AVGCART

[ricky]

Hello, No doubt the question has already been asked, but the AVGCART is compatible with the XL/XE Secam?

 

Will the PBI cable also be available soon at MiscRetro?

 

Thanks,

[tmp]

hi,

 

yes, it should work on secam machines just fine (as it does on pal/ntsc)

 

as for pbi cables, yes, they'll be eventually listed

[JihemB]

Hi.

 

I confirm it works fine on my SECAM 800 XL.

Ultimate Cart works fine too.

AFAIK there is no hardware (except perhaps those that are in close relationship with GTIA, like the Sophia Board which is declined in NTSC, PAL and SECAM version) that doesn't work with SECAM XL.

 

BTW : Ricky, if you do business with UK (Retro Lemon for instance) be aware that you'll probably have to add customs fees to the price of your order (I was charged 12€ more by French post office/customs for a single AVG Cart PBI connector cable a couple of weeks ago !).

Edited April 21, 2022 by JihemB

[ricky]

Thanks for your replies guys,
So I'm going to avoid RetroLemon, otherwise it will be too expensive.
Great that it works well on Secam systems.

 

It is indeed important to have the PBI cable with the AVGCART to take advantage of the memory extension on a stock XL, I know other comrades in France who also want it...

 

So it's better to wait to buy the whole thing at once.

[MrFSL]

5 hours ago, ricky said:

It is indeed important to have the PBI cable with the AVGCART to take advantage of the memory extension on a stock XL

There is also the PBI BIOS! For instance, if using SDX --- SDX SIO speeds are limited. PBI allows for Highspeed SIO through the PBI BIOS and I think I read that this is how the AVG can work when coupled with the PBI cable. 

 

There are a slew of other advantages you can get out of PBI.. but I have to wait to get a cable and test.

 

[ricky]

20 hours ago, MrFSL said:

 

Thank you #MrFSL for the PBI/SIO coupling info,
I too will soon be able to test, I have just placed an order on Retro Lemon...

Edited April 22, 2022 by ricky

[ricky]

12 hours ago, ricky said:

I too will soon be able to test, I have just placed an order on Retro Lemon...

I made a mistake, I ordered from MiscRetro.
This will also teach me to write a post at a late hour...?

[tmp]

if anyone was planning to get avgcart from me, now would be a good time to do so since there's only one left and there won't be any available in the foreseeable future (and i want to save one trip to the the post office and ship it with the rest tomorrow)

 

https://miscretro.com/product/avgcart/

 

EDIT: gone, thanks

Edited April 24, 2022 by tmp

[AtariGeezer]

15 minutes ago, tmp said:

if anyone was planning to get avgcart from me, now would be a good time to do so since there's only one left and there won't be any available in the foreseeable future (and i want to save one trip to the the post office and ship it with the rest tomorrow)

 

https://miscretro.com/product/avgcart/

I couldn't pass on this

 

[patjomki]

1 hour ago, tmp said:

and there won't be any available in the foreseeable future

 

But why? AVGCART is the ultimate solution for unexpanded ATARIs.

 

Supply issues or will there be an updated version?

[MrFSL]

2 hours ago, patjomki said:

Supply issues or will there be an updated version?

I read supply issues --- I have no idea about updated versions. Hope there will be!

[tmp]

parts availability issues

[patjomki]

Thanks for the info. Hope supply issues are resolved soon.

[Mclaneinc]

I would not hold your breath, these supply issues are more likely to get worse with current global events making even the shipping of stuff hard, let alone the global shortage of components..

[+Peter Rabitt]

WOW Just got the next to the final AVG today and started to "play" with it...

I was looking thru the De Re AVGCART, and did not find the answer to this question: How or can you copy from the cart to a floppy disk or and can you copy a file from a floppy disk to the card???

So far I am learning the "key strokes" to do things and having fun...

I am using a 16gb SDHC formatted to fat 32(was already formatted, I did not have to) and added all the arari files I have, about 3 gb...

 

Peter

 

[tmp]

try some disc copying software, i've seen people recommend disk wizard ii (i believe), preferably in xex format (should be on atarionline.pl), i've tried it once and it wasn't exactly user-friendly, ymmv

 

if your real floppy is set to d1, mount atr you want to copy as d2, run copier and copy d2: to d1:

 

for copying real floppy to atr, you need to mount empty atr to which you'll write, i suggest putting some different sized (sd, ed, dd) empty atrs into template dir and create copies when needed

[Quantum Mechanic]

Darn it... I was hoping I'd find at least one AVGCART available somewhere for purchase.

[ascrnet]

?I am still waiting for an AVGCART to appear with two cables, one for ECI and the other for PBI. Since the SIO cable is easy to make at home. ?

[MrFSL]

4 hours ago, Peter Rabitt said:

How or can you copy from the cart to a floppy disk or and can you copy a file from a floppy disk to the card???

Theoretically, you go to the AVG loader and highlight the floppy image (atr) and Shift + 8 (could be 1-8 bjt just an example.) This will put a number 8 next to the atr. Next boot to spartadosx (FJC version of SDX with SIDE support. If you then use fdisk to assign a drive letter to your fat partion and load the fat driver (fatfs.sys) then you can copy to and from the atr and the fat partition.

 

The fat partition will have the disk number you assigned in fdisk.... the atr will have the disk number you set in the loader (8 in this example.)

 

If you want from an actual floppy then its all the same minus the part about the atr.

Edited April 29, 2022 by MrFSL

[lewiS]

4 hours ago, Quantum Mechanic said:

Darn it... I was hoping I'd find at least one AVGCART available somewhere for purchase.

I still have a stock: https://retrolemon.co.uk/search?controller=search&poscats=0&s=avgcart

[as...]

Avgcart , is the best?!

 

 

[mimo]

4 hours ago, as... said:

Avgcart , is the best?!

 

 

It depends what you want from a cartridge, but I would say that AVG or Side 3 are the best options at the moment

[Luke210]

For stock atari with ECI it's the best option.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Luke210

[Mclaneinc]

2 hours ago, mimo said:

It depends what you want from a cartridge, but I would say that AVG or Side 3 are the best options at the moment

Yes, totally agree, for slickness and detail of interface then SIDE 3, for use of game in many load styles and quality of loading (with SIO cable) then AVG cannot be beaten BUT either cart is worth it's weight in gold....You can't beat Jon's interface, although I imagine by now that Jon hates it

 

Both carts are feature heavy and either cart (preferably both) would be an epic plus for any user.

[+DjayBee]

From what I gather both carts work very well for cartdrige images and XEX files.

 

SIDE 3 together with a U1MB extends this to all types of disk images and both are a perfect match. With U1MB's PBI-BIOS you have transparent high-speed SIO and can use hard disk images as well. And Jon's UI is really outstanding.

On the other hand without a U1MB, SIDE 3 has a lower compatibilty in loading ATR images because it always needs an on-the-fly patched OS to load them.

 

AVG without any of its "extension cables" works pretty much the same: cartdriges and XEXs are good but low compatibility with ATRs.

Paired with its cables it shines.

I own an AVG with the SIO cable and since then rarely use my SIO2SD oder SDriveMax because my AVG is always plugged into my Atari. It loads every ATR or ATX I feed it without any problems because they load through SIO just like with any real disk drive. Only high-speed SIO depends on an OS which supports it and thus lessens its compatibilty compared to the pair SIDE3+U1MB.

If you add an PBI/ECI cable you even have a 512KB RAM extension and from what I gather, it can also use a PBI-BIOS and its high-speed SIO features.