New-ish here. I present my grotty STfm (C103414-001).

[Neffers]

_{Hello all.}

 

I'm kinda new here (I had an account many moons back but forgot my credentials). I just thought I'd share with you my grotty STfm I was given quite some time ago. I was hoping to upgrade it further after giving it a proper clean and fixing the atrociously installed (strange) Marpet 4 Meg upgrade properly.

 

Being able to add a blitter would be nice, and I'm unsure of which TOS it's running (not been powered on for years), but it does behave with HDD's as I have a 40 Meg monitor stand that was working when I was using it. My goal with the machine is to eventually take it to the studio I work at and hook it up to the MIDI gear we have to show the kids how it was done back then, non of this fancy VST stuff! This also depends on me finding a monitor of sorts.

 

So, here's my grot box. I didn't bother with the casing as we've all seen what happens when these things smoke 40 a day for 30+ years,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any ideas or suggestions would be cool. Thanks for looking,

 

Neffers.

[tjlazer]

If you can get a proper ST monitor, that would be nice, but they are prone to failures due to old age. You can get a monitor cable for using it on a VGA monitor in mono easily, or get a special "Best VGA" cable that can do both color and mono, but you need a special LCD monitor that can do 15KHz to be able to display the color modes. The NEC 1970vx is one such, you can search for threads on here on that monitor. You can also get a Scart cable and a Scart to HDMI converted box, not sure how well those work.

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/255842-atari-st-with-vga-monitor/

Edited October 14, 2016 by tjlazer

[Neffers]

Yeah, I'm aware of the 15KHz issue. I have a few older LCD's kicking around, I'll be checking those out when it's tidy / in good form (and I'll be sure to post any that work too just in case). I have an RGB SCART lead for the ST already, and my TV does a sort of decent job at upscaling, fine for games, but probably not good for any GEM stuff, but again, I have yet to see. Having a Framemeister would be handy. I have a composite to VGA converter, but it's old and probably won't do a decent job (again, I'll have to report on that).

 

I saw GadgetUK's vid he did a while ago with the GBS-8220, I may even venture down that route. I dunno. It all depends on how stable I can get the machine running before chucking money (of which I have £0.00p at the moment) at it.

 

Thanks for the suggestions

[Umberto]

I got the scart to hdmi, very happy with it. I got Best's vga cable and a multi-sync vga monitor, not that great. I also have 2 1224 color and 2 124 mono Atari monitors. But the best quality is the scart cable and the scart to hdmi scaler with my Samsung 22" monitor. You got a later version of the STfm definitely get a blitter, an exxos 2.2 booster, internal Satan drive from Lotherek and maybe a Gotek floppy emulator flashed with HxC. Then you would have a pimpin STfm

 

my 2 cents worth

[Umberto]

I also have a GBS-8220, junk cheaply made junk. In also got a bunch others but the most crisp for color is the scart to hdmi

Edited October 14, 2016 by Umberto

[Neffers]

Your 2 cents are welcome. I may be able to get an Atari 124 monitor for decent price but I've never been a fan of it, personally. The fancy stuff may come along later, but I certainly want / need a blitter, it's a cheap-ish upgrade and really helps with GEM stuff. Any excuse to get the soldering iron hot too.

 

Cheers.

[Umberto]

https://www.exxoshost.co.uk/atari/last/storenew/

 

Exxos has got a plcc converter and blitters in stock. I would get a blitter and booster, then you'll notice a difference. NVDI is a huge boost too.

[Neffers]

I've been pouring over Exxos's site for a few days now, some good stuff there. The PLCC68 location on my board isn't thru-hole, surface mounted. Not to worry though I can grab a socket and flow it on, either with a lil patience with a fine tipped iron, or use it as an excuse to get a rework station. I'm always tinkering and it'd save some faffing on other projects too.

[Neffers]

I should also note that I plan on re-capping what I can, when I can. PSU 1st ofc. This PSU is one of the better ones apparently. I could do with borrowing a scope.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Neffers

[tjlazer]

The Best VGA cable is great for color but mono sucks. Really bad quality picture. Not sure how the mono only VGA cables do.

[Neffers]

I have yet to play with high resolution that isn't standard hardware. I wonder if the Best VGA is a catch all with both syncs tied? Is there a schematic of the lead kicking around?

[Neffers]

Starting to stop the grot. Got the casing soaking in Oxi to get the buildup of crud off of it. There's a crack in the case that I'm not happy about. Meh. I'll let it dry and see about cementing it after the peroxide treatment, it's properly yellowed. Seeing as it's Autumn here I think I'll probably get a UV cannon on it. Wish me luck.