1088XEL Atari ITX Motherboard DIY Builders Thread

[rockdoc2010]

Moving along slowly but surely as I have many other things requiring my time. I have found it with my stopping and starting to keep up with my progress to use Michael's PCB Layout and BOM to highlight items that I have soldered in, plus to select my next components to solder based on the preferred sequence outlined by Michael.

 

PCBLayoutHiLight.jpg

 

BOMCheckOff (1).jpg

 

 

where did you get that white motherboard image?

[rockdoc2010]

Ok, everything is socketed, plugged in, going green. Oh, wait! No video cable for Sophia!!! But the board looks great. I'll work on cable this week;--)

 

 

1225170909a_HDR.jpg

 

Good catch Michael! I'm waiting on my Video jack to come in as well to give me composite/S-video options.

 

 

I may be old school but I am not one room old school..

 

Can I run the UAV as well as the VBXE simultaneously?

 

Douglas

[+Firedawg]

where did you get that white motherboard image?

You can get it from the schematics for the 1088XEL

 

Mike

[+Firedawg]

I may be old school but I am not one room old school..

 

Can I run the UAV as well as the VBXE simultaneously?

 

Douglas

I have a UAV and a Sophia that I can run simultaneously, but not sure about the VBXE.

 

Mike

[+mytek]

The black and white board component diagram was included as the last page in the BOM. Go to the 1088XEL page on my website to download the latest version. Although I'm surprised that you could be building a board without already having that.

 

I don't see why VBXE and the UAV wouldn't work simultaneously, but I can't say that from personal experience.

[+MacRorie]

I have a UAV and a Sophia that I can run simultaneously, but not sure about the VBXE.

 

Mike

You can have video simultaneously from all of the following:

UAV - composite

UAV - s-video

VBXE

Sophia rev B

Sophia rev C

 

Presuming, of course, you have 5 monitors to connect

Its kind of awesome.

[+MacRorie]

Duplicate post.

[+Firedawg]

You can get it from the schematics for the 1088XEL

Mike

My mistake as it is in the BOM doc.

 

Mike

[+DrVenkman]

So I was reading through this thread and it reminded me of something I noticed about my 1088XEL sometime in the last few weeks - other than the U1MB BIOS screensaver, the standard Atari "attract mode" never kicks in on my machine. This is definitely something different/new in the last couple months, as I had previously done a 48 hour "burn in" test on the machine after it was "done" (XEL-CF-II interface built and installed) and it was working fine then. It also worked when I was coding silly Action! or BASIC stuff for fun and would walk away from the machine.

 

Anyway, tonight I created a simple loop to display the contents of the ATRACT register and print it down the screen to keep track of it incrementing:

 

10 ? PEEK (77)

20 GOTO 10

 

Seems that whenever it gets up to 20 (and sometimes only 19 right before it increments), it's getting reset to 0. Interestingly, if I do a manual POKE 77,128 the attract mode will trigger but it resets itself a minute or two later.

 

So far as I know, the OS ROMs I'm using are all stock OS ROMs except for my 16K padded-out version of OS-b, and so far as I know, nothing has changed with the machine physically (though now I want to run the SALT-II cartridge ROM again to be sure, and maybe re-flash the U1MB). All the software I've been using seems to be working fine, but the ATRACT register just isn't incrementing properly at idle, though the U1MB BIOS screensaver *IS* working.

 

Any thoughts about where to start looking?

Edited October 2, 2018 by DrVenkman

[+mytek]

Here you go...

 

CTRL+ALT+S toggles the screensaver (attract mode) ON or OFF.

ALT+S displays current setting

 

Setting is stored in EEPROM and restored upon power-up.

 

Just another built-in feature directly attributable to the TK-II firmware .

[+DrVenkman]

Here you go...

 

CTRL+ALT+S toggles the screensaver (attract mode) ON or OFF.

ALT+S displays current setting

 

Setting is stored in EEPROM and restored upon power-up.

 

Just another built-in feature directly attributable to the TK-II firmware .

 

Jeez, thank you!!! I've been wracking my brain for an hour or more, digging through MAPPING THE ATARI and the ALTIRRA HARDWARE REFERENCE MANUAL trying to figure out what the heck single component or signal path might be inhibiting the attract mode that didn't involve me tearing my machine apart this weekend, examining everything under increasingly high levels of light and magnification and resulting in a fit of drunken weeping when I couldn't figure it out.

[+mytek]

Jeez, thank you!!! I've been wracking my brain for an hour or more, digging through MAPPING THE ATARI and the ALTIRRA HARDWARE REFERENCE MANUAL trying to figure out what the heck single component or signal path might be inhibiting the attract mode that didn't involve me tearing my machine apart this weekend, examining everything under increasingly high levels of light and magnification and resulting in a fit of drunken weeping when I couldn't figure it out.

 

Glad to help .

 

For future reference...

 

 

 

Other things that can fool you, is toggling into 'Insert Mode' (ALT+INSERT key). This mode is particularly useful when in a programming language like Basic or Assembler/Editor, giving you a much more PC like experience when editing source code. However it can do some strange things in certain programs, so is best left off when not specifically needed. This particular toggled feature is not saved in non-volatile memory, so it will default to OFF when powered-up.

 

I have a new version of firmware in the works that gets rid of what I call the TK-II Caps Mode and instead adds the ability to toggle the power-up default of the NumLock key. This is especially nice when using those smaller keyboards that double up some of the keys to create a numpad where there are normally letters (alpha vs numeric). I'll probably release that around the end of the year.

[+DrVenkman]

 

Glad to help .

 

For future reference...

 

 

I've got that saved but honestly, although I obviously must have toggled the TK-II Screensaver mode, it was completely by accident and I had no idea I had done it! Now that you pointed me in the right direction, I even remember some posts about that mode from a prior thread, probably in the context of people using machines with modern flat-panel displays. Since I pretty much invariably use my stuff with vintage CRTs, the discussion always just passed by me un-appreciated.

 

The future change to the code sounds interesting. Glad to know your ever-fertile creativity is still hard at work.

[+mytek]

One last thing. The attract mode defeat action is done by sending a CTRL+SHIFT+A about every 3 minutes. This isn't normally seen by Atari as a normal key press, so no key click sound is heard. However, some apps that have their own key handler might still see it, and continue to make a key click sound. For instance when I'm in MIDI-Play it still reacts to it and you can hear a phantom key click on that 3 minute interval. Also when I have a song paused, it will automatically resume when the phantom key press occurs. So in some cases you might wish to disable that feature.

 

Edit: when a song is playing, no key click sound is issued.

 

But I for one, pretty much always use an LCD screen, hence I don't worry about screen burns like on a CRT. So having the ability to do away with the annoying attract mode is a blessing .

 

BTW, Kyle22 was the one who helped me figure out how to make a key press that was normally considered a null key by the system.

[ebiguy]

Hi,

I received my kit from MacRorie last week-end and I think I have finished the assembly but I don't want to ruin all the efforts (and money) put on this board.

So I did not power it up and I would like to know what can I check to see if everything is fine.

As I am not a hardware guy and this kit is the most complex I built, I am asking for advice at this crucial step.

Could you tell me what kind of controls I could do (voltage or anything else) and in which state (I mean, should I keep the board populated? remove the Atari ICs? remove the 74xxx chips? remove the U1MB board? remove the crystal? for the tests)

Thank you for your help.

 

[+DrVenkman]

Hi,

I received my kit from MacRorie last week-end and I think I have finished the assembly but I don't want to ruin all the efforts (and money) put on this board.

So I did not power it up and I would like to know what can I check to see if everything is fine.

As I am not a hardware guy and this kit is the most complex I built, I am asking for advice at this crucial step.

Could you tell me what kind of controls I could do (voltage or anything else) and in which state (I mean, should I keep the board populated? remove the Atari ICs? remove the 74xxx chips? remove the U1MB board? remove the crystal? for the tests)

Thank you for your help.

 

 

Somewhere in this now-massive thread, someone (Michael? MacRorie?) posted a series of basic tests they run after a build. I think it boils down to removing the Atari ICs, plugging power into the board to ensure that the LED lights up, stuff like that … I wish I had a link handy but I'm pretty sure the post is in this thread somewhere from about 8 - 10 months ago.

[+mytek]

Hi,

I received my kit from MacRorie last week-end and I think I have finished the assembly but I don't want to ruin all the efforts (and money) put on this board.

So I did not power it up and I would like to know what can I check to see if everything is fine.

As I am not a hardware guy and this kit is the most complex I built, I am asking for advice at this crucial step.

Could you tell me what kind of controls I could do (voltage or anything else) and in which state (I mean, should I keep the board populated? remove the Atari ICs? remove the 74xxx chips? remove the U1MB board? remove the crystal? for the tests)

Thank you for your help.

 

I would suggest leaving all of the ICs out except for the 8-pin 555 timer chip (U4) over by the power input. Also leave out the U1MB and UAV boards. Then plug-in the PSU and you should see only the yellow (+5VSB) LED light up. Next connect a momentary switch between pin-1 and pin-2 of the J3 header, and press then release it. At this point the green (ON) LED should light up and stay on (the yellow LED will also still be lit). Using a voltmeter, check that you have 5 vdc on any one of the 2-pin accessory headers (J22-J24). The voltmeter should read fairly close to 5 vdc, although without the IC chip load, it could be as high as 5.4 volts depending upon the make of PSU.

 

If it passes all these tests, disconnect the PSU and then insert all of the remaining IC chips, the U1MB and the UAV. Connect a monitor, audio, and PS/2 keyboard. Reconnect the PSU, and power up the 1088XEL. You should see the 1088XEL start-up screen appear, at which point press F10 (HELP) at the prompt which should take you into the U1MB setup screen. Go through the menus using the arrow keys, and set your preferences. However if you haven't previously flashed the U1MB with the 1088XEL specific BIOS, you will first need to do that (assuming that hasn't already been done by MacRorie). Minimally you'll need to insure that the U1MB RAM configuration is set to 1088k, SDX is enabled, PBI and SIO are enabled before attempting a re-flash of the BIOS. For more details about the re-flashing process and to get the firmware, please visit flashjazzcat's website (use 1088 firmware link in my signature).

 

Good luck

[+MacRorie]

Hi,

I received my kit from MacRorie last week-end and I think I have finished the assembly but I don't want to ruin all the efforts (and money) put on this board.

So I did not power it up and I would like to know what can I check to see if everything is fine.

As I am not a hardware guy and this kit is the most complex I built, I am asking for advice at this crucial step.

Could you tell me what kind of controls I could do (voltage or anything else) and in which state (I mean, should I keep the board populated? remove the Atari ICs? remove the 74xxx chips? remove the U1MB board? remove the crystal? for the tests)

Thank you for your help.

 

 

 

In addition to the process mytek lays out, I would do the following: double-check orientation on *every* IC when you (re)-install them. There have been a couple of builds I have done and thought I checked and double-checked everything only to be defeated by an IC being flipped. The second thing I would do is look at the back of the board with a magnifying glass and a strong light source. Again, there is always one pin that did not get solder in some random location. I know these both seem like "duh" moves, but, it is a complex build that takes time and sometimes, even the most diligent of us miss a simple thing.

 

I am pretty sure your U1M needs to be re-flashed. I would do that almost immediately once you get a good start. When you do start up for the first time and prepare to flash the U1M, in addition to the 1088k, SDX, PBI, SIO, use a standard OS. (XL or XE) not the hi-speed OS or anything else. AFTER you flash the U1M, you can use whatever OS is installed in the 1088 build.

 

Bonne chance!

[ebiguy]

Thank you for your answers.

I will take the time to try that next week-end.

Even if my board does not work (I hope it will), let me express my gratitude for releasing such a great project.

I had a lot of fun reading all the related threads and building it.

It makes me stop working on RespeQt for a while...

 

Happy new year to all creators and dreamers we find here on AtariAge.

 

And Yes (as mentioned in another hilarous thread), AtariAge can reinvent Atari.

There is always new ideas emerging when no one expects it.

[Mr Robot]

Almost finished, just the mouse select board mounting, the front panel cutouts, and waterslide decals to go.

 

 

[+Stephen]

Nice work! It's always great seeing more of these boards come to life.

[ebiguy]

Hi,

 

I have a problem with my board.

The board is fully populated except for UAV. Instead, I am using Sophia rev B (NTSC).

The U1MB from MacRorie came with the right angled headers.

I had to change to straight headers following flashjazzcat's video.

 

When I start the board, I see the blue screen with the cursor at its usual position but nothing else.

I mean, it does not go to basic or U1MB setup. The screen stays as is.

After a moment, the cursor color is slowly cycling (attract mode).

 

Any idea what the problem is ?

I am wondering if the U1MB surgery has somehow broken it.

I don't have another one with straight headers to try.

 

I don't have a keyboard to connect (I don't have a PS/2 keyboard right now but probably at the end of the week).

So I can not try to press the key to enter U1MB setup for example.

 

Or is a keyboard mandatory to be able to boot (as it was for older PC) ?

 

So close to success...grrrr !

 

Thank you for your suggestions.

[flashjazzcat]

It sounds like the OS got as far as opening the screen editor device and then crashed, or the SDX ROM crashed. Unless the content of the flash ROM became inexplicably scrambled, I'd say the most likely cause is header surgery.

[ebiguy]

It sounds like the OS got as far as opening the screen editor device and then crashed, or the SDX ROM crashed. Unless the content of the flash ROM became inexplicably scrambled, I'd say the most likely cause is header surgery.

It seems so "easy" when you did it on this video.

I guess I have to find a way to reprogram the flash outside U1MB to check if it was just a flash problem or if U1MB is definitely damaged.

By the way, thank you very much, Jonathan.

I could build the board by watching your 4 videos and doing things in the same order and almost at the same speed.

I also had to stop after each part as I feel the same pain in the back after staying 2 hours working on the board.

 

Mytek's board is really great (and Sophia also !) and I am very frustrated to not be able to use it right now.

And with your firmware, this gives us a product that surpasses the quality of commercial products.

Edited January 14, 2019 by ebiguy

[flashjazzcat]

Many thanks for the generous feedback. I hope the available resources continue to be helpful, and that you get the problem fixed ASAP.