STE mods

[HigashiJun]

Monday off today here in Japan...

Had some time to prepare my booster for connections:

Booster1.JPG (464.95 KiB) Viewed 3449 times

Booster2.JPG (365.52 KiB) Viewed 3449 times

I will have to shorten all those protruding pins and then think about how to mod jumper wire connectors to shorten them as well. In their original shape, they would be an issue with the RF shield once the booster installed.

[HigashiJun]

Ok, pins on the booster are shortened and jumper wire connectors are modded to fit under the RF shield.

Here are some pictures:

First, a height comparison with a standard jumper wire connector:

Height.JPG (124.55 KiB) Viewed 3386 times

And what it looks on the HD FDD kit (whithout this mod, the Floppy Drive would not seat correctly as the jumper wires are in the way):

HDFDD.JPG (277.83 KiB) Viewed 3386 times

Just some more steps to get the booster functional...

That is all for today.

[HigashiJun]

After more than 2 weeks of hard work, a well deserved Christmas vacation has just begun.

Here are some new pictures of my today's job:

Wires.JPG (307.01 KiB) Viewed 3279 times

Wires2.JPG (381.13 KiB) Viewed 3279 times

It is better to have a colour code for the main wires as you can easily get confused...

The final step is coming soon. I just have to connect the booster and see if everything works as expected.

But now, the only thing I want to do is to enjoy a fresh beer waiting for me in the fridge.

Hope you have a nice Christmas holiday !

[Steve]

Hi Jun,

I was just wondering about your interest in Atari and how it came about. I am not aware whether Atari was available to people in Japan back in the old days, they had so many of their own custom computers on the market. I'm just interested in your unique perspective.

Thx

[HigashiJun]

Hello Steve,

As a kid, I was once living in Europe when Atari decided to launch their ST series.

My parents previously bought me an Amstrad PCW8256 and they did not want to buy me the Atari 1040STE, on which I was drooling over...

As a consolation, I was buying Atari ST related magazines and hoping to get my own Atari one day.

Atari was somehow present in Japan, and you can sometimes find on Yahoo Auctions (the local Ebay) some US version STEs, mostly sold for a high price.

This is how I got my STE, 30 years later but with my child dream fulfilled...

Cheers.

[HigashiJun]

Had some free time today and spent it working on the booster. Here are the results...

Standoffs are epoxied to the booster board:

Standoffs.JPG (377.69 KiB) Viewed 3192 times

Srandoffs2.JPG (344.73 KiB) Viewed 3192 times

and wires connected:

Connections.JPG (409.9 KiB) Viewed 3192 times

Connections2.JPG (443.97 KiB) Viewed 3192 times

I was ready to test everything while I noticed my RAM modules are parity SIMMs.

No problem, I will desolder the parity chip of each module tomorrow, if time allows.

[HigashiJun]

So, I have de-soldered the parity chip on my SIMMs:

SIMM.JPG (277.77 KiB) Viewed 3161 times

and fitted everything back.

As not expected, the booster does not work

Happily there was no smoke, but something must be wrong.

Checked everything again but no luck. I only get a white screen with vertical bars, which disappear after some seconds (there is nothing on the screen if switched to HI-RES mode).

The Ultrasatan gets power but the floppy does not work if connected.

The worst is that if I get back to the original config, I also get a white screen with no bars...

I swapped to the old CPU but nothing changes. Could it be the memory, not working without the parity chip ?

As I have no spare RAM, I will have to buy some on the net.

I will definitely have to investigate further when I have more time.

If you guys have some clues, they are welcome.

Cheers.

[rubber_jonnie]

How have you fitted the booster? It should have the CPU installed on the top of the booster board. I'd recommend you have a look here: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/V1STE/index.htm
I think you may have got the wrong idea about how it's installed.

[exxos]

@rubber_jonnie he is trying to install it as ingo did on a machine which doest have a CPU socket.,

[rubber_jonnie]

@rubber_jonnie he is trying to install it as ingo did on a machine which doest have a CPU socket.,

Ahh, I see.