Help needed urgently!

Problems with your machine in general.
BrettRogersUK
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by BrettRogersUK »

Hi All,

I think what I'll do is wait to hear from @Steve . Preferably after the Xmas period and get it done properly.

Thanks all for your help and suggestions.

Regards,

Brett
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

FYI @BrettRogersUK I'm doing a troubleshooting blog for my own STE, you can find it here: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =18&t=4875

Fingers crossed it won't take long to fix.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
BrettRogersUK
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by BrettRogersUK »

rubber_jonnie wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:27 pm FYI @BrettRogersUK I'm doing a troubleshooting blog for my own STE, you can find it here: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =18&t=4875

Fingers crossed it won't take long to fix.
Hi,

Thanks for that, I'll keep an eye on that topic. Sounds very familiar with what mine is doing.

However, I can't really test mine as I don't have a proper bench supply. I have one of those cheap ones that I got off ebay where you can set the voltage and amps and turn it on.

I darent try this on mine. I don't know what to set the amps to. If I set it too low it won't come on and if I set it to high I can end up ruining my board altogether. The fuse blew in the atari PS last night so that's out of action now. I will wait until the recap of the PS is done and find an exact match fuse and have another look. I need to look at the halt status on the CPU (pin 19 of the PLCC I believe).

I'll keep an eye on your progress and see what happens. Unless some kind of miracle happens I'll be having a word with @Steve in the new year.

Absolutely gutted though because this was my very first atari machine that my dad brought brand new with the educational pack. Working perfectly, added gotek and 4MB RAM upgrade, until I took the tos roms out and the unfortunate happened. Now it won't work at all.

Thanks for all the help I'm very grateful and thanks to Exxos for the wonderful work he's doing keep these machines running with his updates that he does.

Kind Regards,

Brett
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exxos
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by exxos »

Normally the PSU fuse only blows if something mains side has blown, like the main driver transistor on the heatsink or rectifier ..
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

BrettRogersUK wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:46 pm
rubber_jonnie wrote: Thu Nov 25, 2021 5:27 pm FYI @BrettRogersUK I'm doing a troubleshooting blog for my own STE, you can find it here: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =18&t=4875

Fingers crossed it won't take long to fix.
Hi,

Thanks for that, I'll keep an eye on that topic. Sounds very familiar with what mine is doing.

However, I can't really test mine as I don't have a proper bench supply. I have one of those cheap ones that I got off ebay where you can set the voltage and amps and turn it on.

I darent try this on mine. I don't know what to set the amps to. If I set it too low it won't come on and if I set it to high I can end up ruining my board altogether. The fuse blew in the atari PS last night so that's out of action now. I will wait until the recap of the PS is done and find an exact match fuse and have another look. I need to look at the halt status on the CPU (pin 19 of the PLCC I believe).

I'll keep an eye on your progress and see what happens. Unless some kind of miracle happens I'll be having a word with @Steve in the new year.

Absolutely gutted though because this was my very first atari machine that my dad brought brand new with the educational pack. Working perfectly, added gotek and 4MB RAM upgrade, until I took the tos roms out and the unfortunate happened. Now it won't work at all.

Thanks for all the help I'm very grateful and thanks to Exxos for the wonderful work he's doing keep these machines running with his updates that he does.

Kind Regards,

Brett
Unless you have a decent bench PSU that allows for fine tuning of your volts & amps, be very careful what you do. They can be found relatively cheaply on Amazon and you will be able to set maximums for voltage and amperage, plus you get over voltage & over amperage protection. I have two, one for 5v and one for 12v, but of course you only need 5v to boot an ST. If you have a Gotek, then you don't even need 12v for the FDD.

I'm sure your machine will live again, but as you've realised, it is very easy to cause damage. I personally have a desolder gun and still sometimes resort to helping with a bit of hot air for the final removal, just in case any of the joints are grabbing, which isn't unusual.

You do need a lot of patience with these boards, don't forget they are 30 odd years old and mechanical failure of things like vias is quite easy to make happen.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
BrettRogersUK
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Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:48 am

Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by BrettRogersUK »

Hi,

Yeah I know. I never thought of using my hot air reflow gun.

The mistake has been made and now its time to put it right. So I'm gonna put it right no matter how long it takes, I'll find out the cause one way or another.

I am getting a desoldering gun I think for jobs like this where you have to extract DIP packages from motherboards etc. Especially for these old boards.

Is there a clearer version of the schematic available at all, the available ones are bit difficult to read the numbers on.

Thanks,

Brett
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

BrettRogersUK wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 12:04 pm Hi,

Yeah I know. I never thought of using my hot air reflow gun.

The mistake has been made and now its time to put it right. So I'm gonna put it right no matter how long it takes, I'll find out the cause one way or another.

I am getting a desoldering gun I think for jobs like this where you have to extract DIP packages from motherboards etc. Especially for these old boards.

Is there a clearer version of the schematic available at all, the available ones are bit difficult to read the numbers on.

Thanks,

Brett
I'll see if I have a better schematic, I know the one you're talking about and it is terrible. Try having a look in the service manuals here: https://docs.dev-docs.org/ as they may be a little clearer.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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sporniket
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by sporniket »

Hi, you may also have a look at my conversion of the STE schematic
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =31&t=4584

The kicad project is standalone (all custom libraries & footprint included), and there is an approximative PCB reconstruction (a given trace is going through the same way point, e.g. "between those component legs" kind of approximation.)

I hope that it would help.
BrettRogersUK
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Joined: Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:48 am

Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by BrettRogersUK »

sporniket wrote: Fri Nov 26, 2021 4:04 pm Hi, you may also have a look at my conversion of the STE schematic
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =31&t=4584

The kicad project is standalone (all custom libraries & footprint included), and there is an approximative PCB reconstruction (a given trace is going through the same way point, e.g. "between those component legs" kind of approximation.)

I hope that it would help.
Hi,

That's absolutely fantastic. Thanks very much for sharing it with me.

I shall have a good look at it.

Kind Regards,

Brett
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Help needed urgently!

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Het @BrettRogersUK , sorry to say, mine is fixed, there was a broken pin I'd not seen on account of it being very small and my eyes being a bit old and crap!! Details over on the thread.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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