SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB version 3.0

[Smokeless Joe]

I was notified of shipping on April 29 and I received my device today, May 3. Hooray! Even more hooray is that it works!

 

I'm using Windows XP SP3 and AspeQt 0.8.8. The device is recognized as COM4 and the Handshake method is DSR. I also used the Dual-USB drivers (A8W) available at: http://atari8warez.com/support.html

 

The only weird thing is that I usually get a blank screen when I turn my system on. Hitting the Reset button wakes it up and then it'll boot whatever disk I have mounted in AspeQt. My system is a modified 800XL, with some video improvements and an Ultimate 1MB installed, so that might be what's going on.

 

No lucking getting AspeQt to work in Mac OS X (10.9.2) using Wineskin, but I never got APE to work in Wineskin either. Looking forward to a native OS X version of AspeQt, but for now I am very happy with what I have!

 

Thanks!

 

-Joe

Edited May 4, 2014 by Smokeless Joe

[atari8warez]

Hey Joe just wait a bit more and I'll release a version of AspeQt that compiles on Mac OSX. I see that I shipped your device to be used with FTDI drivers (not A8W) because you specified Mac OSX on your order. So, did you re-program the device EEPROM to be able to install A8W drivers (because that's what you needed to do for the A8W drivers to install).

 

On the blank screen thing, do you only get the blank screen when the SIO2PC device is connected?. I tested the device on a 600XL with Ultimate1MB and S-Video mod and I had no such problem. Do you have another Atari to try the SIO2PC on?

Edited May 4, 2014 by atari8warez

[+Ripdubski]

Recieved today! Thanx!

[cp256]

The gizmo got here this morning and works great!

 

Thanks for making a good gadget

[Wilheim]

Received mine yesterday. Wasn't able to test them yet. As soon as I can I will test them and give feedback.

 

Cheers!

[PO15KA]

Hi,

 

I'm interested in one with postage to Sydney Australia.

Where do I go to place my order and payment please?

 

Marcin

[BillC]

Hi,

 

I'm interested in one with postage to Sydney Australia.

Where do I go to place my order and payment please?

 

Marcin

Try the link in post #51 at the top of the page.

[PO15KA]

Payment completed, however I chose the OSX option but now I think I should have chosen the Windows option

Is there much "tinkering" involved with OSX?

I'm more of an end user rather than a tech head

Edited May 19, 2014 by PO15KA

[atari8warez]

Payment completed, however I chose the OSX option but now I think I should have chosen the Windows option

Is there much "tinkering" involved with OSX?

I'm more of an end user rather than a tech head

 

Hardware wise the only difference between Windows/Linux and OSX is the driver for OSX is not customized for manufacturer id (atari8warez) and product id (SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB) and the device installs as a regular FTDI USB to Serial converter. The reason for that is simple, I a m not familiar with OSX, so I chose not to touch the drivers as I don't know how to modify them. Functionality however is exactly the same for all OSes.

 

Software wise AspeQT was originally developed on Windows and for Windows and Linux, it did not compile easily on OSX, however thanks to an OSX user, the upcoming release will compile on that OS and hopefully without problems. Once it compiles I am told that it runs without problems.

 

For the time being I would suggest that you use the device with a WIndows machine, especially if you are an end user and if a win machine is readily available. Linux requires that the custom driver files be compiled before you can install them. Please do not forget to read the installation instructions available for download at my web site. So i will change your order for Windows unless you tell me otherwise.

Edited May 19, 2014 by atari8warez

[PO15KA]

Thank you very much, yes we have one windows laptop at home

 

Have a great day and thanks again,

Marcin

[Wilheim]

I've recently tested them, and they work fine! I had to deal with the drivers in windows 7 64bit, but I was able to install them properly.

 

Thanks so much for everything!

[atari8warez]

Glad to hear that... thank you.

[atari8warez]

I recently started to fool around with Linux and the first thing I did was try using my SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB unit with it. it turns out driver file compilation and installation on Linux is a major hurdle for non-technical Linux users. Even if one has enough knowledge of Linux to fiddle around with kernel drivers the lack of good FTDI support on Linux means a lot of frustration due to missing/misplaced FTDI libraries for driver compilation. There had to be an easier way to get the SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB up and working on the Linux system and fortunately it turns out there is. Following paragraphs will explain the exact procedure to make my SIO2PC device with custom Product ID (PID) to work with default FTDI drivers included in the kernel of most Linux distros. The user manual is also updated with this new information:

 

1. Open a terminal window, and use gedit to create a script file in your home folder (i.e. ~/sio2pc.sh) with the following content:
   
   modprobe ftdi_sio
   echo 0403 83b0 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/ftdi_sio/new_id
   

2. Save the file and make it executable
   
   chmod +x ~/sio2pc.sh
   

3. The script file you just created modifies the default FTDI driver so that it recognizes devices with custom PID (83b0 in this case), however this is only effective until the drivers are unloaded. When they are reloaded (on the next boot for example) the script need to be run again. That means we have to automate it so it runs every time the machine is re-booted. For this to happen we need to include the script in the .profile file which is in the etc folder of your Linux installation .profile file is read and executed every time you log-in to your Linux session. Also, because the script changes a system file, it needs to run with root privileges (i.e. needs to run using sudo). Note that sudo normally asks for a password before allowing a user to execute tasks with root privileges, but this script will be run unattended and you can not respond to password requests, so sudo needs to be run without asking for a password. In order to do that we need to pre-authorize the script, and to achieve that we need to create an entry in the sudoers file. So, from your terminal window type:
   
   sudo visudo
   
   enter your password when prompted (this is your log-in password, not the root password).
   
   Scroll to the end of the sudoers file, and add the following line:
   
   user_id ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /home/user_id/sio2pc.sh
   
   Note that user_id is your Linux log-in id. Type ^O to save the changes, and ^X to exit.
   

4. As the last step we need to add a call to the script in the .profile file so it executes when you log-in to your Linux session:
   
   Type:
   
   sudo gedit /etc/profile
   
   enter your log-in password if asked,
   
   When the file opens in gedit, scroll to the end, and add the following line:
   
   sudo ./sio2pc.sh
   
   Save the file and exit gedit. You are now ready to re-boot the computer. Once re-boot, log-into your Linux session, insert your SIO2PC device to an available USB port, open a terminal window, and type the following to verify that your SIO2PC device is now recognized and a COM port is mounted as ttyUSB0:
   
   dmesg | grep FTDI
   
   Above command should produce an output like the following:
   
   [ 159.987490] ftdi_sio 5-1:1.0 FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
   [ 159.989404] usb 5-1: FTDI USB Serial Device Converter now attached to ttyUSB0
   

5. Finally run AspeQt. Configure it to use the ttyUSB0 device as the COM port and see if the device is now functional.

Edited June 20, 2014 by atari8warez

[gozar]

 

I recently started to fool around with Linux and the first thing I did was try using my SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB unit with it. it turns out driver file compilation and installation on Linux is a major hurdle for non-technical Linux users. Even if one has enough knowledge of Linux to fiddle around with kernel drivers the lack of good FTDI support on Linux means a lot of frustration due to missing/misplaced FTDI libraries for driver compilation. There had to be an easier way to get the SIO2PC/10502PC Dual-USB up and working on the Linux system and fortunately it turns out there is. Following paragraphs will explain the exact procedure to make my SIO2PC device with custom Product ID (PID) to work with default FTDI drivers included in the kernel of most Linux distros. The user manual is also updated with this new information:

 

1. Open a terminal window, and use gedit to create a script file in your home folder (i.e. ~/sio2pc.sh) with the following content:

    

   modprobe ftdi_sio

   echo 0403 83b0 > /sys/bus/usb-serial/drivers/ftdi_sio/new_id

 

 

Would it work in /etc/rc.local?

 

1. sudo nano -w /etc/rc.local
2. Add the above lines
3. Reboot

Every time the machine is restarted, the above will run. If you want to run it without reboot, sudo /etc/rc.local will do it (but if you have other lines in there that do other things, that could mess up your machine requiring a reboot anyway :-).

[+Ripdubski]

Sticking it in rc.local should work fine and persist across reboot.

[atari8warez]

 

Would it work in /etc/rc.local?

 

1. sudo nano -w /etc/rc.local
2. Add the above lines
3. Reboot

Every time the machine is restarted, the above will run. If you want to run it without reboot, sudo /etc/rc.local will do it (but if you have other lines in there that do other things, that could mess up your machine requiring a reboot anyway :-).

 

Apparently there are many different ways of running scripts on Linux, I chose to use the .profile in my example. The main thing with this driver issue is that the script must be run on every boot (run level 6 on Ubuntu) and it needs to have elevated privileges (i.e. root) as it deals with a kernel module.

 

Note that Debian does not use rc.local (AspeQt now works with Debian as well as Ubuntu - I haven't verified functionality with other distros) and apparently run-level system replaced the traditional /etc/rc script used in Version 7 Unix.

I am not a unix/linux expert and my method above may not be the most elegant way of doing what I need to do, it does not intend to guide linux experts/pros amongst us, but it works and helps people who are like me - a linux noob - Having said that, I always welcome suggestions for better alternatives so long as they are described clearly and thoroughly.

 

P.S: An FTDI tech rep advised me to use .bashrc, but that didn't work as I expected, not only that but it also had a side effect of running the script every time I opened a terminal window thus adding extra and unnecessary lines to the new_id file in ftdi_sio folder, so with my limited knowledge and with some web browsing I found above solution.

Edited June 22, 2014 by atari8warez

[greblus]

(Off-topic, but I hope you won't kill me for that)

 

Here's the Debian way of doing it (point 11.6):

 

https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-customizing.en.html

 

But things get a bit more complicated as Debian devs finally decided to go for systemd. On Fedora rc.local can be used thanks to rc-local.service. On Arch Linux there is no such service file, but this and many other useful ones can be found in aur packages. The thing is that at some point Ubuntu will also have to adopt systemd otherwise they'll have to stop using Debian packages as their "base" and maintaining them will cost a lot.

 

I agree, I like the KISS principle and rc.local was one of good examples of this simplicity from the old days. Arch had more simple solutions, eg bsd-like single-file configuration (rc.conf) but it's all gone now and there is nothing bad in progress and development (IMO).

 

My approach is to:

 

- properly configure sudo (NOPASSWD can disable password requirement for chosen or even all commands, which is also quite sane for a regularily updated computers at home,

- $HOME/.bash-profile and automatic login managed by systemd (no gdm/kdm just for that simple purpose)

 

It's a bit different for each distro to make it in an absolutely correct way (that's why systemd is a good thing also - if widely adopted, all these files could be common).

Edited June 22, 2014 by greblus

[+DrVenkman]

I have one of Ray's devices on order and expect to receive it in a week or so. Does anyone know if any progress has been made on the OS X version of AspeQt? I have tried to run it even before receiving the device, just to gain some familiarity with it and what to expect in use. However, I get a message about migrating configuration files each time I run it, and then a few seconds later it crashes. For what it's worth, I'm running on the latest Developer Preview of OS X 10.10. I'm not sure if this problem exists in earlier versions of OS X.

I do have last week's Xcode 6 Beta installed and I'm not afraid of a command line, if that might help.

[atari8warez]

I have one of Ray's devices on order and expect to receive it in a week or so. Does anyone know if any progress has been made on the OS X version of AspeQt?

 

Did you try this version. It should have fixed the migration problem you described above. The crashing problem however is news to me, it may be due to the Developer Preview version of OS X.

Edited July 15, 2014 by atari8warez

[+DrVenkman]

Yes that's the version I was fooling around with while I wait. I may download the source code and try to compile it natively in XCode for Yosemite.

 

If worse comes to worse I can also try SIO2OSX, though I'd prefer a free solution.