IDE+2 (rev C) and the Ultimate 1MB?

[+Larry]

Do these two devices work together? I presumed so, but mine does not. On my Ultimate 1 MB computer, I get power to the IDE+2, and can access the start menu, but it will not boot, including SDX from either the IDE+2 -or- the Ultimate. IDE+2 is known good and works fine on other 800XL's and XE's. When the IDE+2 is attached, I get lots of screen interference (sometimes called "birdies.") Attached is a pic of the setup screen which shows the birdies -- white bars at the center of the screen. IIRC, these have something to do with Antic access.

 

I have the original V2 rom in the Ultimate, with the OS's re-flashed for Fast Math, Omnimon XL, and MyBios 4.9.B8. Stock OS is still there. Perhaps some other settings are needed? Also, on the IDE+2 setup screen, I get a lot of garbage characters -- and the PBI and connector are scrupulously clean. I haven't tried any other PBI devices. (My MyIDE-II cart works fine, but of course, is not PBI.)

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks,

Larry

[flashjazzcat]

They are perfectly compatible, but the "birdies" suggest something seriously wrong at the hardware level when the IDE Plus is hooked up (Phi2 issues, bus capacitance, etc). No amount of BIOS setting changes will fix this.

 

Do you have any other upgrades in the machine, aside from the Ultimate?

[AtariGeezer]

Try changing SIDE PBI ID to "2" instead of "1" in your U1MB Settings....

Edited December 10, 2014 by AtariGeezer

[flashjazzcat]

Good point, but he's got SIDE hardware disabled, so presumably there's no external device clash (I also thought IDE Plus shipped with the device ID set to 7, but I'm probably wrong).

[+Larry]

Thanks, guys. The Side setting came as 7, but I tried with all available (1,3,5,7). Side is disabled, and no PBI setting worked. No even numbers are accessible. No other mods are in there, other than the power connection to the PBI. BTW, when the XL/XE Self Test screen comes up with IDE+2 attached, both rom bars are red. IIRC, the left os the OS and the right is Basic? If the IDE+2 is not connected, only the left bar is red. (pic attached.) I don't know if this is significant or not.

 

I have a new Ultimate coming from Lotharek, so I can swap things around and test. I also have another IDE+2, so I can test it, also.

 

-Larry

 

 

[flashjazzcat]

For info: The Ultimate's PBI device IDs are misnumbered and run from 1-7, odd digits only (this is a limitation of the menu system), corresponding to what are properly IDs 0-6. So you're actually only getting the even IDs as far as the OS is concerned. IDE Plus 2.0 offers IDs 0 through 7, initially via a jumper and latterly via a rotating switch.

[+bob1200xl]

The left bar is the OS $C000-$DFFF and the right bar is OS $E000-$FFFF. Basic is not tested for checksum.

 

I have seen ANTIC itself cause birdies in some machines and not others.

 

Bob

[Marius]

Those birdies… yes I have seen them too, with older batch of MyIDE ][ firmware (not the MyBIOS, but the HARDWARE firmware from the CPLD)

 

If you have that issue, with IDE+ 2.0 and Ultimate together, you can not use that combination, since I don't see any CPLD upgrades of the Ultimate ever happen.

 

I have an atari (without u1mb) with an Flash rom chip where the OS is saved in. That Atari is 100% original, except for that Flash rom. Nothing special. That atari does have the issue too.

 

It's a downside of all those modern upgrades.

[atari8warez]

Those birdies… yes I have seen them too, with older batch of MyIDE ][ firmware (not the MyBIOS, but the HARDWARE firmware from the CPLD)

 

If you have that issue, with IDE+ 2.0 and Ultimate together, you can not use that combination, since I don't see any CPLD upgrades of the Ultimate ever happen.

 

I have an atari (without u1mb) with an Flash rom chip where the OS is saved in. That Atari is 100% original, except for that Flash rom. Nothing special. That atari does have the issue too.

 

It's a downside of all those modern upgrades.

 

Marius, I think you're doing the right thing not upgrading your machines with internal upgrades, there may be so many potential problems when someone crams their computer with a variety of HW upgrades, staying as true to the original is one way of making these machines last longer.

[atari8warez]

Do these two devices work together?

 

 

They work fine together on my 600XL, but I previously had a problem with U1MB on an otherwise unmodified 800 XL and had to remove it from that computer. What is yours, an XL or XE, which model?

Edited December 10, 2014 by atari8warez

[Marius]

 

Marius, I think you're doing the right thing not upgrading your machines with internal upgrades, there may be so many potential problems when someone crams their computer with a variety of HW upgrades, staying as true to the original is one way of making these machines last longer.

 

And the best part: I have more fun with my Atari's now, than before!

 

It's amazing how fabulous an original atari is. In the past I was really thrilled about the upgrades... but in a certain way I thought: hmmm is the original atari still appealing?

And the answer is YES!

 

Even an original 48K Atari 8bit is capable of amazing stuff.

 

I must agree: I love 320K in total. So I have that external.

But most of the time I am using stock 64K.

 

These days I'm using my original, unmodified 1050... and it is so great to hear those SLOW beeps again. Yeah. Modern, cool software... on 5.25"floppy ... it is the best experience!

[+Larry]

This is a "new" 800XL. At any rate, the MyIDE-II works perfectly, and that is the combo that I use most often. I would be just as happy with a 320 KB machine, but I really do like the idea of the flashable OS's. (And MyDos can only use 768K for the ramdisk -- pretty sure that I found that before with an MIO and MyDos modified to use the MIO as its ramdisk.) The flashable carts are nice, although I certainly already have that with the MyIDE-II. But I look forward to getting the new Ultimate V2. I'd like to pin down *why* this fails.

 

-Larry

[atari8warez]

I never found out the reason why my U1MB didn't work with that particular 800XL, I also had the birdies all over the setup screen and the machine worked for a while and then suddenly failed. No such problems with the 600XL

probably some weird timing problem of some sort but I am not equipped to diagnose it so just gave-up.

[Marius]

A Certain fellow here on AtariAge (Don't remember who) found out there is some 'termination' missing on the PBI, which causes this kind of issues. He added some heavy OHMs on it (IIRC) and that fixed much. But unfortunately I can not remember which or who.

[atari8warez]

Heh, a search for "PBI" and "termination" here at AA returns 3 message threads, one of which is a thread in which you already advised me about this solution and apparently I forgot about it. On that message you mention that the person might be rdemming. By the way that particular thread is a one that I don't really want to remember for other reasons... lol...

Edited December 10, 2014 by atari8warez

[+Larry]

It lives!!!

 

Problem was "bad" Antic. I still get a few birdies, but IDE+2 boots every time, and as best I can tell in brief testing, so does everything else on the Ultimate. Also swapped cpu's, but that had no effect. Also tried Bob Puff's compatibility mods, and #1 had no effect and #2 made things worse. It's not perfect, but I'm definitely pleased that I did get the IDE+2 going.

 

-Larry

[+bob1200xl]

Well, your 'new' ANTIC is just a little better than your 'bad' ANTIC. The 'bad' ANTIC isn't really defective...

 

Bob

[+Larry]

Different shades of "goodness!"

 

-Larry

[_The Doctor__]

It lives!!!

 

Problem was "bad" Antic. I still get a few birdies, but IDE+2 boots every time, and as best I can tell in brief testing, so does everything else on the Ultimate. Also swapped cpu's, but that had no effect. Also tried Bob Puff's compatibility mods, and #1 had no effect and #2 made things worse. It's not perfect, but I'm definitely pleased that I did get the IDE+2 going.

 

-Larry

the puff mod is flawed as it only pertains to one version of the Atari, please see mathy van nisselroys page for the alternate puff fix ... fixed for other version Atari boards!