Lightning ST USB-IDE Interface for Atari ST Computers

[czietz]

When we made the Lightning ST – the only combined USB and IDE adapter for the Atari ST/MegaST – people asked us about upgrading their STs to TOS 2.06 or EmuTOS for built-in IDE support. We listened to you!

We’re happy to present you the CLOUDY: an extremely compact TOS adapter to be used together with the Lightning ST. It allows you to switch between two TOS ROMs: one ROM comes with EmuTOS preinstalled, the other one can be flashed via software by you, for example with TOS 2.06. See below for an important note about supported TOS versions.

Care has been taken to make the installation as easy as possible: The Cloudy can be soldered directly on top of the CPU. It has the same dimensions like the DIL socket that is otherwise required to install the Lightning ST. In that way, Cloudy and Lightning ST will fit even into the little space available on some STfs. If you prefer, the Cloudy will also work on top of the Lightning ST, though.

Only two jumper wires need to be connected to the Lightning ST for the Cloudy to work – plus two extra wires to a switch in case you want to switch between the two possible TOS/EmuTOS versions.

To summarize:
• Works in every ST (together with the Lightning ST)
• Extremely compact
• Comes with EmuTOS preinstalled
• A second operating system can be flashed
• Flash software is provided

Supported TOS versions:
• TOS 2.06, EmuTOS 256k ROMs: always!
• TOS 1.00 – 1.04, KAOS 192k ROMs: only if your STs mainboard supports 1 Mbit ROMs. This is the case if your mainboard is currently fitted with only two TOS ROMs. Also, many mainboards with six ROMs can also be re-configured for 1 Mbit ROMs. Inquire with us if you plan to use TOS 1.0x in the Cloudy and are unsure about the capabilities of your board.

Inquiries as usual via email: thunderstorm@tuxie.de. (Do not post you orders in this thread, instead, as the email address is our official channel for orders.) Ask for our special bundle prices when you order a Lightning ST and a Cloudy. Owners of a Lightning ST: Please ask for our upgrade pricing.

cloudy-1-small.jpg (62.91 KiB) Viewed 2376 times

[BlankVector]

Excellent stuff
A flashable TOS board is exactly what users need. And with dual-TOS support, it is just perfect.

[troed]

Sony OPM-U30 (that's what it identifies as) USB mouse instantly 4 bombs when using the scroll wheel Working excellently otherwise.

Latest drivers (R268)

This on my H4 board, although I don't expect that to play a role. TOS 1.04.

regards,
Troed

[czietz]

The USB mouse driver comes directly from FreeMiNT, without any modifications. Therefore, it might be needed to open a ticket in their Github repo.
I suggest the following first, though: I'm going to send you via PM a yet unreleased version of the Lightning ST driver that can be used with the current official FreeMiNT USB4TOS drivers. (FreeMiNT has recently changed their USB API to v4, whereas the latest released Lightning drivers still were for USB API v3.)

If it still crashes when using the latest FreeMiNT USB4TOS drivers (https://bintray.com/freemint/freemint/s ... s-usb4tos/), please report to the FreeMiNT team via Github: https://github.com/freemint/freemint. Afaik, the mouse driver uses some "dirty" tricks to be able to simulate scrolling on TOS 1.x.

Or you could test with your Unicorn...

[troed]

please report to the FreeMiNT team via Github

Thanks - I wasn't sure if the drivers were unmodified since you had them for download as well. The beta version works fine with the latest USB4TOS drivers, but the scroll wheel still throws four bombs so I will report it to FreeMiNT.

/Troed

[czietz]

Thanks - I wasn't sure if the drivers were unmodified since you had them for download as well.

In more detail: STORAGE is modified w.r.t. to FreeMiNT (to support floppy drive and super-floppy type USB sticks, among other things). KEYBOARD is modified (to support TOS 1.x with the help of KEYB_INJ.PRG). MOUSE, PRINTER and TABLET are currently not modified.