+Stephen Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 A properly setup Covox is not at all noisy. Stereo pokey can sound very good, but Covox is 8-bits resolution and 4 channels. There is a MOD player which has 15.75kHz sample playback. Now, this isn't "CD" quality, but it is far from noisy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 I seem to recall a raging debate about the possible inclusion of Covox on the second run of IDE Plus 2.0 adapters. (...) It was eventually dropped. Not completely the case: there was a limited production run of rev. D with single channel Covox. It is known as "rev. D/S". I own one of these interfaces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+CharlieChaplin Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) NeoTracker technically is not fixed address. All versions I have seen, come with an "installer". You specify the required options (single or dual pokey, and covox address), and then it builds the appropriate executable. Well, I wrote that "older versions of Neotracker (up to version 1.6 or 1.7) do have a fixed adress for Covox" and this is true, see here: and now the same installer for Covox - there is no config adress available for Covox: This Neotracker version 1.6 works very good with Pokey setup, it works with most stereo-Pokey enhancements (like e.g. stereo-final by Lotharek, stereo-enhancement by mega-hz and lots of other Pokey stereo enhancements). Alas, it does not work with all Covox enhancements, since the adress seems to be fixed to $D600 here, it does NOT work with Candle`s built-in Covox of his simple-stereo. Inertia and Protracker also do not work with the simple-stereo Covox by Candle (I guess they also use a fixed adress of $D600 for Covox). You can only change between Pokey and Covox in version 1.6, you cannot change the adress of Covox. So here is version 1.8 of Neotracker, where you can change the adress of Covox: The adress is set to $D600 in the above example, luckily one can change it to $D200-$D700, so Neotracker 1.8 will work with almost all Covox versions out there (for Candle`s simple stereo one has to use $D280 afaik). However, if you setup Neotracker 1.8 for Pokey, then the adress is fixed to $D200, one simply cannot change this here and nomally this should be no problem. But as a surprise, if you save / install Neotracker with Pokey setup, then you can load NEO.COM, you can even load MOD or NEO sounds, but as soon as you press "play" you do not hear anything, or you only hear silence, which is really strange (tested it with stereo-final by Lotharek and simple-stereo by Candle). Maybe Neotracker version 1.8 has a bug and due to this it does not work with Pokey playback anymore (? or my stereo-enhancements are buggy, but they work ok with dozens of stereo-Pokey sounds and demos, so I doubt this ?)... Thats why I wrote that Neotracker version 1.6 is good/best for Pokey playback, while Neotracker version 1.8 is good/best for Covox playback. So with "fixed memory location" I did not mean the XRAM that is used by Neotracker, the XRAM can be setup as you wish with almost every version of Neotracker. In other words: 1) If you have the Covox upgrade inside Candle`s simple stereo, only Neotracker 1.8 seems to work with it, all other Covox programs do not seem to work with this Covox. 2) If you only have Pokey (mono or stereo), then you can still use all Covox programs, simply set them to Pokey; there is only one exception, the latest Neotracker version 1.8 does not work with Pokey (it does not play any sound / you cannot hear any sound). But maybe I am totally wrong with this and my stereo-upgrades are not working as they should ? A) If someone has a stereo-upgrade by Lotharek, mega-hz, etc. try to configure Neotracker 1.8 to Pokey, when installation is finished, load the NEO.COM file, load a MOD or NEO file and see if it will playback with sound. B) If someone has a simple-stereo by Candle, try its Covox upgrade with Inertia by Madteam or Protracker by MadTeam, set the program to Covox playback and see if it will work then... -Andreas Koch. Edited February 4, 2014 by CharlieChaplin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) Not completely the case: there was a limited production run of rev. D with single channel Covox. It is known as "rev. D/S". I own one of these interfaces. Yes, I'd forgotten that: "there will be limited test-series (like 10 pieces) equipped with Covox, but the actual production series will not have one." But the main production run didn't have it, and this remains the gist of what I was trying to get across, and illustrates that it was ultimately impossible - in light of the Covox issue - to create a single design which suited everyone. Edited February 4, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 and illustrates that it was ultimately impossible - in light of the Covox issue - to create a single design which suited everyone. Certainly. Which (by the way) surprises me a little bit, because a Covox should not hurt anyone who does not want to use it. But it apparently did, therefore, as you say, it was impossible. Anyway, the ultimate result is that I own a very rare IDE+ version Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) Certainly. Which (by the way) surprises me a little bit, because a Covox should not hurt anyone who does not want to use it. But it apparently did, therefore, as you say, it was impossible. Anyway, the ultimate result is that I own a very rare IDE+ version Yes - I was about to add: quite a rarity. Really, I can't say I have a strong opinion on Covox (nor on RAM 320XE), but it seems that in the case of this RAM upgrade, Covox will somehow incur a measurable extra expense. But whatever path is chosen, I hope everyone ends up happy. Edited February 4, 2014 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 But maybe I am totally wrong with this and my stereo-upgrades are not working as they should ? A) If someone has a stereo-upgrade by Lotharek, mega-hz, etc. try to configure Neotracker 1.8 to Pokey, when installation is finished, load the NEO.COM file, load a MOD or NEO file and see if it will playback with sound. B) If someone has a simple-stereo by Candle, try its Covox upgrade with Inertia by Madteam or Protracker by MadTeam, set the program to Covox playback and see if it will work then... -Andreas Koch. Thanks for the detailed write up. I can definitely confirm that the Covox in Simple Stereo will not work in Inertia - I am pretty sure that is hard-coded to use $D600. I have my Simple Stereo Covox set to $D280. Unfortunately I do not have any other stereo upgrades installed, and Simple Stereo 2 has been determined to be faulty at the hardware level (amplifier section is noisy to the point of not being usable). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 there is a pin on simplestereo boards one can use to toggle between d280 and d600, so this is not an issue all you need is read what was written in "documentation" - in this particular case, schematics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Yeah - I'm aware of the $D600 $D280 toggle. There was an address conflict at $D600 so I couldn't use that. No worries - I would prefer that the software be configurable anyhow, especially given that it is known that the hardware can exist in various locations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctirad Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Stickers! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Looks good! But why again non-goldplated contacts. Am I really the only one here that thinks that every self-respecting device should come with gold-plated contacts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Perhaps these are the pre-production devices? Will the final production devices have gold contacts? It's certainly worth a few more dollars to me. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctirad Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 I don't know. Neither the XL PBI nor CART/ECI have gold plated contacts and they are 30 years old. It's really worth to make gold plated contacts on the card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Stickers! Nice! I guess it's too late to spec one of these in? How can you use brown carts without having play around with the door releases? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I don't know. Neither the XL PBI nor CART/ECI have gold plated contacts and they are 30 years old. It's really worth to make gold plated contacts on the card? Yes! I have had generally poor results with solder or tin contacts on the edge connectors. But why don't you find out what it would cost additional and then poll your customers? The ECI and cartridge connectors certainly are not solder or tin (on my machines). They are gold in color, and do not oxidize or corrode. I can tell you that my Black Boxes have tin edge connectors and I frequently had to clean the oxide off them to get the HD to function reliably. Also, take a look at an 800XL -- what are the PBI contacts plated with? They are absolutely gold on my Atari's. We had the same discussion about the Turbo Freezer -- and they ended up gold. -Larry 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atari8warez Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I don't know. Neither the XL PBI nor CART/ECI have gold plated contacts and they are 30 years old. It's really worth to make gold plated contacts on the card? To me it's not, will be just fine the way it is, gold is less conductive then silver or copper but it's more resistant to corrosion, the corrosion however can be prevented with some basic maintenance, so gold plated connectors are really trivial for me personally, it does make the device look somehow better and more expensive however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Well my blackbox had no gold plated contacts, and I find myself rubbing the oxidation off all the time. Just like my Mux carts. Just like my first MyIDE cart. My Atari's all have goldplated contacts and they are all original out of the box. Most original atari 8bit carts (if not all) are gold plated. All my USB equipment, even the most dirty el cheapo connectors, are gold plated. All my hi-end Audio Equipment is connected with gold plated connectors. This is with a reason, it's the best material for electronic connection, especially thanks to the (almost) no corrosion. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I have been away from the thread for a while, but I am absolutely delighted in what I'm seeing, with the pic that ctirad posted in post #110, above! I'm kind of suprised that Covox was such a big deal in this discussion. To have a plug-in 320K RAM upgrade for an Atari - at an affordable price - is quite a dream. That's the way it was with RAM320XL a couple of years ago. That's all I want. All that other fancy stuff can be achieved by he who values it the most. Thanks for keeping this "basic;" there are many paths to all that fancy stuff, but there is currenly none to a plug-in RAM expansion for 130XE. It looks like there shall be shortly, and that's great!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspicious_milk Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 I'm down for one!!! I hope the pre-order is soon, before I'm broke again :-\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ripdubski Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Yep, interested here as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Firedawg Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Still very much interested. Please count me in for 1. Still count me for 1. Thanks, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Count me in for 2. At least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
576XE Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hello friends. I never wanted to have IDE Plus 2 with SpartaDOS X and battery -------->and any memory upgrade with SpartaDOS X and battery simultaneously. So obviously this device is fantastic!!! But I can't see ECI pass through slot on last fotos. Are we still speaking about XE? I have one IDEPlus 2 and I really need full ECI/CART support. Are me alone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 If you look back a page or so, Ctirad mentioned that the XE pass-thru would be an add-on/option. Personally, I think that the pass-thru would be highly desirable for most folks, even if one did not have an immediate need. I can't think of any reason not order it that way. He also mentioned that he had successfully tested an IDE+2 with the pass-thru. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 In a bit of experimenting today, I found that the Ram320 XL appears to work perfectly with a 130XE, so long as you use a proper converter with all the required signals. In my case, I used the Turbo Freezer 2011 130XE adapter with the Ram320 XL attached at the rear of the "train." This setup did not work with the older MIO 130XE adapter, but I'm quite sure that it would work with another line or two brought out -- certainly a power line or "pigtail" to power the ram unit. The Freezer adapter also provides an external cart jack, so those are OK also. (I tried OSS carts.) Doesn't detract from the need for a proper 130XE pass-thru, but interesting, nonetheless, I think. -Larry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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