Bumzyman Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Really? Where can one find info on the replacement Floppy Board? I don't know about the CPLD remakes but I have a few of the original Floppy Boards packed away. I had posted back in 2007-2008 about wanting to sell them but never got any interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariGeezer Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 I don't know about the CPLD remakes but I have a few of the original Floppy Boards packed away. I had posted back in 2007-2008 about wanting to sell them but never got any interest. How much are you asking? I'm looking for one... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXG/MNX Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Yep open a new topic about ramdisks and spartados I used it aswell I know fox-1 has it on his BBS aswell ramjet could also disable antic when doing ramdisk access to speedup things .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 It has been proven time and again that there is no advantage to a ramdisk over modern CF/IDE hardisks. In fact, in many cases, the latter is actually FASTER. As Flashjazzcat (and others) have shown us several times, the 6502 becomes the bottleneck in this case, and since the ramdisk requires the 6502 to bank/shift the data and the IDE interface has the modern device doing the equivalent, the 1.7mhz 6502 looses.. Sad but true.. If you wanna remake the blackbox, for any reasons other than nostalgia, you need a complete redesign in order to make it even think about competing with newer devices. And if your gonna do that, you might as well reduce the whole thing to a cheap CPLD that would fit on something the size of a cart, rather than reproduce that huge ridiculous T-shaped board with the (relatively) expensive VIA chips and crappy edge connectors for ports. Then you'd wanna fix the PBI compliance/ID sharing problems, and as mentioned before, the firmware/handler needs to be updated for modern OS/useage requirements. But to be honest.. heh.. by the time you did all that it would make no sense whatsoever to stay with SCSI... So... What would make a TON more sense, is to take the useful features of the black box firmware and port them over to the IDE plus 2.0. It has plenty of room in its onboard flash. And its a much faster/more modern device, and can/has already been produced relatively cheaply.. Of course, there's the matter of the serial port.. I would love to see someone make a standalone, PBI compliant UART based serial port. One that contains its own handlers in rom via the PBI standard, and can be used in conjunction with other devices. You could easily take the serial port subsystem of the blackbox (or MIO- they are pretty similar) and use that as the basis of a design for such a device. Would be a fairly simple-scaled project- and something that there is currently no cheap/easy solution available for. SIO connected "serial interfaces" do not (and can not) provide the same degree of reliable speed and stability that you get from a PBI based hardware solution. Just my opinion.. as owner of a fully enhanced blackbox/floppyboard as well as many MIO, IDEplus2.0, SIDE, etc. setups.. and one who has cloned/produced quite a bit of "vintage" hardware accessories. The IDE 2.0 is the hardware that's needed for a modern "black box" type device.. What it needs is serious firmware development.. I hope the IDE 2.0 gets updated BlackBox Firmware added to it, but I also like the other ports the BlackBox has built in like the MIO. Your work in updating of the MIO can't be praised enough, but I like the idea of a BlackBox redesigned onto a CPLD with new firmware and floppy board built in. No doubt a stand-alone PBI serial port would be great! The ram would be an absolute waste, as it would be slower than the CF/IDE interface.. There are literally 2-chip solutions to put 576k or 1088k in any Atari.. We don't need it kludge-fucked onto a PBI device, as there's no possible way that a "Rambo" (or any other common ram upgrade scheme) memory expansion could be implemented via the PBI standard. The ram expansion devices that plug into the PBI (or ECI) port are not PBI devices and in incorporating something like that into a PBI device, you severely complicate/limit the way that it can be plugged-in and used. If you lack the skills to piggyback a single sram chip and solder in 12 wires to a GAL, then there are plenty of people who can do that for you. Not to mention the relatively large variety of pre-baked ram expansions that are available from various developers/vendors. And the serial device could easily be built on a small board that plugs in-line with the 50-pin PBI header, making it easy to "snap on" to the IDE plus board, or go In-line with any other PBI device, using the standard 50pin ribbon cabling. It would be much more versatile as a stand-alone PBI serial device. On a multi-node BBS, only one machine needs a hardisk. The rest just have multiplexer carts and NEED SOME KIND OF RELIABLE SERIAL PORT. With a standalone PBI serial device, we cover all bases with one cheap/small device. It can be used in conjunction with other PBI devices, or by itself. The RAM in the BackBox is not a waste for those who don't want internal modifications to their systems. I like the MIO, BlackBox, IDE 2.0 specifically for that. I also have the 320XL external memory expansion but it doesn't have pass-trough PBI (the 320XE has that option). A separate serial port would definitely be cheapear to add to the other systems with the multiplexers which are very hard to come by now. It would really open up a lot of configuration possibilities. I still would keep one on the recreated BlackBox. I think a new BB would be cool. The floppy board is already remade by Guus Assman in CPLD, when the BB can be done aswell it would be cool. Secondly a fast serial port with FIFO would be nice to support 115200. A BB with both SCSI and IDE would be cool, because the I can then connect my current HDD to this BB and add newer (cheaper) IDE devices aswell. The BB did support 8 drives so why noy SCSI/IDE Memory onboard for printer buffer, flashrom and I still would like to see a ramdisk. for people who like it. If Guus Assman can get permission and put the BlackBox into a CPLD along with the floppy board, SCSI & IDE, ports, and updated firmware I would like one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcamp48 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 I have one coming , would anyone be interested in an enclosure for it, I have 2 3D printers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 6 hours ago, rcamp48 said: I have one coming , would anyone be interested in an enclosure for it, I have 2 3D printers Just a suggestion -- the BB runs pretty warm, especially if a Floppy Board is attached (on top). Good ventilation is required for best results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 7 hours ago, rcamp48 said: I have one coming , would anyone be interested in an enclosure for it, I have 2 3D printers You were able to find one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcamp48 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Tillek said: You were able to find one? Yes that I did some one has two of them and a MIO I don't know if the MIO is for sale or not but I will ask, I am selling my Colecovision Adam to pay for it. Edited August 27, 2022 by rcamp48 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcamp48 Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 1 hour ago, Larry said: Just a suggestion -- the BB runs pretty warm, especially if a Floppy Board is attached (on top). Good ventilation is required for best results. Ok so I might mount it in a cooled enclosure I have a good source of hard drives that are already in an enclosure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tillek Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 27 minutes ago, rcamp48 said: Yes that I did some one has two of them and a MIO I don't know if the MIO is for sale or not but I will ask, I am selling my Colecovision Adam to pay for it. I'm not really in the market for an MIO (already have some), but thanks anyway... I'm sure it will benefit someone else. A BB would be nice, but alas. If you sell your Adam, who's going to test the Adam FujiNet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted August 27, 2022 Share Posted August 27, 2022 Both the BB and the MIO can use compact flash cards if you use a SCSI to IDE adapter. Note: As SCSI died out, the ACARD Adapters got very expensive, but I see that they are now being produced in China and sold at very reasonable prices. No idea how well these reproductions work. For the last years that I used my BB, I used a CF card memory for the HDD. For the MIO, you need to add a simple mod to allow the use of more modern SCSI drives. There is a lot of info here about the MIO upgrades if you look. Both of these were amazing devices in their day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcamp48 Posted September 7, 2022 Share Posted September 7, 2022 On 8/27/2022 at 8:45 AM, Tillek said: I'm not really in the market for an MIO (already have some), but thanks anyway... I'm sure it will benefit someone else. A BB would be nice, but alas. If you sell your Adam, who's going to test the Adam FujiNet? I have decided not to sell my Adam and have a Fujinet for it on the way. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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