Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

Ok, at the risk of spamming the forum, my part-assembled H4 is now with me (plus a few bits to complete that and start on the bare board build too).

Photos will appear on my H4 build thread in due course.

Just realised that I still have to locate a suitable SIMM and/or Falcon RAM board before I can finish either of them :roll:
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exxos
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by exxos »

JezC wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:23 pm Ok, at the risk of spamming the forum, my part-assembled H4 is now with me (plus a few bits to complete that and start on the bare board build too).
I spam the forum all the time, I think people mostly just skip over it all.
JezC wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:23 pm Photos will appear on my H4 build thread in due course.
Yes, get on with it :chairsmack: :chairsmack:
JezC wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:23 pm Just realised that I still have to locate a suitable SIMM and/or Falcon RAM board before I can finish either of them :roll:
simms in exxos store ;) Though I only have 16MB ones, its what I used in my H4's. I think I do have some 4MB ones *somewhere* though.. if I find the badgers will send you one.
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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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

exxos wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:04 pm I spam the forum all the time, I think people mostly just skip over it all.
Nope, I look at them all at some point...even when much of it goes over my head! There's a chance (albeit a slim one) that I might actually remember that I've seen something useful in there at some point in the future when I hit a similar issue!
exxos wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:04 pm
JezC wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:23 pm Photos will appear on my H4 build thread in due course.
Yes, get on with it :chairsmack: :chairsmack:

:lolbig: Will do, but won't get a chance to take any proper photos until after work. :roll:
exxos wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:04 pm
JezC wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 1:23 pm Just realised that I still have to locate a suitable SIMM and/or Falcon RAM board before I can finish either of them :roll:
simms in exxos store ;) Though I only have 16MB ones, its what I used in my H4's. I think I do have some 4MB ones *somewhere* though.. if I find the badgers will send you one.
Yes, saw those and was sorely tempted to order one as well...but this month & next month has something like a dozen birthdays in the immediate & close family group so funds are even more scarce for such "luxuries" (as all my hobbies are referred to by the rest of the family) than usual. Sniff

If you do, I'd be most grateful but I know how short of time you are too!
:D
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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

Too much life getting in the way of hobbies at the moment...but I did make some progress going through some of my suspect STF/STFM pile in an attempt to select a suitable donor.

Annoyingly (from the search for a donor perspective), two that I hadn't got to boot to the desktop before are now booting OK
:shock: :o :roll:

So, other than knowing that one of them (a 103175 Rev 1) has 2x ROM TOS1.04 (and a WDC1772 in a socket) & the other (a 70789-001 Rev D) has a duff PSU, needs the reset circuit mod and has dodgy wiring for the Marpet memory upgrade (sadly only 512k), I'm actually no nearer to locating the donor system. :cry:

I think there are one or two more in the stash which appeared to have a memory fault, so I will have to dig them out next & continue the testing...probably tomorrow now though.

Of course, I'd normally be delighted to have diagnosed the faults on a couple of systems :dualthumbup: :yay2: but that certainly wasn't my main goal for tonight.

Ho hum...
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exxos
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by exxos »

:lol: I choose your marpet machine as a doner ;)

BTW something in the post today for you :)
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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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

It's on the short-list... :twisted: ...but there are a couple of others (also C070789 boards of different revisions) which appear to have true & persistent RAM faults, so I'm inclined to use one (or both) of them at the moment.

I'll just need to swap the various bits out of that & into a known working board to check they've survived the extraction process :o :shock: :roll:

:thanksblue:
Cool - I will keen an eye open for anything arriving over the next few days & let you know when I receive anything.
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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

exxos wrote: Mon Mar 09, 2020 11:18 pm BTW something in the post today for you :)
:thanksyellow:

Post arrived - many thanks for that. One less item to worry about (still leaves infinity -1 to sort...but that's just one of my many problems)
:roll: :lol: :lolbig:
Tomswork
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by Tomswork »

Just a random day of news I can still order lead paste and rosins here in Canada as long as they come from the us go figure

Tom
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JezC
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by JezC »

Limited time over the last day or two (partly due to consecutive days of family birthdays)...but I have found a likely donor system!

It's not booting in hi res mode (will try it in colour this evening if I can) - so unless it 'just works' when I try to boot it with a colour display it will
become victim #1 :twisted:

I still have a couple more machines to try out...but this is at least giving me some hope of finishing off the first H4. :D

The weekend might well give me the opportunity to try out the new desolder gun (even more so as the eldest is back home from London, so I might manage to 'disappear' at some point while she talks my wife's ear off)...

:lol:
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Re: Life, the universe & everything...Atari (well, mostly)

Post by rubber_jonnie »

exxos wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:04 pm
I spam the forum all the time, I think people mostly just skip over it all.
@exxos If it's your own forum, are you really spamming it?
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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