Simba7 Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Yep. After several decades, I finally found my old system. Can't find the power supplies or the SIO cables. Crap. Anyway, what should I do before I fire this back up? What mods are available? Should I start replacing a ton of capacitors? Also, where can I find the power supplies? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 1010, possibility the drive belt will disintegrate and need replacement. 1050, clean the head and it'll probably be fine. 800XL, after being stored might have issues. Keyboard can stop working properly, fix will either be keep pressing keys or pull the thing apart - fixes described elsewhere. Computer might have issues, legs on chips can get a bit oxidized, usually fixed by pulling partly out of sockets and reseating. Whatever you do, don't ever use a C64 power supply - plugs are the same but voltage/pin assignment means it will fry the 800XL. Finding PS - wanted ad here or just build one using DIN plug and a 1.2 Amp or better USB wall-wart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Westphal Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Turn it on and find out. Power- best electronics or B&C . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 (edited) Welcome back ! I am at kinda similar track although I've always had my A8's around in some way or form since 1983. About caps: I just checked all caps in my 1050s (two) and all of them are still in excellent condition. I use a dedicated ESR meter to check them. Well, they are all Nichicon caps after all Apart from cleaning the head with some pure alcohol and a q-tip I'd also advice you to lightly grease the metal supports for the head. This reduces track seeking noise a lot. Don't overdo it though and don't use oil. Regarding mods, I did the following to my 600 XL: - S-video mod to greatly improve picture quality - Simple Stereo from Lotharek http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=45 - 64k memory upgrade but your 800XL won't need that - 27512 EPROM mod with 4 OSes in it, one is the standard OS patched with HIAS' high speed SIO drivers and reversed OPTION key function and Shift-Reset cold boot function, which is awesome.These three things was really the only extra's I wanted from an OS.The others are XL-fix OS (so I'll never need any Translator disks or similar stuff to load for those games that need it) and standard XL OS (for 100% compatibility) - Happy 1050 in one of my 1050s. Had that for quite some time already, but it only gets really useful when you use an OS that has high speed SIO routines !! However, if you are interested in something like that I'd highly recommend having a look at the still to be releases Mega Speedy which will do Happy and about any other speeder/doubler upgrade ever made for the 1050 drive. My planned other upgrades are a Ultimate 1MB and a The!cart cartridge and a SIO2USB plug from Lotharek. [Edit] probably the most useful thing to bring new life into your system is either getting some kind of SIO2 USB device so you can hook up four PC/Mac/Linix machine to the Atari to use all the fantastic new software that is around AND/OR get a SIO2SD "drive" which also allows you to access these files via a SD card. Lotharek also has a great one like that: http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=23 If you want "plug &splay" or http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=49 if you are more the DIY guy Edited November 12, 2014 by Level42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmercer Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Some sort of sio2WHATEVER so you aren't relying on carts/floppies. Rebuildable power supply (not one of the cheap chinese pieces of junk in the red boxes from eBay). SIO cables (it's too soon to say for sure but I'm actually trying to get some manufactured at a resonable price to bring some new ones to market at a cost lower than used and NOS ones), several as they aren't exactly growing in available quantity. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simba7 Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 (edited) I might build one myself. I checked the pinout and it's only +5v (I was thinking it was both +5v and +12v). Just need to find the connector and a 5v 2a PSU. As for a C64, I know. I have one next to the Atari with a 1541-II and a 1571 attached to it. That's the next project. I have an old IBM P4 ThinkCentre S50 USFF with a 1TB drive that I'm using as a storage system for the entire setup. I'm aiming to hook up the 800XL, C64, IIe, and IIgs up to it. Whatever you do, don't ever use a C64 power supply - plugs are the same but voltage/pin assignment means it will fry the 800XL. Finding PS - wanted ad here or just build one using DIN plug and a 1.2 Amp or better USB wall-wart. Edited November 12, 2014 by Simba7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmercer Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 (edited) I might build one myself. I I saw somewhere on here this week where someone was mentioning they were using a modern power supply as when the walwarts start to go voltage goes screwy... Edit: here it is -> http://atariage.com/forums/topic/231639-vintage-power-protection/?do=findComment&comment=3109879 Edited November 12, 2014 by ryanmercer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simba7 Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 I saw somewhere on here this week where someone was mentioning they were using a modern power supply as when the walwarts start to go voltage goes screwy... Edit: here it is -> http://atariage.com/forums/topic/231639-vintage-power-protection/?do=findComment&comment=3109879 I was thinking of something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Qty-1-NEW-Symbol-PWRS-14000-058R-Power-Supply-Adapters-5V-2A-86-14000-085R-/361112167676?pt=BI_Security_Fire_Protection&hash=item5413f664fc ..or this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-2A-10W-AC-DC-Universal-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-PSU-DVR-CCTV-LED-DIY-/231044263519?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35cb4fae5f Ya, it's eBay.. I'm just posting it here for reference purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 I know yours is missing, but I prefer to keep using the original one's, especially those for the computers. In Europe, they were done by a German company and are very good quality. They are not switching power supplies. I want to see today's switching power supplies in 30 years.....you can bet that they ALL will be dead. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 SIO cables (it's too soon to say for sure but I'm actually trying to get some manufactured at a resonable price to bring some new ones to market at a cost lower than used and NOS ones), several as they aren't exactly growing in available quantity. That's an EXCELLENT idea. I did an inventory recently and while I currently have plenty of fully functional/intact SIO cables (8, plus one other with one broken connector), most people don't have that many spares lying around. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmercer Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) That's an EXCELLENT idea. I did an inventory recently and while I currently have plenty of fully functional/intact SIO cables (8, plus one other with one broken connector), most people don't have that many spares lying around. Yeah I've got 3 or 4 and I'd really like to have a dozen at least (I mean, I have 4 monitors... 3 800xl's... I like to have extras of stuff haha). I'm trying a few U.S. companies (probably manufacture their stuff overseas) first just for sake of the language, fired off some requests today and hoping to hear back from them by the end of the week. I'm trying to find someone that can get me in the lower hundred's for MOQ. I asked for quotes on 5ft and 10ft cables if any of them can do it. If I can get them to do 200-300 at a reasonable price I'll buy them via my LLC and sell them for 10-15% more than cost (I'll lose 3ish % to merchant fees), I imagine I'll be stuck with the bulk of them for years too but that's fine. Hopefully I get good news this week as I'd like to order this quarter. If I don't get good news this week, I'm going to reach out to more companies this weekend. Edited November 13, 2014 by ryanmercer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 I was thinking of something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Qty-1-NEW-Symbol-PWRS-14000-058R-Power-Supply-Adapters-5V-2A-86-14000-085R-/361112167676?pt=BI_Security_Fire_Protection&hash=item5413f664fc ..or this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-2A-10W-AC-DC-Universal-Regulated-Switching-Power-Supply-PSU-DVR-CCTV-LED-DIY-/231044263519?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35cb4fae5f Ya, it's eBay.. I'm just posting it here for reference purposes. I presume (but don't know) that these are regulated to +5 VDC. I've used some of these for years with excellent results, although I use a regular XL repairable "black beauty" (the early, XL power supply most of the time. Billings, MT -- where winter IS winter! Brrr! -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) They're only €7($8,70)....almost around the corner from me.... http://rewindgames.eu/opencart/Atari/XL-XE/XL-XE_Hardware/atari-sio-cable Shipping is very reasonable too and Fred ships world-wide. And he's a nice guy and fellow Atari lover Edited November 13, 2014 by Level42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simba7 Posted November 16, 2014 Author Share Posted November 16, 2014 They're only €7($8,70)....almost around the corner from me.... http://rewindgames.eu/opencart/Atari/XL-XE/XL-XE_Hardware/atari-sio-cable Shipping is very reasonable too and Fred ships world-wide. And he's a nice guy and fellow Atari lover Ya, I was thinking of buying 10, but they wanted €32.50 just for shipping. Ouch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jinks Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 Why do you need to have a fast sio. and 1050 doubler. The stock drive is very fast compared to c64. I only have one disc with 4 games on it. Discs are impossible to find and nowadays dont people use sio2"insert whatever here" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanmercer Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 (edited) Discs are impossible to find and nowadays dont people use sio2"insert whatever here" Blank disks aren't. http://floppydisk.com/ has ones that are made by a legacy contractor for the government and are relatively new. I bought 50 a few weeks ago and they all work great. Edited November 17, 2014 by ryanmercer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Level42 Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 (edited) Once you're used to a 1050 with a Happy in combination with built in fast SIO routines in your OS you don't ever want to go back. I just measured the difference between loading the new game RGB game with a stock drive and original OS, and a Happy1050 and Hiass modded OS. FIrst took 37 seconds, last took less than 16 seconds. I still have quite a few floppies and I like sometimes using them just because I can The Happy I bought out of frustration for never owning one BITD and discovering I could easily afford one now....my next upgrade will be a Mega Speedy.....again just for fun.... Also......if you have any SIO2whatwver device, you are especially going to want fast SIO. Apart from that all, it is fun to tinker with it, Edited November 17, 2014 by Level42 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.