that would fit nicely into the 7800 controller ports. So maybe the TTL-232R-5V-PCB might be a better option, as you could solder an old Atari joystick cable with the proper plug to it?

I think connecting an existing Atari joystick cable is probably the best bet. Standard DB9 don't fit nicely into the controller port without being modified.

--Selgus

[krewat]

Is this "DevOS" bios something from Atari development? Or something later?

[+selgus]

Is this "DevOS" bios something from Atari development? Or something later?

Take a look at Eckhard's VCS Workshop, in the tools section for this BIOS and supporting tools/documentation.

--Selgus