Jump to content
IGNORED

SIO-to-USB


lightman

Recommended Posts

So, I finally got my Atari hooked up to my computer via SIO. I don't have any serial ports, so the old SIO2PC was out. I ended up using USB (virtual COM port) by wiring up an inexpensive breakout board. The cost for the parts was about $20 + shipping and I'm quite happy with the result.

 

For anyone interested, I've documented the process in a kind of 'how-to' here:

 

http://www.stephens-home.com/sio2usb/

 

Cheers

Edited by lightman
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies!

 

Larry: The breakout board already has headers for LEDs. All you'd have to do is solder them in. I originally intended this to be mounted internally in the Atari (in fact, as Rybags suggested) so I wasn't much interested in the LED connections, but they are there.

 

danwinslow: Possibly, but as I said, APE detects the device on RI. I really didn't do any extensive testing, but I might try and get it to work. The board has all the serial control lines, so I can easily connect it to another one, if necessary. When testing with my own disk drive emulator (written in C#), DSR, CTS or RI worked without any problems.

 

yorgle: I don't have their USB edition, so I don't know if it is any different or not, technically. The Atari SIO is the same, either way, so I expect they would have similar capabilities. For me, the main goal was disk drive emulation. That works fine. I also enjoy building things, so it was fun for me to put this together. There is a difference in that this is a do-it-yourself project, where Atarimax provides built and tested hardware that is ready to go and (if I am not mistaken) comes with a guarantee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My version of APE (2.3.5) lets you config for DSR, RI or CTS. Might want to check what you're using.

 

Another thing to consider - does this interface work OK with the faster SIO modes?

 

Thanks. Yeah, I know you can select the line to use in APE. I only tried it briefly (with RI) because I was satisfied with Atari810. I'm not sure what's required for the faster modes, but I'll try and investigate both topics if I have time. Otherwise, if anyone can provide input, let me know.

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 years later...

Hi,

 

Yes, I got inspiration from Kinnon, and documented the same thing using an arduino duemilanove (http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=19177.0).

 

Just like Kinnon, I ended up hooking up the same FT232RL breakout board inside the atari, which turned out to be very convenient.

 

 

Now, running the Atari 810 emulator under Windows 7, I have found an issue: The Atari-PC transfers freeze randomly.

I am forced to hit the "break" key in the Atari to resume the transfers but it ends up failing most of the time.

 

It doesn't happen with every ATR Rom image but most of them, and it doesn't happen at the same sector when reading, which makes me think this is a Windows issue or a laptop issue. I remember having this exact same configuration working perfectly in the past. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Thanks

 

Rod

Edited by RodCastler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Yes, I got inspiration from Kinnon, and documented the same thing using an arduino duemilanove (http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=19177.0).

 

Just like Kinnon, I ended up hooking up the same FT232RL breakout board inside the atari, which turned out to be very convenient.

 

 

Now, running the Atari 810 emulator under Windows 7, I have found an issue: The Atari-PC transfers freeze randomly.

I am forced to hit the "break" key in the Atari to resume the transfers but it ends up failing most of the time.

 

It doesn't happen with every ATR Rom image but most of them, and it doesn't happen at the same sector when reading, which makes me think this is a Windows issue or a laptop issue. I remember having this exact same configuration working perfectly in the past. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Thanks

 

Rod

Slow APE down to 1x or 2x.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slow APE down to 1x or 2x.

 

Thanks Russg, but that doesn't fix the problem. I've always used it at 1X. I'm using 810 emulator, not APE. APE doesn't seem to work at all with this hardware.

 

Any other thoughts?

Not familiar with 810 emulator. There's aspeqt. It works with a USB to serial cable you can get for about $7, shipping and all. What I did, so I could continue to use APE 3.0.6 and APE SIO2PC/PRO interface was put a PCI serial port in my new Win 7 64 bit computer. I got one that didn't have the 64 bit driver, and then I got one that had a Vista 64 bit driver that worked. Think I paid about $15 for the PCI serial port that worked. I think the USB to serial cable required a driver also, but it wouldn't work with APE, only aspeqt. I really appreciate aspeqt, it does mostly what I want and it is open source/freeware. If you get a PCI serial port, be certain it has a Win 7 64 bit driver if that's what you have.

Got all that stuff from eBay.

Edited by russg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Yes, I got inspiration from Kinnon, and documented the same thing using an arduino duemilanove (http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=19177.0).

 

Just like Kinnon, I ended up hooking up the same FT232RL breakout board inside the atari, which turned out to be very convenient.

 

 

Now, running the Atari 810 emulator under Windows 7, I have found an issue: The Atari-PC transfers freeze randomly.

I am forced to hit the "break" key in the Atari to resume the transfers but it ends up failing most of the time.

 

It doesn't happen with every ATR Rom image but most of them, and it doesn't happen at the same sector when reading, which makes me think this is a Windows issue or a laptop issue. I remember having this exact same configuration working perfectly in the past. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Thanks

 

Rod

 

Rod, did you ever get any resolution to this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Yes, I got inspiration from Kinnon, and documented the same thing using an arduino duemilanove (http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php?topic=19177.0).

 

Just like Kinnon, I ended up hooking up the same FT232RL breakout board inside the atari, which turned out to be very convenient.

 

 

Now, running the Atari 810 emulator under Windows 7, I have found an issue: The Atari-PC transfers freeze randomly.

I am forced to hit the "break" key in the Atari to resume the transfers but it ends up failing most of the time.

 

It doesn't happen with every ATR Rom image but most of them, and it doesn't happen at the same sector when reading, which makes me think this is a Windows issue or a laptop issue. I remember having this exact same configuration working perfectly in the past. Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Thanks

 

Rod

 

The most common cause to me depends on the DOS used on the ATR.

 

Many DOSses are not capable of driving high speed SIO very well. E.g. SD 2.x, 3.x up to version 3.2f and SDX 4.1x and 4.2x. These need the setting 2xSIO in the drive emulator.

 

There are several other reasons depending on hardware setup, drivers, etc.

 

Additionally, it might help to put a diode into the TX connection as to be seen in the original layout from Nick Kennedy, when using other SIO drives at the same time.

 

Using the "USpeed" on the KMK/JZ IDE V 2.0 Plus interface allows to boot even DOS with buggy SIO routines (as above) at POKEY divisor 0, which is not that fast comparing to PBI speed, but impressive for SIO only users.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rod, did you ever get any resolution to this?

 

I actually haven't. I'm curious why some ROMs do work OK.

I'll try the diode thing to see what happens. Windows 7 has lots of settings for serial ports I don't understand under "advanced properties".

For the not-so-advanced properties, I have slowed down the baud rate, changed the COM port in case there's any IRQ conflict and several other things but no success so far.

 

I can't get APE to recognize and work with this setup so I'm only down to test with the 810 emulator.

I have homework, still some tests and comparisons to be performed, I'll let you know if I ever succeed fixing this issue.

Edited by RodCastler
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rod, did you ever get any resolution to this?

 

I actually haven't. I'm curious why some ROMs do work OK.

I'll try the diode thing to see what happens. Windows 7 has lots of settings for serial ports I don't understand under "advanced properties".

For the not-so-advanced properties, I have slowed down the baud rate, changed the COM port in case there's any IRQ conflict and several other things but no success so far.

 

I can't get APE to recognize and work with this setup so I'm only down to test with the 810 emulator.

I have homework, still some tests and comparisons to be performed, I'll let you know if I ever succeed fixing this issue.

Recommend to switch to AspeQt. Helped me to overcome similar problems with APE 2.0 and 3.0.

SDX and FTDI module run at POKEY divisor 3, SDX on IDEV2 at divisor 0. Booting other software with own SIO highspeed often requires standard 1x, 2x or 3x SIO to function. Everything tested under ATARI OS, no custom OS.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Recommend to switch to AspeQt. Helped me to overcome similar problems with APE 2.0 and 3.0.

SDX and FTDI module run at POKEY divisor 3, SDX on IDEV2 at divisor 0.

 

Well that really made a difference. Thanks GoodByte!

 

It does seem to me that both AspeQt and 810 Emulator run at 1X (19.200baud), however AspeQT narrowed my issue down to only 1 or 2 seldom occurrences during a full session of multiple loads of different ATR files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recommend to switch to AspeQt. Helped me to overcome similar problems with APE 2.0 and 3.0.

SDX and FTDI module run at POKEY divisor 3, SDX on IDEV2 at divisor 0.

 

Well that really made a difference. Thanks GoodByte!

 

It does seem to me that both AspeQt and 810 Emulator run at 1X (19.200baud), however AspeQT narrowed my issue down to only 1 or 2 seldom occurrences during a full session of multiple loads of different ATR files.

you're welcome :)

 

AspeQt and Atari810 shouldba able to use SIO 1x - 3x, depending on the A8 hardware and the atr. If you cannot get it running at SIO 3x using e.g. RealDOS, I guess there's s.th. wrong with the hardware. Any upgrades in it?

 

just being curious: what atr is causing problems?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 years later...

So, I finally got my Atari hooked up to my computer via SIO. I don't have any serial ports, so the old SIO2PC was out. I ended up using USB (virtual COM port) by wiring up an inexpensive breakout board. The cost for the parts was about $20 + shipping and I'm quite happy with the result.

 

For anyone interested, I've documented the process in a kind of 'how-to' here:

 

http://www.stephens-home.com/sio2usb/

 

Cheers

Hello,

I know there are a lot of sio2pc circuits floating around, but does anyone have a copy of what was at this link? TIA.

redman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...