Using your Atari computers for real work?

[Glenn B.]

20 hours ago, Atari8guy said:

You can get APE right from the author.  Atarimax Home Page - APE - Atari Peripheral Emulator for DOS and Windows - you can even buy the cable from him.

 

 

 

20 hours ago, SenorRossie said:

Perhaps start by going through the topic below:

Fujinet is a SIO to WiFi device capable of many things, printer emulation being one of them. There is a subforum dedicated to this device.

 

The cheapest route is probably a DiY SIO2PC USB cable, and the Respeqt/APE software running on a PC.

 

20 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

Full version, devices and combo packs....

full version by itself is about 49 I think

 

https://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/

https://www.atarimax.com/

https://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentation/usbchapter1.html

Free trial download with speed limit etc. trial also comes with sio2pc device

https://www.atarimax.com/ape/download/apetrial.exe

 

Get device and full registered software pack with the extras (imagic/prosystem etc.)  for 104.

https://www.atarimax.com/order/order.htm

 

wandering around the site can be rewarding... free shipping, sale, cheaper on one page or another. slowly over time these things get caught and go away... a few minutes and you'll get what's best for you.

 

A DIY cable and APE is indeed an inexpensive route to go for printing and emulation of a large swath of Peripherals for the Atari.

 

Another choice though, I am not sure where printer support stands with RespQT (which is another sio2pc peripheral emulation software package)

Thanks again. Looks like I need to do some research.  One more question (which again betrays my complete ignorance on all of this!): Is there any way to print out a document directly from the Atari 800XL? Are there any modern printers out there (besides those made back in 1983 specifically for the 800) that I could use with an 800xl, where I could hook it up to the system, and then just print out a document created in AtariWriter?

[KGT]

There are still parallel (and serial!) port printers being made (primarily dot matrix printers), but you would still need an adapter to hook them up to your Atari.  I had one (an Epson RX-80 with Texas Instruments branding on it) that I used with my 1200XL back in the day.  I had to buy an adapter.  Atarimania has a long discussion of the types of adapters available, although they would be used/old stock today: http://www.atarimania.com/faq-atari-400-800-xl-xe-how-can-i-use-a-centronics-or-ibm-parallel-interface-printer_45.html

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by KGT

[Atari8guy]

I’m imagining an SIO to PR Connection (or 850) to something like this https://www.retroprinter.com/ to a modern printer. I have no idea if it’d work. Seems possible though. Very clunky solution and if you stick a Raspberry Pi in the chain you might just as well go through a PC.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited December 3, 2021 by Atari8guy
typos

[TGB1718]

28 minutes ago, Atari8guy said:

I’m imagining an SIO to PR Connection (or 850) to something like this

Or just a couple of 7404's to buffer the joystick ports, less than 256 bytes of code and you can print

to a Centronics printer

I made one for my original 800, used Joystick ports 3 & 4, modified the code to use ports 1 & 2 when I

got my 130XE until I made a Parallel/Serial port for the 130XE plugging into the Cartridge & Expansion port.

[+DjayBee]

Why do it so difficult if you have a PC and a network available?

 

In this video Thomas Cherryhomes shows how to print from Atari Writer directly to a PDF which is then picked up by a PC and can subsequentally be printed from the PC without further doing:

 

 

You certainly do not need to load anything over the internet as he does for demonstration purposes. Everything can be local, even on a physical floppy drive connected to the Atari.

 

And as I already wrote: FujiNet is cheaper than SIO2PC plus APE software.

Edited December 3, 2021 by DjayBee

[bfollowell]

49 minutes ago, DjayBee said:

Why do it so difficult if you have a PC and a network available?

 

In this video Thomas Cherryhomes shows how to print from Atari Writer directly to a PDF which is then picked up by a PC and can subsequentally be printed from the PC without further doing:

 

 

You certainly do not need to load anything over the internet as he does for demonstration purposes. Everything can be local, even on a physical floppy drive connected to the Atari.

 

And as I already wrote: FujiNet is cheaper than SIO2PC plus APE software.

 

I still love my AtariMax SIO2PC-USB and APE/ProSystem. That being said, it gets very little use now that I have a FujiNet.

 

[Gunstar]

On 7/30/2021 at 9:59 AM, Mclaneinc said:

Sigh, I missed the whole computers in school era because I was already working when things like the ZX80 etc came out (yes I'm an old git), would have been nice to have gone through that time period, sadly, I was in the pen and pencil time

 

The nearest I got to a computer in school was my Sinclair calculator.. 

I was right on the cusp; my first encounter was at age 13 and that was a once-a-week computer basics elective class I signed up for to get a half hour out of the regular math class. They were Bell & Howell branded Apple II+'s. In high school there were a couple Apple II's in the library and you could sign out software from the librarian for an hour after classes. It wasn't until I was 17, my senior year during the '85/86 school year that the school finally got about 20 computers and turned a class room into a computer lab. I took a Basic programming class the spring semester before I graduated. I already had my Atari 130XE I'd gotten the previous August. College was when I finally used computers regularly, both my Atari and terminals and Macs in different departments.

[Glenn B.]

On 12/3/2021 at 3:45 PM, bfollowell said:

 

I still love my AtariMax SIO2PC-USB and APE/ProSystem. That being said, it gets very little use now that I have a FujiNet.

 

 

On 12/3/2021 at 12:56 PM, Atari8guy said:

I’m imagining an SIO to PR Connection (or 850) to something like this https://www.retroprinter.com/ to a modern printer. I have no idea if it’d work. Seems possible though. Very clunky solution and if you stick a Raspberry Pi in the chain you might just as well go through a PC.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi guys,  I have another, somewhat unrelated questions for you.  So, I just bought a power supply for our 800xl on ebay.  The person selling the supply stated that it was for the 800xl, but when I received it, it states clearly on the front "use only with model cx-5200". The part no. is C018187, Model DV9319A.  The input is 120V AC 6f0Hz 33W; the output is 11.5V DC 1.95AMP.  Can I use this, or should I get a different power supply?

[_The Doctor__]

16 minutes ago, Glenn B. said:

 

Hi guys,  I have another, somewhat unrelated questions for you.  So, I just bought a power supply for our 800xl on ebay.  The person selling the supply stated that it was for the 800xl, but when I received it, it states clearly on the front "use only with model cx-5200". The part no. is C018187, Model DV9319A.  The input is 120V AC 6f0Hz 33W; the output is 11.5V DC 1.95AMP.  Can I use this, or should I get a different power supply?

asked and answered in another thread, You are correct in that this was an unrelated question. Please consider checking out the related topic and post for that answer. By dong this there will be no need for further cross posting on my part or yours.

Edited December 11, 2021 by _The Doctor__

[+mytek]

I'm working on a real world industrial application for the 576NUC+. Basically I plan on putting a slightly modified version in a 4000 watt heat load controller as the main device to monitor, control, and display information. To make this happen, I've fashioned a 'carrier' board for the 576NUC+ that gives it an SDrive, a 12-bit DAC, a 12-bit ADC, a serial UART with level shifting RS232 driver, a 12 V Relay Driver chip, and an Audio Amplifier along with composite Video Pass-Thru. There's also a simple PS/2 network that allows two PS/2 key devices to coexist (Numeric Keypad and Full Keyboard).

 

Here's an assembled carrier board.

 

The 576NUC+ board will be a slightly customized build having the appropriate mating connectors and pin headers so that it can plug into the carrier board.

 

There are three SPI chips that handle a lot of the different aspects (DAC, ADC, UART). The nice thing about the SPI interface is that it is synchronous in nature and immune to erratic clocking speed. So no need to worry about Antic stealing the bus. My plan is to write the SPI routines in assembly and have them automatically updated during Vblank, transferring data into and out of fixed memory registers that will be R/W from a Basic control program. I plan on using Altirra Basic with a HSIO patched OS and the fast math routines so it should be pretty snappy. Display will be via a composite 7" color LCD screen, and an external S-Video monitor can still be connected during development.

 

The main purpose will be for simulated heat load testing of Low Temperature Chillers that I develop for a 3rd party in Taiwan.

 

As this project comes together I plan to blog about its progress on my AtariBits website.

 

[+Stephen]

59 minutes ago, mytek said:

I'm working on a real world industrial application for the 576NUC+. Basically I plan on putting a slightly modified version in a 4000 watt heat load controller as the main device to monitor, control, and display information. To make this happen, I've fashioned a 'carrier' board for the 576NUC+ that gives it an SDrive, a 12-bit DAC, a 12-bit ADC, a serial UART with level shifting RS232 driver, a 12 V Relay Driver chip, and an Audio Amplifier along with composite Video Pass-Thru. There's also a simple PS/2 network that allows two PS/2 key devices to coexist (Numeric Keypad and Full Keyboard).

 

Here's an assembled carrier board.

 

The 576NUC+ board will be a slightly customized build having the appropriate mating connectors and pin headers so that it can plug into the carrier board.

 

There are three SPI chips that handle a lot of the different aspects (DAC, ADC, UART). The nice thing about the SPI interface is that it is synchronous in nature and immune to erratic clocking speed. So no need to worry about Antic stealing the bus. My plan is to write the SPI routines in assembly and have them automatically updated during Vblank, transferring data into and out of fixed memory registers that will be R/W from a Basic control program. I plan on using Altirra Basic with a HSIO patched OS and the fast math routines so it should be pretty snappy. Display will be via a composite 7" color LCD screen, and an external S-Video monitor can still be connected during development.

 

The main purpose will be for simulated heat load testing of Low Temperature Chillers that I develop for a 3rd party in Taiwan.

 

As this project comes together I plan to blog about its progress on my AtariBits website.

 

Sadly, one of the few projects f yours I did not get to beta test   I wouldn't mind buying a PCB just for the awesome purple solder mask though.

[+mytek]

7 minutes ago, Stephen said:

Sadly, one of the few projects f yours I did not get to beta test   I wouldn't mind buying a PCB just for the awesome purple solder mask though.

Hi Stephen - beta testing of this would be an expensive proposition since it relies on some rather pricey components to be interfaced to, probably in the ball park of $500 on their own. Then if you add in the cost of the enclosure and the custom front and rear panels, and all the miscellaneous goodies, the total cost of building just one of these is rapidly approaching $1,000+

 

[Mathy]

Hello Michael

 

Are you planning on using this with the XEP80-II?

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, mytek said:

Hi Stephen - beta testing of this would be an expensive proposition since it relies on some rather pricey components to be interfaced to, probably in the ball park of $500 on their own. Then if you add in the cost of the enclosure and the custom front and rear panels, and all the miscellaneous goodies, the total cost of building just one of these is rapidly approaching $1,000+

 

I was more thinking of the expense of the actual heat exchanger unit   Thinking if there is a way to cool my room down to 32 degrees during the summer.

[bfollowell]

2 hours ago, mytek said:

As this project comes together I plan to blog about its progress on my AtariBits website.

 

 

That's so cool!

 

I look forward to reading about it as it develops.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by bfollowell

[+mytek]

5 hours ago, Mathy said:

Are you planning on using this with the XEP80-II?

No that functionality is not required. 40 column composite will work just fine for my application.

 

5 hours ago, Stephen said:

I was more thinking of the expense of the actual heat exchanger unit   Thinking if there is a way to cool my room down to 32 degrees during the summer.

Oh that would cost a mere $15k. I think you'd be better off going to home depot and picking up an AC unit 

 

5 hours ago, bfollowell said:

That's so cool!

 

I look forward to reading about it as it develops.

I still have a few more pieces to bring together before I start blogging about it, so don't expect anything before February of next year.

 

[+mytek]

Check out this blog post to learn more about my industrialized real world application of a 576NUC+

https://ataribits.weebly.com/blog/rlc-4000-heat-load-controller-576nuc-based

 

[sl0re]

On 5/11/2021 at 6:31 PM, Mazzspeed said:

My Friend, I did do what I loved. In my previous role of 23 years in the auto trade, I worked my way up from apprentice > tech > head tech > head diagnostician > foreman > workshop controller (a position I loved) and service manager. Along the way I won awards and competitions resulting in all expenses paid trips to Japan, I was arguably the best technician in my country (in all modesty, just based on competition results).

 

Then management changed, among other things.

 

The new guy wanted more of the profits for himself so he could build a bigger house, get a bigger boat, buy a race car (even though he's smashed every car he ever owned) and even buy another property 'as a farm'...

 

As a result I was targeted due to my salary package and there was a never ending push to force more and more cars out the door every day on less competent staff, as they were cheaper than the techs that worked for us for many years in the past. I ended up with misdiagnosed diabetes that I swear was a result of insane stress over many years, and was borderline stroke material (my resting BPM was 112). I also ended up with daily anxiety that was never an issue in the past.

 

These days I work for myself as an IT tech/PC/laptop repairer (and anything else I can repair) and I love it. However, my retro machines will always remain my hobby, as based on experience that's when you enjoy something the most.

'me too'. Stayed a desktop tech too long since i got to work with the users of them vs being in a data center (also a mcse though). Mostly non hobbyists in IT now so its hard to find a fun group of co workers. Seems to have degenerated into what your describing. Considering the non hobbyists dont have the depth of skill to pull random fixes out of the thin air it also contributed to stress. Just stress, too much work, and clueless bean counter managers. Even a stoic with a thick skin is going to get worn down after time.

[sl0re]

+1 on a atari being the easiest to use microcontroller ever. 

 

With fujinet i plan on making my 800 my word processor...

[Mazzspeed]

22 hours ago, sl0re said:

'me too'. Stayed a desktop tech too long since i got to work with the users of them vs being in a data center (also a mcse though). Mostly non hobbyists in IT now so its hard to find a fun group of co workers. Seems to have degenerated into what your describing. Considering the non hobbyists dont have the depth of skill to pull random fixes out of the thin air it also contributed to stress. Just stress, too much work, and clueless bean counter managers. Even a stoic with a thick skin is going to get worn down after time.

Don't do what I did and think everything will work itself out, while your body and health screams enough.