Mystery Atari Board...Anyone any ideas?

[kbj]

Hey all,

 

I'm trying to find out what this board is:

 

 

My first thought was a floppy controller - but if that's what it is, for what machine?

 

I've had a search about the WWW but nothing really jumped out..

 

Cheers,

 

KbJ

[Cebus Capucinis]

Best guess is it's for a 1030 modem 

[kbj]

8 minutes ago, Cebus Capucinis said:

Best guess is it's for a 1030 modem 

What was it used for in the modem then?  Any ideas?

 

Cheers!

 

KbJ

[1200XL M.U.L.E.]

Something to do with a ST floppy drive?

 

520 STFM mit Adapterplatine zum Laufwerk - was macht die? (atari-home.de)

 

[0078265317]

I could not find anything either.  Is there anything on the other side. And top left what does that say?  After the C is that and "i" or just a line?  And are those zeros? 

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 3/26/2021 at 4:48 PM, kbj said:

Hey all,

 

I'm trying to find out what this board is:

 

 

My first thought was a floppy controller - but if that's what it is, for what machine?

 

I've had a search about the WWW but nothing really jumped out..

 

Cheers,

 

KbJ

 

Going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it may be an arcade game part, possibly pinball-related.  The edge connector, power connector, and type of pins on the card itself are all giving me that sort of vibe.  The part number (which I believe to be C103041) isn't coming up in any searches, but given the (I think - they're hard to read) 1979 and 1980 dates on some of the ICs on the card it seems reasonable.

 

What's throwing me is that the main IC on there is an 8048.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of an Atari device that used that particular MCU.  Dumping it would probably yield some clues.  Perhaps one of the beige printers used it?  I'm trying to think of stuff where a card would have been mounted vertically (which appears to be how this one is intended to mount), and those and the 810 are about the only ones that seem to be likely candidates from the timeframe this was likely manufactured.  It's definitely not an 810 part, though.

 

Going through the MAME source isn't turning anything definitive up, either.  Apparently their arcade version of Tetris included an 8048, but that's the only machine I was able to find from them with that MCU.

 

One last possibility: Mega ST or Atari PC range.  There is what looks like a ground wire with an eyelet connector on the end of it coming off of the PCB.  This suggests that it needs a ground to the chassis as well as whatever it's plugged into.  Not uncommon in the PC world at the time, and would make sense in a Mega ST to some extent.

 

Late edit: this also would have been workable in one of their jukeboxes.  Hmmm.

 

Would it be possible to get higher-resolution pictures of both sides of the card?

Edited April 5, 2021 by x=usr(1536)
Added jukebox speculation.

[Atariman]

On 4/5/2021 at 4:57 PM, x=usr(1536) said:

 

Going to go out on a limb here and suggest that it may be an arcade game part, possibly pinball-related.  The edge connector, power connector, and type of pins on the card itself are all giving me that sort of vibe.  The part number (which I believe to be C103041) isn't coming up in any searches, but given the (I think - they're hard to read) 1979 and 1980 dates on some of the ICs on the card it seems reasonable.

 

What's throwing me is that the main IC on there is an 8048.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of an Atari device that used that particular MCU.  Dumping it would probably yield some clues.  Perhaps one of the beige printers used it?  I'm trying to think of stuff where a card would have been mounted vertically (which appears to be how this one is intended to mount), and those and the 810 are about the only ones that seem to be likely candidates from the timeframe this was likely manufactured.  It's definitely not an 810 part, though.

 

Going through the MAME source isn't turning anything definitive up, either.  Apparently their arcade version of Tetris included an 8048, but that's the only machine I was able to find from them with that MCU.

 

One last possibility: Mega ST or Atari PC range.  There is what looks like a ground wire with an eyelet connector on the end of it coming off of the PCB.  This suggests that it needs a ground to the chassis as well as whatever it's plugged into.  Not uncommon in the PC world at the time, and would make sense in a Mega ST to some extent.

 

Late edit: this also would have been workable in one of their jukeboxes.  Hmmm.

 

Would it be possible to get higher-resolution pictures of both sides of the card?

I can say with near certainty that it isn't from an Atari pinball machine. I have never seen that board in any of mine and I have at least one of each!

Edited April 10, 2021 by Atariman

[+Mitch]

The board part number puts it in the TT or Stacy range.

 

Mitch

[+DrVenkman]

The date code on the NEC chip says (I think) 8651, so it's definitely in the middle of the ST era, whatever it is.

 

EDIT: the 8048 is a microcontroller, so maybe a printer interface board?  

[+x=usr(1536)]

5 hours ago, DrVenkman said:

The date code on the NEC chip says (I think) 8651, so it's definitely in the middle of the ST era, whatever it is.

 

EDIT: the 8048 is a microcontroller, so maybe a printer interface board?  

It's the long-lost Odyssey² backwards-compatibility card

[Billy Beans]

19 hours ago, x=usr(1536) said:

It's the long-lost Odyssey² backwards-compatibility card

It's an controller for the 2600 Hard Drive.

[Cebus Capucinis]

It's the long lost ST -> Amiga compatibility module!