Simple upgrades for a Mega-STE

[rubber_jonnie]

I think we've all probably done this at least once, but never trust the labels on anything for orientation, always trust the notch.

You're probably going to need to get replacement ROMs, but you can still test with the originals, even if they're the wrong language.

At least you have the easy FPU upgrade board.

[exxos]

So I guess I need new US EEPROMs - Exxos has them, but his shipping is somewhat delayed due to post-office manning from what I read. I'll see where I can source them from.

Shipping will be Wednesday morning this week. Orders Wednesday or after will be next week before posting.

[HigashiJun]

You can get a VMA to ISA VGA adapter from @frank.lukas.

Ask him directly or check here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196066517955

and also a Lightning VME from the Thunder Team:

https://wiki.newtosworld.de/index.php?t ... ing_VME_En

@czietz may help you for the Lightning VME.

[olivier.jan]

I think we've all probably done this at least once, but never trust the labels on anything for orientation, always trust the notch.

Trust the notch on the silkscreen, not on the socket!!! I’ve seen a few Atari with socket installed with the notch on the wrong side. Always check the notch on the silkscreen.

[SpacedCowboy]

I think we've all probably done this at least once, but never trust the labels on anything for orientation, always trust the notch.

Yep. I know this. Which is why I'm still kicking myself...

You're probably going to need to get replacement ROMs, but you can still test with the originals, even if they're the wrong language.

Well, every cloud has a silver lining and all that - I decided I'd get myself an EEPROM programmer and just burn them, rather than waiting on long-distance postage, plus then I'll have an EEPROM programmer The chips themselves are available from Jameco at a fairly reasonable $5, so it was just a matter of getting the programmer. I plumped for the T48 on Amazon since it looks like I can run it under Wine on my Mac, and if not, there's open-source software for it that is supposed to work, and if that doesn't work, I can always use Microsoft Remote Desktop to the PC in the shed...

At least you have the easy FPU upgrade board.

[Grin] Another silver lining ?

You can get a VMA to ISA VGA adapter from @frank.lukas.

Yep, I have a Mach64 / Nova card from frank - it's working wonderfully on my TT. I may at some point upgrade the MSTE but I don't want to push it *too* far outside what it would come with - that's what the TT is for I also have a Thunder/Storm/Lightning combo coming for the TT (well, when Matthias can fit me in. It was supposed to be this weekend, but he's presumably still busy), and I've ordered a blueSCSI to give me networking on it too.

Trust the notch on the silkscreen, not on the socket!!! I’ve seen a few Atari with socket installed with the notch on the wrong side. Always check the notch on the silkscreen.

Also good advice, though in my case I don't even have that as a defence - the sockets are the correct way around, it's just the labels that were (for whatever reason) upside down.

Ah well. At least the machine itself isn't damaged....

[HigashiJun]

Yep, I have a Mach64 / Nova card from frank - it's working wonderfully on my TT. I may at some point upgrade the MSTE but I don't want to push it *too* far outside what it would come with - that's what the TT is for I also have a Thunder/Storm/Lightning combo coming for the TT (well, when Matthias can fit me in. It was supposed to be this weekend, but he's presumably still busy), and I've ordered a blueSCSI to give me networking on it too.

Good to hear you've got the right stuff...

[SpacedCowboy]

Good to hear you've got the right stuff...

It's the "just getting back into the nostalgia" splurge

[DoG]

...
Also good advice, though in my case I don't even have that as a defence - the sockets are the correct way around, it's just the labels that were (for whatever reason) upside down...

That is because TOS v2.06 can be used in both STe and Mega STe. Notches to the right on STe and notches to the left on Mega STe. Check motherboard layout here. It's mote common for people to upgrade STe.

[SpacedCowboy]

So the T48 programmer turned up, and the software doesn't like working under Wine - apparently Wine doesn't really do USB interfaces, or device-drivers in general. So, next stop was the 'minipro' open-source software as I mentioned above. It turns out that this doesn't support the newer T48 model (which of course was the one I bought )

I was wondering if I was the only one to do that, so reading through the 'issues', I found one referencing a forked repository for the T48 model, and did the standard:

Code: Select all

brew install pkg-config
brew install libusb
brew link libusb

git clone https://gitlab.com/anarsoul/minipro.git
cd minipro
make
sudo make install

... dance, which gave me a 'minipro' binary in /usr/local/bin (and a nice man page too ), so I could then do:

Code: Select all

$ minipro -l
Found T48 01.1.3 (0x103)
Warning: Firmware is out of date.
  Expected  1.1.28 (0x11c)
  Found     01.1.3 (0x103)
Device code: 34B06322
Serial code: 8KS72KJF742U5J0293204F23

There doesn't seem to be any 'split a larger file into smaller packages' options in the open-source code, so I wrote a simple word->lo/hi-byte converter and ended up with 2 128KB files rather than one 256KB one. Then it was just a matter of:

Code: Select all

minipro -p MBM27C1001 -y -w tos206.lo
minipro -p MBM27C1001 -y -w tos206.hi

... with appropriate read backs to make sure what was written was identical to what was in the .lo/.hi file and inserting the chips (the right way around, this time, grrr) to see:

Screen Shot 2023-11-10 at 10.49.24 AM.png (442.41 KiB) Viewed 1359 times

So, now I have a US TOS 2.06, and (bonus) an EEPROM programmer

[rubber_jonnie]