Page 1 of 2

List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 1:22 pm
by Shugs81
Hiya chaps..

I currently have a 1040 STE that I'm looking to spruce up a bit to make it the best it can be!!

It seems to run ok but I wanna make sure its gonna last... and be better than it was intended.. plus I'll be looking to make music with it too!!

I've been looking through the exxos shop and there's a few bits i'd be looking to get :D

The Tos switcher... does anyone know if that comes with a tos chip? or would i need to program one myself? currently on 1.04 but definately interested in the later revisions..

I would also like the 1.44mb floppy thing... would that mean i could use any 1.44mb drive with the ste? and also how long a cable would i need? and would i need 2 for two floppy drives?

I'd love an UltraSatan too... what are the largest cards they support? and how could i use one with a second floppy drive?

is there capacitor kits to replace the originals as i know they can dry out/leak... and also how would i clean my board?

I would also like to shift it all out of its broken home into a 19" rack case... sort of... I've found a case that is stackable rather than being rail mounted... which gives the extra space the ste would need... as I'm looking to move ports and things firstly has anyone done something like this? how easy would they be to relocate?

Also I currently have 4mb ram installed... how do i fit a switch that makes it only 1mb for games?

any tips or other mod suggestions would be welcome!

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 6:09 pm
by exxos
Shugs81 wrote: Sat Jul 14, 2018 1:22 pm The Tos switcher... does anyone know if that comes with a tos chip? or would i need to program one myself? currently on 1.04 but definately interested in the later revisions..
The blue boards come with ROM the blacks ones don't, they are also assembled, the blue ones are not.
Shugs81 wrote: Sat Jul 14, 2018 1:22 pm I would also like the 1.44mb floppy thing... would that mean i could use any 1.44mb drive with the ste? a
You need a drive that can be modded, like the ones I list in my store.

Shugs81 wrote: Sat Jul 14, 2018 1:22 pm is there capacitor kits to replace the originals as i know they can dry out/leak...
PSU re-caps kits are also listed in my store for common PSUs.

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:29 pm
by Shugs81
Nice... Will definitely be getting one of them then!!!

I may have to start saving for my list!! 😁

I'm looking to refurbish everything I can to almost bring it back to new... But then add some more..

Cheers peeps!!

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:29 pm
by Shugs81
Forgot to add the pic of Gem Bench... Does the red bar mean something bad??
vlcsnap-2018-07-14-11h43m57s209.png
vlcsnap-2018-07-14-11h43m57s209.png (369.03 KiB) Viewed 4591 times

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:39 am
by rubber_jonnie
I can recommend the Dual TOS switcher upgrades, as I have two of them :) However, you will need to be adept at soldering to assemble the kit, so bear that in mind.

As for the 1.44Mb kit, there is a good amount of soldering work here too, and also the removal of the floppy controller chip from the mainboard.

It will give you the ability to use a 1.44Mb floppy disk drive and disks, however having had one of these and then later removed it, I'd say it is of very limited use these days, and you'd be much better off investing in a Gotek, which is a simple replacement for the floppy drive.

There is a bit of work to be done, in that you may need to do a small amount of soldering, as a lot of Goteks need a header adding to allow you to flash them, but certainly not as much work as the 1.44Mb floppy kit.

There's more Gotek info here: https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=12&t=593.

Other than that, look at the PSU, and either re-cap (More soldering required) or replace.

The 32Mhz booster is also good, but it's very difficult to do as you need to remove the socket for the CPU, and you could easily kill your STE unless you are very handy with a soldering iron.

Be patient though, as exxos is working on a new booster which will be plug in.

Good luck with your upgrades.

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:54 am
by Shugs81
well... Nards....

It definately has Tos 1.04... as the copyright is only showing up to 89... http://www.atari.org/hosted/quickfaq/stfaq_1.htm#34 according to that anyway..

it has a blitter chip installed though... which i thought was an ste thing... and it seems to have a DMA chip...

How would i check if it's definately an ste???

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:08 pm
by Shugs81
hmm...

according to this it is definately an ste... https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=51&t=506... phew... just has tos 1.04 on it for some reason...

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:10 pm
by exxos
According to GB6 you have TOS 1.06 in there which is early STE TOS.

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 12:53 pm
by Shugs81
OK.. It appears that I can't read! 😁

I must've read the 1.40 in the AES bit... Plus that other thing saying it was 1.04... Think I'm reading too much into stuff... And as I think I still need my posts moderating I'm getting a bit flappy...

I was a bit confused by it appearing to be 1.04 as I thought I'd read somewhere it didn't work on ste's...

Maybe I should just focus on one thing at a time... 😁

Might even try to sort my gotek out...

Re: List of planned upgrades.. Plus recasing....

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 1:10 pm
by exxos
I've removed you from moderated users :)

Actually someone did try TOS104 on a STE last year and said it worked.. pointless as the STE Extra hardware would not work, but proved a point I guess.