How would you rework/improve this STE?

General discussions or ideas about hardware.
User avatar
exxos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 23493
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:19 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by exxos »

:bravo: thanks for the update!
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.
User avatar
rubber_jonnie
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 10467
Joined: Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: Essex
Contact:

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by rubber_jonnie »

stween wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 12:41 pm Step 1: pop out the shifter and reseat it. Result: voila! The audio glitch that my STe has had since day 1 appears to have been fixed. At least, no amount of wobbling, nudging, or pushing the board disrupts the audio. Success, I think!
Awesome, glad we could help :)
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...
User avatar
stween
Posts: 237
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:10 pm
Location: Brooklyn & Edinburgh

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by stween »

One other minor update: I took the HD and hooked it up to a linux box via a 44-pin IDE to SATA adapter board I got off ebay for £4. Linux, fdisk, etc, refused to understand the partition table, but certainly saw the drive. So I used dd to image it to file.

At the same time, I had also bought an SD card to 44-pin IDE adapter, for about £7. Rather than sit and learn how to bake a fresh partition table for the ST from scratch, I opted for dd again, this time writing the image onto the SD card.

I popped that SD card into my ST and it booted first time. It seems to work a treat, and now I have fewer moving parts in my machine. Bonus news: Hatari happily reads the image correctly, and sees all the partitions!

These two things alone give me an STe in much better condition that it's ever been. These tweaks are super simple, but the outcome is great. Future fixes might be more invasive :)

On storage though, some follow-up questions. What's the preferred way to initialise a new disk with a new partition table these days? The SD card is 32GB and I'm using just the 170MB that I just imaged from the ancient HD. What drivers are people using these days?
User avatar
exxos
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 23493
Joined: Wed Aug 16, 2017 11:19 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by exxos »

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.
User avatar
stween
Posts: 237
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:10 pm
Location: Brooklyn & Edinburgh

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by stween »

exxos wrote: Sun Feb 03, 2019 12:04 am See here. https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=25&t=31
Awesome, thanks!
User avatar
stween
Posts: 237
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:10 pm
Location: Brooklyn & Edinburgh

Re: How would you rework/improve this STE?

Post by stween »

stween wrote: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:08 pmPSU: I did buy one of exxos's red boards, and this is the unit I want it to go into. But I think that work will wait until after I've relocated to the US in the next few months.
Well I wound up having a super busy 2019 with a lot of moving around, but I finally pulled this back out and soldered all the wires in place!

DP2qp7S.jpg
DP2qp7S.jpg (136.84 KiB) Viewed 725 times

Only issues I had: the screw hole next to the base of the fuse holder doesn't leave enough space for the original screw (so I have a smaller one in its place; no biggie), and I think the solder I wanted to use was pretty terrible.

Tested the outputs earlier and it was giving me a nice clean 5V/5.1V and 12/12.2V or so. Ready to be tested in real machines at last!
Post Reply

Return to “HARDWARE DISCUSSIONS”