Atari 850 Parallel Port - Device Expansion System

[fibrewire]

There are tons of parallel port devices on the market, but has anyone tried to use them with the Atari 850 interface? We know the lantronix UDS-10 serial device is a good way to attach ethernet, but what about parallel port floppies from apple or IBM? Anyone try parallel port CD-ROM or Zip drives? Please post your experiences or ideas here.

Edited June 27, 2014 by fibrewire

[+David_P]

I'm not an 850 expert, but I believe the port is unidirectional. To make it bidirectional would require a new ROM for the 850.

[fibrewire]

I'm not an 850 expert, but I believe the port is unidirectional. To make it bidirectional would require a new ROM for the 850.

 

Well, i guess thats the end of this thread

[BillC]

I'm not an 850 expert, but I believe the port is unidirectional. To make it bidirectional would require a new ROM for the 850.

Even a new ROM wouldn't help, all printer port signals except +5V/GND are buffered by CA3086 transistor array chips.

[Fox-1 / mnx]

Parallel devices like ZIP and CD drives are actually just 8-bit SCSI devices with a modified connector. On the PC side a driver is used to make the SCSI protocol work on the 8-bit parallel port. Technically you can connect such a device to 2 joystick ports of an A8 (=bi-directional 8 bit port with trigger inputs for handshake) but you'll still need a driver.

 

Or try to get a Black-Box and just connect the SCSI version :-)

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

Or try to get a Black-Box and just connect the SCSI version :-)

 

The Blackbox needs a parity for this to work. Pick one of the two options explained on my BlackBox page.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy (who's booted his Atari off both a ZIPdrive and some CD-drives)

Edited June 27, 2014 by Mathy