Today is a good day - 2 x 1050 drives and help identifying if one has an old school HAPPY or US Doubler enhancement

[Beeblebrox]

Today is a good day.

 

Two 1050 drives independantly aquired have been sitting awaiting my attention. 

 

Drive 1

The first I aquired along with a Hong Kong manufacturered 800XL (fully socketed! ) from the seller who informed me the 1050 drive had been untested. So I'd taken a bit of a gamble buying it.

I successfully powered up the 1050 with my heavily upgraded driver 800XL for the first time and noticed the drive's activity light seemed to turn off very quickly. (I have another 1050 and it takes around twice as long for the light to go out after initially powering it up or popping a disk in.)

 

So I switched on my speakers and popped in my Mecenary game disk. Sure enough that familiar hi speed data sound - (one I'd not heard since the 1990s when I had enhanced 1050) - piped up and the game loaded very quickly. So I thought to myself not only do I have a working drive but it's got a speed enhancement as well. Result!!

 

Cracking open the case I see this old school PCB with some nondescript ICs on it piggybacking the main unmarked PCB:

 

    

 

Q: So is this a HAPPY board or US Doubler?  Or another enhancement perhaps? I had a look around on AA and tintenet but nothing conclusive.

 

Drive 2

 

The second drive I bought knowing that it was totally dead. The seller told me he'd tried and it didn't power up at all. I fancied a challenge fixing it.

Sure enough on testing it this was deader than platform heels! I tried a known working power supply just in case it was that. Definitely no life.

Time to take a look inside. (Not that I was expecting to be able to fix it being a novice at this stuff still).

 

Popped it open and confirmed this was a stock 1050. (Ah well can't be so lucky twice!).

 

After a quick peak I quickly noticed 2 of the 3 monster capacitors at the back were very wobbly:

 

Flipped over the PCB and the solder points were clearly not making contact with the legs properly with loss of solder (perhaps movement and age - these are monster components after all):

 

 

 

Being very careful given the rating of these capacitors, a quick touch up of all 3 x capacitor's solder points later and that was fixed:

 

 

Flipped the switch fully expecting it to power up - nothing. Damn it!!

 

Slightly dismayed I opened it up again and after much squinting and poking around I realsed that once of the traces on the topside of the PCB connecting to one of the same large capacitors had totally lifted and become disconnected:

  
 

So I ran a jumper wire on the underside of the PCB to rectify this:

 

 

Bingo - powered up!

 

I took the opportunity to clean the drive head whilst it was open and then reassembled it.

 

Smugly thinking I'd nailed it I tried loading up a known working game disk and got the blue screen boot error!  Typical.  

So back into the guts of the drive once more to clean the head again. Tested it, same boot error. 

 

Next I cleaned the SIO port pins and tried several different SIO cables. Still no joy, blue screen boot error persisted.

 

Then I pulled up all the socketed chips from the PCB from under the metal shield and reseated them all just in case oxidisation was preventive a leg or two from connecting:

 

...tested again - Still the same boot error. 

 

With my multimeter I tested the continuity of some of headers and connectors with the PCB solder points just to make sure they were connecting. No perceived issues there and no obvious dry joints.

 

Had a coffee and a snack and pondered my next move.

 

Then I decided to open up my other stock 1050 and just compare the look of the two side by side. Which is when I happen to notice that the header and connector front right of the drive which connects to the drive head assembly was plugged in the completely reverse of my working stock drive:

 

So I flipped it around, ressembled the drive......... and whaddya know it booted a game disk first time.

 

So at some stage in it's lifetime a previous owner had clearly taken it apart and assembled this connector the wrong way.

 

So it had three issues in the end. All fixed. Very satisfying and just goes to show it really helps to have another working unit as a reference. Without it I'd have never picked up on the reversed header connector and probably would still be poking around inside the damn thing swearing a lot!!!

 

So, just need to find out what enhancement the 1st drive has.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Beeblebrox

[E474]

Hi,

 

   Thanks for the troubleshooting write-up, and congratulations on the find! The PCB has a 6502 on it, so that pretty much rules out a US Doubler. If you boot up a Happy 7.1 disk, the utilities on it can test the drive to see if it is a revision 1 or 2 ROM (see other AA threads for more info, and the ATR files). You can also dump the Happy Rom/firmware using my utility dump1050, which is on my github account at https://github.com/e474/DUMP1050

 

   The 5 header/riser pins on the PCB are bit intriguing too!

[Beeblebrox]

3 minutes ago, E474 said:

Hi,

 

   Thanks for the troubleshooting write-up, and congratulations on the find! The PCB has a 6502 on it, so that pretty much rules out a US Doubler. If you boot up a Happy 7.1 disk, the utilities on it can test the drive to see if it is a revision 1 or 2 ROM (see other AA threads for more info, and the ATR files). You can also dump the Happy Rom/firmware using my utility dump1050, which is on my github account at https://github.com/e474/DUMP1050

 

   The 5 header/riser pins on the PCB are bit intriguing too!

@E474  Many thanks for the response and tips. Cool - I'll do as you suggest and thanks for the link.

 

Just outta interest aside HAPPY and US Doubler enhancement, were there any other old school mods for the 1050 sold commercially in the 80's and 90's? Going back 25years I think I had both US Doubler and HAPPY drives from my dad, although I can't be sure - a lifetime ago.

 

I always find documenting and popping my attempts and fixing or installing upgrades on AA worthwhile. It's helped me fix things in the past reading other member's posts. For me pictures make it so much clearer that just written text, so I photo document it all as I go alone. (My girlfriend thinks I'm a proper nerd. Plus it's always amusing to see Google Photo's backup and then do photo montage's of said images which it surprises me with month's later - heh heh!) 

[Mathy]

Hello Beeblebrox

 

A US Doubler upgrade just increases memory (of the 1050) from 128 bytes to 256 bytes.  Plus the content of the (EP)ROM is different.

 

Some 1050 upgrades that come to mind:

 

- 1050 Duplicator

- Super Archiver II & III.  An extra upgrade could be added to the SA, called The Bitwriter

- (Mini) Speedy, Super Speedy (with enough memory to copy a disk in one run and read, format and write in under 30 seconds) and since a couple of years, the MegaSpeedy.

- Turbo 1050 (which included a Centronics printer interface)

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[Beeblebrox]

3 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Hello Beeblebrox

 

A US Doubler upgrade just increases memory (of the 1050) from 128 bytes to 256 bytes.  Plus the content of the (EP)ROM is different.

 

Some 1050 upgrades that come to mind:

 

- 1050 Duplicator

- Super Archiver II & III.  An extra upgrade could be added to the SA, called The Bitwriter

- (Mini) Speedy, Super Speedy (with enough memory to copy a disk in one run and read, format and write in under 30 seconds) and since a couple of years, the MegaSpeedy.

- Turbo 1050 (which included a Centronics printer interface)

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

@Mathy great, thanks for the info. I'd not heard of those. 

[+Nezgar]

Good work @Beeblebrox! I love fixing up 1050's myself as well, and have acquired drives that needed most of these same repairs. The best were drives that had AUTHENTIC happy computing made boards, which for all of my "classic" atari life I had never actually seen in person. Now I have two.

 

This post has various happy utility software disk images, including 7.1:

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/283666-archive-of-happy-backup-software/?tab=comments#comment-4544843

 

One thing to check for is when doing the ROM test using the diagnostics option, ROM version 1 will say "PASS" and ROM version "2" will show "Pass".

 

@E474's dump tool is definitely a conclusive way to dump the ROM without having to desolder the EPROM, though that is even better if you have confidence in dessoldering skills since it can extract 4 bytes that a software dump can't.

 

Your "pirated" board has a single SRAM chip, so that big 28 pin chip with the top scratched off is most definitely an 8Kx8 6116 SRAM chip. Early genuine happy boards had 6KB of ram across 3 2Kx8 SRAM chips, so at least functionally you have the 8K to run all the "fun" stuff like tools that upload code to the drive to make it operate as an Archiver, US Doubler, or Stock 1050.

 

24 minutes ago, Mathy said:

A US Doubler upgrade just increases memory (of the 1050) from 128 bytes to 256 bytes

aaaaaactually it increases memory from 256 bytes to 384 bytes A stock 1050 has 128 bytes for the stack (in the 6810), and 128 bytes for the sector buffer (in the 6532).

[+kheller2]

52 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

@Mathy great, thanks for the info. I'd not heard of those. 

Check out the Atari 8bit FAQ.  It will have way too much information on such things. ?

[+MrFish]

1 hour ago, kheller2 said:

Check out the Atari 8bit FAQ.  It will have way too much information on such things. ?

 

The Atari 8-bit FAQ is such a great storehouse of information. A lot of respect and thanks to Michael Current.

 

[+kheller2]

Just now, MrFish said:

 

The Atari 8-bit FAQ is such a great storehouse of information. A lot of respect and thanks to Michael Current.

 

Yes it is.  And it should be pinned to the top of this board, not sure why it isn't.

 

[+MrFish]

16 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

...it should be pinned to the top of this board...

Good point.

  

16 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

...not sure why it isn't.

It would cut down on a lot of questions here. Maybe management doesn't want that.

 

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

1 hour ago, kheller2 said:

And it should be pinned to the top of this board, not sure why it isn't.

 

56 minutes ago, MrFish said:

Maybe management doesn't want that.

 

 

Maybe it's not pinned because nobody asked yet.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

 

[BillC]

4 hours ago, E474 said:

 The 5 header/riser pins on the PCB are bit intriguing too!

Most likely a full clone of the Happy 1050 board, and the header is for connecting the optional controller board. 

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

What sometimes helps when they removed the printing on the chip is wetting your finger with your tongue and than rubbing the surface of the chip.  Sometimes the text will show for as long as the surface of the chip is still wet.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

[+MrFish]

49 minutes ago, Mathy said:

Maybe it's not pinned because nobody asked yet.

 

Most likely the case... I was just kidding.

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by MrFish

[E474]

Hi @Beeblebrox,

 

   You're welcome! I see (from your profile) that you're in the UK, so you might have a Lazer mod, rather than a Happy.

 

   @Nezgaris quite right about 4 bytes not being dumpable via software, that is due to reading from those locations triggering a bank switch. I wouldn't recommend trying to dump the ROM with an eprom reader, or similar, though, as you would have to unsolder the non-socketed ROM. 

 

   I usually put lithium grease on the drive head rails. Also you might want to run the SALT 1050 drive test disk on both drives, though upgraded ones always fail some of the tests.

 

   Hope this helps!

[+MrFish]

8 hours ago, kheller2 said:

Yes it is.  And it should be pinned to the top of this board, not sure why it isn't.

 

Actually, it is. It's the first link in the Newbie thread. It just dawned on me.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by MrFish

[Beeblebrox]

Hi. Opened up the 1050 Happy (or Lazer) modded drive and took out the module to take a closer look at the underside. 

Few pics below.

 

Basically since booting a few disks I've noticed quite a few disks don't load that have no problems on my stock 1050 drives. I've already cleaned the head and also the mech moves along the drive rails no issues, so it isn't these. (Besides my Mecenary disk loads with no issues).

 

I've been trawling through AA for various threads on fixing up common issues with 1050s and will go through those to see if I can pinpoint anything. I will try and use the 1050 diag software ATR whilst doing so although struggled to get the software to recognise the D1 1050 where I am using my Side3 and spartaDOSX to load the ATR.

 

So far it could be any number of things. I may need to fine tune the RPM speed with the Vr2 pot because I read they can slip over the decades. It could also be the felt pressue pad needs replacing, or the drive belt is loose (latter unlikely as seems ok).  Also possibly a bad IC somewhere, or the drive mechanism limiter is stopping the drive head from accessing the lower parts of some disks surfaces.

 

Anyways, here are a couple of pics of the Happy or Lazer mod (yet to be determined) as well as the 1050's PCB where you can see 2 x chips have been removed/moved for the mod:

 

 

 

 

The Texas instruments logo'ed IC here has faint markings either ending 704 or 784: 

 

Here is the 1050's PCB with 2 x IC's removed. (From what I can tell the 74LS86, I.C. and MPU, 6507 (1MHz), I.C. (according to the 1050 field service manual):

 

(It also appears a leg of one of the 1050's stock IC on it's PCB has been deliberately removed for the purposes of the mod):

The chip in question, according to the 1050 field service manual, is FDC, WD2793-02, I.C.

 

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Beeblebrox

[Beeblebrox]

BTW the mod board plugs directly into the original MPU socket. (Ran out of editing time for my post above but wanted to mention it).

[+Nezgar]

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

Basically since booting a few disks I've noticed quite a few disks don't load that have no problems on my stock 1050 drives.

One of the signature features of happy drives is full-track buffering. This will throw off many copy protection checks that rely on specific timing. The solution is to boot the happy utilities disk, press 1, then 1, to set the drive to "unhappy mode" - which disables the track buffering and access to the extended commands. This will allow most copy protection checks to pass.

 

This should not be an issue on your drive with the US Doubler mod, as it doesn't support track buffering.

 

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I will try and use the 1050 diag software ATR

You will not have success using the original Atari 1050 Diagnostics with happy or US Doubler modded drives, unless you "downgrade" to a stock 1050 ROM. There is a tool to upload a relocated version of the stock 1050 to the Happy RAM to temporarily "convert" it - but I have found that this also doesn't work when using the 1050 diagnostics software - one of the test commands throws the drive into an on/off failure mode.

 

For the happy drive, you can use the diagnostics menu in the happy utility for basic ROM/RAM and RPM tests.

For the US Doubler, you can use the RPM utility included in some distributions of SpartaDOS 3.2, and others.

 

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

The Texas instruments logo'ed IC here has faint markings either ending 704 or 784: 

It's a 2764 (8KB) EPROM. ?784 would mean produced ?7th (so could be 7th, 17th, 27th, 37th, or 47th) week of 1984.

 

5 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

It also appears a leg of one of the 1050's stock IC on it's PCB has been deliberately removed for the purposes of the mod

Most 1050's used a 2793 controller. Later drives used a 2797 controller. Pin 25 is for is side select when using double-sided drive mechanisms, so it's not needed for the single-sided 1050. In stock 1050's, the later revision "L" ROM is needed to work with this controller due to a slight change needed in the commands sent to the FDC.

[Beeblebrox]

1 minute ago, Nezgar said:

One of the signature features of happy drives is full-track buffering. This will throw off many copy protection checks that rely on specific timing. The solution is to boot the happy utilities disk, press 1, then 1, to set the drive to "unhappy mode" - which disables the track buffering and access to the extended commands. This will allow most copy protection checks to pass.

 

This should not be an issue on your drive with the US Doubler mod, as it doesn't support track buffering.

 

You will not have success using the original Atari 1050 Diagnostics with happy or US Doubler modded drives, unless you "downgrade" to a stock 1050 ROM. There is a tool to upload a relocated version of the stock 1050 to the Happy RAM to temporarily "convert" it - but I have found that this also doesn't work when using the 1050 diagnostics software - one of the test commands throws the drive into an on/off failure mode.

 

For the happy drive, you can use the diagnostics menu in the happy utility for basic ROM/RAM and RPM tests.

For the US Doubler, you can use the RPM utility included in some distributions of SpartaDOS 3.2, and others.

 

It's a 2764 (8KB) EPROM. ?784 would mean produced ?7th (so could be 7th, 17th or 27th) week of 1984.

 

Most 1050's used a 2793 controller. Later drives used a 2797 controller. Pin 25 is for is side select when using double-sided drive mechanisms, so it's not needed for the single-sided 1050. In stock 1050's, the later revision "L" ROM is needed to work with this controller due to a slight change needed in the commands sent to the FDC.

@Nezgar  Thanks - I'll have a proper read of your advice/comments when I have some time. Just to say I don't have a US Doubler 1050. I only have 2 x stock 1050s and this Happy (or Lazer) modded 1050. The 2 x stock 1050 drives work fine. 25+ years ago I owned a both US Doubler and Happy drives.

[+Nezgar]

@Beeblebrox Woops, you are right somehow I assumed US doubler in my mind while writing - never mind that then!   So that's good in this sense because you can use Atari's 1050 diagnostics ATR for sure in the Happy drive if you temporarily place a 1050 stock ROM & CPU into that drive.

 

The one picture above with the ROM IC with part number 94132B-2131 "Tandon" is revision "L" and will work with either the 2793 or 2797 WDC controller.

 

EDIT: important!: If swapping the Mask ROM into a drive that previously had an EPROM, make sure to check the JP1-4 jumpers above the socket are configured & moved appropriately:

JP1 & JP3 jumpered for a Mask ROM (We can see this in the stock drive pictured in the original post)

JP2 & JP4 jumpered for a 2732 EPROM (We can see this in your happy drive)

[Beeblebrox]

Bit of an update since September. (Been sidetracked fixing XEs and XLs). 

 

Whilst trying to sort my other modded drive out here in this thread, I've since managed to confirm the modded drive I've been talking about above is indeed a Lazer :

 

I've managed to dump the ROM here for anyone who is interested:DumpedLazer.atr  ( @E474  - thanks)

 

(I like the reference to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (automated doors "Pleased to be of service") - intentional or non-intentional though it may be  )

 

Incidentally the dumped Rom has the dump1050.exe software and the two ROM files. I neglected to pop DOS files on it - my bad - I am new to this after all.

 

 

I used @E474 's great Rom dumping utility called Dump1050 (ATR attached below), launched from DOS 2.5 after a rocky start trying to figure things out. (I was using APE for Windows with my Atarimax SIO21PC USB connection. To cut a long story short in the end I made sure APE's ALL mounted slots were empty, (not just D1), and just pressed reset on my 800XL whilst the Lazer software was loaded with the drive attached to my Atari (physically set as drive1 and of course powered up) - which then indicated a Lazer was present for D1. (I'd definitely done this before several times earlier this week and it hadn't refreshed for some reason. It did today ).

 

dump1050.atr

 

So now I am looking here which has various Lazer uilities and will have a play:

 

I am still trying to sort out my other modded drive which I now know is not a Happy Revision 7 modded drive. I'll try the Lazer software and Rom dump again for that drive too just in case.

I'm currently in the process of reinstating a write enable toggle switch in that drive, again covered in the thread below:

 

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by Beeblebrox

[+bf2k+]

Here's my Lazer 1050 upgrade.  I don't know where I got this from but it has never been installed...

 

[sup8pdct]

13 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

I've managed to dump the ROM here for anyone who is interested:DumpedLazer.atr  ( @E474  - thanks)

Wow. that is one screwed up disk. no directory or vtoc and file links are screwed.

Also shows some 'copyright happy computing'...

[Beeblebrox]

29 minutes ago, sup8pdct said:

Wow. that is one screwed up disk. no directory or vtoc and file links are screwed.

Also shows some 'copyright happy computing'...

@sup8pdct @E474 Really? Hmmm ? I'll do it again and this time pop the Dos 2.5 files on the disk before I use the dump 1050 software to dump the Rom to it. I am basically using APE for Windows to boot Disk Wizard II on the 800XL, then copying the physical disk containing the Rom dump files Dump1050 created and saved to it to an new Atr image via my Atarimax sio2pc USB link. Odd the Copy write Happy Computing shows up.