JR>

Actually It's more likely the address space within the EPROM that the file is to be burned at. 0x0000 --> 0x0FFF which is 4096 bytes (not 4095) which is 4K

Looks like it threw a 6 byte header on there 'FF FF 00 00 FF 0F'. The last 2 bytes may represent the size of the file (bytes in reverse order) ---> 0x0FFF = 4096 = 4K

This is the only mod that I know of that allows 2 mechs to operate without a switch from the XF551 board. http://www.nleaudio.com/css/products/XFdualdrup.htm I have one, and as I recall, it consists of a replacement rom as well as an epoxy sealed module that has a small ribbon cable that is soldered to several pins on the CPU.

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It might help if you told us a little about it. What color is it? is it 4GB or 6GB? 1st generation or 2nd? Hows the batttery life? is a charger included? Any other accessories like a case?

Can you tell me more about the Supra Micronet? All I know about it, comes from an article in Analog Computing, which wasn't very positive about it. greetings Mathy Well, that article is accurate. It does allow you to share one SIO chain among up to 8 computers. The downside is that it really doesn't do anything to arbitrate that access. Therefore if you had several users, they would have to be very careful that no one else was using any of the SIO devices before they attempted to access one. So as a multiuser device it is very limited. For the purpose I use it for, it works great. It allows me to have access to the same set of SIO devices from any of my computers, so I don't have to swap cable around every time I want to try something on another computer.

This seems to indicate that it might be possible with a stock 1050: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.at...3a93b12ef07cd99

My impression was that you could use any of the common SINGLE SIDED formats (SD,ED,DD) but that double sided formats could not be used in a partition.

Interesting ... I'll have to check that out. Speaking of alternate XF551 code, has anyone successfully used the Hyper-XF ROM for 720K drives with all four virtual partitions? I've tried the version that JR> provided earlier, but I can only seem to access two partitions instead of four. I know that the 360K version is limited to two partitions, but I'm using HYPROMB.ROM (which looks to me like the one I'm supposed to use for 720K drives). Am I using the wrong ROM, or is there something else I have to do? 1028818[/snapback] HYPROMB is the correct ROM for 720k drives. I've never tried the partitioned mode but as I understand it you set the drive mode (using hypmode.com) to A,B,C, or D to access each of the 4 partitions. There is also something about a mode M that allows the partitons to be MIXED (i.e. different densities) so if not all of your partitions will be the same density, I think you need to use that somehow. Don't know if any of this helps.

I've been looking for a good sector copier to use to copy large MyIDE partitons for a while now. I came across drac030's HDSC, but because MyIDE doesn't support the Percom block, it would not properly recognize the parameters of the partition. He had a switch to override the number of sectors, but it would always default to 128 Bytes per Sector. I contacted him and he was kind enough to add an density override switch as well. I have tested it and it now works beautifully with MyIDE. This makes it really easy to create large ATR's from an emmulator and transfer them to a MyIDE partition, or to backup your MyIDE partitions to an ATR with APE. You can find the updated version at his web site: http://drac030.krap.pl/en-pliki.php Thanks again drac030!

This has lots of useful stuff for the XF551 including the Hyper-XF rom images: XFTOOLS.ZIP If you Google Hyper-XF in groups, you will find some old posts in C.S.A.8bit discussing Hyper-XF. Other than that there isn't a whole lot of info. Most of the documentation is in Polish in the QMEG OS documentation. A bad translation of that can be found in the above Google search.

I would suggest you uprade the ROM in your XF551 to one of the Hyper-XF Roms. It corrects some of the problems the drive has with detecting density and it also supports higher Data transfer rates. There is also a Hyper-FX version that allows you to use a 720K 3.5 inch mechanism in the drive. I've read that using that version, there is a mode that allows you to put 4 complete disk images on one 720K disk and switch between them, as if you were swapping the real floppies. One of my XF551's has this, but I have never tested the 4 in 1 disk mode on it.

Yep, looks like a US Doubler clone http://sog.com/atari/usd-ram.html

Here ya go: Ramdrive.zip

Well, all I can tell you is that the Quintopus is wired with 10 and 8 switched. As I said, I've never tried connecting 2 copmputers to these ports because I use the Micronet for that, but the manual does state that it can be used this way. If you can't trust Bob Klass, (edit:oops meant to say Bob Puff) who can ya trust? There is probably no reason not to switch pin 7, obviously the more pins you switch out the better. I think the only thing that Pin 8 is used for is motor control on a cassette drive. If you have no intention of ever using a cassette, you could probably just leave 8 disconnected altogether.

Any DOS: http://rjespino.tripod.com/8bit/ramd/ramd.html

I just checked again to be sure, it is pins 8 and 10 that go to the swicthes. Pin 7 is not switched. I hadn't noticed before, but pin 12 (+12 VDC) is not connected to anything on the switched ports. It does go to all of the non-switched ports. You might want to consider leaving that pin disconnected on your design, or switching that pin as well. Otherwise you could get the +12 V from one computer feeding back into another computer even if it is switched out. Probably not a good thing.

All of the computers were pulled out for that picture. If the ones not in use are tucked back under the shelves, there is enough room to access the cartridge ports. Unfortunately the Amdek monitor is composite only but it is a nice monitor. Actually I would consider parting with that one, I have another commodore monitor to put in it's place, and I'm short on storage space these days. I'm not sure I relish trying to ship that thing though. If you are interested, send me a PM and maybe we can work something out.

That should be possible. The manual for the quintopus is available at the CORRECTED link: http://www.nleaudio.com/css/products/quintopus.htm According to it, you can have multiple computers connected to the switched ports as long as only one of the ports is enabled at a time. I have never used it in this configuration.

Yes, that is the Deluxe Quintopus mounted in a small project box. http://www.nleaudio.com/css/products/quintopus.htm Actually it would be fairly easy to build one. all of the pins are connected in parallel to each port. Only 2 of the ports are actually switched and the only pins that need to be switched out to disable a port are Motor Control ( pin 8 ) and + 5 VDC/Ready (pin 10) which can be accomplished with just a Double Pole toggle switch. The more interesting device is the one sitting between the 2 monitors. It is the MPP/Supra Micronet and it allows you to share one SIO chain among up to 8 computers. Using this setup I can switch in virtually any combination of SIO devices and use them with any of the computers without having to swap a single cable. No, The MIO was not actually connected to anything when that picture was taken. The 1200xl is upgraded with the XL/XE OS and has internal basic and 256K Rambo, but it does not have the PBI added.

The small percentage of my collection that is actually set up somewhere.

Is this what you're looking for? Fenders.zip

That particular drive wa a Toshiba HDD2339 - 262 MB 2.5" drive. I have since tried a couple of other IDE drives and all have given results from around 2800 up to about 7500. So far only the CF card yeilds decent results on this test, although in actual use I don't really notice a large difference in performance between the CF and IDE drive.