exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Some interesting ideas you've got going on there. Like seeing people think "out of the
box" when it comes to the STacy. :)

So much frustration involved with screen options. (or lack thereof).

Not sure I'd label myself as a pioneer. I'm just hard-headed and won't give up on
things. :lol:

I've moaned and groaned about the lack of a "one size fits all" upgrade for ST's and
specifically the STacy for years and years. There are certainly some great products
out there and people like Chris (Exxos) are doing wonderful things.

Some people would say I'm being unrealistic to want one board that gives:

dual-TOS (at least 2 versions)
Alt-RAM
accelerator
IDE mass storage
FPU

I don't have as much free time these days, but if there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.

Darklord wrote: 19 Jul 2018 18:42 Some interesting ideas you've got going on there. Like seeing people think "out of the
box" when it comes to the STacy. :)

So much frustration involved with screen options. (or lack thereof).

Not sure I'd label myself as a pioneer. I'm just hard-headed and won't give up on
things. :lol:

I've moaned and groaned about the lack of a "one size fits all" upgrade for ST's and
specifically the STacy for years and years. There are certainly some great products
out there and people like Chris (Exxos) are doing wonderful things.

Some people would say I'm being unrealistic to want one board that gives:

dual-TOS (at least 2 versions)
Alt-RAM
accelerator
IDE mass storage
FPU

I don't have as much free time these days, but if there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. You and I share the same wishlist.

Darklord wrote: 19 Jul 2018 18:42 I've moaned and groaned about the lack of a "one size fits all" upgrade for ST's and
specifically the STacy for years and years. There are certainly some great products
out there and people like Chris (Exxos) are doing wonderful things.

Yeah , there are so many revisions of the STFM its unreal. Because space is limited the board has to be specifically designed for that one revision to fit, which means probably 90% of people wouldn't be able to fit my V2.2 booster for example.

The V1.5 booster "fits all" but sales wise, it was a huge disaster :( The only extra option was DUAL-TOS on the V2.2.. but expensive way if people wasn't using the booster. So "one size fits all" actually doesn't sell :roll:

Ultimately I won't be doing any other PCB layouts other than STFM, STE. STE is easier as mostly all the same layout.. STFM, I'm talking the one particular revision I always use. but if I ever get the design finished, I may be open to deals for others to use my schmatic to create new PCBs for other machines like STacy etc. But of course we get onto licencing issues and risk of being "ripped off" like what happened with TerribleFire, PCB layout is not easy with this stuff either.

Darklord wrote: 19 Jul 2018 18:42 Some people would say I'm being unrealistic to want one board that gives:

dual-TOS (at least 2 versions)
Alt-RAM
accelerator
IDE mass storage
FPU

Not unreasonable, but takes maybe 6-12months or more to develop and test each item easily. FPU I am 99% sure it won't be added on my stuff. Basically no software will use it, and it takes up huge PCB space which is at a premium. Plus huge time and cost invested in pcbs, time to create and test all.. just don't see it worthwhile spending the time on it.

FPU stuff works different on the 68000 as it has no proper FPU support. So its called "IO MAPPED". on later CPU's like 030 it has proper LINEF support but works totally different. So a program written to use a FPU on a 68000 isn't going to work on a FPU in the falcon for example. (at least AFAIK). When d.m.l and I talked about FPU support for GB6, we decided not to even bother coding test routines for it. Because if you tested a FPU in a 68000 system, it would benchmark way slower than the same FPU in the falcon. So the test would be meaningless (which what happens in GB3,4 with crazy results)

IDE I am still in 2 minds over, but firstly need to see if there is any space on the PCB left... but really I don't want to re-create another IDE solution. I'd rather develop some internal interface like a internal ultrasatan which solders over the DMA chip.. There are other reasons for that, but won't go into it all now.

exxos wrote: 22 Jul 2018 11:53 STFM, I'm talking the one particular revision I always use. but if I ever get the design finished, I may be open to deals for others to use my schmatic to create new PCBs for other machines like STacy etc.

If you mean the C070789, I'm sure anything designed for its CPU socket should fit nicely in the STacy, especially if we sort out the DC-DC power.

Atarian Computing wrote: 22 Jul 2018 12:33 If you mean the C070789, I'm sure anything designed for its CPU socket should fit nicely in the STacy, especially if we sort out the DC-DC power.

Yep. I never took much notice of STacy, never had one. But was more relating to so many different revisions of the STF. That the C070789 won't fit stuff for a C070523-001 for example.

Despite my beautiful daughter being born over two weeks ago, I've managed to update two of my projects. Here are renderings of boards that already have been ordered.

Wow, very nice, clean looking (and compact) looking boards there.

Keep us updated - I'm certainly interested! :)

Atarian Computing wrote: 21 Jan 2019 14:40 Despite my beautiful daughter being born over two weeks ago, I've managed to update two of my projects. Here are renderings of boards that already have been ordered.

What's become of this project? I've recently acquired a Stacy 4 on the cheap (was sold dead, for parts, turned out only to have a bad power switch and bad MMU *) and I'm looking into what I might do with it for a little fun.

I've got a spare Thunder and Cloudy that I'm thinking of installing for IDE, USB, and flashable TOS. Looks like I'm going to have to install a CPU relocator to make that work, though, thanks to our friend the DC-DC board. :)

So what's the status of your upgrade projects?

* Might also have some display problems. I wasn't getting anything on the internal display when I first got it powered up, and now that it's booting okay, I haven't reassembled to the point of being able to test the display again.

I did a screen upgrade Atari STacy Screen Upgrade - Part 1

Atarian Computing wrote: 30 Jun 2020 17:56 I did a screen upgrade Atari STacy Screen Upgrade - Part 1

So you wired the controller board directly into the Stacey? Where as derkom is using an ossc. There are much smaller and cheaper scalers around these days with zero lag, perhaps the retrotink is a good option, www.retrotink.com as it is a no hassle automatic upscale to 480p.