What kind of RAM upgrades are there for the 800XL

[+Philsan]

IMO, soldering a single line to supply the +5V is kinda trivial - people with 10 thumbs can easily enough find someone nearby to do the job for them. Much more elegant than clumsy passthru devices to get power.

I agree with you that the solution to this problem (not mentioned in first posts), is inelegant but this memory expansion is interesting because it's plug and play.

I think ctirad should find an external solution and leave the option to connect a wire internally.

 

If that was to be the choice, IMO the better option would be to just have the device on a joystick port - I'd assume it can supply enough Amperage for a simple RAM device.

I prefer a connection to the power port, on the back of the computer like memory expansion, instead of a connection to the joystick port, more visible on the left side.

Edited April 30, 2010 by Philsan

[candle]

Philisan, would you also prefer to have 2 power switches instead of one?

[ctirad]

If that was to be the choice, IMO the better option would be to just have the device on a joystick port - I'd assume it can supply enough Amperage for a simple RAM device.

 

Great idea! I completely forgot these ports are also powered. So I think we have a solution :-) Thanks.

[ctirad]

I think ctirad should find an external solution and leave the option to connect a wire internally.

 

Definitely. The 600XL has powered PBI, so there is no reason for abandon such possibility.

[candle]

that might be not that great idea at all

how you're going to connect that wire?

DB9 with enclosure won't fit - do you have of stock of joystick extension cords you could cut to suit that purpose?

[ctirad]

DB9 with enclosure won't fit - do you have of stock of joystick extension cords you could cut to suit that purpose?

 

No, I am going to make something like this:

http://velesoft.speccy.cz/ruzne/canon9/

[candle]

best thing one can do considering...

[spookt]

Didn't the freezer boards have a similar issue. IIRC the solution was a 1 pin connector which you pushed onto the correct pin of joystick port 2. I guess that would mean that you couldn't play a 2 joystick game with it connected though.

[+bob1200xl]

You can either unplug the 5v supply to clear the extra RAM or plug (or unplug) in a cart to force a cold RESET. Having the power for RAM stay up will allow you to keep ramdisk contents, won't it? Like an MIO? Wouldn't that be an advantage?

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

When will it be available?

 

You mean info or the card?

 

There is still two issues with the production version. I still did not found the suitable enclosure which is needed for the final pcb design. The other is the missing 5V supply on the 800XL PBI connector. It can be simply solved by soldering one wire joint inside atari, but I'd like to find a solution for users who cannot solder or even do not want to dismantle its 800XL. The best would be to create some F-M pigtail on the PSU DIN, but these connectors are not quite cheap and in addition I hate to solder DIN connectors. A separate 5V PSU is also not a good solution, because without additional logic and switch will be impossible to perform a cold reset.

[+rdemming]

IMO, soldering a single line to supply the +5V is kinda trivial - people with 10 thumbs can easily enough find someone nearby to do the job for them. Much more elegant than clumsy passthru devices to get power.

I agree with you that the solution to this problem (not mentioned in first posts), is inelegant but this memory expansion is interesting because it's plug and play.

I think ctirad should find an external solution and leave the option to connect a wire internally.

 

If that was to be the choice, IMO the better option would be to just have the device on a joystick port - I'd assume it can supply enough Amperage for a simple RAM device.

I prefer a connection to the power port, on the back of the computer like memory expansion, instead of a connection to the joystick port, more visible on the left side.

 

The Turbo-Freezer-XL used an additional wire to be connected on the joystick port. And that powered the freezer and in some versions also the build-in 256KB ram expansion.

But the manual described how to add +5V to the PBI bus.

 

Getting the 5V from the power connector is not so nice in my opinion. Then the memory expansion will still be under power when the computer is off. (maybe useful for a resident ramdisk between cold starts )

You can also get 5V from the SIO port but SIO connectors are not readily available. Or you can take it from the cartridge port but a pass through cart is not so beautiful as well. So that leaves the joystick port.

 

But it is strange the 800XL has no +5V on the PBI bus. What would be the reasoning behind it?

 

Robert

[candle]

the question is why 600xl has one

and there is only one purpose - to get the power supply for 1064 module

pbi port was never intended as source for power for PBI devices

back then, anything usefull that could be build for this port would consume too much power anyways to get it powered reliable, and it would put power supply in overload for sure