810 Double Density mod

[Chuck Gill]

Has anyone ever attempted an 810 double density mod? I know a commercial one was sold years ago called the 810 Turbo, although I haven't found much info on it.

 

Any info on a homebrew method, 810 controller docs, or anything would be appreciated.

 

Chuck

[Curt Vendel]

Has anyone ever attempted an 810 double density mod? I know a commercial one was sold years ago called the 810 Turbo, although I haven't found much info on it.  

 

Any info on a homebrew method, 810 controller docs, or anything would be appreciated.

 

Chuck

 

I don't know if there are any homebrew mods floating around for the 810's anymore, The Happy and Turbo 810 upgrades were the big then for them but faded out by the late 80's early 90's By that time most users were on 1050's and the priviledged had an XF551, though those XF's had such brittle crappy main boards that many owners who frequently plugged/unplugged their SIO's were cursing them in no time.

 

 

Maybe Albert's and Joe Grands new hardware hacking book will list such a mod??? Whats the deal with Kevin Mitnicks association with the book?

 

 

 

Curt

[classics]

I dont believe any of the 810 upgrades converted it to double density.

[Chuck Gill]

The reason I was wondering is this review from Antic, maybe the upgrade never actually was released.

 

ANTIC VOL. 3, NO. 4 / AUGUST 1984 / PAGE 55

 

810 TURBO

Neanderthal Computer Things (NCT)

RO. Box 16489

Irvine, CA 92713

(714) 770-0372

$195.00

 

Reviewed by David Duberman

 

If you've owned your Atari 810 disk drive for a while, you've probably "bumped your head" at least once on its limited storage capacity.  The standard 810 only holds about 90K of data per side (180K total), much less than similar drives for other home computers.  Well, here's some good news: Neanderthal Computer Things' 810 Turbo offers you a way to increase your system's storage capacity without incurring the expense of a new drive.

  When installed in an 810 drive, the 810 Turbo circuit board provides true double-density storage, thus doubling the capacity of each disk side to about 180K.  The installation instructions for the board are so clear and explicit that even novices should have no trouble following them.  Many illustrative photos are included, and no soldering is necessary.  However, you must make sure that your drive's head is clean, and that the drive mechanism is in good working order, because double-density operation is much more sensitive than single-density.

  The Turbo also lets you use Mach DOS, which is included with the circuit board.  Mach DOS speeds data transfer to about four times its normal rate (which makes it comparable to Happy Computing's Warp Speed).  Programmers, who often load and save programs many times before they're complete, will find that this feature saves a significant amount of program development time.  They'll also save time going back and forth between DOS and the programming language in use.  In addition, because the Turbo uses track buffering, it permits faster data transfer even without Mach DOS.

 

There's more but this is the important part. It just seemed a shame not to be using my 810 because it can't read most of my disks.

 

Chuck

[classics]

I've definatly never seen one of those but I would love to.

 

I imagine this must replace the side board and board that mounts on the drive mechanism.

[Nukey Shay]

Perhaps it didn't sell very well if they had released it? The 1050's were retailing for about $200 at that time.

[Chuck Gill]

Thanks for the responses! I thought one of you guys would have one.

 

I believe the 815's were double density out of the box, but I've never seen one in the wild. I'd like to see the controller from one of those, it looks like the same drive mechanism as the 810.

 

Chuck

[Nukey Shay]

There was a spec sheet....but it looks like the link is busted...

http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS...00/815/815.html

[Curt Vendel]

There was a spec sheet....but it looks like the link is busted...http://www.atarimuseum.com/computers/8BITS/400800/815/815.html

 

 

Crappy website.... hey wait thats mine!!!

 

I'll take a look at that link tomorrow and correct it....

 

 

Curt

[Savetz]

I've definatly never seen one of those but I would love to.

 

I imagine this must replace the side board and board that mounts on the drive mechanism.

 

In case anyone is still following this old thread, here's some new info about Neanderthal Computer Things 810 Turbo:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/291937-neanderthal-computer-things-810-turbo/

 

-Kevin