Help with understanding the limits of SIO2PC and XF551 issues.

[Geister]

Hi All,

 

I exited the Atari 8-bit scene sometime in 85 or 86 after giving all my 8-bit stuff away to a good home. I recently started playing with emulators out of nostalgia and found that it's not the same as the original hardware. After watching many youtube vids, especially FJC's live streams about all the interesting new hardware for the 8-bits, I decided it was time to get some real hardware and start playing again. My first project after cleaning up some barn-find computers and disk drives was to build my own SIO2PC cable using an FTDI board and I'm confused by some contradictory statements I've read about the device.

 

First of all, the device works and I can boot images stored on my laptop using the cable and the RESPEQT software. But I want to be able to transfer some programs I have on actual floppies up to an image on the laptop. I have read both that this can be done, and that actual floppy drives won't work with the SIO2PC attached to the SIO bus. The second situation seems to be true. Is there something else that needs to be done to make an SIO2PC that doesn't steal the SIO bus?

 

Am I using the wrong software for the task? Am I using the wrong disk drive? I'm using an XF551 because I want to use double density diskettes. Would I be better off getting a US Doubler or a Happy mod for the 1050 and use that instead?

 

I know next to nothing about the XF551 and DOS XE since neither were available when I was still using my Atari.

 

On the subject of XF551 drives, I've fixed cracked solder joints on mine and it seems to be working fine without the SIO2PC attached, except that I can't format a disk using DOS 2.0. I'd try other DOS versions, but since I can't copy files to the drive with the SIO2PC attached...I don't have any other DOS version.

 

Any ideas why I can't format a disk using the XF551? I can read and write files with it. I've read that the 12 volt supply not working will cause this problem, but it also wil not write to the drive. I've cleaned the heads with IPA and a q-tip, but I'm not getting any crud off the head and they do look nice and shiny. Now, to be fair, all the disks I own were used and some can't be read any more. However, the 1050 was able to format at least one of them, and if I try to reformat the same disk with the XF551, it fails to format. I suspect the disk may have a bad sector that the 1050 doesn't hit and the 551 does.

 

So that's it...can I get an SIO2PC to work with a real drive attached, and does anyone know why I can't format a disk on the 551?

 

Also, are there any members of the old ABEs ACEs user group on this site?

[_The Doctor__]

Yes, there are...

Sysops and other.

 

Did you try a new batch of disks to format?

XF551 uses index at format. That can make it a little picky as the bad spot will always fall in the same place.

The 1050 does not use index and can format disks that fail on other drives because the bad spot sometimes can fall between valid spaces of the disk

Edited June 4, 2023 by _The Doctor__

[+Larry]

@Geister If you're still interested in this topic (5 years later), why don't you update it a bit so we know if you still need help.

[Geister]

Wow!  Has it really been 5 years?  I'm all good now.  The problem was old disks long past their expiration date.  I still mess around with floppies for old times sake, but I really need to move on to more modern solutions. Maybe like Thomas Cherryhome's SIOtoCLOUD.😜

[+Larry]

19 hours ago, Geister said:

Wow!  Has it really been 5 years?  I'm all good now.  The problem was old disks long past their expiration date.  I still mess around with floppies for old times sake, but I really need to move on to more modern solutions. Maybe like Thomas Cherryhome's SIOtoCLOUD.😜

I have not heard of that one.  Do you have a link or info?

[_The Doctor__]

You'll have to wait for Thom Sawyer to get people to do that work for him.

[Geister]

It's my term for FujiNET.  The most awesome purchase I'm going to have to sneak past my wife.

[+DrVenkman]

34 minutes ago, Geister said:

It's my term for FujiNET.  The most awesome purchase I'm going to have to sneak past my wife.

FujiiNet is awesome and highly recommended.I think it’s the single most versatile and useful device for the modern hobbyist, especially casual users or even power users when they simply want to load disk or tape-based software and executables and use their machines. Add in the incredible printer emulation, web-based configuration over LAN, S.A.M. emulation, MIDImate emulation, and even CP/M capability, and it’s stunning really. And absurdly cheap for everything it does. 

[tjlazer]

Does anyone know if you can write 360k ATR disk images to the XF551 using a PC and the Respeqt software?

[_The Doctor__]

if the atr is double sided double density and is mounted in a slot of respeqt on your pc and you want to write that atr out to a real XF551 I don't see why you couldn't, I use APE without issues. It should be no different, why not just give it a try and see?

[ggn]

Here's how I did something similar using FujiNet, but same principles should apply for Respectqt:

 

- Drive ID 1: FujiNet, floppy image with the copier program

- Drive ID 2: FujiNet, source image

- Drive ID 3: XF551, actual DD disk mounted

 

Once that is set up, boot the Atari into the copier program (I can't remember which one I used, it simply had to support 4 drives and DD), copy disk 2 into disk 3.

 

I'm sure there are many other variations of this but this was the most hassle free that I could think of (for example: this could have been possible to do with 2 drives, butI'm terrible at remembering which magic buttons to press to switch disk images!)