zincmann

February 14, 2022

Atari 800XL Motherboard is sold!

February 13, 2022

810 Drive has been sold! 2/13/22

February 13, 2022

Spoiler

February 12, 2022

First let me say yes this is my first posting HERE in this group to offer up items for sale, however I have been selling on Facebook Marketplace and Mercari for Years so happy to share my 5 star reviews so you can buy in confidence. I have the following for sale and will provide pics. ALL Have been tested and are cleaned inside and out and have been serviced, any issues are described below:

Atari 800 Computer - I have a cleaned and tested (Inside and out) Atari 800 Computer , this is one that was made in Sunnyvale California, Not Taiwan. It is complete in box and works (Loads games from disk and plays cartridges) however the keyboard which is the highly desirable Mitsumi does not work. I have taken this whole computer apart to clean inside and out, including keyboard. The issue is a simple one to fix but will require disassembly. I just do not have the time to fix what needs to be fixed, but I do know that is the issue. It also has 48K ram installed. Comes with Basic Cartridge and power adapter. $300 + Shipping
Atari 1010 Disk Drive - I have a Atari 1050 Disk Drive - Cleaned Tested Works! It comes with original power supply and some mysterious switch on the side. I will throw in some disks with games on them as well for your gaming pleasure. $125 + Shipping
Indus GT for Atari Computers - I have a Indus GT for Atari Disk Drive, Cleaned and Tested Works! It has been tested to boot a Single Sided Single Density Disk on an Atari 800 Computer. Does come with Power Brick. The Clear pop out door has an issue on the right hand side as you can see from the pic but still will open. $200 + Shipping
SOLD!! 2/13/22. ** Atari 810 Disk Drive with issues - Atari 810 Disk Drive - Cleaned Tested (Has issues), I opened this one up to clean the head and lubricate the rails. It also has two mysterious mechanisms inside which look to be a speed switch and something else. Does not boot disks properly and will need repair which is why it is being sold at this price. Also includes power supply. $30 + Shipping
Competition Pro Joystick - Competition Pro Joystick for Atari 5200. Cleaned and tested. Very uncommon! $75 + Shipping
SOLD!! 2/14/22 Atari 800XL Motherboard - Bad Ram otherwise I believe it works fine, shows black screen. Ram gets hot when plugged in.

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February 8, 2022

So for those whom are not super great at soldering or finding another solution I had the same issue as I replaced my complete motherboard with a new one from Best Electronics. When pulling it out the clear plastic header was coming away from the pins. So I took a trimmed piece of double sided clear tape and applied it to the header, I then flattened out the pins with a needle nosed vice grip so they were flat and adhering to the adhesive and with some careful re-insertion whalla the keyboard works as it should. Will it be a lasting repair? Not sure but it fit into the pin header and got everything to remain flat.

January 31, 2022

18 hours ago, xrbrevin said:

tape deck wont play unless it gets a signal from the computer - power the computer on with start held down, then press any key to start tape the player

Ok but it should still work with FF or Rewind which those are not working either but I will hook it to a computer this evening when I am down in the workshop.

January 31, 2022

16 hours ago, bf2k+ said:

See if you have a copy of FoReM XL.

Will do. I have been going through the disks in my spare time.

January 30, 2022

SO an update after a weekend marathon of some additional cleaning and testing:

Atari 800 has a Mitsumi Keyboard so I would need to repaint the contacts on the mylar - Going to sell "As-Is" as it does boot games but you cannot use the keyboard but still complete in box.

Atari 810 Drives, down to 1 that is having a boot error, I did end up greasing (with White lithium) and one works where as it did not before.

Everything else works as it should. I am keeping one Atari 800, One 1050 and one 810 Drive and a 1010 Tape which I must have done an oopsie on, as it was sort of working when I first took it apart to replace the play button but when plugging it back in seemingly I get the red power light but nothing is moving on the mechanism when I press a button.

Ill continue to sort through the disks looking for anything that could be of value to the community

January 29, 2022

OK so with some additional testing with a single sided disk I have both 1050 drives working, the in box 810 working the Indus gt working but the two loose 810s are still throwing a boot error like maybe every 10 secs

January 28, 2022

35 minutes ago, cwilbar said:

Regarding floppy drives.... when testing these, you want to ensure you have a clean head, clean and lubricated guide rails (for the head assembly), and make sure that all the rotating bits rotate well. I find from years of sitting they get 'stiff'. Things don't want to rotate well, etc. A bit of cleaning and lubricating will usually bring back a drive that was properly maintained.

I use 99% alcohol for cleaning, and I use a white lithium grease for the rails (needs very little). For the spindle bearings, disk clamp? bearing, etc I'll dissasemble partially or fully and add oil between the hub and shield of the bearings (a drop or two of a quality machine oil (i.e. sewing machine oil)). Then I'll work the oil in, it will soften any old grease in the bearing and get everything moving again (most of the time).

Any mechanical drag due to old grease/etc will cause issues as it will affect the speed and consistency of speed of the disk's rotation.

Also, check your diskettes.... look for signs of mold (sometimes looks like little 'organic' line/patterns on the magnetic media. This will pollute the head and resulting in read/write issues, necessitating a head cleaning (best done carefully by hand with alcohol than a cleaning diskette).

You can clean the disks to recover them, but while diagnosing the hardware, if you find any of these, put them aside for now. You can move mold from one disk, the head/pad, and then onto another disk, etc.

regarding the 800 keyboards. the mechanical switch ones sometimes have a situation where some keys won't work.... sometimes just repeatedly pressing and releaseing the key rapidly for 20-30 times can bring them back to life. Other times they'll need more help. On the ones that use a circuit layout on mylar, sometimes you need to diassemble and clean the contact points, and where that terminates as well. Other times, they need more help and are easier to replace than fix.

I'm on the lookout for an 800 case/shell, so if you end up with a dead one you don't recover, keep me in mine, and PM me (I had one arrived smashed from poor packing and the resulting respect that modern package delivery companies give their packages ? (honestly the issue was much more on the shipper than the carrier ? ))

Good luck with your hoard !

Thanks will do, my goal is to fix the second one since it is complete in box and sell it as such. Appreciate all the feedback!!

January 28, 2022

Also This Atari 810 Drive has several holes drilled in the side with the markings in the picture. I am guessing something to do with speed adjustment as I read that these drives did not have a speed control built in? Also this dial controller looks foreign as well?

January 28, 2022

28 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

Order:

Turn on floppy drive device (make sure it is set to drive #1 - the little slider switches in the back next to SIO ports, Atari drives can be numbered 1-4 in stock form)

Insert floppy, close door. [never power on 810s with a floppy in the drive.. EVER]

Poweron Computer (if its XL/XE, typically you hold down Option to disable the built in BASIC ROM)

System should boot...if it's a bootable disk.

You should hard the Atari FART noise and then beeps. If you get a boot error, pay attention if it's a fast scrolling one or slow one. Pay attention to the drive head as well.

Thanks for the tips I have a lot of reading here to do but will be putting things through their paces again this weekend armed with this new knowledge. I will report back of course.

January 28, 2022

So here is the switch mod in the 1050 Disk Drive. Looks like the brown connector was not connected not sure if it should be and that green circuit board does not belong on that black capacitor I am guessing. Any idea what I have here?

January 28, 2022

1 minute ago, bf2k+ said:

I would say that most of the common commercial games are NOT basic games on the Atari, but there are literally hundreds of games from magazines and such and even some commercial games that are written in BASIC. Many disk games on the Atari require you to hold down the option key on your 800XL or 130XE in order to boot them.

OK thanks I am learning and appreciate all the information.

January 28, 2022

4 minutes ago, bf2k+ said:

You only need it if you are trying to run BASIC games...

So thats interesting. Since the Commodore 64 had basic built in all games are essentially basic games (Assume aside from cartridges)? So then most games on Atari SHOULD or should not be basic games? Like the common ones, i.e Dig Dug, Buck Rogers, The Eidelon etc. Sorry just questioning that now too.

January 28, 2022

1 minute ago, bf2k+ said:

800's don't have built-in basic so no reason to hold option key (unless you have a basic cart plugged in that you want to bypass.)

I am guessing that you mean Disk Drive when you say DD. At first I thought you meant Double Density (which the stock un-modified Atari drives do not do...)

Yes sorry I meant Disk Drive (should have been clearer). And I am guessing I do not need to have basic cart in 800 then to run games from disk. So just turning on the Atari 800 with a disk drive on and operational as well as the correct density disk for the drive type should "theoretically" boot properly? Since its Friday I will have more time this evening and this weekend to tinker and report back.

January 28, 2022

I do assume that the boot process is the same no matter what 8 bit computer / drive combination I am using i.e. Sorry for these questions I grew up with Commodore and never had Atari computers so trying to learn the ropes.

Atari 800 + 810 DD + POwer and Option Key = Autoboot?

Atari 800 + 1050 DD + Power and Option Key = Autoboot?

Atari 130xe + 810 DD + Power and Option Key = Auto Boot?

Atari XEGS + 1050 DD + Power and Option Key = Auto Boot?

Atari 800XL + 810 DD + Power and Option Key = Auto Boot?

And so on and so forth

January 28, 2022

50 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

It’s important to start with a baseline of one working computer and drive. Since the home made disks could be double density and not every drive you have is that, I would start with the Indus drive (or look at the 1050 and see what mod it has). You did state you got partial boots on some setup, so a little more detail about that setup and what you did could help pinpoint issues.

Will do, once I get the 130 XE restored i will run a test with that or the 800XL. I also have an XEGS which I know works and can use with the drives. Either way I will document when I get to that next. Thanks for the help ?

January 28, 2022

14 minutes ago, bf2k+ said:

I like these... from Jameco. They are tiny and can deliver plenty of current (up to 3a). I recently bought 5 of them to replace Ingots. I cut the cables off of the Ingots and put them on these. They are also adjustable output. Set them to 5.1v and go!

Got it thanks for the suggestion. I might just buy a pre-built one of good quality, yes I could do it myself but with all the projects I have sometimes the easier route is a quality one. Any suggestions there?

January 28, 2022

35 minutes ago, Mrshoujo said:

The 2 rectangular supplies on the left are the repairable ones. Open these up and check the capacitors then get numbers off the voltage regulators. They'll be bolted to heat sinks. They should be 7805 or close variant. Pick up some Arctic Silver thermal paste if you plan to swap them out.

Basically give them a check on components and voltages. Any other supply which puts out an AC voltage is just a step down transformer and should be safe.

The drives, aside from cleaning and lube, might need new belts and speed adjustment. 300 rpm or close enough! Just need to locate the adjustment pot on the board in case you need to do that.

Thank you will do so. I am not going to toss this one out iuntil I look at it. One project at a time of course as you can see I have a lot right now with all the drives, power supplies etc. I am working on finishing restoring the 130XE but will be tossing the psu because it is an ingot.

January 28, 2022

2 hours ago, bf2k+ said:

The Ingot would not have come with the 800. The 800 takes an AC power supply. The Ingot would work on an 800XL or 130 XE... but not for long. The Ingot is a 5v DC supply.

Actually i Believe I have the INgot for my 130XE. I will discontinue using it. I will have to buy a new power supply before I use it again.

January 28, 2022

2 hours ago, xrbrevin said:

as standard:

810 drive will only read 90k disks (low density)

1050 drive will read 90k and 130k (low & enhanced density)

IndusGT drive will read 90k, 130k and 180k disks (low, enhanced and double density)

but stock drives can be modded to read the other densities. you'd have to get the screwdriver out to find out.

its possible your disks are recorded in double density and thus the Atari drives wouldnt read them unless they are modded. try using the IndusGT as it handles double density natively. it uses a 12v DC power supply - the Atari drives use a 9V AC power supply so make sure you dont mix them up!

I do have all the original power supplies for the drives so yes that's the one thing i DID check was having the correct PSU with several Commodore computers I am more than acquainted with faulty power supplies doing harm.

January 28, 2022

So this is the power supply I have for my 800XL "circled" in blue Ok so its not circled LOL but its the brown rectangular one in the left hand bottom corner with the other power supply on top of it. That is the one that seems to not be working properly or fried the 800XL which I will need to get around to eventually. OTherwise the "ingot" one I suppose came with the original 800? I think I have one with the 800 and if thats the case I will indeed toss.

January 28, 2022

McLaneinc so the 99% of the disks are copies very few if any are original. But I am happy to catalogue them when I get around to it.

January 28, 2022

Thanks for all the feedback, I will respond to every individual response in the next couple of days as I get around to them. for now here are the pics of what I picked up BEFORE I started cleaning it all. I plan to keep 1 810 (Boxed), 1 800 Boxed and, the 1050 Boxed and the 1010 (No Box). I have really no space for any of this but hate to sell all of it. I will use it eventually. ?

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