Faicuai Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 To anyone here owning (and regularly using) this cart: Is there ANY way to "soft" reset the Cart or pull it out of the system-bus, without ever touching its "menu/reset" button? Any control register to write or read-from that would allow such operation? A BIG thanks, in advance, for your feedback! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 (edited) The only soft reset is on the Atari for an ultimate. The only way to take it off the bus would be to hack a switch into the address lines of the cart as it has to stay powered for the memory and cart config to stay active. other than that, it would be more likely the alt chip would need programming changes and the circuit/button added to make it so from that avenue. any particular reason? Edited September 6, 2019 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 My reason would be so the BBS can turn OFF the cart after a power failure. If I leave the cart in, I must always press X to boot the BBS. If I am away and don't find about the failure for a while, that means the board stays DOWN. That's why I usually don't leave it plugged in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 On 9/6/2019 at 8:19 PM, Kyle22 said: My reason would be so the BBS can turn OFF the cart after a power failure. If I leave the cart in, I must always press X to boot the BBS. If I am away and don't find about the failure for a while, that means the board stays DOWN. That's why I usually don't leave it plugged in. Along the same line of thought, indeed... And also answering clearly to Doc's question, the main idea is NOT having to open and close (constantly) the Cart-compartment lid on the 800, just for having to reset the cart (or, conversely, having to power up and down the machine constantly). I am aware of the "X" command (sort of a sleep)... but I wonder if we can control ('awake" or "sleep") the cart completely externally, like sort of an option on Ultimate / Incognito BIOS, for instance... It seems that little "involved" users around, considering the answers received so far... did this cart sell well? or just a few units here and there? Seems pretty solid (overall) to me, though... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 I love mine. It was made locally. I know of multiple sources for this so I think there are quite a few out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 On 9/8/2019 at 11:47 PM, Kyle22 said: I love mine. It was made locally. I know of multiple sources for this so I think there are quite a few out there. Just wondered about this today: Any way you can check power consumption, with the Cart inserted (both ON and after "X")? I would REALLY appreciate it, if you can measure that with external watt-meter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 (edited) insert a break out cart in between and connect/pass all signals except ground returns which you will put your dmm(s) set to current (ma) and record the values, then do the math... simple enough... this will ensure other add-ons the various states of the rest of the computer in use does not affect the actual current that would be included in measuring just the change seen from the power supply! Edited September 10, 2019 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 5 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: insert a break out cart in between and connect/pass all signals except ground returns which you will put your dmm(s) set to current (ma) and record the values, then do the math... simple enough... Even simpler... An external watt-meter right between PSU and wall. Then measure WITH and WITHOUT cart, keeping everything else constant... and then subtract values... Voila! With the above approach, I noticed that AtariMax 8Mbit carts are POWER-HUNGRY! However, don't have an Ultimate cart yet, for checking... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 (edited) No because if you measure it that way, the processor, memory, other chips, and add-ons that will be running can and will give you a different reading off the power supply difference than measuring just what the cart is consuming directly. The question wasn't exactly about total consumption change, however, I'm sure it's close enough for government work... Edited September 10, 2019 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazuzu72 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 If it is useful for you I measured the current absorbed in the following conditions: A) UltimateCart Inserted: 985 mA B) UltimateCart inserted X pressed: 977 mA C) Without UltimateCart: 907 mA 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 6 minutes ago, pazuzu72 said: If it is useful for you I measured the current absorbed in the following conditions: A) UltimateCart Inserted: 985 mA B) UltimateCart inserted X pressed: 977 mA C) Without UltimateCart: 907 mA You are the man!!!! What is the working voltage level used by Ultimate-Cart when plugged at the cart port? 5V? 12V? (I am not sure what voltage levels are provided there, don't remember from Atari HW's manual). In this way, we can now come up with wattage (W=amps*voltage) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazuzu72 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 5 volt! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 1 minute ago, pazuzu72 said: 5 volt! Bingo! So Ultimate-CART consumes about 0.35 to 0.40 watts! That is pretty good, and a fraction of the 1.5-2.0 watts that I saw AtariMax 8Mbit cart consuming on my system!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pazuzu72 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 On 9/9/2019 at 5:35 AM, Faicuai said: It seems that little "involved" users around, considering the answers received so far... did this cart sell well? or just a few units here and there? Seems pretty solid (overall) to me, though... I sold about 40 of them ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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