p: r: connection - dead?

[knoid]

I picked up an 800XL some years ago; I didn't do much with it after picking it up, and for several years it sat in a basement (side-story there is that I split up with the ex-wife and wasn't able to retrieve it for a long time).

 

I powered it up this weekend, and while both the 800XL and 1050 drive appear to be fully functional (although alas many of the floppies are toast), the P: R: Connection seems to be dead. If I chain the P: R: Connection and the 1050 off the SIO port, the 1050 is not seen by the 800XL at all. Doesn't matter which way round I plug them in (1050 first or P: R: Conn. first).

 

I don't have a manual for the P: R: Connection and Google was unable to turn one up (although I learned all sorts of interesting stuff about other ICD expansion boxes and how they mismanaged themselves out of business in the meantime ).

 

I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could post the manual (or a link thereunto) and/or give me some basic troubleshooting steps for this puppy. I'd like to use the 800xl as a terminal to my linux box and this would seem to be a way to achieve that. Given the conditions it was stored in I'm happy (and amazed!) that the compy and drive are even turning on at this point!

 

Thanks in advance!

[knoid]

Update: Found the manual (it was in an envelope I hadn't checked before). I can scan it in if anyone needs it.

 

Plugging the box in and running an OPEN #1,12,0,"R1:" returned error 130 - which would seem to indicate that it's toast.

 

Continuity-checked the cable and there don't seem to be any breaks/shorts. The main chip (rockwell prc9985-6) does warm up which would indicate it's at least receiving power.

 

I have a multimeter & soldering iron and have done SMD soldering before. Is it worth trying to fix this puppy or should I look into building something else?

 

Intended use is to setup the 800xl as a terminal to my linux box. I'd like to do SIO2PC/APE stuff as well but can't afford to buy/build the adapter at this point. Reading over the SIO2PC docs, it doesn't seem to handle serial communications (it talks about adding extra MAX-232's for that I think).

[+Allan]

Update: Found the manual (it was in an envelope I hadn't checked before). I can scan it in if anyone needs it.

 

Plugging the box in and running an OPEN #1,12,0,"R1:" returned error 130 - which would seem to indicate that it's toast.

 

Continuity-checked the cable and there don't seem to be any breaks/shorts. The main chip (rockwell prc9985-6) does warm up which would indicate it's at least receiving power.

 

I have a multimeter & soldering iron and have done SMD soldering before. Is it worth trying to fix this puppy or should I look into building something else?

 

Intended use is to setup the 800xl as a terminal to my linux box. I'd like to do SIO2PC/APE stuff as well but can't afford to buy/build the adapter at this point. Reading over the SIO2PC docs, it doesn't seem to handle serial communications (it talks about adding extra MAX-232's for that I think).

Do you have the disk? I posted it last week in the 8-bit forum.

 

Allan

[+Allan]

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/150825-pr-connection-disk/page__fromsearch__1

 

Allan

[knoid]

Thanks Allan - I have the disk, but as mentioned in my original post the Atari is unable to see the disk drive with the P: R: Connection plugged in.

 

With only the disk drive plugged in it does appear to boot to the disk (I get the terminal splash screen - 850 express i think?) but it's not much use if the box is toast .

[MEtalGuy66]

I'd like to do SIO2PC/APE stuff as well but can't afford to buy/build the adapter at this point.

 

Dude.. It costs like $5.00 or less...

 

[knoid]

Dude.. It costs like $5.00 or less...

 

Thanks...however I'm currently out of work so I was hoping to avoid spending even that if possible .

 

Who's your preferred supplier (seeing as all I have here are Radio Crap and they haven't stocked anything useful in...years)?

Edited October 22, 2009 by knoid