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1088XEL Atari ITX Motherboard DIY Builders Thread


Firedawg

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I'm working the problem...

 

1127270930_Screenshotfrom2019-09-17.thumb.png.6ae1007016d27a2acd289f65ebc5b0e9.png

 

Left channel connection from the S2 Module over to R6 has been corrected :) .

 

I went back and checked the schematic for the 1088XLD and the original MIDI XEL and all is ok on those (luckily). Stupid mistake, but not one that the design checker caught because both the board and the schematic matched. So long story short, it was a mistake on the schematic that cascaded into the board.

 

It'll be a while before these will be made available again, because no matter how simple the correction was to make, I never trust anything until I can assemble a board and test it ;) .

 

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I just put the finishing touches on a page of my website that is all about ebiguy's XEL-CF3 Rapidus variant. So for anyone contemplating installing a Rapidus in their XEL, and still wish to have a CF drive, his board is the way to go ? .

 

xel-cf3-rapidus.jpg?1568707814

 

Here's a link: https://ataribits.weebly.com/xel-cf3-rapidus-variant.html

 

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2 hours ago, mytek said:

I just put the finishing touches on a page of my website that is all about ebiguy's XEL-CF3 Rapidus variant. So for anyone contemplating installing a Rapidus in their XEL, and still wish to have a CF drive, his board is the way to go ? .

 

xel-cf3-rapidus.jpg?1568707814

 

Here's a link: https://ataribits.weebly.com/xel-cf3-rapidus-variant.html

 

Well, that is the only single available upgrade my 1088XLD does YET not have :)

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3 hours ago, Stephen said:

Well, that is the only single available upgrade my 1088XLD does YET not have :)

Did you mean to say 1088XEL? Because your XLD already has a built-in IDE which will not interfere with the installation of a Rapidus.

 

Or did you mean that your XLD has everything but a Rapidus board? :)

 

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10 hours ago, mytek said:

So sorry you had to be the one to find this.

 

No problem. It can happen to everybody.

It was a kind of challenge, because I purchased a prebuilt MIDI board with Dreamblaster from a colleage, who claimed that the board was fully tested by him and perfectly working.

Luckily the fix is very easy, so the boards with a flaw can still be used with a Dreamblaster after a simple correction.

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I just powered up my 1088XEL the other day.  Other than missing the jumpers for NTSC/OSC, it powered right up to Spartados.  The U1MB has the older firmware, not the updated one from FJC.  I am familiar with how to use with a standard floppy drive (from 30 years ago), but in my case here, I have an SDrive-Max, and am trying to update the U1MB firmware, and I'm a bit confused.  I can get Uflash loaded, but I can't then display the contents of the same directory to select the firmware.  I'm sure it has something to do with having to mount an .ATR, or something.  Do I have to create a disk image of the firmware to mount it and see it as a drive and how would I do that?  This stuff is all new to me.  I'm sure its just a disconnect on my part, missing some piece of information.  Any info would be most appreciated.

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15 minutes ago, wildstar87 said:

 but in my case here, I have an SDrive-Max, and am trying to update the U1MB firmware, and I'm a bit confused.  I can get Uflash loaded, but I can't then display the contents of the same directory to select the firmware.  I'm sure it has something to do with having to mount an .ATR, or something.  Do I have to create a disk image of the firmware to mount it and see it as a drive and how would I do that?

Once you’re in UFLASH, you use the keyboard to navigate the program elements and select which slots to flash, etc. Once you have selected which slot to flash and the file selection menu is up, use TAB to move between fields. Select whichever disk you have mounted containing the firmware and then choose the file you want to flash. 

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tab.PNG.a6fec0574c91292187fa8a69ff36f82f.PNG

?

 

UFLASH will start up displaying the drive currently logged at the SDX prompt, so if that happens to be something other than D1: and your ATR is mounted on D1:, hop over to the 'Drive' field, pull down the list, and choose 'D1:'. I'm assuming you mounted the ATR containing the firmware on your SDrive-Max already? Sorry if I've misunderstood the issue. :)

 

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8 hours ago, mytek said:

Did you mean to say 1088XEL? Because your XLD already has a built-in IDE which will not interfere with the installation of a Rapidus.

 

Or did you mean that your XLD has everything but a Rapidus board? :)

 

The latter - my 1088XLD currently has P-Covox, VBXE2, of course the U1MB which is mandatory, the S2 module.  The only thing left to stuff in there is Rapidus.

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19 minutes ago, Stephen said:

The latter - my 1088XLD currently has P-Covox, VBXE2, of course the U1MB which is mandatory, the S2 module.  The only thing left to stuff in there is Rapidus.

Same here with my XEL... I haven't yet worked out how to wedge a Covox in there either but I think I'll be trying to fit one under the XEL board.

 

I'll be using Eric's board but the Rapidus is an expensive addon that will have to wait until I have spare cash and I can get it from Amiga on the lake 

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7 hours ago, TheMontezuma said:

No problem. It can happen to everybody.

It was a kind of challenge, because I purchased a prebuilt MIDI board with Dreamblaster from a colleage, who claimed that the board was fully tested by him and perfectly working.

Luckily the fix is very easy, so the boards with a flaw can still be used with a Dreamblaster after a simple correction.

Thanks for understanding. I finished up some details last night and sent off an order to OSH Park. I'll post an update when I have one assembled and 'really' tested for both channels working, something that obviously slipped by me on the first go around ;) .

 

15 minutes ago, Mr Robot said:

Same here with my XEL... I haven't yet worked out how to wedge a Covox in there either but I think I'll be trying to fit one under the XEL board.

If you are using the Realan H-80 case, then there should be enough height to stack an extra set of female headers where the U1MB plugs in, thus allowing space underneath for the P-Covox to piggyback the 6520 PIA. Just not sure about the footprint of the P-Covox, and if the area around the PIA is sufficient.

 

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On 9/18/2019 at 9:15 AM, TheMontezuma said:

...I purchased a prebuilt MIDI board with Dreamblaster from a colleage, who claimed that the board was fully tested by him and perfectly working...

Mea culpa! Unfortunately, I didn´t sat in front of my TV set between the speakers when testing the boards... :ponder:

Next time, I´ll use a :music:to check sound output. ;-)

 

Sleepy

Edited by Sleepy
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2 hours ago, Sleepy said:

Mea culpa! Unfortunately, I didn´t sat in front of my TV set between the speakers when testing the boards... :ponder:

Next time, I´ll use a :music:to check sound output. ;-)

 

Sleepy

It was not my intension to blame you or mytek. I actually love the Dreamblaster sound coming from Atari :)
I just wanted to say, that it was a challenge for me, since I assumed that the MIDI board is working and didn't expect such an issue.
Although I was pretty sure that I didn't brake anything (I got the instructions here on how to connect the wires) and there was no soldering required (I used "jump wires"), but you never know...
I checked the connections on the MIDI XEL II board with a simple multimeter expecting to find possible cold solder joints, but the board was soldered very well.
Then I looked at the diagram and at the S2 Dreamblaster and found an inconsistency with what I measured on MIDI XEL II.

I checked it several times (having in mind that the board was tested and working) and realized that I must be right...
Normally I'm not questioning experts, but I was out of other ideas, so desperate times call for desperate measures.

Edited by TheMontezuma
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On 9/18/2019 at 6:31 AM, flashjazzcat said:

tab.PNG.a6fec0574c91292187fa8a69ff36f82f.PNG

?

 

UFLASH will start up displaying the drive currently logged at the SDX prompt, so if that happens to be something other than D1: and your ATR is mounted on D1:, hop over to the 'Drive' field, pull down the list, and choose 'D1:'. I'm assuming you mounted the ATR containing the firmware on your SDrive-Max already? Sorry if I've misunderstood the issue. :)

 

I finally muddled my way through it.  The problem was I was mounting the Uflash.xex directly as D1:, but then Uflash couldn't see anything on any other drives mounted.  When I mounted the Full 1088XEL .ATR file, then I could start Uflash.xex in Spartados, and also could see the firmware update.  Which brings me to the question I was hinting to before.  It seems that SDrive needs a specific image or executable mounted to see it as a drive.  I thought you could mount just a directory so you could browse the drive and use files like it was a floppy/hd.  I'm guessing that isn't the case, since it didn't seem to allow me to just mount the folder I wanted with the firmware in it.

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8 minutes ago, wildstar87 said:

It seems that SDrive needs a specific image or executable mounted to see it as a drive.  I thought you could mount just a directory so you could browse the drive and use files like it was a floppy/hd.  I'm guessing that isn't the case, since it didn't seem to allow me to just mount the folder I wanted with the firmware in it.

The SDrive-MAX cannot mount folder in a drive slot. As you've figured it, it's ATR/ATX disk images or XEX files only in the drive slots.

 

However, if you connect your Atari to drive emulation software running on a modern computer (such as RespeQt), you can mount folder images as you tried to do. However, you need to have an SIO2PC device to connect the Atari to the computer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all,

I've been having trouble with my 1088XEL since completing the build.

 

I cannot get SIO2PC to work whatsoever. I'm not sure if it's user error as I've only used a stock 800XL before so I'm just used to loading a disk by booting the PC. I've tried both the built in SIO2PC and a Sloopy SIO2PC USB and get the same result. In RespeQT, it says "Port speed set to 19200 [x1]" and the green LED flashes on boot. When nothing is plugged into the built in SIO2PC, the LEDs both "pulse" and when I have the Sloopy SIO2PC plugged in, both LEDs stay "solid" with a really quick, really faint flicker. I've thought maybe there is some excess flux somewhere but after extensive cleaning in that area I can't see any left behind. Handshaking is setup as DSR on both ends, and I've tried other handshaking modes. There is a chance that I messed up the FTDI USB to Serial but that's an easy replacement. I'm more worried about the SIO circuit as a whole at the moment
 

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First thing, unplug the SIO2PC's, go into the settings and turn off booting to SpartaDosX, the PBI interface and anything else that changes the boot behaviour from Atari default, you can leave on the memory, stereo, high speed SIO etc. When you power it up it should behave like an 800xl, giving you a ready prompt or the self test screen depending on whether you disable BASIC or not. 

 

In RespeQT set handshaking to none, set your speed to x3 for now.

 

Now try using the built in SIO2PC-USB

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, esplonky said:

Hi all,

I've been having trouble with my 1088XEL since completing the build.

 

I cannot get SIO2PC to work whatsoever. I'm not sure if it's user error as I've only used a stock 800XL before so I'm just used to loading a disk by booting the PC. I've tried both the built in SIO2PC and a Sloopy SIO2PC USB and get the same result. In RespeQT, it says "Port speed set to 19200 [x1]" and the green LED flashes on boot. When nothing is plugged into the built in SIO2PC, the LEDs both "pulse" and when I have the Sloopy SIO2PC plugged in, both LEDs stay "solid" with a really quick, really faint flicker. I've thought maybe there is some excess flux somewhere but after extensive cleaning in that area I can't see any left behind. Handshaking is setup as DSR on both ends, and I've tried other handshaking modes. There is a chance that I messed up the FTDI USB to Serial but that's an easy replacement. I'm more worried about the SIO circuit as a whole at the moment
 

A couple of things to check:

 

1. Is the FTDI set to the correct voltage?  There is a little switch on it and it needs to be set to 3.3v

2. Have you tried a different USB cable?  I had to try a NUMBER of microUSB cables before I got one that would work on it reliably.  Could be my collection of cables is wonky, but you never know.

3.  I think you said this was set, but the jumper on the XEL is set to DSR?

 

Hope this helps.

 

-M

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7 hours ago, esplonky said:

I've tried both the built in SIO2PC and a Sloopy SIO2PC USB and get the same result.

If just the SIO port didn't work, I'd suggest something amiss with the port itself; the solder joints; resistor network RN2; or the traces themselves. However, since neither the SIO port nor the SIO2PC board are working, it's possible you have a bad POKEY, a bad solder joint for the socket; or something amiss with the SIO2PC board itself causing it to "abuse" the SIO bus and cause some kind of contention. 


As MacRorie suggests, check that little voltage slider on the Sparkfun board, make sure you don't have any solder bridges, or poor solder joints there and at the left POKEY socket. If worse comes to worse, try another POKEY and see if that corrects the issues. 

 

 

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So I've reflowed the pins to the POKEY, SIO2PC, and RN2. Still have the same issue, however it may just need to be cleaned better.

Most of my previous issues were from bad solder joints, and some excess flux that didn't come off for whatever reason, so if that turns out to be my issue I really won't be surprised.


If I boot up without any boot interrupting settings enabled, I get the same issue. If I hold down SELECT while it boots, I get the same error message with a "[Device $00] command: $00, aux: $0000 ignored" every few clicks. It does cause some weird corruption on the U1MB Setup and other random glitches after I plug the SIO2PC in.

I tried a different cable and also my SIO2PC USB with the same results.

There was a point where the FTDI USB to Serial board had a small short which could have killed the IC on it so I'm probably going to end up replacing that soon. RN2 is seemingly fine, but from the top of the board it looks like a couple of joints need to be reflowed.

 

Also, I am borrowing my 800XL's IC's for now as I wait for the IC's I purchased to be shipped, so that means I'm using 1 POKEY. Just to be sure, the Left POKEY channel is the one with the PIC underneath, and not the Resistor Networks and Transistors, right?



 

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  • 1 month later...

Has anyone done the H80 Case cover and back plate in PLA?   any STL files?

 

Only thing I can export the FPE files as are .svg files which really does not help a whole lot. 

 

This is not going to be the prettiest.. but it gets me covers where as I am not interested in spending another $150 on case covers right now.   OR I will just cut the cartridge opening in the original metal cover and use that for now.. and no back plate. 

 

I see someone did an H60 back plate on thingyverse, and I think I read that all backplates for mini itx are the same dimensions?? So could I use that??

 

James

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You can export 2D DWG and SVG from Front Panel Designer. I believe TinkerCad will import SVG, and maybe even DXF. Once you have it in TinkerCad you can extrude it to give it depth, with all the dimensional particulars available from Front Panel Designer. Yes it's a bit of work, but quite doable :) .

 

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