flashjazzcat Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 I'm being gradually driven insane here ... it works, then it doesn't work. Nothing changed. Now I can't get it working again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hello flashjazzcat Maybe the interface got damaged while the adaptor was plugged in upside down. Since the adaptor is connected to a power supply, it's possible that you connected +5 and Ground to something that doesn't like that. greetings Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 (edited) Maybe the interface got damaged while the adaptor was plugged in upside down. Since the adaptor is connected to a power supply, it's possible that you connected +5 and Ground to something that doesn't like that. Well, who knows. It was working perfectly, and I switched off to put the top back on the case. When I powered up again it has stopped booting and nothing had been earthed in the intervening time. It's obviously not working consistently for some reason: tonight was the first time I'd got it working a week after fitting it, originally with a totally different drive. ...Just got it working again. I pulled the adapter off the IDE interface and pushed it back on again. I'm actually inclined to think there's a loose connection somewhere. Edited May 17, 2009 by flashjazzcat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 The interface is still working perfectly, and I'm very happy with it now. I can't believe it took me a week to get it up and running but I've had no further problems with it since last night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 Another question: I've just flashed Diamond GOS to my AtariMax cart. Works great with internal SDX. However, I had to use SIO2SD to boot the Diamond flash ATR. With internal SDX disabled, SIO2IDE won't boot from an ATR, even if I wait five seconds after powerup and reboot the machine. This can't be right. What if I want to disable SDX and boot DOS 2.5 from the CF card? Is there some extra wiring to do? What am I missing? Without SDX plugged in and with SIO2IDE config set to boot the MyDOS image, the machine polls devices then jumps into BASIC. If I type DOS and then do a warm reset with Option pressed, it just does the same again. The interface works perfectly in all other circumstances. Ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 20, 2009 Author Share Posted May 20, 2009 Seems like I'm talking to myself here... Anyway, I think I've isolated one of the problems I've had with SIO2IDE. I don't know if others have experienced this, but this is what I've found and it means I can find workarounds. The problem of the device not booting the disk image when doing a "COLD /N" restart in SDX (thus turning the cartridge off) only seems to occus when the SIO2IDE config file has D1 mapped to an ATR file whose name contains lower case letters. Pursuing this further, it appears that ATR files on the CF card with lower case characters in their filenames don't mount at all. The device works perfectly with D1 mapped to "LW.ATR" or "PC.ATR" but consistently times out with "MyDOS453.ATR" or "Paperclip.ATR". The solution in this case is simple: give all the ATR files uppercase names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 No, we're listening... Seems like I'm talking to myself here... Anyway, I think I've isolated one of the problems I've had with SIO2IDE. I don't know if others have experienced this, but this is what I've found and it means I can find workarounds. The problem of the device not booting the disk image when doing a "COLD /N" restart in SDX (thus turning the cartridge off) only seems to occus when the SIO2IDE config file has D1 mapped to an ATR file whose name contains lower case letters. Pursuing this further, it appears that ATR files on the CF card with lower case characters in their filenames don't mount at all. The device works perfectly with D1 mapped to "LW.ATR" or "PC.ATR" but consistently times out with "MyDOS453.ATR" or "Paperclip.ATR". The solution in this case is simple: give all the ATR files uppercase names. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Hallo flashjazzcat This thread has been read over 500 times. Surely that's not just you, Bob and me. greetings Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spookt Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Hallo flashjazzcat This thread has been read over 500 times. Surely that's not just you, Bob and me. greetings Mathy Nope I'm here too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted May 21, 2009 Author Share Posted May 21, 2009 Good point. Well, I hope I discovered something useful here (about the lowercase filenames). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Good point. Well, I hope I discovered something useful here (about the lowercase filenames). I did have some problems with ATR's that wouldn't mount once. I don't know if I ever did get them working, and now that I think about it I think they did have lowercase letters in them. Good catch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 My interest has picked up in my SIO2IDE again. Does anyone know how to wire it up so that the Atari will wait until the device has initialized before attempting to boot from a mounted drive image? I know that it's possible (in order to avoid the power-up, reset cycle), but I'm damned if I can find an accurate description of it anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox-1 / mnx Posted March 3, 2010 Share Posted March 3, 2010 Since it's connected to SIO I don't think there's an easy way to do this. I think the only way is to make connections to the PBI/CART. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 Since it's connected to SIO I don't think there's an easy way to do this. I think the only way is to make connections to the PBI/CART. It makes sense. There was certainly a documented way of doing it: perhaps it did involve such connections. Not a problem when booting with SpartaDOS X, but I'd just like to know how to boot from cold with another DOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 Bottom of this page: Note: if you want an automatic system start without to start in basic and then pressing Reset you must connect the Reset_Out signal (SIO_IO pin 4) as shown in the schematics in the Polish Technical Manual... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 4, 2010 Author Share Posted March 4, 2010 OK. Found this myself: S2I_SCH_3.0 with Reset Modification.pdf Can anyone decypher the incomplete reset_out instructions in the boxout at the bottom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted March 4, 2010 Author Share Posted March 4, 2010 I'll help a bit: U17 pin3 (GTIA) lifted and connected to pin 9 of U18 (where's this?). Pin 10 of U18 connected to what? Does the hole vacated by pin3 of GTIA get connected to anything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 I'll help a bit: U17 pin3 (GTIA) lifted and connected to pin 9 of U18 (where's this?). Pin 10 of U18 connected to what? Does the hole vacated by pin3 of GTIA get connected to anything? Can anyone clarify the reset mod schematic? I just realized that SIO2IDE won't pick up config.sys when the computer first powers up, since the IDE device doesn't initialize in time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 5, 2010 Author Share Posted August 5, 2010 OK. Found this myself: S2I_SCH_3.0 with Reset Modification.pdf Can anyone decypher the incomplete reset_out instructions in the boxout at the bottom? Can anyone shed any light on this? Please...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 Can you fill us in on what this is supposed to do? If we knew its function, it may be easier to 'decode'. From what I understand, the drive does not come ready soon enough? The initial boot finds the drive not ready? They may be using the SIO READY line to reset the HD from the computer. The 'fix' may be to reset the HD when you power on the SIO2IDE, instead. Does that look like what their doing? Have you tried a CF card? Does that work with no mods? Bob OK. Found this myself: S2I_SCH_3.0 with Reset Modification.pdf Can anyone decypher the incomplete reset_out instructions in the boxout at the bottom? Can anyone shed any light on this? Please...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 7, 2010 Author Share Posted August 7, 2010 Can you fill us in on what this is supposed to do? If we knew its function, it may be easier to 'decode'. From what I understand, the drive does not come ready soon enough? The initial boot finds the drive not ready? They may be using the SIO READY line to reset the HD from the computer. The 'fix' may be to reset the HD when you power on the SIO2IDE, instead. Does that look like what their doing? Have you tried a CF card? Does that work with no mods? Yeah - sorry Bob. It's been so long since I originally posted this, I forgot it would be appropriate to give some background information. The mod is as far as I understand intended to prevent the computer from booting until the SIO2IDE firmware has initialized. Normally, it's necessary to power on the computer (assuming SIO2IDE is powered off the 5v line on the SIO), then do a coldstart since the SIO2IDE isn't ready to be polled when the computer first powers up. The modification would result in a successful disk read on the first powerup sequence. That's the idea... I had thought that SpartaDOS X would boot slowly enough for the device to be ready in time, but it appears to read CONFIG.SYS before it polls the system for available drives, so the mod is still required. The unit works perfectly well with a CF card but the necessity to do a second cold boot is tiresome. Clearly some characters have been missed off the diagram, and they are critical to understanding the sense of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted August 7, 2010 Share Posted August 7, 2010 What if you just hold the RESET key down while you power on the Atari? You can add a 1-10ufd capacitor to the 555 timer that will extend RESET, also. Doesn't seem like a great idea since that would run RESET out to 5-10 seconds for every time you triggered it. If you want to boot SIO2IDE, hold down RESET. If you want to skip SIO2IDE, leave RESET alone. This is a Bypass feature designed into the machine, isn't it? Bob Can you fill us in on what this is supposed to do? If we knew its function, it may be easier to 'decode'. From what I understand, the drive does not come ready soon enough? The initial boot finds the drive not ready? They may be using the SIO READY line to reset the HD from the computer. The 'fix' may be to reset the HD when you power on the SIO2IDE, instead. Does that look like what their doing? Have you tried a CF card? Does that work with no mods? Yeah - sorry Bob. It's been so long since I originally posted this, I forgot it would be appropriate to give some background information. The mod is as far as I understand intended to prevent the computer from booting until the SIO2IDE firmware has initialized. Normally, it's necessary to power on the computer (assuming SIO2IDE is powered off the 5v line on the SIO), then do a coldstart since the SIO2IDE isn't ready to be polled when the computer first powers up. The modification would result in a successful disk read on the first powerup sequence. That's the idea... I had thought that SpartaDOS X would boot slowly enough for the device to be ready in time, but it appears to read CONFIG.SYS before it polls the system for available drives, so the mod is still required. The unit works perfectly well with a CF card but the necessity to do a second cold boot is tiresome. Clearly some characters have been missed off the diagram, and they are critical to understanding the sense of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 If you want to boot SIO2IDE, hold down RESET. (...) This is a Bypass feature designed into the machine, isn't it? This only works on XL. In XE they fixed the "feature": RESET is triggered on the Reset key release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 8, 2010 Author Share Posted August 8, 2010 If anyone's got an email address for Marek, I'll contact him directly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted August 8, 2010 Share Posted August 8, 2010 Yes... you're correct. I found a 130XE and tried it. Even if you hold RESET down on power up, it boots the machine normally. Great. How about holding down START? That puts you into cassette boot and will do a coldstart when you hit RESET. Extending RESET for every boot doesn't seem like a good idea, although it would be easy to do. If you could get into the code in the SIO2IDE, you could probably just hold up the STATUS query on the SIO devices long enough to get the drive ready. Maybe do a dummy handler load or some such. Bob If you want to boot SIO2IDE, hold down RESET. (...) This is a Bypass feature designed into the machine, isn't it? This only works on XL. In XE they fixed the "feature": RESET is triggered on the Reset key release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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