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U1MB Install Without Soldering


toddtmw

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If all of the chips on my Atari 800XL are socketed, it would seem like some sort of socket adapter cound be created to go bwtween the CPU and the existing socket that would have the 4 wires that the U1MB needs.

 

Wouldn't that make the installation solderless?

 

I don't suppose anyone has made one of these?

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If all of the chips on my Atari 800XL are socketed, it would seem like some sort of socket adapter cound be created to go bwtween the CPU and the existing socket that would have the 4 wires that the U1MB needs.

 

Wouldn't that make the installation solderless?

 

I don't suppose anyone has made one of these?

 

Indeed. I've suggested as much before, though of course it would increase the price and potentially cause some difficulty reinstalling the RF shield, depending on the model Atari and whether or not you even care to reinstall the shield (I never did).

 

However, it's only four wires and anyone who knows which end is hot can manage it. There are even vias and the legs of passive components you can solder to, so you don't need to risk soldering to chip shoulders directly. Easy peasy. :)

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The nearest thing to this which exists is the 'Adaptus' adapter for Rapidus (whose primary purpose is actually to relocate the CPU socket to the back of 600/800XL motherboards) which has a four-pin header for the U1MB connections, IIRC.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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The nearest thing to this which exists is the 'Adaptus' adapter for Rapidus (whose primary purpose is actually to relocate the CPU socket to the back of 600/800XL motherboards) which has a four-pin header for the U1MB connections, IIRC.

So, if I bought the rapidus, U1MB and adaptus, no soldering?

 

Where can I find an adaptus?

 

Thank you!

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If you were to say that I solder like an amature, it would probably be giving me too much credit. Still, I managed to get my U1MB installed in my 800XL with the help of my wife. Todd, I think that you can probably manage to get the job done without the need of the extra hardware. You just need to talk yourself into it!

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Here's some incentive - this is a pic of the places you can solder to in an 800XL. This is the crap-tastic job I did initially about 4 years ago and it worked perfectly. Before I bought my soldering equipment a few months prior, I hadn't soldered anything since my teenage years helping my step-dad with some basic point-to-point and wire-to-wire stuff 30 years earlier. I have since gone back an cleaned this up, but the point is, it wasn't the slightest bit hard. Just nerve-wracking at my then-level of skill and experience.

 

The signal points are (L-R), RST (Reset); HALT; R/W (Read/Write); and Phi2 (one of the CPU clock signals).

 

You can just sort of tack the wire ends to the via (which is what I did initially). The Phi2 signal is picked up at the right side of that resistor there at R20. The "correct" way is to clean out the via and solder through the board, which is what I did later when I re-did it, and it's what I did when I installed a U1MB in my 1200XL, but at the time I just tack-soldered and it was completely fine for over a year until I got around to re-doing it.

 

post-30400-0-83126100-1555970150_thumb.jpg

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If all of the chips on my Atari 800XL are socketed, it would seem like some sort of socket adapter cound be created to go bwtween the CPU and the existing socket that would have the 4 wires that the U1MB needs.

 

Wouldn't that make the installation solderless?

 

I don't suppose anyone has made one of these?

 

 

I installed an U1MB upgrade in an 800XL solderlessly using the Rapidus Adaptus Adapter for the 800XL this past weekend and I can tell you that it is possible and definitely does work. (Tip of the hat to Flashjazzcat and his awesome Atari 8-bit repair videos on YouTube for articulating this idea during one of his U1MB install videos -- Thank You!!). If you haven't ordered your U1MB yet, make sure you request Lotharek to include the Adapter (it's actually 2 PCBs with a connecting ribbon cable) and the 4-pin cable you'll need to connect the Adapter to the U1MB. The following video from Lotharek's site demonstrates how to do the install with the Adaptus Adapter for the 800XL:

 

ATARI 800XL Rapidus and Ultimate installation

 

This is the video I followed to install my U1MB in an 800XL.

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There's no need for Adaptus in a 130XE (Rapidus is installed on a stack of precision sockets, which isn't great, but it works). The Adaptus CPU adapter will fit in a 130XE, however, but since it ships with no U1MB header pins attached (at least, the one I have has none), you'd have to solder a connector on anyway. The final issue is whether Lotharek will sell you just the CPU adapter board (Adaptus comprises two daughterboards: one sits in the CPU socket, and the other sits in the OS ROM socket), and without a Rapidus.

 

Oh... I guess there's another problem too. Most XEs don't have a socketed CPU, so you'll have to go to the trouble of installing a socket under the processor in order to fit the CPU adapter, instead of simply soldering four wires to the CPU legs, which 100 times easier than removing a chip for someone hesitant about performing any soldering in the first place.

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If I had a 130XE and was worried about soldering and desoldering chips (which I am), I might consider one of tf_hh's exterior "SYS-Check XE" solutions instead of an U1MB.

 

..

Edited by SS
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