S-Drive Max Noob question

[scotty]

Had an Atari since 1980, so not a noob to Atari.... Have used SIO2PC for a few years and love it. Just got an S-Drive Max and am pulling my hair out. Yes, I still have ALL of it at 51 years old.

 

Anyhow, I can not find the manual/documentation I am looking for. I am looking for a detailed instruction manual listing what keys do what. It took me forever to figure out CTRL-L displays long file names. Somehow, I deleted a couple of files, that I will have to back to the PC to get. God only knows what else I did. Where in the hell can I find the keyboard functions???!!

 

 

[larryleffaovell]

The sdrive-max is the successor of Raster's sdrive-ng, so all documentation should be valid for the latter too.

Please take a look at the attachments.

SDrive_en.pdf

SDrive_siocommands.pdf

[scotty]

Thank you so much!!! Was going NUTS looking for this!!!

[larryleffaovell]

You're welcome. Always on your service

[Gavin1968]

Thanks Larry! I will supply these to the people I build drives for, I had never seen those files either. I know some is not valid but looks like a lot of it is.

 

Thanks!

Gavin

[+Philsan]

As written, SDrive MAX is based on SDrive, by Radek Štěrba (Raster), who made a lot of things for Atari community (for example Raster Music Tracker).

Unfortunately he leaved his family and us too soon.

 

You can find the above documents in his website: http://raster.infos.cz/atari/hw/sdrive/sdriveen.htm

[Tea Party]

Ive just got one of these and Im struggling with it a bit.
Ive used SIO2SD and SIO2PC in the past with no problems.

I dont really want to be using the SDrive.atr software. Preferring to select the disks on the device itself.

With SIO2SD I could select an .ATR image, power cycle the Atari and the disk would load.
With SDrive when I power cycle it seems to forget the selected disk and just boots to Memo Pad (Im using a 48K 400). If I select another disk then press reset its back to Memo Pad. If I power cycle then the disk is gone.

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting Im missing ? There doesnt seem to be documentation of the settings on the device itself - Ive tried the Boot D1 setting.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Tea Party

[Tillek]

So as long as we're dealing with N00b stuff for the SDrive Max....

 

Does the USB port do anything other than power the unit? Or does it allow access to the SD Card as well?

[+DrVenkman]

Ive just got one of these and Im struggling with it a bit.

Ive used SIO2SD and SIO2PC in the past with no problems.

 

I dont really want to be using the SDrive.atr software. Preferring to select the disks on the device itself.

 

With SIO2SD I could select an .ATR image, power cycle the Atari and the disk would load.

With SDrive when I power cycle it seems to forget the selected disk and just boots to Memo Pad (Im using a 48K 400). If I select another disk then press reset its back to Memo Pad. If I power cycle then the disk is gone.

 

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a setting Im missing ? There doesnt seem to be documentation of the settings on the device itself - Ive tried the Boot D1 setting.

 

So how are you powering the device? If you're powering through the SIO port (no external PSU), your 400 won't be able to use it, most likely. That's because unmodified Atari computers typically boot faster than the Arduino in the SDrive-MAX. If you use an external power supply, there should be no problem. Select the ATR file you want to load for D1: using the touchscreen. Make sure the entry for "D0:" is *NOT* selected (it should be colored white). With the CFG button go to the settings screen. I'm going from memory here (my Atari stuff is all upstairs right now), make sure "Boot D1:" is selected - I think that's what it's called.

 

Now your Atari should boot whatever disk image you have loaded into the D1: drive slot.

 

If you want to keep the device settings between power cycles, select all the disk images you want for each of the drive slots, then tap the CFG button, select the option near the bottom to "SaveIM" and then "Save". Now when you power cycle the device, whatever disk images you had previously selected will be loaded back into the respective drive slot.

[+DrVenkman]

So as long as we're dealing with N00b stuff for the SDrive Max....

 

Does the USB port do anything other than power the unit? Or does it allow access to the SD Card as well?

 

No. The USB port is for programming the Arduino itself (flashing code to it), but once in operation, it's only used for power. But you can also power the device through the dedicated power jack or through the SIO bus (and contrary to some folks' opinions, that works fine except for the fact that the Atari usually boots up much foster than the Arduino so the boot process will fail to load the disk image. However, if you have a modified machine that allows you to do a cold boot without a full power cycle (I know the U1MB allows this …), then you can simply cold-boot the machine and the disk image will load.

[SS]

Select the ATR file you want to load for D1: using the touchscreen. Make sure the entry for "D0:" is *NOT* selected (it should be colored white). With the CFG button go to the settings screen.

 

 

If you want to keep the device settings between power cycles, select all the disk images you want for each of the drive slots, then tap the CFG button, select the option near the bottom to "SaveIM"

 

 

and then "Save". Now when you power cycle the device, whatever disk images you had previously selected will be loaded back into the respective drive slot.

[+DrVenkman]

Thanks for the photos! What I said and what he showed.

[Tillek]

So what does the 1050 option do?

[+DrVenkman]

So what does the 1050 option do?

 

That's an option, I gather, to tweak certain timing variables for copy-protected games. Some of them required the tiny differences in a 1050 drive response to run properly (e.g., they wouldn't run on an 810 or 3rd party drive). So that option is an attempt to help some ATX files to load properly. I've not done extensive testing so I don't know how much difference it makes.

 

The README file is near the bottom of the Github page. This is for the current Master branch, which is basically the 1.0 firmware version: https://github.com/kbr-net/sdrive-max/tree/master

 

I'll note there's a 1.1 branch in development. I might update my device this weekend and see how it goes.

Edited February 21, 2019 by DrVenkman

[Tea Party]

Many thanks for your replies DrVenkman & SS. It makes a lot more sense now.

 

After testing last night I kind of came to the conclusion that it was because I was powering from SIO. I had the unit working but was always booting to sdrive.atr and then selecfing an image.

 

Do you know what voltage I should use? Ive got a multi voltage universal psu with 4.5v 6v 9v? I dont want to fry the unit. Also I apparently need to disconnect a power wire inside before using a psu.

[+DrVenkman]

Many thanks for your replies DrVenkman & SS. It makes a lot more sense now.

 

After testing last night I kind of came to the conclusion that it was because I was powering from SIO. I had the unit working but was always booting to sdrive.atr and then selecfing an image.

 

Do you know what voltage I should use? Ive got a multi voltage universal psu with 4.5v 6v 9v? I dont want to fry the unit. Also I apparently need to disconnect a power wire inside before using a psu.

 

I am using a 9V DC PSU designed for the UNO and powering it that way currently.

 

And definitely yes, if you use any sort of external power, you MUST disconnect the +5V line from the SIO cable - you will likely destroy the unit if you power it externally and internally at the same time. Once you open up the unit, you can either de-solder the wire from the UNO +5V pin, or simply cut it.

[SS]

 

I am using a 9V DC PSU designed for the UNO and powering it that way currently.

 

And definitely yes, if you use any sort of external power, you MUST disconnect the +5V line from the SIO cable - you will likely destroy the unit if you power it externally and internally at the same time. Once you open up the unit, you can either de-solder the wire from the UNO +5V pin, or simply cut it.

I got my SDrive-MAX from GAVIN1968 and he added a toggle switch so that you can select to power the device from either the SIO port or an external power supply.