mmoec
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Posts posted by mmoec
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Hello ✋
I recently re-flashed my PokeyMax to the Stereo+U1MB version in order to control the stereo/mono switch from the U1MB BIOS, but this version doesn’t include COVOX, so I installed this P COVOX v2 device I had lying around, but admittedly I can’t detect any noticeable change in the sound quality. My question would be, is there a way to check if this device is actually activated? When I run the Pokeycfg it tells my I have no COVOX, but I think this program is checking the PokeyMax itself and not the machine (I could be wrong about this). As always, any input is appreciated.
Thanks, and happy Friday!
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Issue Resolved!
I have been in contact with the person who sold me the PokeyMax and I found out exactly what version I have (Quad version with Auto control) and wired it according to one of the diagrams I found on the RetroLemon site, and the device is now working properly. Thanks to all who took the time to share their input, and apologies for not responding sooner, as I was unable to make the time.
👍
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Hi 👋
I just finished pimping out this 130XE with the following:
VBXE
UAV
SAVO XE
U1MB
PokeyMax v2B (Stereo + Quad Covox)Triple checked all my wiring, fired it up and (yeah! 😃) it booted to SDX. The only issue is there is this loud buzzing noise coming from the TV speakers. I double checked all the wiring again and everything looks sound. I put the Pokey chip back in and the buzzing stops. The L and R audio from the PokeyMax are connected to the L and R audio on the SAVO, and the jumper is removed. I wired the PokeyMax according to this diagram I found on the RetroLemon site. My question is, am I supposed to add those two 10uf resistors to the L and R audio 🤔? Initially it looked to me like they were only to be added if the audio was being connected to an external device.
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1 hour ago, TGB1718 said:
As long as they fit on the board, always safe to use higher voltage Cap's if that's all you have.
👍
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2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:
are you sure it isn't a bad cable? also, if your rf is that bad, is the same display device being used for all your tests? might be the display and not even the Atari
no color vertical scrolling? bad cable wrong channel wrong system, fine tuning?
I tried 2 different RF cables, I’m fairly certain the RF box was bad, but the issue has been resolved, it was the C19 and C20 caps that were causing the low sound issue.
Thank you for the reply 🙂
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PROBLEM SOLVED!!
I found 2 suspect looking NP caps in the same area as the L358 chip (C19 and C20, they both had small holes on top as if they had imploded 🤔). They were both 4.7uf 35v, the closest I had was 4.7uf 100v (I read up on it and apparently it’s ok to go higher on voltage, I hope 🤞), swapped out the caps and booted the machine, and I now have sound!
Thank you for the replies, I’m glad this one is behind me, but I did pick up some useful info along the way 🤓.
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Good evening all.
I've searched the forums and I could not find anything specific to the issue I'm experiencing, but please excuse me if this has already been covered.
I recently purchased an Atari 800XE in excellent condition, but quickly realized that the audio was extremely low, except for the keyboard click which was normal (I found out that this sound is generated from the GTIA chip). I did some research and found some of the other components associated with sound and swapped the POKEY and LM358 and the GTIA as well, but this didn't help. I tried using the RF modulator instead of the monitor port to check for sound but the interference was so bad I couldn't tell, plus there was no color and bad vertical scrolling, so I simply eliminated it. The closest thing to a field service manual I could find was the 130XE manual which did covered the 65/800XE (C070067 Rev - B which is actually the same board as the 130XE just fewer RAM chips), under the symptom checklist it mentions components U24, L11, and L12, so I swapped out both multiplexer chips and both inductors, but still no go 🤷♂️. I'm at a loss as to where else on the board to check for sound issues, so I'm asking for some help here. I would greatly appreciate it if someone would take the time to point me in the direction I should go next. I can provide screen shots of the board if needed. Thanks guys! 🙂
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26 minutes ago, Stephen said:
This has been the norm - I believe it's how the OS "screen saver" cycles colours. It's not a bug in the new driver.
Actually, I'm fairly certain that the foreground and background colors are suppose to rotate as well, but no, I wouldn't call it a bug.
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9 minutes ago, mmoec said:
I installed the new driver this evening (thanks _The Doctor_ and darwinmac, I was able to make and open an .atr file in Altirra and put the SVBXE111.ARC file inside 🙂), it worked well for me, except I fine-tuned the text color to my liking. Here are the results (old driver, new driver, new driver fine-tuned):
One interesting thing that I have noted: when the machine goes into the screen saver mode, only the border colors change, the foreground and background colors remain the same. 🤔
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10 hours ago, DrVenkman said:
I tried the files from this ARC file this morning but don't see that the colors are any different in 80 column mode. I still see the typical "aqua" PAL background color instead of the deeper NTSC blue.
This may be user-error, however, or a misunderstanding on my part. I have my VBXE installed in a PAL machine but I would *like* to be able to have the NTSC colors that I am used to.
I installed the new driver this evening (thanks _The Doctor_ and darwinmac, I was able to make and open an .atr file in Altirra and put the SVBXE111.ARC file inside 🙂), it worked well for me, except I fine-tuned the text color to my liking. Here are the results (old driver, new driver, new driver fine-tuned):
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1 hour ago, _The Doctor__ said:
You can't mount the arc file that way, put it in an atr then mount it.
Apologies, but I have never had to open an atr file on a pc before....how exactly is this done? I don't seem to be able to accomplish this with the SD Max.
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On 9/9/2023 at 10:25 AM, drac030 said:
Well, and here it is:
a) the regular one: svbxe111.arc
b) the Rapidus one: svbxe816.arc
Roughly tested, but I have no idea if the colors are correct. I can only say that when the NTSC palette is enabled, the display looks different. The console screen gets purple instead of the usual blue, for example.
Perhaps there is something I’m not doing correctly (certainly would not be the first time), but I can’t seem to do anything with the file svbxe111.arc. I can’t copy it from my SDrive Max to my hard disk partition, I can’t look inside the ARC file, I can’t unpack it. SDX doesn’t recognize the file system (error 148 - unknown file system). Is there something else I should be doing?
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On 9/9/2023 at 4:04 PM, bfollowell said:
I'm sure users will respond back here soon with the results. Thank you @drac030 for helping with this!
On 9/9/2023 at 10:25 AM, drac030 said:Well, and here it is:
a) the regular one: svbxe111.arc
b) the Rapidus one: svbxe816.arc
Roughly tested, but I have no idea if the colors are correct. I can only say that when the NTSC palette is enabled, the display looks different. The console screen gets purple instead of the usual blue, for example.
Thank you @drac030, I will be trying this new driver out this evening. 🙂
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Thanks for your help @Stephen. I think I can figure out the rest. 👍
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Perhaps this CON.SYS file is the one I need?
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Interesting…I’ve managed to figure out how to look into an ARC file (still working on how to extract them), but this toolkit.ATR file I have doesn’t seem to have the CON 80 driver, just the CON 64 one 🤔. Perhaps this is an older version.
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Thanks @Stephen, I’ll try this when I get home. I used to make batch files in Atari DOS 2.5 format, so I’m pretty sure I can figure out how it’s done with SDX. I just need to know which files and the command to install them.
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Yes, I have SDX with the U1MB and the SIDE3 cart. I did search for these drivers under CAR: but couldn’t find them.
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When you say ‘let the drivers load’ where are these drivers located and how does one go about installing them? I tried the command CON 80 and nothing happens. My best guess is these drivers need to be pre-installed before issuing this command.
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Apologies if this topic has been beat over the head time and time again, but I did try searching the forums and the internet (and I'm no genius at navigating websites) and was able to get bits and pieces of information, but not enough to put together a plan and get this thing done.
I recently installed a VBXE into my 8-bit Atari, and I would like to be able to program BASIC in 80 column mode, but there appears to be a shortage of information on how to achieve this (again, my web navigating skills could use some fine tuning). I did read something about SpartaDos X and some drivers that may need to be installed, but I can't find anything specific. Perhaps someone could be kind enough to point me in the direction of some clear cut instructions on how to make this a reality? Your help in this would be most appreciated.
Thank you, and good evening.
P.S...this machine also has a U1MB board installed, if that helps any.
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Good evening all
I have an issue that I hope someone here can help with. I just installed a U1MB into my 1200XL and for some reason my cartridges no longer work. This would include my SIDE2, SIDE3, and all my games and any other carts. If I disconnect the U1MB completely and reinsert the MMU and OS chips, the cartridges work fine! 🤔. If I go into the U1MB BIOS and set the machine to STOCK, no change, no carts work. I did check on line and found a couple other people had similar issues after installing this upgrade, and I tried some of the fixes, but none of them work for me. As an added note, I did perform the PBI and OS conversion on this machine, and I also removed the RAM chips and installed a 64K SRAM from Lotharek, and tested all of this before the U1MB install, and I am fairly certain that I installed the latest U1MB firmware. If I run SDX from the U1MB BIOS with a cart inserted and at the D1: prompt type CAR, I get the message 'Not Present' which leads me to believe the U1MB simply cannot see the cart slot. I obviously need my cartridge slot, so if it means removing the U1MB altogether then so be it, but I would like to see if there is a fix to this first. Any input at all would be greatly appreciated.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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1 hour ago, evilmoo said:
Are you sure this is a function of the Happy drive and not of DOS? Have you tried closing the file and reopening it to flush any buffers? Are you checking for errors upon return from POINT and WRITE?
Several people suggested opening and closing the file every time, as apposed to just leaving the file open, and that actually did the trick. Thanks all!
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Hello, I have a bit of a dilemma I was hoping I could get some advice on. I am writing a game in Atari Basic on my 800XL, with a Happy 1050 drive, version 7.1. I wrote a separate program to design the rooms, add them to a string variable, and then save them to a disk. Each room contains one full DD sector of information (256 bytes), using MyDos 4.53. I'm using the Atari NOTE and POINT commands to randomly access files on the disk, so that I can edit and save information one room at a time. The problem I'm having is that Happy will not save the information immediately, rather it will wait until it accumulates several sectors (I'm not sure how many) before it will write to the disk. I've read the Happy Instruction Manual, and apparently this is normal. I've tried leaving Fast Write turned off, and setting the Off Delay to it's fastest and slowest settings (A-Z), and even setting the drive to UnHappy mode, but still the same thing occurs. This just won't do for what I'm trying to do, and I was wondering if someone here knows of a way to "Force" Happy to write to a disk, please keeping in mind my programming skills are limited to just Basic. Thanks!
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P COVOX v2 Install
in Atari 8-Bit Computers
Posted
Thanks, I actually set the address to D700 because the instructions said D600 or D700 (pins 9,10 = D6, pin 7 = D7), and the only tunes I have access to rn are themes from games (Hardball!, Dark Chambers, Alternate Reality The City, etc…) and I can’t really detect any change 🤷♂️.