Projects and Stuff

[DoG]

Have you already ordered the Cmorley/68k-boards? I would really like to buy 2 of them if you planning on getting a few extra?

I've got four of them. Made a hand crafted adaptor for the mega bus and the H4. They are working fine for me, hence I'm making the actual adaptor boards because the hand crafted adaptors look a little ruff and larger than needed. When I verify the H4 adaptor I'll post the gerbers and you can order as many as you like from your favorite pc board house. I'm going to do the mega adaptor next. You do need a decode source, if your only interested in 1.04 and lesser versions of TOS you can steal the decode from a rom socket, if you want to include TOS images that are larger and run from $e00000 you need a decode signal from Exxos's new decoder board, Exxos's IDE board, or from a Lightning card.. or you could roll your own.

Oh, gerbers is fine. I got a few options for 256Kb decode signal. I'll wait for you to test it out. I'm in the process of ordering boards from cmorley at the moment so I can wait.

[rubber_jonnie]

Ya, the MSTE is my favorite Atari. I've been looking into going HD with the floppy but couldn't find much. I guess Atari made some machines HD capable but they are extremely rare. It would be nice to see a picture so you could tell if they had a drive with a trapezoidal eject button or a case with a rectangular eject button. I'm surely not going to hack a hole in it like some mods I've seen. I have the Lightning card installed so I have a good Ethernet connection to the other machines so the floppy really isn't a must have but now with HD working on the H4's it would be nice to have everything consistent. Also the USB stick works great with the Lightning and the netusbee on the machines it works with so file transfers are easy. I'm like one Lightning ST card short of total fleet coverage. So @rubber_jonnie , if you find out how Atari did HD let me know.

@PaulJ So it seems it didn't take that long to find out, the HD floppy install guide that @DoG posted in response to me dropping the GAL files actually gives the contents of the kit as follows:

MSTE_FD_FDD.JPG (32.88 KiB) Viewed 4631 times

And there it is, marked with the red dots, part number C301371-001.

A bit more digging and I found this detail relating to the TT:

C302014-001 = Floppy Drive 720KB Epson SMD380/480
C301371-001 = Floppy Drive 1,44MB Epson SMD340

I don't know, but it has me wondering that if the two Epson drives are similar enough, is it possible to simply swap the drive facias over? Of course you still need the AJAX and the GAL, but doing it yourself seems feasible.

[PaulJ]

I should of read @DoG 's files. There must be a solution there. I'll need to start investigating again with this strong lead.

Makes it appear there's a solution out there.. its good you jumped on Dog's files @rubber_jonnie .

[rubber_jonnie]

I should of read @DoG 's files. There must be a solution there. I'll need to start investigating again with this strong lead.

Makes it appear there's a solution out there.. its good you jumped on Dog's files @rubber_jonnie .

I'm really feeling like this could be done, so will probably follow up on it myself. In theory I could steal an Ajax from one of my STEs and replace it with a WD1772 I have going spare. I'm not using anything other than a Gotek and 720kb images, so the Ajax isn't necessary.

Need to look at finding an SMD340 next, since I have 5 GALs coming so that part is covered.

[PaulJ]

@rubber_jonnie , the key is to find a HD floppy with a trapezoidal eject button or one that will take the front of the existing drive. I'll get around to it eventually , let me know if you come up with a solution.

[kodak80]

Also I tweeked on @kodak80 's floppy reverser PC board and if its works I will provide those gerbers if functional and kodak80 has no complaints.

Fine by me. Happy for you to share these.

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie , the key is to find a HD floppy with a trapezoidal eject button or one that will take the front of the existing drive. I'll get around to it eventually , let me know if you come up with a solution.

I'm going to check at some point this week and see if I can find any diagrams of the Epson SMD 380/480 and the SMD340, because my hope is that it's just a straight bezel and button swap from one to the other, and that may be why Atari chose the Epson SMDs, because mechanically the casework is the same and they could use the existing bezel/button design, so less retooling.

I suppose I should check to see if mine is already done, since it does have an Ajax fitted already.

10 minutes later......

Hmm, I just shone a torch into the front of mine and it has a HD detect switch. Also, switch 7 on S701 has been switched on. I will fire it up later, but it seems I may have lucked out and already have a HD FDD!

That also explains the cable fitted the wrong way around at the MB end. I can pull it out and identify at some point in the next few days. I can't see if UA2 has been replaced, but the other evidence suggests it probably has been.

I'll do a simple test and see if it recognises and can format a 1.44Mb floppy. Will update soon.

[rubber_jonnie]

Ok, confirmed as a 1.44Mb HD Floppy drive.

MSTE_FDD.jpg (44.89 KiB) Viewed 4588 times

Also, UA2 looks like a factory fit PAL, it's not socketed at all and no signs of rework. If you can get pics of your 720kb FDD bezel area, I can compare it mechanically to mine and see if they might swap.

This tells us that:

1. Atari did sell a HD floppy for these machines which was also used in the TT.
2. It's highly likely later machines came out of the factory with a HD floppy already installed.

[stephen_usher]

It was only later TTs which had the HD floppy installed too. Mine came with a 720K drive.

A few years ago I upgraded it with a 1.44MB drive and Ajax chip from Best (when I bought a replacement PSU). I had a hard time convincing Brett to actually sell me the stuff though.

[PaulJ]

@rubber_jonnie , sounds like you lucked out. At least I know there is a drive that will fit in the hole.