Smokeless Joe Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 The Saga: I recently exhumed my Atari 8-bit stuff, including one 1050 drive. I’d heard about the Happy upgrade for many years, but I always figured it was either too complicated or too expensive. It turns out neither is true, at least nowadays. So I order the upgrade from Atarimax (thanks, Steve!) and it arrived today. Hooray! I dutifully and meticulously follow the instructions: open the case, take pictures of the connectors so I know how to put them back, remove the drive mechanism, remove the PCB, remove the RF cage, replace the PCB, remove the CPU and PROM chips and get ready to install the upgrade board. I’m looking at all the pictures, making sure everything is aligned the correct way, lining up the pins with the CPU socket… Hey, what’s this tall black thing right next to the CPU socket? It's blocking me from inserting the Happy upgrade board! I’m not seeing anything like it pictured in the installation instructions. It has some letters on the top, let’s see… ICD. I wonder what... D ’ O H ! I’m guessing this thing already has an ICD doubler installed, although I haven’t been able to find any pictures of one installed for comparison. I’ll have to find a blank double density floppy and see if I can format it. Come to think of it, my stock 1050 died ages ago and I got this one second hand from a friend that was getting rid of all his Atari stuff in the early 90s. He must have done the ICD upgrade himself. So I put everything back together and it no longer works. The light comes on, the drive spins a bit, but my 800XL gives this shrill boot error and doesn’t seem to be communicating with the drive at all. Sonofa… I take it apart and put it back together a few of times, making sure the chips are well seated and the connectors are correct. I go through a cycle of giving up and trying "one more time". I'm just about to write a eulogy and start digging a grave when I see that one of the wires in the front right connector has popped out of its housing. I push it back in and… Hooray! My 1050 is working no worse than when I started this project. In fact it’s working a little better because I cleaned the drive head; it had a little schmutz on there. The Questions: 1. Are there any good pictures available of an ICD doubler installed on a 1050? I'd like to verify just what's in my drive. 2. What’s the difference between an ICD doubler and a Happy upgrade for the 1050 drive? I figure I’ll pick up another 1050 eventually since I don’t want that Happy upgrade to go to waste. Is one better at anything than the other? Does one work better as drive 1 or drive 2 than the other? 3. I wasn’t bothering to replace the RF cage every time I reassembled the thing, so it wasn’t on there when I got everything working again. How important is having the RF cage installed in this drive? I’m kinda reluctant to take it apart now that I got it working again, but I don’t want to get busted by the FCC either. I hope you find my story entertaining. Any and all information is greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 I would replace the RF shield, those chips are sort of close to the magnet head doing all that writing to disk.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 Here is the line drawing of the 1050 with the ICD chips in it. The larger encased chip is a buffer. It replaced the single chip buffer that was installed. It is actually 2 ram chips mounted on top of each other and encased in the ICD case. There are some US Doubler clones that use the same stacked ram, just without the casing. The second chip is the US Doubler firmware which gave the 1050 true double density, US sector skew and other enhancements. It wasn't made for duplication of special formats. The Happy upgrade gave you the true double density and speed enhancements but also was able to 'break' most copy protection of the time so it was the choice for duplication and backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 The Saga: I recently exhumed my Atari 8-bit stuff, including one 1050 drive. I’d heard about the Happy upgrade for many years, but I always figured it was either too complicated or too expensive. It turns out neither is true, at least nowadays. So I order the upgrade from Atarimax (thanks, Steve!) and it arrived today. Hooray! I dutifully and meticulously follow the instructions: open the case, take pictures of the connectors so I know how to put them back, remove the drive mechanism, remove the PCB, remove the RF cage, replace the PCB, remove the CPU and PROM chips and get ready to install the upgrade board. I’m looking at all the pictures, making sure everything is aligned the correct way, lining up the pins with the CPU socket… Hey, what’s this tall black thing right next to the CPU socket? It's blocking me from inserting the Happy upgrade board! I’m not seeing anything like it pictured in the installation instructions. It has some letters on the top, let’s see… ICD. I wonder what... D ’ O H ! I’m guessing this thing already has an ICD doubler installed, although I haven’t been able to find any pictures of one installed for comparison. I’ll have to find a blank double density floppy and see if I can format it. Come to think of it, my stock 1050 died ages ago and I got this one second hand from a friend that was getting rid of all his Atari stuff in the early 90s. He must have done the ICD upgrade himself. So I put everything back together and it no longer works. The light comes on, the drive spins a bit, but my 800XL gives this shrill boot error and doesn’t seem to be communicating with the drive at all. Sonofa… I take it apart and put it back together a few of times, making sure the chips are well seated and the connectors are correct. I go through a cycle of giving up and trying "one more time". I'm just about to write a eulogy and start digging a grave when I see that one of the wires in the front right connector has popped out of its housing. I push it back in and… Hooray! My 1050 is working no worse than when I started this project. In fact it’s working a little better because I cleaned the drive head; it had a little schmutz on there. The Questions: 1. Are there any good pictures available of an ICD doubler installed on a 1050? I'd like to verify just what's in my drive. 2. What’s the difference between an ICD doubler and a Happy upgrade for the 1050 drive? I figure I’ll pick up another 1050 eventually since I don’t want that Happy upgrade to go to waste. Is one better at anything than the other? Does one work better as drive 1 or drive 2 than the other? 3. I wasn’t bothering to replace the RF cage every time I reassembled the thing, so it wasn’t on there when I got everything working again. How important is having the RF cage installed in this drive? I’m kinda reluctant to take it apart now that I got it working again, but I don’t want to get busted by the FCC either. I hope you find my story entertaining. Any and all information is greatly appreciated. The large black encapsulated module is the larger RAM buffer for the US Doubler upgrade, it and a replacement firmware ROM/EPROM complete the hardware for the upgrade. The RAM buffer is actually just 2 of the original 6810 static RAM buffer chips stacked with 2 or 3 jumper wires between pins. The Happy upgrade contains it's own larger buffer, I don't know if it even requires the 6810 installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 The Happy also has track buffering... the Doubler does not. All in all, the happy is a better upgrade. I have four happy 1050's and several Doublers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 (edited) The happy is way the hell better in every possible way.. That tall "ICD" chips is actually two sram chips piggybacked inside a molded epoxy blob.. Those things are notorious for not fitting in the socket very well and having connection issues. Take out the ICD blocky thing, and continue with the happy installation. The ICD us doubler just doubles the 1050's puny sram and replaces the firmware.. The happy replaces the CPU, gives it enough sram to buffer an entire track, and much more extensive firmware. Should you ever want to take advantage of any of the ICD software that supports the US doubler, the Happy is capable of fully emulating the US doubler by just issuing a single command to it. A good person to talk to about this is Steve Carden (author of RealDOS) he has written utility programs that support both upgrades and he can tell you exactly how to get the most out of your upgrade. here is his webpage: http://www.realdos.net Edited September 26, 2013 by MEtalGuy66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokeless Joe Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 Take out the ICD blocky thing, and continue with the happy installation. Can I really just do that? The Happy instructions (http://www.atarimax.com/happy/happy_install.pdf) say to remove the CPU (U9) and PROM (U10) chips, while the US Doubler instructions (http://cerebro.xu.edu/~ryanr/atari/doubler.html) say to remove and replace U8 and U10. Can I really just remove the US Doubler at U8 and replace U9 and U10 with the Happy board? Doesn't the drive need something at U8? The large black encapsulated module is the larger RAM buffer for the US Doubler upgrade, it and a replacement firmware ROM/EPROM complete the hardware for the upgrade. The RAM buffer is actually just 2 of the original 6810 static RAM buffer chips stacked with 2 or 3 jumper wires between pins. The Happy upgrade contains it's own larger buffer, I don't know if it even requires the 6810 installed. I'm starting to get lost in the technical documents at atarimania. So the two 6810s of the US Doubler are at U8? Does anyone know if the Happy board needs anything there? I'm reluctant to just plug it in and find out 'cause this is my only 1050 drive. I also don't want to flush the Happy upgrade down the toilet if I don't have to. In other news, I replaced the RF cage, so no FCC fines for me! I'm eventually going to have to replace the plug for J6; it has a really hard time maintaining a good connection. Thanks to everyone for all the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 It looks as if you remove the ICD chip, you will have to put the original single 6810 chip back in before installing the Happy upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+wood_jl Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Oh, man. I'm in a similar boat. The first 1050 I took apart (the best one) to put the Atarimax Happy in has a US Doubler. I just re-assembled the drive and put the Happy on the shelf. I meant to ask about this, but never did. So thanks to all who have commented. I'm going to have to try this at a later date. I figured there'd be some difficulty. I suppose I'll have to rob a parts-drive. Kudos to he who asked the question, and to those who have answered. I apprecitate this information very much, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 (edited) I tried to install an ICD kit into mine and the tall ICD ram module would not stay in the socket. When I first installed it the drive did not work. Well it was due to a bad connection. So I decide to install a new socket which seemed to work with the ICD module. As I unsolder the socket I run into issues with a few stuck pins. As I pulled one off I think I lifted a hole pad on the top side. Tried to add some solder to fix it. Are any of these top pads used on this PCB? Or are just the ones on the back side where you solder the pins? Drive seems to be working fine so far. Edited May 1, 2018 by tjlazer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 If it works you should be fine... the additional solder blob should help just in case. Did you use a precision/machine socket? I've become a big fan of them since there's virtually no chance of damage to the socket in the future from repeated insertion/removal. (I like to switch up and test different drive upgrades often enough...) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlazer Posted May 3, 2018 Share Posted May 3, 2018 Yeah I thoroughly tested it and it seems to work perfectly fine so I am lucky. Not sure what kind of socket I had but I did have some 24 pin sockets that would allow the ICD module to slip in snuggly so I just use that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geister Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Is the Happy 1050 or the US Doubler still being sold by anyone? I have a stock 1050 that works fine, but I'd like to have the true double density option on the drive. As far as I can tell AtariMax no longer sells the Happy 1050. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brentarian Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Is the Happy 1050 or the US Doubler still being sold by anyone? I have a stock 1050 that works fine, but I'd like to have the true double density option on the drive. As far as I can tell AtariMax no longer sells the Happy 1050.I would recommend a MiniSpeedy upgrade from Jurgen. The part is new, inexpensive, and simple to install.http://atariage.com/forums/topic/277204-some-new-not-really-hardware-made-by-tfhh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I also agree with Brentarian to consider the items made by tf_hh. But to answer the question directly: AtariMax still has replica happy 1050 boards here: (5th row down) https://www.atarimax.com/freeshippingsale/ And resold here too https://www.8bitclassics.com/shop/computers/atari-8-bit-computer/happy-1050-upgrade-for-atari-1050-disk-drive/ Authentic original happy boards are available from B&C: (they also have US Doublers - I have not seen one yet, so not sure if it's authentic - they confirmed to me the manuals are photocopied though) http://www.myatari.com/atarixlh.txt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nezgar Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 (edited) If you specifically want a US doubler I do have parts to make one, and could send to you for cost of parts + mailing. I can also burn the alternate US Doubler code to the eprom that was found to have a much faster stepper rate, discussed in this thread : http://atariage.com/forums/topic/275166-one-last-eprom/ Edited June 9, 2018 by Nezgar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I've got one of Steve's (Atarmax) repro Happy boards and it works great. I'll probably pick up a second someday unless I buy one of Jurgen's MinSpeedy boards instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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