exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Ola hombres,

Ive been around the forum for a while, but have generally shun these kinds of introduce yourself areas of the forum. But what do you know.... my posts still require approving, so perhaps posting here makes a change in this; talking about extrinsic motivation :).

Im Wietze, Im from the lowlands and I've started getting back to microcomputers, and Atari with main focus in around 2013. Ive mainly been doing stuff in the context of the demoscene as spkr/smfx, but well; since Im collecting the microcomputers; they either need modifications to use on modern displays, or they need modification to enhance use beyond the `cumbersome 80's- way of use', or if you tend to pile up stuff like me; they end up needing repairs.

So apart from doing coding as a main focus, I have started to more get into the hardware side of things, I think the past 2 years or something. And moving from doing a memory upgrade on an 8 bit machine, to now seeing if I can repair not-properly working Atari ST's and even scrounging parts to build a H4 board.

I guess thats about it for an introduction. If you got questions, feel free to ask of course.
Kind regards,
Wietze

:welcomewave:

:welcomewave:

Good luck with the H4, we expect pictures when it's working :)

Or pictures not working and on fire is also acceptable :fire: :fire: :fire:

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 May 2020 19:02 Good luck with the H4, we expect pictures when it's working :)

Of course, Im very slow with these things, and currently awaiting the SMD components to start off with!

wietze wrote: 22 May 2020 19:24

rubber_jonnie wrote: 22 May 2020 19:02 Good luck with the H4, we expect pictures when it's working :)

Of course, Im very slow with these things, and currently awaiting the SMD components to start off with!

That's a great place to start, and something I will apply on my 2nd build. On the first I built as I had stuff available, but it was a lesson I had to learn.

:swave:

Welcome on board!

Good luck with your H4 build...I'm still trying to gather up the last parts ready to finish it off... :roll:

Hi there guys,

I recently obtained a diagnostics cartridge to troubleshoot some of the broken hardware I have. Since a few months I have been practicing my soldering skills; and I intended to apply them with the intent to repair some broken Atari's (I have 2 dead STF's and 1 dead Mega); as well as building up that H4 I mentioned in my initial post (which now turns out to be a H5 board :)).

After some effort, I am now able to read from RS232 while booting with the diagnostic cartridge; and Im at the point where I want to make sense of the information the diagnostics cartridge provides. Considering Im fairly novice in this area, I did some searches both on this forum and on the internet, to see if there is some kind of introduction to using the diagnostics cartridge.

I have found the manual for the diagnostics software; but Ive not yet become wiser as to how to apply the information into further diagnosis.
I have found the related motherboard schematics, and Im wondering what my next steps should be. And Im hoping that some of the knowledgable members here have the patience to get me going.

I will open up a topic for one of the STF machines in the hardware forum to start with, to see how that goes!

Kind regards,
Wietze

We have a section for using the cart etc https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=91