Sdrive-Max user manual

[TGB1718]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I can't find anything relating to a user manual for the Sdrive-Max.

 

Basically, I've just built one and it appears to work, however when I first ran it, it went to a screen that looks

like you can load .atr files into D1-D4, even though I had selected a SmartDos.atr from the unit itself.

 

I played around but appart from being able to browse the files and select them I couldn't get it to load the

selected disk, I pressed reset on the 130XE and the system rebooted to the selected DOS and does this

every time.

 

I assume there is a way to get to that config screen on boot and a way to boot once you have selected

your .ATR files.

 

I have Googled, but no luck and searches in this forum are also fruitless.

 

[E474]

Hi,

 

I don't have access to my Atari at the moment, but if I understand you correctly, you want to use the program on the 8-bit that initially boots up from the sdrive?

 

From memory, navigate round the sd-card using the cursor keys, and return to go into a directory. I think you load up the atr you want by putting the highlight/inverse video cursor on it, then hitting return, a few times until the atr gets listed against the D1 drive.

 

If you want to boot this atr, just press the inverse video/Atari key (and maybe hold down OPTION to disable basic), and the Atari will reboot, and if you have managed to select the atr for D1, the sdrive max should boot this atr.

 

I saw the user manual and SIO codes manual posted as PDFs a few weeks ago, but I can't remember what thread it was posted under. It would be nice if these docs were added to the GitHub repo for this project at some point.

 

If you're using the sdrive max in conjunction with another SIO device, you need to have the fixup circuit board from Mr. Robot (or equivalent), or you will have I/O problems.

 

If you want long file names, rather than THEEID~1.ATR, or similar, press CONTROL-L for long file names (each time you boot).

 

Hope this helps (and is correct).

[E474]

Check out the second post on this thread: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/288260-s-drive-max-noob-question/

[TGB1718]

Thanks very much, I'll print that out.

btw. I have built the buffer to allow another SIO device on the bus.

I wasn't completely happy with the diagrams I found where the Arduino +5V and the Atari +5V are connected together and

there's no real reason to do that (if for some reason the Arduino power failed, the Atari +5V might get overloaded and cause damage),

The SIO 5V is more that adequate to power the 7407 chip.

 

I also buffered the COMMAND line just for complete isolation.

 

I'll post how I did mine later as I took a bit of a different approach to the installation.

[E474]

Hi,

 

Ok, hope that helps. I'm much more a software person than a hardware person, so what might be readily apparent to a hardware hacker is definitely not to me. I was thinking of ordering Mr. Robot's PCB from an online PCB maker, it has the advantages of being readily available and in use (tested) by several people, but I haven't got round to this yet (are you planning on uploading the "Gerbers" for your design?).

[TGB1718]

I'm quite happy with the SDrive-Max except for one thing, how do you create a blank .atr.

 

When I select NEW, it puts >NEW< in the D1: slot, but I can't find any way to save or use that >NEW<

or even to name it, I've checked all the documentation I can find, but the only reference I can find

is one line that says something about formatting it before use.

 

Again, can find nothing in the SDrive to format it and if I try formatting after booting to SDX in U1M

it says "drive does not respond"

 

Any ideas, I must have/been missing something.

 

Aslo can you select the density on the new .atr ?

[+DrVenkman]

4 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

I'm quite happy with the SDrive-Max except for one thing, how do you create a blank .atr.

 

When I select NEW, it puts >NEW< in the D1: slot, but I can't find any way to save or use that >NEW<

or even to name it, I've checked all the documentation I can find, but the only reference I can find

is one line that says something about formatting it before use.

 

Again, can find nothing in the SDrive to format it and if I try formatting after booting to SDX in U1M

it says "drive does not respond"

 

Any ideas, I must have/been missing something.

 

Aslo can you select the density on the new .atr ?

You create the actual ATR file (from that >NEW< placeholder) by formatting it. Unfortunately, formatting it via the SpartaDOS FORMAT command doesn’t work properly; this is discussed in several places throughout the long SDrive-MAX/ATX thread. Your best solution for on-device ATR creation is to boot another DOS, create the >NEW< ATR file, format in your DOS of choice, then reboot to SpartaDOS and use it there. Or just create the ATR with you computer, copy it to the SD card and then use that card in your SDrive-MAX.

 

Tl;dr: the SDrive-MAX >NEW< functionality doesn’t work correctly with SpartaDOS. 

[TGB1718]

Many thanks

[tajvdz]

Hello, I have a question about the Sdrive Max. With control-L you can switch to long file names. However when you reboot the Sdrive it is turned off again. Is it possible to save it to the cfg file so that it is turned on all the time?

[+Philsan]

1 hour ago, tajvdz said:

Hello, I have a question about the Sdrive Max. With control-L you can switch to long file names. However when you reboot the Sdrive it is turned off again. Is it possible to save it to the cfg file so that it is turned on all the time?

CTRL + W

 

You can find documentation here: https://atari8bit.net/everything-sdrive-max/

[a8isa1]

On 11/10/2019 at 9:28 AM, DrVenkman said:

You create the actual ATR file (from that >NEW< placeholder) by formatting it. Unfortunately, formatting it via the SpartaDOS FORMAT command doesn’t work properly; this is discussed in several places throughout the long SDrive-MAX/ATX thread. Your best solution for on-device ATR creation is to boot another DOS, create the >NEW< ATR file, format in your DOS of choice, then reboot to SpartaDOS and use it there. Or just create the ATR with you computer, copy it to the SD card and then use that card in your SDrive-MAX.

 

Tl;dr: the SDrive-MAX >NEW< functionality doesn’t work correctly with SpartaDOS. 

I just tried creating NEW atrs on SDrive-MAX and formatting from SDX and it worked (with some caveats).

 

Single Density, 40 track SS - works.  When formatting I was warned that Ultra Speed does not work.  I believe skew switched to NORMAL and then formatting worked.

 

Double Density, 40 track DS - works.  This time I was warned Ultra Speed skew does not work and warned again and High Speed skew does not work.  Normal skew did work.

 

I copied files to one of the ATRs and ran some programs from that ATR.

 

That was the extent of my testing.

 

Notes

 

1 - After ATRs are formatted the >NEW< on the SDrive-MAX screen changes to the format SDMXnnnn.ATR where nnnn represent a sequentially numbered sequence. These ATRs can be found when navigating the SDrive-MAX menu

 

2 - My SDrive-MAX now has firmware v1.2.  My Atarimax 8mbit cart has ebiguy's compositition of SDX 4.49c beta + OSS carts (and others) + Romdisk.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by a8isa1

[+DrVenkman]

6 minutes ago, a8isa1 said:

2 - My SDrive-MAX now has firmware v1.2.  

Yes, the version 1.2 firmware which was released a few weeks ago fixes the issue with DD disks, as noted by myself and others in various SDrive-MAX threads. 

[a8isa1]

5 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

Yes, the version 1.2 firmware which was released a few weeks ago fixes the issue with DD disks, as noted by myself and others in various SDrive-MAX threads. 

sorry.

 

This thread rose to the top so I answered.  I didn't think to read all other SDrive-MAX related threads.