flashjazzcat Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 59 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: Yeah I just disabled PBI on my XEL I don't know why you would disable the PBI BIOS. Leave it on, disable cart ROMs, and when the AVG is in SIDE emulation mode, everything should just work. You don't need the SDX ROM or the SIDE driver on the AVG cart - just the emulated IDE interface. 1 hour ago, Mr Robot said: Should I be able to do it with a stock 130XE? Yes: no problem at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 2 hours ago, tmp said: let me know whether that works and also don't use it for anything else but running fdisk (on stock machines) I'll test it tomorrow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, flashjazzcat said: I don't know why you would disable the PBI BIOS. I didn't want to use any of the XEL functionality. I'm writing some AVGCART documentation and I need to check everything I'm writing as I go to make sure what I write matches what actually happens. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 6 hours ago, Mr Robot said: I didn't want to use any of the XEL functionality. I'm writing some AVGCART documentation and I need to check everything I'm writing as I go to make sure what I write matches what actually happens. Excellent. I hope you document operation with the U1MB PBI BIOS as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 2 hours ago, flashjazzcat said: Excellent. I hope you document operation with the U1MB PBI BIOS as well. It'll get included in a "If you have a U1MB, you can also do it this way" note. If I ever write a user guide for the U1MB I'll be more in depth but your firmware documentation is already incredibly thorough so I don't think there's any real need. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 (edited) 6 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: If I ever write a user guide for the U1MB I'll be more in depth. You needn't go overboard, since detailed documentation already exists: https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Ultimate-1MB-Incognito-and-1088XEL-U1MB-Firmware-Manual.pdf https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Loader-Quick-Reference.pdf AVG isn't specifically covered, though. Edited June 22, 2020 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 I was editing my last comment while you were typing yours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 12 hours ago, tmp said: i hexedited the s2dx3.car to change config.sys (in my usual "i have no idea what i'm doing but let's try and see" fashion), it now seems to load fdisk on stock 64kb but i haven't tried to go through the whole partitioning procedure let me know whether that works and also don't use it for anything else but running fdisk (on stock machines) s2sdx3_fdisk.zip Worked perfectly on a stock 800XL Initialized the disk, split 64GB into a 1GB APT and the rest for FAT, split the APT into 15*65535 partitions, wrote to disk. It all went without a hitch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 There is a problem in macOS when the disk is prepped that stops you formatting the fat partition. By default Disk Utility only shows Volumes, but there is an option to show all Devices. If the device is not a valid device, it does not appear in the device list, it does show it in the volume bar but it's not selectable there. As an example, here is my AVGCART SD. In the sidebar you can see The SD card and under it the volume AVG, you can't see disk2s2, which is my 1gb APT. The problem is that after being FDISK'd the SD card has an APT and a RAW partition, neither of these are valid so neither of them appear in the sidebar, the only option you are given is the entire device and if you select erase there it will delete your partitions. I got around the problem using windows 10. Disk manager allowed me to format the raw partition as exFAT which was then visible to the mac so I could selectively erase that to FAT32, I suppose I could have used fdisk but I think that's beyond most mac users and documenting how to do it is fraught with opportunities to trash something important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 43 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: There is a problem in macOS when the disk is prepped that stops you formatting the fat partition. Already known. 43 minutes ago, Mr Robot said: suppose I could have used fdisk but I think that's beyond most mac users and documenting how to do it is fraught with opportunities to trash something important. I heartily recommend users read the APT manual before prepping a card: https://atari8.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/APT-Software-Manual-7th-Edition.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 So you're saying I should have read past page 15? I thought I was doing well reading pages 3-15 and not just watching the video I didn't bother with a FAT16 partition, the AVGCART only sees the first FAT partition so I left it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 On 6/20/2020 at 2:47 PM, Mclaneinc said: Hope it drops soon.. Found it in my mailbox today , my gratitude once more Paul for this ! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 2 hours ago, Mr Robot said: I didn't bother with a FAT16 partition, the AVGCART only sees the first FAT partition so I left it out. Bear in mind the SIDE loader (which is highly pertinent to U1MB users with AVG and to some non-U1MB users) supports up to fourteen FAT partitions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Crimping and soldering all done. Ran out of SIO plugs so I'm printing a few more. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Ha ha....A proper little production line..They do look sweet tho....Nice work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Sometimes I wish the min order qty was smaller! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Mr Robot said: Crimping and soldering all done. Ran out of SIO plugs so I'm printing a few more. Very professional Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NISMOPC Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Finally!!! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 1 hour ago, NISMOPC said: Finally!!! Excellent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 23, 2020 Share Posted June 23, 2020 Damn, I had such a good headstart and now they will catch up with me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 First seven SIO cables went in the mail today, I still have a bunch waiting for people to pay the postage, hopefully next Friday will clear those off the list. Once these are gone I won't be making any more. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Just remade my cable today, stopped working BUT it was too short now I'm using an XL, all fine now, not up to your super standard but works...Nice to see the generosity there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 I'll have some from you as soon as pay pal figures out why they can't interface with my FCU anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Robot Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 OK guys, all my cables are allocated. I think @AtariGeezer is doing a similar thing with his spares? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari_bbs_fan Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 Hello Everyone, New to the forum and this thread. I'm working on getting my 130xe running again and instead of trying to get the real PBI hard-drive interface working (has a Seagate ST-225 MFM drive), I started researching newer options. From what I can tell via watching 10 of hrs various YouTube videos (great ones from FlashJazzCat, "The Modern Atari 8bit computer", "8-bit and more", etc, reading all 43 pages of this thread, etc... the AVG cart is the best way to go for those not quite ready to mod their motherboards with option boards. I've already PM'ed TMP to see if he has any cards AVG left (fingers crossed) and I was lucky enough to get the last AVG to SIO cable from Mr Robot! Now I need to make some orders to Best Electronics to get a replacement keyboard, maybe give his improved 130xe keyboard a try, replace my dead power supply, etc. I might even try getting one of the new ESP32/Internet adapters to try connecting to some Atari BBSes. I used to run a Carina BBS on this system back in the early 80s. I wonder if I should try again! We'll see. ? --David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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