Internal Ultrasatan cable for Mega STe/STacy

[+DarkLord]

Okay, here is my 2nd attempt at dremeling a small slot in the original hard drive cover for the STacy,

to allow easy access to my internal Ultrasatan setup. (I made the opening too big in the first attempt).

 

 

Here it is again, with a SD card inserted.

 

 

Here is another shot, with a bit of an angle on it, so you can get some perspective.

 

 

And this last shot shows a side view, and how little space the internal arrangement

takes up, even with an SD card inserted.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with how this effort turned out. I've still got to tidy it all up and

work on some small blemishes and mars, but as far as the internal Ultrasatan setup

goes for my STacy, this is about it. We're "shiny".

[Charlie_]

That looks great.

 

I really have to think about getting one of these devices. I have stacks of floppies building up all over the place.

I just ordered 100 more from epay.....

[+DarkLord]

Further update - here is a few more pics, showing what I've been doing

when I can find time.

 

Okay, here's a pic of the modified floppy drive cable for my STacy. You can

also see Sean's HD mod tucked away under the left corner of the floppy

drive/hard drive cage.

 

 

Here is what the Sony 1.44m drive with the black faceplate (that Sean was

nice enough to find for me) looks like now, installed over top of the Ultrasatan.

 

I used a small dremel to make a slot for the Ultrasatan, and the same tool

to remove the old floppy drive facing for the original Atari style 720k drive.

Was thinking about using something like bondo to fill in the top middle slot

that's left, so it would be perfect rectangle for the floppy drive opening.

 

I think I'm going to go ahead and paint this entire "block", with the drive and

the Ultrasatan in it, black as well.

 

 

 

Oh just gotta say, all the changes I've made, like removing the battery compartment,

changing the floppy drive and hard drive bay openings, as well as cutting down the

internal RF shield has had a major side benefit...

 

The STacy is *much* easier to take apart and put back together now! Note carefully

that I'm still not saying its -easy-, but it is much easier than when it was stock.

[jens]

Hey, these are really nice works of yours, DarkLord!

[+DarkLord]

Thanks, but its not really me. As the man said, "I'm standing on the shoulders of

giants" when I do this...

 

All of this is because of the great work by:

 

Jookie - Ultrasatan

 

AlanH - internal Mega STe/STacy Ultrasatan cable

 

RalCool - 1.44m HD floppy mod

 

These people rock!

[Lynxpro]

That's pretty impressive, DarkLord.

 

Does anyone have an UltraSatan mounted in a modded SF354 or 314 case?

[+DarkLord]

That's pretty impressive, DarkLord.

 

Does anyone have an UltraSatan mounted in a modded SF354 or 314 case?

 

Thanks! I've not seen any specific instances where someone has tried that,

but I can't think of a good reason why it wouldn't work. A little dremel work

on the case for access to the SD card slot, and figuring out how to mount

it inside, as well as making sure you're getting the correct voltage to the

US itself, and then it should work.

 

I guess you already know the original US comes in a small enclosure.

[sideburn]

Well I’m 11 years late to this party.

mid anyone is still around can you tell me if the “Ultrasatan adapter for Mega STE” from lotharek will work in the STacy? It looks different than the one in this thread and doesn’t supply power. Looking for a plug and play solution. 

 

Here is a link to the cable I am asking about: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49

 

I currently have the metal cased US with a cable and adapter that plugs into the external DMA port on the back of the STacy.  It works but my internal drive has started to act funny. It spins up and back down at times and I have to whack the side of the STacy to “fix” it so I’m considering converting my cased US to an internal drive in the STacy. 

[snarkdluG]

1 hour ago, sideburn said:

Well I’m 11 years late to this party.

mid anyone is still around can you tell me if the “Ultrasatan adapter for Mega STE” from lotharek will work in the STacy? It looks different than the one in this thread and doesn’t supply power. Looking for a plug and play solution. 

 

Here is a link to the cable I am asking about: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49

 

I currently have the metal cased US with a cable and adapter that plugs into the external DMA port on the back of the STacy.  It works but my internal drive has started to act funny. It spins up and back down at times and I have to whack the side of the STacy to “fix” it so I’m considering converting my cased US to an internal drive in the STacy. 

The 30 pin internal connector in STacy and MegaSTe seems to be exactly the same when I looked at the schematics. STacy have pin 24 connected to HDBUSY and that is missing on the MegaSTe. That pin is not used in Lothareks cable so shouldn't be important for UltraSatan.

 

You probably have to do something about the power though. So I don't think it will be entirely plug and play. I seems that US have pinholes for a floppydrive BERG connector for power on the PCB. Otherwise it is USB. Or solder cables directly to it. Since I have never seen a STacy I don't know what kind of power connectors it have available inside. Seems to be a molex for the HDD? There is molex to USB micro that probably can be used in that case.

 

EDIT: I don't if the Lotharek adapter board will physical fit inside though.

Edited February 12, 2023 by snarkdluG

[+DarkLord]

1 hour ago, sideburn said:

Well I’m 11 years late to this party.

mid anyone is still around can you tell me if the “Ultrasatan adapter for Mega STE” from lotharek will work in the STacy? It looks different than the one in this thread and doesn’t supply power. Looking for a plug and play solution. 

 

Here is a link to the cable I am asking about: https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=49

 

I currently have the metal cased US with a cable and adapter that plugs into the external DMA port on the back of the STacy.  It works but my internal drive has started to act funny. It spins up and back down at times and I have to whack the side of the STacy to “fix” it so I’m considering converting my cased US to an internal drive in the STacy. 

 

Huh, has it really been 11 years? Wow.

 

Yeah, those internal MFM HD's that came with the STacy really are getting "long in the tooth" now. When I got my STacy, the hard drive inside had crashed

so badly it left melted goo all over everything. Took me a while just to clean it up.

 

I have an internal US in my STacy. However, that's not exactly accurate. At the time I put it in there, there were no internal models. I took the external

version and after removing the internal HD, mounted it in it's place. Alan H. was good enough to produce that internal adapter, complete with P/S, that

replace the original adapter. It also fixes the 1 gig or less size problem.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if Alan is still producing those anymore - I don't see it listed on his website:  http://www.atarikit.co.uk/

 

But, I don't think that really matters, although the include P/S stuff is nice.

 

Lotharek's cable works very well with his internal US versions. The Mega STe and the STacy share the same internal HD interface. Remove it, and use the

Lotharek version and it works fine. That's what I (and a handful of others) did with our Mega STe's. So it should work fine with the STacy as well.

 

It's a long thread, but around page 6 and up, there are pictures of internal US's mounted in various Mega STe's (including my own).

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/300934-mega-stett-led-replacements/page/6/

 

I hope this helps. Let me know if there's anything at all I can do. If you've never taken a STacy apart before, it's a bit of a chore. Take your time, that

plastic is really old now and usually gets brittle/fragile.

 

There are a couple of online guides - let me know if you need their links.

 

 

[sideburn]

14 minutes ago, snarkdluG said:

The 30 pin internal connector in STacy and MegaSTe seems to be exactly the same when I looked at the schematics. STacy have pin 24 connected to HDBUSY and that is missing on the MegaSTe. That pin is not used in Lothareks cable so shouldn't be important for UltraSatan.

 

You probably have to do something about the power though. So I don't think it will be entirely plug and play. I seems that US have pinholes for a floppydrive BERG connector for power on the PCB. Otherwise it is USB. Or solder cables directly to it. Since I have never seen a STacy I don't know what kind of power connectors it have available inside. Seems to be a molex for the HDD? There is molex to USB micro that probably can be used in that case.

 

EDIT: I don't if the Lotharek adapter board will physical fit inside though.

ahh thanks for the info and link to that conector. That looks like it could work. 

[sideburn]

11 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

 

Huh, has it really been 11 years? Wow.

 

Yeah, those internal MFM HD's that came with the STacy really are getting "long in the tooth" now. When I got my STacy, the hard drive inside had crashed

so badly it left melted goo all over everything. Took me a while just to clean it up.

 

I have an internal US in my STacy. However, that's not exactly accurate. At the time I put it in there, there were no internal models. I took the external

version and after removing the internal HD, mounted it in it's place. Alan H. was good enough to produce that internal adapter, complete with P/S, that

replace the original adapter. It also fixes the 1 gig or less size problem.

 

 

 

I'm not sure if Alan is still producing those anymore - I don't see it listed on his website:  http://www.atarikit.co.uk/

 

But, I don't think that really matters, although the include P/S stuff is nice.

 

Lotharek's cable works very well with his internal US versions. The Mega STe and the STacy share the same internal HD interface. Remove it, and use the

Lotharek version and it works fine. That's what I (and a handful of others) did with our Mega STe's. So it should work fine with the STacy as well.

 

It's a long thread, but around page 6 and up, there are pictures of internal US's mounted in various Mega STe's (including my own).

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/300934-mega-stett-led-replacements/page/6/

 

I hope this helps. Let me know if there's anything at all I can do. If you've never taken a STacy apart before, it's a bit of a chore. Take your time, that

plastic is really old now and usually gets brittle/fragile.

 

There are a couple of online guides - let me know if you need their links.

 

 

Ok thanks for the info.
 

Is the US inside the metal “cased” version different from the internal version of the board? I was hoping I could just take the US board out of its metal case and 3d print some kind of mount for the STacy to make it internal. 

 

Yeah, the bummer is I just put the STacy back together. I replaced the display with a NOS one and fixed the keyboard. I also replaced the RTC clock battery and put a button cell / holder inside the battery bay. 
 

I also had the goo on the drive and it had oozed onto the side cover plate and ate the paint off. I had to sand it down and re paint it. 
 

now the HD is acting up. 

what’s weird is if I plug the US into the back, and leave the US turned off even, the drive starts it’s spin up / spin down issue. I smack the side and it starts working again. 
 

but it’s odd that plugging the US into the back causes it to act up. Makes me wonder if theres a power / amps problem somewhere other than the drive itself. 
 

 

[+DarkLord]

35 minutes ago, sideburn said:

Ok thanks for the info.
 

Is the US inside the metal “cased” version different from the internal version of the board? I was hoping I could just take the US board out of its metal case and 3d print some kind of mount for the STacy to make it internal. 

 

Yeah, the bummer is I just put the STacy back together. I replaced the display with a NOS one and fixed the keyboard. I also replaced the RTC clock battery and put a button cell / holder inside the battery bay. 
 

I also had the goo on the drive and it had oozed onto the side cover plate and ate the paint off. I had to sand it down and re paint it. 
 

now the HD is acting up. 

what’s weird is if I plug the US into the back, and leave the US turned off even, the drive starts it’s spin up / spin down issue. I smack the side and it starts working again. 
 

but it’s odd that plugging the US into the back causes it to act up. Makes me wonder if theres a power / amps problem somewhere other than the drive itself. 
 

 

 

TBH, I'm not sure. I've never owned the metal cased external version so it's hard for me to comment. Perhaps some kind soul that has had one apart can comment on that?

 

I would think that would be possible.

 

Hmm, it's my understanding that if you're seeing goo from a hard drive it's on it's last legs.

 

Well, at least you're familiar with taking the STacy apart. Fun stuff, eh?  

 

[sideburn]

3 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Well, at least you're familiar with taking the STacy apart. Fun stuff, eh?  

 

Oh yeah it was a blast. I can’t wait to do it all over again!

 

hmm I see on lotharek that there’s an internal board that’s different.