Tim's Blog of Upgrades

[TimNaber]

I have been noticing that a few have made blogs about various stuff. I thought I may as well blog about upgrades I am doing. I have any where from 12 -20 upgrades on various STs and 8-bit systems. I am not going to do step by step stuff, just show the final results.

[TimNaber]

Second HD in a Mega File 44

As you may or may not know, it is possible to add a second hard drive to a MF 44. I had made the modification previously on the units I am upgrading today. It had a 320 MB hard drive installed. I never liked that I could not mount the HD to the bracket provided by the MF44 properly. I tried a couple of things like a 90 degree power extension. I also tried to solder the power directly to the HD (that HD no longer works, LOL).

So last week I was rummaging through all the upgrades that I wanted to do and found 2 SCSI to Micro SD adapters. I added the adapter to the MF 44 this morning. When formatted I ended up with only 1 gig available out of 32 gig. I believe that is the limit on the ACSI port, oh well.

I have had these for so long there are newer versions made and they can be purcashed from 4 different places.
Inertial Computing (USA) https://store.inertialcomputing.com/category-s/100.htm
AmigaKit (UK) https://amigakit.amiga.store/product_in ... ts_id=1264
codesrc.com (Australia) http://shop.codesrc.com/
itead (China) https://www.itead.cc/scsi2sd.html

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[TimNaber]

Second Hard Drive for Mega File 44: Set #2.

Even though this one worked when I got it, it was really done badly. It already had a second drive upgrade in it, a 200 MB Conner. I got it very cheap along with a Mega 4 that didn't work, which was really a Mega 2 board upgraded to 4MB and put in a Mega 4 case. I think I paid under $200 for both.

1. first thing was the Atari motherboard was removed and an ICD AdSCSI was installed. No big deal there except it was being held in by 1 screw on the DB19 and no place else, so it moved. I am not sure what they are called, but I took some PC video card screws (the ones used to screw in a cable to the VGA connector) and added three of them to the AdSCSI to secure it down. When I did this it was touching the PS metal screw down tab. I bent that tab up and out of the way. The PS would still be held by one inside screw and two outside screws so no big deal.

2. The power lead to the HD had the Molex plastic removed so the wires were individual but would still plug onto the male posts of the HD. Electrical tape was used to keep them separated. The HD was mounted to the bracket though. I found another Molex and took the plastic off of it and fitted those wires back into that plastic to make like the original again.

3. The SyQuest drive looked a little dodgy so I replaced it with a NOS one I bought recently.

4. Soldered on an lead to attach to the SCSItoSD So I could see HD activity on the MF44 LED.

The rest is the same as Set #1

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[TimNaber]

While I was working on MF44 #2, I learned that I can have 4 drives set up on the SCSI-To-SD each with their own LUN. That gave me 4 drives of 1 gig each. You can see the extra drives in pics. Also, I found that I can change the device name and product which you can also see in the pics.

Now I have to make those changes to MF44 #1.

[TimNaber]

I learned a big lesson today. You can only have one device per SCSI port in a MF44 when the motherboard is Atari's, thankful that it has two ports. The AdSCSI was able to get 5 devices on it's one port.

[TimNaber]

A little bit of rant.

I am not sure if this is lucky or unlucky.

I am trying to buy a non-working ST to rob parts from for some projects I have coming up. I have bought three of them since I started looking. 1 520ST, 1 520STM w/tweety board and 1 1040 STF. After reseating all the chips, they all work. Damn it. I do not want to part out a good working board.

I have a Mega 2 board that does not boot, but I can almost guarantee that it is a ram issue as the upgrade in it looks sketchy. I just bought the 3 Marpet ram upgrades from Exxos, so I will test it on the Mega and see if it boots. If it boots, I won't be able to use it for parts.

Problems of a hobbyist, huh!

[exxos]

I have the same "problem" I have loads of working STFM motherboards, but have to rob some for spares for my own machines and my store. It's a shame to scrap working machines, but just no alternative in obtaining parts anymore.

[TimNaber]

I may have to also. I have a 1040 STF that I had to repair the Stacked memory upgrade that I may use.

[TimNaber]

Am I too new to be so phylisophical????

My first introduction to the ST line was only 3 to 3.5 years ago. I love fiddling with them, especially storage and all the options.

I was playing Stellaris and totally got lost in a thought process about the Mega ST's bus.

I am not a tech wiz by any means, but I know a lot of you roam around here. Ohms, current, aaccckkk. You lost me. But I am not a dumb guy. I can do most anything with instructions, explicit instructions.

Oh, so back to the "philosophical" point!

How many modern solutions can be applied to the Mega Bus of the Mega ST?
(Simple installation. Should have 2 or less outside connections, preferably none at all)

Solutions can/should include:
Speed Enhancements
Flashable TOS
Storage
USB (real USB)
Network
Video improvements
Alt RAM

How many of these can be put on the Mega Bus? Are there other items that can be put on the mega bus not listed above?

[PhilC]

I suspect all of them should be possible as the mega bus has almost all of the cpu pins.

If I remember correctly its missing the 5v and gnd and some of the fio lines.

I was working on a pcb to adapt this but have no time at the mo.