Help Needed with uber cart 512k images

[AuTomato]

Greetings all,

 

I have an uber cart and I'm experiencing a problem in which many of the images posted at this link:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/243766-bin-repository-images-for-burning-cartridges-182017/

 

Seem to only partially work. For instance, if I burn gamescart.bin (or any of the other games cart bin files) I get an option for "games" at the startup menu, but if I select it I get an empty blue screen and Fn+Esc doesn't allow me to return to the menu. I've been able to run banktest512_8.bin and all banks report OK, but apart from that none of the other 512k images I've burned have worked.

 

I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, or if I've got a defective board or what so any help would be greatly appreciated. I just recently got another TI99 after having one as my first computer growing up and I'm excited to relive some of my childhood.

[+Ksarul]

Do you have 32K? Almost all of the 512K images require it. Try to load the Atarisoft Games compilation or the Guidry 512K Compilation of 8K ROMs. Either of those should work for you, even without 32K.

 

If the 512K Banktest runs, your UberGROM board is fine (I'm the one who builds them, and that's what I use to test the ROM side).

[AuTomato]

Thanks for the reply! I suspected that it might be that, the 32K sidecar is currently back ordered so that may not be here for a few weeks. I'll give one of those a shot and we'll see how it goes.

[AuTomato]

Yep, that looks like it's it. The Atarisoft collection is working just fine so I guess all I need to do is wait for the 32K board to arrive. It's been over 20 years since I've used one of these so I suppose a few weeks won't kill me!

[+jedimatt42]

Yep, that looks like it's it. The Atarisoft collection is working just fine so I guess all I need to do is wait for the 32K board to arrive. It's been over 20 years since I've used one of these so I suppose a few weeks won't kill me!

 

( quietly taking the hint that I need to assemble more 32k cards - and sharing a little off topic news )

 

My last batch of pcboard prints for the 32k card have problems with the via's... I'm working on increasing their size to reduce plating failures. I'll try and solder-fill the via's myself so I can get these out the door, but so far I haven't found a way to do that.

 

Again to you and ALL, I appreciate the patience!

 

-M@

[Tursi]

Maybe you can drop a small wire through the via and solder top and bottom... would that work?

[+jedimatt42]

Maybe you can drop a small wire through the via and solder top and bottom... would that work?

 

That's what I was hoping for... but I just tried the finest wire I have, wire-wrap ( why does the spindle have 4 different gauges printed on the label?? ) which I believe is awg-30. But that is too large for the via holes.

 

I guess I was lucky with the first 70 boards... very lucky. Oh well, a good excuse to make some other assembly improvements. I've fired off an order for rev4 boards to OSHPark. I've not changed anything that impacts the fit with the cod3m4st3r cases. Lesson learned, instead of making things as small as you can, make them only as small as they need to be.

 

-M@

[Tursi]

 

That's what I was hoping for... but I just tried the finest wire I have, wire-wrap ( why does the spindle have 4 different gauges printed on the label?? ) which I believe is awg-30. But that is too large for the via holes.

 

Oi.. well.. this is a long shot, but do you have any stranded wire you can unstrand? Maybe the strands will be smaller?

[+Ksarul]

Peeling some of the small gauge wire from an old transformer winding might work too (the wire in the small ones is very thin, possibly down to 36 or 40 gauge for tiny stuff like Lego motors).

[AuTomato]

 

That's what I was hoping for... but I just tried the finest wire I have, wire-wrap ( why does the spindle have 4 different gauges printed on the label?? ) which I believe is awg-30. But that is too large for the via holes.

 

I guess I was lucky with the first 70 boards... very lucky. Oh well, a good excuse to make some other assembly improvements. I've fired off an order for rev4 boards to OSHPark. I've not changed anything that impacts the fit with the cod3m4st3r cases. Lesson learned, instead of making things as small as you can, make them only as small as they need to be.

 

-M@

 

I've got some 42AWG enamel magnet wire I use for making coils for homebrew radios. That might actually be too thin though, 42AWG is .063mm thick which is actually toward the low end of the thickness range of human hair. Not sure what you're doing, but if it's something that is going to potentially have to resist any kind of handling, something that thin is probably a no-go. I can't imagine having to use it as hookup-wire or something like that, far too thin and fragile.