exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Tomswork wrote: 03 Oct 2020 19:12 @rubber_jonnie

Well I recapped my mac classic board and analog board and it works once again. Now to fix the floppy drive 💾. Then see about a scsisd setup

Tom

I'm pretty envious, no progress on mine, so I've been doing stuff I can do, but will get back to it soon.

The Mega board with the whacky RAM expansion seems to have had a rework around the WD1772, and it looks like the FDD isn't working.

I removed the socket, which had been made out of some socket strips, and found damage to the vias underneath, so now tracing them. 2 are fine and don't go very far, but one trace heads off somewhere across the board and under the shifter, so I reckon it's schematic time.

Also taken the time to fit a 6 ROM set with my patched for IDE and boot info version of TOS 1.04, which works fine, and once I have the FDD problem resolved, I will be able to test the Megabus IDE adapter I have spare, see how it looks.

Installing HD drivers without a FDD is a bit of a trial!

A1200 keyboard membrane is on the way, as is a comp video upgrade and keyboard membrane for my ZX81. Figured it was about time I dusted of that one, will be nice to have a play with it. ZX81 was my first computer, so quite nostalgic about it.

That is one weird RAM expansion. What IDE solution are you running in the Mega?

atari030 wrote: 05 Oct 2020 04:20 That is one weird RAM expansion. What IDE solution are you running in the Mega?

I have two IDE solutions, one is PPeras Megabus IDE adaptor in my Mega 1, which is mentioned further up in this thread (Search Megabus and/or IDE) and I also have one of exxos V1.1c IDE boards in my Mega 4.

Pretty sure I covered the V1.1c in this thread too, but there are plenty of discussions on it around the forum.

I will have a look. Thanks. There are so many different solutions for so many different models with different levels of availability that makes it hard to work out what is what or what was what. I've been following along as much as I can as you go. I'm still not game to recap my A1200 yet.

atari030 wrote: 05 Oct 2020 10:15 I will have a look. Thanks. There are so many different solutions for so many different models with different levels of availability that makes it hard to work out what is what or what was what. I've been following along as much as I can as you go. I'm still not game to recap my A1200 yet.

I just recapped my A1200, it's a bit fiddly as some of them are on ground planes that need a lot of heat, and some are just in difficult positions.

If you aren't using it, I really would recommend removing the caps, because some of the small aluminium surface mount caps in mine were just starting to leak and they can be devastating. I got a full recap kit from Amigakit, under £10, was perfect.

The Megabus adapter is pretty simple, it has only a few components and plugs into the Mega. The V1.1c needs to plug into a CPU socket, so a lot more work.

So many machines, so little time. :D After nearly six months of lockdown you'd think I'd have done the lot by now.

I've been checking out the forum(s) a bit over that time and if I was going to do everything that interested me I'd have to mortgage the house and never leave the garage. I don't know how you manage it, mate. :D The H5 seems like a brilliant idea......

atari030 wrote: 05 Oct 2020 11:49 So many machines, so little time. :D After nearly six months of lockdown you'd think I'd have done the lot by now.

I've been checking out the forum(s) a bit over that time and if I was going to do everything that interested me I'd have to mortgage the house and never leave the garage. I don't know how you manage it, mate. :D The H5 seems like a brilliant idea......

I'm lucky in that we have a pretty good system where I go and do my thing, and my wife does hers, but we also spend time together. I'm lucky to be able to buy most of what I want these days, though sometimes it just means a short wait until payday, because we agreed I have a gadget budget, so if I hit that (It's only £100 a month, but it works) I wait until I'm paid.

Got some time off coming for my birthday too, but also need to do some decorating as we're trying to sell the house! I have a built H4 and another waiting for me to build it, and I do have an H5 to come, but luckily winter is coming so I will have plenty to do whilst the weather is bad :)

That is pretty much how it works around here too, budget and save. The only drama is freight to Aussie. Slow and expensive. Especially the UK these days. Ordinarily I'm home more over Summer then in the hills during Winter. We bought a new house two years ago, reduced the mortgage and gave me a lot more space. Moving wasn't easy with so much Atari and Action Man. :lol:

atari030 wrote: 05 Oct 2020 13:15 That is pretty much how it works around here too, budget and save. The only drama is freight to Aussie. Slow and expensive. Especially the UK these days. Ordinarily I'm home more over Summer then in the hills during Winter. We bought a new house two years ago, reduced the mortgage and gave me a lot more space. Moving wasn't easy with so much Atari and Action Man. :lol:

Yeah, we have a minimal mortgage, but want to move to a bungalow, so will increase our mortgage for 10 years until I retire. Only conditions, I need an office and workshop :)