Authentic Reproduction ATR8000 Interest?

[Mechanicjay]

This is interesting to me as well.  I've wanted an ATR8000 years, but they seem to be going to bigger bucks than I care to spend in recent years.    I'd be super interested in a version with the Co-Power 88 as well, because why not?

[+Spancho]

3 hours ago, nemike said:

As I said in my first post I do plan to reduce the size of the pcb ...

Do you think that the PCBs size can fit into Mega ST chassis?

And if the interfaces still could fit to the positions of the Mega ST, we had a perfect fit.

At least for the XE line of computers.

[danwinslow]

I have a couple originals, but I've not tested them beyond powering them and seeing the red light come one. What procedures could I use to test them?

Edited October 28, 2020 by danwinslow

[BillC]

15 hours ago, nemike said:

My intention was to reproduce the ATR8000 not re-implement it.  I'm not opposed to the idea of changing the memory as I have changed the power but my plan was to use all the same DIP through hole components.

 

Mike

The reason the 8-bit computers of the time, and the ATR8000/8500, used DRAM was simply because of price.  At the time static RAM was much more expensive that DRAM, even with the refresh circuitry required by the latter. In the 90's there were 486/Pentium motherboards with fake cache memory chips to reduce cost.

 

These days most SRAM is less expensive than DRAM and also occupies less PCB area even when just the RAM is considered, even more PCB area is saved when considering no refresh circuit requirement.

 

[Bill Lange]

21 hours ago, videofx said:

I would definitely be interested in buying one

 

Is all the software still available?

I have some software and the ability to make copies.

 

 

[Bill Lange]

I have a working 16K ATR8000 that I upgraded to 64K so I could run CP/M.

 

I also have a currently non-working 64k ATR8000. I believe that onboard power supply isn't working and I haven't gotten around to repairing it. I'd like to replace the on-board power supply circuit with a modern external power supply.

 

I'd be interesting in putting a new ATR8000 kit together, particularly, if it includes the MSDOS/CO-Power 88 daughter board. 

[nemike]

15 hours ago, Larry said:

I've had several originals (none currently), so I am reasonably familiar with the hardware. I'm interested, but have several concerns. First, the original is HUGE. The pcb alone would be very costly.  Is yours going to be smaller? Second, what about the copyrights? Third, the original was only capable of 1X SIO, and probably cannot be made faster with its original hardware design. Fourth, what about the obsolete parts?  

 

There was a really good article in Antic or Analog magazine about producing the ATR8000. I'll try to locate it. 

Larry does bring up a good issue, what about copyrights??  Does anyone know what happened to SWP Microcomputer Products??  Who ended up with the properties?  Anyone know?  I'd like to get permission to reproduce this for us hobbyiest.

 

Mike

[tuf]

I dont see anything in the copyright database for 

SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc.

Unless they registered things under some other name it'd be hard to tell if anything was actually registered.

[Mathy]

Hello Mike

 

You're gonna use a switching power supply and want to reduce the size of the PCB.  So you're not gonna make a 1:1 copy.  I really would consider replacing the DRAMs with SRAMs.  More modern, easier to use and it needs less space on the PCB because you need less hardware.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

[+Larry]

I think that Charles Marslett (MyDos) was involved with it. He has a web site, so you might contact him.  

[venom4728a]

Please count me in too.

[nemike]

1 hour ago, Mathy said:

Hello Mike

 

You're gonna use a switching power supply and want to reduce the size of the PCB.  So you're not gonna make a 1:1 copy.  I really would consider replacing the DRAMs with SRAMs.  More modern, easier to use and it needs less space on the PCB because you need less hardware.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

So here are my thoughts on this, if there are no copyright issues I plan to make the first batch of these reproducing the circuity as it originally was, once I get those working and then I can make changes going forward.  As I said I’m not against making sensible changes but I also don’t want to deal with multiple unknowns since I don’t have a real ATR8000 to compare against.  The reduction is size is really to keep the price of the pcb’s down.

 

Should I keep the edge connectors for serial and parallel or change to DB25’s ?

 

Mike

[nemike]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

I think that Charles Marslett (MyDos) was involved with it. He has a web site, so you might contact him.  

Thanks Larry!!  I’ve reached out to Charles, here’s hoping he responds and has some help tracking this down.

 

Mike

[+Blues76]

depending when this happens, I would be interested on one.

[BillC]

1 hour ago, nemike said:

So here are my thoughts on this, if there are no copyright issues I plan to make the first batch of these reproducing the circuity as it originally was, once I get those working and then I can make changes going forward.  As I said I’m not against making sensible changes but I also don’t want to deal with multiple unknowns since I don’t have a real ATR8000 to compare against.  The reduction is size is really to keep the price of the pcb’s down.

 

Should I keep the edge connectors for serial and parallel or change to DB25’s ?

 

Mike

When @MEtalGuy66 reproduced the MIO he updated the original serial/printer ports to PC compatible pinout, this allows the use of commonly available cables. This would be DE9 for serial and DB25 for printer.

 

In addition changing the FDD edge connector to a 34-pin FDD type header would allow the use of more commonly available floppy cables as well.

Edited October 29, 2020 by BillC

[BillC]

3 hours ago, tuf said:

I dont see anything in the copyright database for 

SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc.

Unless they registered things under some other name it'd be hard to tell if anything was actually registered.

The company name is Software Publishers, Inc. of Arlington Texas, at least that's what's in the ATR8000 manual.

https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/software-publishers-inc.html

Edited October 29, 2020 by BillC

[nemike]

1 hour ago, BillC said:

The company name is Software Publishers, Inc. of Arlington Texas, at least that's what's in the ATR8000 manual.

https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/software-publishers-inc.html

Software Publishers Inc is what they were called when they first made the ATR8000, they later changed their name to SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. see page 4 in http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SWP/ATR8000_CP-M_Supplement.pdf

 

Mike

[tuf]

22 minutes ago, nemike said:

Software Publishers Inc is what they were called when they first made the ATR8000, they later changed their name to SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. see page 4 in http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SWP/ATR8000_CP-M_Supplement.pdf

 

Mike

 

Yeah don't see that either.

[Bill Lange]

[+Nezgar]

I'd support a project like this. Another option to consider is (eventually...) the Co-power 88 add-on with 8088/MS-DOS compatibility. Maybe eventually integrate into the same PCB.. /dreaming

[krap]

Hi!

 

I'm interested, with Co-Power88.

 

--

mg

[+Larry]

I'm surprised at the interest in the Co-Power 88 add-on.  What is of interest?  (How would you use it -- or is it just because it once existed?)

 

-Larry

[Mechanicjay]

11 hours ago, Larry said:

I'm surprised at the interest in the Co-Power 88 add-on.  What is of interest?  (How would you use it -- or is it just because it once existed?)

 

-Larry

Because running a weird MS-DOS on an Atari with a Brainslug is a near irresistible level of wtf.

[+MrFish]

Speaking of the Co-Power-88... I came across schematics for it while working on the ATR8000 section of the Atari hardware site I'm putting together. I can't remember which site it was from ATM, but here are the files.

 

SWP Co-Power-88 - Schematics.zip

 

[+MrFish]

I see I have here the Co-Power-88 disks and a bunch of various CP/M-86 manuals and so forth too.