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400/800 Commercial Memory Upgrades


MrFish

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Berkeley Microsystems made the BMS-100 ASCI to SCSI adapter for the ST. They were in business from 1980 to 1988 so this RAM card could be another of their products.

LOL. Back in the early 2000's when I bought my first ST, I used the BMS-100! I had the HDD's set up in an old IBM PS/2 desktop case. I remember needing the boot-disk for floppy drive 1 too. I also used a SCSI Zip drive with it too.

Edited by Gunstar
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...
19 hours ago, xrbrevin said:

here is an unbranded 32k board using 16x 4116 chips. I obtained it inside a 400 but sadly it doesnt work.

 

Interesting. Maybe someone else has seen one like it before.

 

Have you tried doing anything to get it working? There's a lot of solder on those chips that might develop a problem...

 

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On 12/2/2018 at 3:53 PM, BillC said:

I have a 400 with this version, but I prefer the Mosaic upgrade that give access to all 64k via bank switching.

Mosaic 64K: https://www.atariarchives.org/creativeatari/The_Mosaic_64K_RAM_Card.php

 

The closest I have seen is tf_hh's 48/52KB card(non-commercial), it doesn't include the Mosaic's bank switching circuitry but it does include a socket for an alternate OS. The good news is this upgrade is still available by contacting tf_hh.

"tf_hh's" 48/52KB card: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267042-new-hardware-atari-400-ram-card-4852-kb-external-os-rom/

Wow a 64K support Atari 400?   That sounds amazing.  I picked up a heavily modified Atari 400 in a retro store a few months back and it had 32K in it, but wanted to make it a bit more usable.  :D

 

And thank you for mentioning tf_hh's 48/52K board.   Reasonable product, checking to see if he has any more in stock.

 

I took pictures of a prototype board I had of a MyIde I got from Mr. Atari for the Atari 800 which later helped lead to the MyIde II which was sold by Atarimax.com.   Realized that was more of a hard drive interface than a memory board.

 

And took pictures of a WareRat 64K XL ram expansion board for the Atari 800 that I believe helped with the Incogneto concept.   And the Incogneto (and later re-releases) were simply amazing on what it could help an Atari 800 do.  Did they ever make a 400 version I wonder?  

 

In the end I think the line between what was commercial and what was developed by "fans" for numerous other "fans" kinda blurs after a while.

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3 hours ago, MrFish said:

 

Interesting. Maybe someone else has seen one like it before.

 

Have you tried doing anything to get it working? There's a lot of solder on those chips that might develop a problem...

 

i plan to do an AV mod to the machine first, then i will tinker with the 32k board. i will reflow all contacts and if that fails i will desolder the ICs and test them in a (socketed) 16k board

shouldnt be too complicated to get it running, no other mods are needed on a 400 unless you exceed 32k.

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  • 5 months later...

I purchased just recently a 400 where a sticker says it’s upgraded to 64Kb.

The memory board says BTARI. The wiring on the main board is as well different from the 48/52 KB cards I know.

Please have a look at the pictures as I couldn’t find anything about a BTARI board, maybe it’s a copied design.

 

89FAA4A5-30B7-4C68-AD1C-0A27D6B02DC2.jpeg

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2 hours ago, Spancho said:

I purchased just recently a 400 where a sticker says it’s upgraded to 64Kb.

The memory board says BTARI. The wiring on the main board is as well different from the 48/52 KB cards I know.

Please have a look at the pictures as I couldn’t find anything about a BTARI board, maybe it’s a copied design.

All the chips except the SN7432N(1974) are 1981 manufacture, and only the Motorola RAM and possibly the 74LS244N are socketed.

To me the PCB doesn't appear to be professionally made, the vias don't appear to be plated through so they used solder to bridge the top/bottom layers.

Both sides of the edge connector need cleaning, I would recommend trying 90+% isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab, the flux from soldering can be cleaned off with the same.

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This memory card is supposed to upgrade the 400 to 64Kb. I just wanted to know if that is possible in conjunction with the solder bridges on the underside of the main board.

Maybe it’s a Mosaic clone or uses a similar technique?

 

can someone who knows all the details of ram upgrades have look and give his opinion?

 

Once I have cleaned all boards a checked for broken connections I will test if it works at all.

Maybe it works as well in a mobo modified “only” for a 48kb upgrade.

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10 minutes ago, ClausB said:

Oh, I didn't notice the fifth wire there. Strange that both green and orange wires go to pin 5 of IC Z103. And yellow goes to pin 4, which is /S3, which makes no sense.

 

Have you tested this 400?

no, look again, that's a trick of the picture... you are seeing insulation the wire part is going to the pin next to it

there is also a stacked chip on the btari card

Edited by _The Doctor__
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I don't see enough circuitry there to do that. Notice that only 2 of the LS32 gates are used. Also not enough signals coming into the board from the motherboard, unless there are more jumper wires not shown. Curious though that someone crossed out 48K on the label and added a 64K label.

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13 minutes ago, ClausB said:

Just looks like a crappy solder job to me.

 

In this post I proposed a mod to the Atari 48K board to get 62K in an 800:

I'll look into modding this 400 for 64K.

ram under rom dealt back to 800 very nice.

I know some placed memory in unused holes in between of the memory map and some used 4k banks in different places but contiguous ram under rom is nice indeed. you've made it more like the xl/xe

Edited by _The Doctor__
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what do you think is under the piggybacked chip? or do we think a chip was cut out and the new chips soldered to the remaining legs. a wire or two under it?  still think a couple pictures would help just to be sure ?

 

Edited by _The Doctor__
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Hi thanks for spending your time in looking at it.

I am still cleaning all the boards and attach some more pics which hopefully get you a better visibility.

The LS244 is indeed only soldered to cut of legs, so there is nothing below.

 

I will test it this weekend to see if the whole 400 boots at all.

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