Atari STE Diagnostic cartridge?

[David Hefner]

Anybody know if those blank cartridge boards you can buy on ebay can be used to make a diagnostic cartridge for a STE? I remember at one point finding a site that had copies of the diagnostic roms (lost the link in a drive crash last week ), and I have a couple of those ebay boards. I'd love to program a couple blank roms and make a diagnostic cartridge..

 

Auction in question: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ATARI-Rare-OEM-Cartridge-Atari-520-1040-ST-STE-Mega-TT-and-Falcon-2-New-PCB-ONLY/302622023256?hash=item4675ad9e58:g:TiIAAOSwv-ZaSVia

 

 

[David Hefner]

Found the link to the rom images:

 

http://gossuin.be/index.php/archives/2-non-categorise/27-test-kit-atari-st

[tjlazer]

Yes I’ve made a few

[David Hefner]

I've tried flashing a set of roms for the STE v1.9, on M27C256B's, and can't get it to boot. The system turns on, but the video never displays. DO I need to change anything on the solder pads they provide? It's got 256 already bridged, along with the ROM4 selection.

 

I got it to work, but I'm getting a OS ROM checksum error with the US TOS 2.06 roms I bought from overseas. I have some blank AM27C010-150C eproms I may flash with a known good copy of 2.06 and see if that is corrected.

Edited October 10, 2018 by David Hefner

[David Hefner]

Split and burned another copy of the US version of 2.06 for the STE and get the same checksum error (exactly the same).

 

I'm going to assume that the diagnostic cartridge works with the breakout board that Best sells, I may pick one of those up when I get paid.

[tjlazer]

Yes that's what I get too. Seems these self made TOS 2.06 are different than original Atari ones...

[David Hefner]

I guess nobody has a real set of roms read into img files, just split the single-file image into however many parts they need.

[tjlazer]

I plan on trying to burn some games on EPROM to use with these carts. Here is some info on the project:

 

http://atari.8bitchip.info/cartST.html

 

But they are 128k and these carts seem to only use two 27C256 EPROMs? Wonder if we can use two 27C512?

Edited October 13, 2018 by tjlazer

[David Hefner]

The solder pads on the board for settings appear to only do 64/128 and 256, nothing larger.

[rcamp48]

I have one better that is if you like floppy disks I have the ST Diagnostics Disk from progressive computing or something like that. Its6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Cartridges can fail but so can floppies. The difference is that I have it on an ST file on my computer and someone cracked it so it is easier to make a new disk than making a cartridge. But hey you have benefits of both sides I would go with one of each. Russ

[ParanoidLittleMan]

And another long thread where people don't see what's the real problem.

If cartridge board has 28-pin IC sockets you can not use there EPROMs with 32 pins. So simple.

Diagnostic SW is not long, so it can fit in less than 64 KB > 2x 27C256 or smaller is enough.

 

For my game adaptations for cartridges (ah, again that long word ) you need different board - with 32 pin sockets.

Or, if want to do it as Atari did in 1985 - board with 4x 28 pin sockets ,

[guus.assmann]

Yes, you can use any larger Eprom or flash-rom, just not all of it's memory capacity at the same time.

And you need 16 bits. With older devices it will be at least 2 devices at the same time.

So just put some (high address line pins) to constant levels, mayby with a switch.

Then you can have different programs, selectable with that switch.

 

To put it in a very simple analogy, it's like a book.

You can only see one page at a time. (If you don't take the book apart :-) )

[tjlazer]

And another long thread where people don't see what's the real problem.

If cartridge board has 28-pin IC sockets you can not use there EPROMs with 32 pins. So simple.

Diagnostic SW is not long, so it can fit in less than 64 KB > 2x 27C256 or smaller is enough.

 

For my game adaptations for cartridges (ah, again that long word ) you need different board - with 32 pin sockets.

Or, if want to do it as Atari did in 1985 - board with 4x 28 pin sockets ,

 

We know the board only supports 27C256 ROMs and not 27C1001/010 type. What I was wondering is if it's possible to hack it with 27C512. As you know these can do 64k each. so 128k total.

[guus.assmann]

Hello tjlazer,

 

With only 1 Eprom, you have 8 bits data.

And the computer needs 16 bits at the same time.

Maybe, with some complicated electronics it's possible to multiplex the data.......... ??

 

This is a bit like buying a Rolls Royce to cross the street and go to work as a toilet cleaner..... :-)

 

BR/

Guus

[ParanoidLittleMan]

 

We know the board only supports 27C256 ROMs and not 27C1001/010 type. What I was wondering is if it's possible to hack it with 27C512. As you know these can do 64k each. so 128k total.

Same problem with 27C512 as with 27C010 - they have 32 pins.

And you can hack it for both. In case of 1Mbit EPROMs will have total 256 KB capacity (2 is needed), so can do same trick as by switchable TOS - having 2 128 KB contents, and can select which will be active with simple switch. In this was hint how to do that 'hack' . Look how is solved that 28-32 pin adapter for TOS upgrades - normally for 2 chips instead 6 solution.

[+Nezgar]

Same problem with 27C512 as with 27C010 - they have 32 pins.

27C512 has 28 pins, same as 256, 128, 64

[ParanoidLittleMan]

27C512 has 28 pins, same as 256, 128, 64

Right. I should check it better. It was long time ago I dealt with so low capacities

[Steve Stupple]

On 1/12/2019 at 4:00 AM, ParanoidLittleMan said:

Right. I should check it better. It was long time ago I dealt with so low capacities

you can use 27c512 with no problems, i did a supermon/ultimate ripper combo ages ago using them. You can even use sst27sf512.

 

At the moment i forgot how i got the supermon and UR working, i know i memory flipped it... so i am looking at a way of making the 512 to work as 2 x 256's with the use of a switch.

 

Anything about 512 will be 32-pin.

 

I do remember when i bought an eprom programmer for the ST, that you could make an adaptor for the 27c010 so you could program 2 x 512 separately as the programmer only has 28-pin sockets. Just a though