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Happy 810 resources


ebiguy

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My blog post on installing the Happy in a 1050 for the newbies out there. This was my first one. Relatively easy. Hope to do one of these for the 810 as well. Thanks for all the posts!

Nice write up. You referenced the happy 7.0 media in your post - Complete 7.1 media is here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/269692-happy-1050-and-electronic-arts/?p=3844676&do=findComment&comment=3844676

 

I'm still impressed how small that reproduction happy board is compared to the original, and most other knock-offs from back in the day. Big enough that they included a hole in the PCB to allow the crystal south of the CPU to fit through.

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Whats the difference between 810 happy drives and 1050 happy drives?

- 810 happy single density only, 1050 Happy can also do enhanced density and true double density.

 

- 810 Happy formats single density disks with the improved 'Chicago' sector layout, reducing inter-sector lag for non buffered/stock drives. Happy 1050 formats single density disks with a skew like a stock Rev C 810 / 1050.

 

- older happy 810 can only do 'warp speed' 2x faster/ 38400 SIO that doesn't work with most software, and later 810 happy and 1050 happy support ultraspeed emulation (2.8x faster / 54000bps) which is compatible with spartados and many other DOSes and programs.

 

- Happy 810 does not enable write buffering by default, Happy 1050 does.

 

- Happy 810 keeps the idle motor/spindle running much longer after I/O than the 1050 by default. Most likely to reduce latency from the 810 seeking to track 39 every time it spins down.

 

- Happy 810 had I think at least 3 different hardware revisions. The earlier variants required extensive soldering rework to the controller board to install. Later variants had a PCB to reduce this, but still some soldering required I think? 1050 Happy is solder free, only requiring removal of CPU+RAM and plugging the 1 PCB into the CPU socket.

 

- Early 810 Happy versions supported an autospeed mod, to automatically slow down the RPM to write long copy protected tracks. 810 V.7 removed support for this in favour of a write protect override switch. You could still mod your own manual RPM switch into either 810 or 1050 though.

 

- Happy 1050 has enough free RAM to support much more uploaded custom code than the 810. There are many existing software utilities to use this 'feature' to temporarily convert the happy 1050 into a functionally exact Stock 1050, Archiver 1050, or US Doubler until power cycled.

 

Those are the differences I can think of right now.

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- 810 happy single density only, 1050 Happy can also do enhanced density and true double density.

 

- 810 Happy formats single density disks with the improved 'Chicago' sector layout, reducing inter-sector lag for non buffered/stock drives. Happy 1050 formats single density disks with a skew like a stock Rev C 810 / 1050.

 

- older happy 810 can only do 'warp speed' 2x faster/ 38400 SIO that doesn't work with most software, and later 810 happy and 1050 happy support ultraspeed emulation (2.8x faster / 54000bps) which is compatible with spartados and many other DOSes and programs.

 

- Happy 810 does not enable write buffering by default, Happy 1050 does.

 

- Happy 810 keeps the idle motor/spindle running much longer after I/O than the 1050 by default. Most likely to reduce latency from the 810 seeking to track 39 every time it spins down.

 

- Happy 810 had I think at least 3 different hardware revisions. The earlier variants required extensive soldering rework to the controller board to install. Later variants had a PCB to reduce this, but still some soldering required I think? 1050 Happy is solder free, only requiring removal of CPU+RAM and plugging the 1 PCB into the CPU socket.

 

- Early 810 Happy versions supported an autospeed mod, to automatically slow down the RPM to write long copy protected tracks. 810 V.7 removed support for this in favour of a write protect override switch. You could still mod your own manual RPM switch into either 810 or 1050 though.

 

- Happy 1050 has enough free RAM to support much more uploaded custom code than the 810. There are many existing software utilities to use this 'feature' to temporarily convert the happy 1050 into a functionally exact Stock 1050, Archiver 1050, or US Doubler until power cycled.

 

Those are the differences I can think of right now.

Thanks for the info! I just purchased a couple 810 happy drives to pair with my 400, so I was very curious. Maybe I should have purchased a couple of 1050s instead.

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- Happy 1050 has enough free RAM to support much more uploaded custom code than the 810. There are many existing software utilities to use this 'feature' to temporarily convert the happy 1050 into a functionally exact Stock 1050, Archiver 1050, or US Doubler until power cycled.

 

 

I know the board can run custom code, but I don't think I was aware of the existing utilities you reference. Can you provide examples? :)

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I know the board can run custom code, but I don't think I was aware of the existing utilities you reference. Can you provide examples? :)

 

The latter part of a video I made last year (showing four Happy 1050 drives reading from 1 and writing 3 duplicates simultaneously) shows one of the programs to upload the relocated Stock 1050 ROM in action, allowing Summer Games to pass the copy protection checks. (Which, also works if the drive is just set to 'unhappy' mode, but you can hear the stock 1050 mode has a different SIO tone pitch )

https://youtu.be/wCKbd63fj4o?t=585 (link jumps to 9:45 mark)

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/277382-atari-1050-in-kinda-rough-shape/?p=4009643- A previous post with link to that bootable ATR with Stock 1050 and Archiver options, and RealDOS's US Doubler converter function of HAPPY.COM.

 

Some other's that I've found of since then:

... And one more I recently came across that I haven't posted about yet :

 

I'm not sure if this is online anywhere yet, but I came across this in my BBS hard drive backups recently... "US Doubler Emulator Program for Happy 1050 disk drives, Copyright © 1988 by Pete Dominguez" - to convert a Happy 1050 to US Doubler meant for use within SpartaDOS with a command line, or without parameters or a menu DOS like 2.x with a simple menu without having to reboot the computer and boot a disk. I bet Steven J. Carden's HAPPY.COM US Doubler converter function is based on this.... Probably the same "Steve" thanked in the doc, both of them are in Georgia.

 

Interesting paragraph in the doc:

     I have contacted both ICD and Happy Computers about this
program.  I have been informed via telephone by Mike Gustafson
and Howard Peters at ICD that there should no problem with releasing
this program as 'Shareware', (i.e. Public Domain).  Happy Computers
does not care, or that is the impression I was given by telephone,
what I do with this program.  So here it is for all of you to enjoy.
Just remember when giving it away to include my documentation for
reference purposes.

Attached to this post is a SpartaDOS ATR I copied the original files to, as well as the extracted DOC converted for PC viewing.

usmultr.atr

usmultr_doc.txt

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"- older happy 810 can only do 'warp speed' 2x faster/ 38400 SIO that doesn't work with most software, and later 810 happy and 1050 happy support ultraspeed emulation (2.8x faster / 54000bps) which is compatible with spartados and many other DOSes and programs."

 

Now you've got me curious -- I don't remember that 2X. I had an 810 Happy and a 1050 Happy at the same time, and don't remember the 810 Warp mode being noticeably slower. The only drive that I remember using 2X was the fast interleave double density mode of the XF551 (and I don't recall the divisor).

 

Can you explain that a bit more? Perhaps you are referring to the Happy Menu operations as opposed to Warp Dos? I know that the capabilities of the 810 Happy were "enhanced" with the use of the new rom, but I don't recall the Warp Speed (Dos) being any faster. Your post also makes me notice how much I've forgotten, too! ;)

 

-Larry

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If you had a Rev 7 Happy 810, you probably remember it doing UltraSpeed most of the time with later software..... So the pitch of the SIO tones would have sounded the same as your Happy 1050 in most newer programs, ie SpartaDOS. A quick way to hear the difference is to use the happy backup software even in 7.0/7.1, which still uses Warp Speed. The Sector Copier uses UltraSpeed.

 

Here's a video by tep392 showing his Axlon board, at 5:29 he boots up is 800 & Happy 810 with Warp Speed DOS XL. If you listen carefully, you hear the first few sectors load at 1x SIO speed, then the rest at 'Warp Speed' (2x SIO / 38400). Maybe his 810 is a Rev 7 that can do both Warp Speed & UltraSpeed, but that particular disk only does WarpSpeed. I'm not sure which version of 810 happy specifically added UltraSpeed 'emulation', but it would have been in response to the US Doubler, so 84 at the earliest... I'd have to check again, but the 'Warp Speed DOS' on one of the extra sides of the Happy 7 disks was probably updated to use UltraSpeed as well.

 

https://youtu.be/0JmC6mDAEnA?t=329

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I know the board can run custom code, but I don't think I was aware of the existing utilities you reference. Can you provide examples? :)

 

You might know already, but beside what Nezgar mentioned, most software provided by Happy itself worked like that. e.g, the happy backuper; there is no code at the firmware for copying copy protected disks. The backuper first uploads custom code to the drive, and only then it can actually work. Also all the PDBs that run only from a Happy drive, as when you attempt to copy the more advanced copy protections. The copy requires a Happy because the boot code upload a special code to the drive to emulate those protections that it can't really copy.

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  • 1 month later...

I finally finished tracing the wiring and drawing a schematic of the mod in post 27.

 

The wiring is as follows:

attachicon.gifHappy 810 wiring.jpg

 

Note that I drew the wiring as the PCB is seen on the photo's: from the solder side. Because of that, the IC's pin numbering is mirrored in my drawings. I'm fairly certain the wiring is drawn correctly (checked 2x). The edges of the PCB are drawn in a thick line, so that it stands out from the wiring lines.

 

From some photo's posted by Jon (FlashJazzCat) several years ago, I learned the 2 unknown IC's are a 74LS00 and a 74LS32. The resulting schematic looks like this:

 

attachicon.gifHappy 810 schematic.jpg

 

Note the remarks about 2 cut traces and a wire routing on the 810 Side Board.

 

Sadly, I haven't had time yet to dump the 810 rev. B rom. Hopefully I'll get a chance for it during the coming weekend! My TL866 programmer can't program the 2716's and 2732's I have in my sparebox. They are all types that require 25V programming voltage, where the TL866 won't go beyond 21V VPP. So, I'm thinking of replacing the rom with a 28c16 eeprom.

 

re-atari

 

I compared the schematics I've drawn a long time ago to the ones you've drawn - they don't match directly, so they may be derived from different versions of the HAPPY enhancement (or maybe one or the other was a pirated version, I'm not sure).

 

This is what my first version looked like:

810 Happy Enhancement - Work Copy v1.1

The ROM contains the message "WORK COPY V1.1" in the unused area. Please find the ROM-dump down below.
These are the schematics I've drawn including information which traces to cut, the slow speed mod is also included:

Happy 810 Schematics 2k RAM

 

For better understanding, I labeled the signals according to their function.

 

As 8k SRAMs became available, I modified the circuit to support a single SRAM chip (instead of two 2k SRAMs).

 

This is what it looked like:

008

 

and here are the schematics:

Happy 810 Schematics 8k RAM

Most likely the signal A11_LATE is no longer needed in the 8k SRAM version. You may try at your own risk to leave out IC1D and IC1C and directly connect IC2 Pins 10 and 12 to A11.
Horry

HAPPY810.BIN

Edited by Horry
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The ROM contains the message "WORK COPY V1.1" in the unused area. Please find the ROM-dump down below.

 

Thanks for sharing, Horry!

 

Is this the "early" ROM or the "updated" one that is compatible with the Happy software for the 1050?

 

As I lack any formal electronics training there's a big gap between schematics and a soldering iron for me. If anyone more knowledgable would translate the above into a "solder this to this" type of instructions I'd probably risk frying my sole 810 but I simply don't dare to...(not wishing to take away anything from your contribution, though, Horry). It's great to have things like this online!

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I assume these boards are for 1050s?

Yes, that's an unpopulated pirate Happy clone PCB for 1050. 40 pin 6502, 28 pin 6116 8K SRAM, 28 pin 2764 8KB EPROM, and some 14&16 pin LS logic chips. Looks like the header for plugging into the 1050's 6507 CPU socket would go underneath the 6502 socket on the side of PCB.

 

So many different takes at cloning out there... I have a clone PCB of similar quality, but completely different layout..

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Is this the "early" ROM or the "updated" one that is compatible with the Happy software for the 1050?

Best is to try the ROM in Altirra with happy 810 full drive emulation to see if it works with each version of the utilities. Not likely to work with the happy 7.0/7.1 software for Rev 7 Happy 810 or Happy 1050 Rev 1 or 2. Probably will work with one of the 810-only 5.3 or 6.6 disks, or maybe an earlier version that has not been archived yet.

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Well, I've ignored this thread for the last two years, not owning an 810, but I was just recently given an 800 and 810 and find myself suddenly going through this thread, great stuff! Time to order a Happy board from B&C or Best now, for my "new" 810... :-D

post-149-0-92305800-1541947031_thumb.jpg

Edited by Gunstar
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d3c9533a42ee6aa9f8ee31589d060196.jpg

 

Nice!

IIRC B&C/myatari.com bought out the remaining Happy 810/1050 inventory when the company shut down. I believe the versions sold by them are NOS, not reproduction.

 

The price list has been unavailable for a while but I made a post with Happy 810 pricing back in April, I doubt it's changed since then.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/278203-what-is-this-thing/?view=findpost&p=4017073

 

Edit: While several sites sell Happy 1050 upgrades, I believe B&C/myatari is the only one selling the 810 version.

Edited by BillC
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IIRC B&C/myatari.com bought out the remaining Happy 810/1050 inventory when the company shut down. I believe the versions sold by them are NOS, not reproduction.

 

The price list has been unavailable for a while but I made a post with Happy 810 pricing back in April, I doubt it's changed since then.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/278203-what-is-this-thing/?view=findpost&p=4017073

 

Edit: While several sites sell Happy 1050 upgrades, I believe B&C/myatari is the only one selling the 810 version.

I bought my 810 Happy Upgrade from B&C last year. It looked NOS to me. It even had a warranty card. :)

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The ROM image that I posted is 4kB in size. The ROM that's compatible with Happy7 SW does bankswitching and has two bank of 3kB, giving a total of 6kB. You will need at least an 8kB EPROM (2764) and some logic to do the bankswitching (it is performed via 1FF8/1FF9 ROM address read).

 

Within the last days, I took the time to modify both of my Happy 810 disk drives to be compatible with Happy v7.x software. I used the ROM shared by AtariGeezer in post http://atariage.com/forums/topic/257578-happy-810-resources/?p=3622941. Once again thank you very much for sharing, AtariGeezer!

 

This is what I did:

- Remove both TTL ICs (74LS00 and 74LS32), that do the address decoding.

- Rebuild the address decoding circuit in ABEL and program it into a GAL. Worked!

- Extend the code of the GAL to do the bankswitching.

 

The GAL type is GAL22v10B. The signals RAM_CS1 and RAM_CS2 are compatible with the "old" 810 Happy design incorporating 2x 6116 2kx8 SRAM devices. The signal RAM_CS is used to drive a 6264 8kx8 SRAM instead.

 

 

Both drives are now fully compatible with the Happy 7 Software and should behave exactly like the ones that have a Happy 810 Upgrade PCBA installed.

 

Both drives fully pass the Happy 7 diagnostic test - incl. ROM test.

 

Atari 810 Happy Homebuild v7.10 Diagnostics

They even work together with 2 1050 Happy drives in Happy multi drive copy mode (the 1050 on the right is a 1050 Mega Speedy set to Happy emulation mode):

Atari 810 Happy homebuilt v7 multi drive (2x 810 Happy Drive + 2x 1050 Happy Drive)

 

Attached is the GAL .jed file as well as the GAL logic (ABEL schematics for LATTICE ispLEVER Classic).

 

GAL ABEL Schematics

 

This how you have to wire the GAL to the solder side of the CPU:

 

6507 GAL Happy 810

Here are some pictures of the mod:

Happy 810 Enhancement v7 homebuild 001

Happy 810 Enhancement v7 homebuild 002

Happy 810 Enhancement v7 homebuild 003

Happy 810 Enhancement v7 homebuild 004

 

Maybe I will publish a detailed description how to modify a stock 810 if there is demand.
Please feel free to ask questions.
Horry

 

 

Thanks for sharing, Horry!

 

Is this the "early" ROM or the "updated" one that is compatible with the Happy software for the 1050?

 

As I lack any formal electronics training there's a big gap between schematics and a soldering iron for me. If anyone more knowledgable would translate the above into a "solder this to this" type of instructions I'd probably risk frying my sole 810 but I simply don't dare to...(not wishing to take away anything from your contribution, though, Horry). It's great to have things like this online!

 

happy_810_v7.zip

Edited by Horry
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi @Horry.

 

+1 to the better description. Please provide more photos as well.

 

Also, apologies for a potentially dumb question, but what does this modification do, exactly? Does it only speed up the drive, or is there more to it? Did you achieve higher density of storage on stock 810 drive through this modification?

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