Atari 800 and SIO2PC...help needed!

[zektor800]

I am a *complete* newbie to this, as the following will show. I just recieved my Atari 800 today, and I already had Atarimax's SIO2PC interface and had registered APE. I also purchased a 16550 UART PCI serial card (SIIG) and have that installed. APE sees the serial card, and the interface powers on (red LED) and one of the green leds flashes for a few seconds when the A800 is powered on. Now I am at the memo prompt. I mounted an atr file before power on...I was assuming the Atari would just boot the disk? Or do I have to manually load somehow? I just want to get a game to run before the night is through Like I said, I am completely new to this

 

On another note, I ended up getting two 800's and one 800XL. One of the 800's is fine, and so is the XL. The other 800 however has a big problem. The system powers on, but the keyboard does not function at all. Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

[Allas]

Good, red light should be on always, this indicate Atari SIO energy transfer is correct.

 

The first time happens when you turn on the Atari, the middle green light flashes very quickly, after a few seconds turns off.

 

With APE for Windows, you only need to mount a bootable ATR image in Drive 1. After that, you can use the Atari as you have a drive drive with the proper diskette.

 

If you get success connection, both green lights flashes showing data is transfering from PC to Atari.

 

Don't forget to remove the Basic Cartridge before you boot.

[zektor800]

Good, red light should be on always, this indicate Atari SIO energy transfer is correct.

 

The first time happens when you turn on the Atari, the middle green light flashes very quickly, after a few seconds turns off.

 

With APE for Windows, you only need to mount a bootable ATR image in Drive 1. After that, you can use the Atari as you have a drive drive with the proper diskette.

 

If you get success connection, both green lights flashes showing data is transfering from PC to Atari.

 

Don't forget to remove the Basic Cartridge before you boot.

 

 

I have no carts in the system at all. I have tried to mount dozens of ATR images....I'm sure most (if not all) of them are bootable. But it just does not boot...ugh

[+Larry]

What verson of APE are you using? Did you run the APE Configuration Wizard? What did it say? -Larry

[zektor800]

What verson of APE are you using? Did you run the APE Configuration Wizard? What did it say? -Larry

 

 

Very latest version. I just registered and Steven sent it to me. The config wizard runs through just fine, but I do see this in the log window after APE starts:

 

[Debug 1] Unable to determine port base address

[status] Serial port COM3 opened sucessfully. APE is ready.

 

 

Port base address? It *seems* like the device is communicating correctly...except for the non-loading of the atr images. I just don't get it...

Edited September 19, 2006 by zektor800

[+remowilliams]

Very latest version. I just registered and Steven sent it to me. The config wizard runs through just fine, but I do see this in the log window after APE starts:

 

[Debug 1] Unable to determine port base address

[status] Serial port COM3 opened sucessfully. APE is ready.

 

You ran through the Configuration Wizard and it was able to see your SIO2PC interface?

 

If the program can't determine the port base address, it probably won't be able to communicate properly. What does the windows device manager say about your com port resources?

[zektor800]

I'm actually in conversation with Steven about it right now. Damn PNP. He'll have to add specific support for my resource.

[+remowilliams]

I'm actually in conversation with Steven about it right now. Damn PNP. He'll have to add specific support for my resource.

That's what I thought, it sounds like that PCI serial board does not appear as a regular serial port would.

 

Steve is one of the absolute best guys to deal with, so hang in there

[zektor800]

It didn't take long at all He inquired about my odd serial port information (IRQ 19?) and strange base address....adjusted the program and sent me a new upgrade file. I just played half a dozen games and am extremely happy Too bad I have to go to work in the morning!

[+Larry]

It didn't take long at all He inquired about my odd serial port information (IRQ 19?) and strange base address....adjusted the program and sent me a new upgrade file. I just played half a dozen games and am extremely happy Too bad I have to go to work in the morning!

 

Glad you have APE working now. Registered APE is *the* most useful Atari software available (IMO). I ran an SIIG serial card for about a year, and now that I think about it, I remember there were some problems getting it going initially. I think that ultimately, I switched the devices so that APE was using the motherboard serial port, and my external modem used the SIIG. It had no trouble with the SIIG settings. -Larry

[zektor800]

If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived

Edited September 20, 2006 by zektor800

[Ansiterm]

How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall) (But I kept my Atari collection )

 

If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived

[a8isa1]

How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall) (But I kept my Atari collection )

 

If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived

You can get an SIO2PC interface working on some pretty old PCs.

 

The original SIO2PC, back when the name meant the software not the interface cable, ran on a 80286, at least I think it did.

 

I use AtariSIO (Atari disk emulator for Linux written by Hias Reichl). It has pretty minimal system requirements, though I don't know not what the lower limit is. The slowest machine I use is a Toshiba Libretto 50CT, a Pentium 75 system.

 

I use the bootdisk version of AtariSIO but you don't actually need a bootdisk (floppy by the way) to use it. The mini Linux it runs on will launch from DOS.

 

Just for fun I made a couple of bootCDs (eltorito format), one each with plenty of binary files and/or ATRs. Had another CD that loaded random games but I lost track of it. It was just a novelty.

 

The boot CD, in general, is cool because it doesn't need a hard disk. Just boot from the CD and you're serving up Atari files.

 

- Steve Sheppard

Edited September 21, 2006 by a8isa1

[zektor800]

How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall) (But I kept my Atari collection )

 

If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived

 

 

The PC itself does not have to be old at all....I am using it on a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 HT. It is the serial ports/card. Newer PC's (mine included) do not even have serial or parallel ports. Everything is USB or Firewire nowadays. I did not even realize I did not have serial ports initially as I automatically assumed I did! All you would need is a serial card, but one that has a TRUE 16550 UART. Almost all newer cards are emulating the 16550, and these cards will not work. I got ahold of a SIIG PCI plug-n-play serial card with a true 16550 UART, and it now works great. Because of the nature of WinXP and PNP, the OS was forcing the card on an odd base address....and that needed Steven's adjustmet of the software to be able to see the card. Yes, an initial rocky road, but all well worth it. It is working so well now, and I am completely enjoying it. The best investment in time and money I think I ever spend in regards to retrogaming.

 

This is the card I purchased:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320026786366

Edited September 22, 2006 by zektor800

[Ansiterm]

Sounds like maybe the older the better. But I was more interested in how new a PC could be and still use the sio2pc.

 

 

You can get an SIO2PC interface working on some pretty old PCs.

 

The original SIO2PC, back when the name meant the software not the interface cable, ran on a 80286, at least I think it did.

 

I use AtariSIO (Atari disk emulator for Linux written by Hias Reichl). It has pretty minimal system requirements, though I don't know not what the lower limit is. The slowest machine I use is a Toshiba Libretto 50CT, a Pentium 75 system.

 

I use the bootdisk version of AtariSIO but you don't actually need a bootdisk (floppy by the way) to use it. The mini Linux it runs on will launch from DOS.

 

Just for fun I made a couple of bootCDs (eltorito format), one each with plenty of binary files and/or ATRs. Had another CD that loaded random games but I lost track of it. It was just a novelty.

 

The boot CD, in general, is cool because it doesn't need a hard disk. Just boot from the CD and you're serving up Atari files.

 

- Steve Sheppard

[Ansiterm]

Zektor800,

 

Thanks for the info. I have an old P2 with a serial port, but I don't know if it's a real 16550 Uart or emulates it. I'll have a look when I get home. My other regret is that I had to get rid of a couple of old TVs that would have been great for setting up an Atari and cataloguing my disk collection. Moving is painful especially when it's downsizing.

 

How old a PC are we talking about for getting a sio2pc working? Is it mostly that the parallel port has to have a standard fixed address? Are there any other requirements? And here I got rid of an old PC in a recent move. (bangs head against wall) (But I kept my Atari collection )

 

If it were a traditional serial card with jumpers (so I would be able to force 3f8/2f8 IRQ 3/4) I would have had no problems from the get go. But those cards (in PCI form) are pretty hard to come by. Most of these are plug & pray, and Windows XP decides the address....and in most cases (including mine) it is not changeable. I guess it was considered progress in the ease of computing...never running into IRQ conflicts again. But the user that *wants* to configure is screwed in the process. Thank god Steven got it going for me. The guy REALLY knows his stuff. I'm just giddy about playing around with the few thousands of images I have archived

 

 

The PC itself does not have to be old at all....I am using it on a 3.4Ghz Pentium 4 HT. It is the serial ports/card. Newer PC's (mine included) do not even have serial or parallel ports. Everything is USB or Firewire nowadays. I did not even realize I did not have serial ports initially as I automatically assumed I did! All you would need is a serial card, but one that has a TRUE 16550 UART. Almost all newer cards are emulating the 16550, and these cards will not work. I got ahold of a SIIG PCI plug-n-play serial card with a true 16550 UART, and it now works great. Because of the nature of WinXP and PNP, the OS was forcing the card on an odd base address....and that needed Steven's adjustmet of the software to be able to see the card. Yes, an initial rocky road, but all well worth it. It is working so well now, and I am completely enjoying it. The best investment in time and money I think I ever spend in regards to retrogaming.

 

This is the card I purchased:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...em=320026786366

[ijor]

All you would need is a serial card, but one that has a TRUE 16550 UART. Almost all newer cards are emulating the 16550, and these cards will not work.

 

You don't actually need a "true" 16550 part. You just need something compatible with it at the hardware level (and not just emulated at the driver level). Since ages that PCs didn't come with a standalone UART chip.

 

Sounds like maybe the older the better.

 

Not really. Any PC that has an integrated serial port should be good enough.

 

A too old PC might have an older UART than the 16550. If so it won't work at all with AtariSio, and it might be problematic for APE as well.

[zektor800]

In easy terms, if you have serial ports on your PC already, give it a shot. If it does not work OR you do not have these ports, get yourself a PCI SIIG card with 16550 UARTS. I like the card route myself, as no matter what PC I upgrade to down the road, it'll still work...that is as long as PCI slots are still there! There will be a USB version released eventually, and life will become a whole lot simpler for people with newer PC's.

[Shadows]

Can an 850 interface or PR Connection be used in place of an SIO2PC cable? I think I already know the answer to this because the 850 and PR have their own device drivers and baud rate limitations and are meant for printers and such, but I thought I'd ask.

[dinosaur]

I was running APE for DOS on an AST 486DX4/100 laptop and it run well.

 

Recently the floppy in this machine died and there is no way that I will buy a

new floppy for that puppy!

 

I am trying to use an IBM ThinkPad 365XD (Pentium 120 MHz) now and no joy!

 

No matter how I set the APE configuration,it won't connect!

 

It is convienent to use an old laptop for SIO2PC,but not when it won't work!!!

[dinosaur]

I was running APE for DOS on an AST 486DX4/100 laptop and it run well.

 

Recently the floppy in this machine died and there is no way that I will buy a

new floppy for that puppy!

 

I am trying to use an IBM ThinkPad 365XD (Pentium 120 MHz) now and no joy!

 

No matter how I set the APE configuration,it won't connect!

 

It is convienent to use an old laptop for SIO2PC,but not when it won't work!!!

 

Evidently the physical design of your serial port is the deciding factor.

I remember the post from AtariMac about the difficulty of finding a USB-to-serial

cable that would work with SIO2OSX.

 

The first time I ever saw an SIO2PC setup was about 1989.A friend of mine build one

himself,using Nick Kennedy's specs and software.He ran it from a Zemith 286 and it worked well.

 

Until recently,I have been using an AST 486 laptop and it worked good.(see above)

 

I have tried APE118 and the original SIO2PC software and neither will work,in

ANY configuration,on the ThinkPad.

 

Talk about a kludge....rather than buy a new floppy for the AST,I am going to continue

using the AST for APE118 and connect to the ThinkPad with Interlink,to use the IBM

floppy! ROTFL!

[oesii]

Wow, I'm surprised that Nick's DOS SIO2PC doesn't work, that piece of software has worked on every computer I've thrown it at. I have a IBM Thinkpad, a 486 running at 50mhz that runs sio2pc great.

[dinosaur]

Wow, I'm surprised that Nick's DOS SIO2PC doesn't work, that piece of software has worked on every computer I've thrown it at. I have a IBM Thinkpad, a 486 running at 50mhz that runs sio2pc great.

 

I have a Thinkpad 365XD (Pentium120MHz) and can't run APE118D nor sio2pc.exe!