Mega STE/TT LED replacements!

[swatcop]

@DarkLord I may (and often am) be mistaken, but I think that is a power switch if the board is powered off the barrel type DC connector when using the US as an external unit.  I'd have to confirm on my external US which is one of the first generation US (pre Lotharek) units but iirc it has a on/off switch.  Don't have any of this in front of me to look at traces, but the floppy power header probably bypasses the switch.

[+DarkLord]

Well, I tried flipping the switch from its current position (the way it came when

I got it) and it did...nothing, apparently. My Mega STe still booted up from the

SD card/US but oddly, in low res.

 

Flipping it back caused it to boot up normally, in med res.

 

Thanks.

 

[+remowilliams]

31 minutes ago, swatcop said:

@DarkLord I may (and often am) be mistaken, but I think that is a power switch if the board is powered off the barrel type DC connector when using the US as an external unit. 

Correct

 

Q: What does the switch S1?

Power on/off switch in cased version, as both versions share the same pcb. 

[+DarkLord]

So as long as you're powering it (as I did) with an adapter from the original

hard disk p/s to the internal US, the switch does nothing...except boot your

setup into low res.

 

Alright, thanks for the info guys, appreciated. 

 

[leech]

10 hours ago, DarkLord said:

So as long as you're powering it (as I did) with an adapter from the original

hard disk p/s to the internal US, the switch does nothing...except boot your

setup into low res.

 

Alright, thanks for the info guys, appreciated. 

 

So is it somehow skipping the dektop.inf/auto folder?  Is it booting off the second SD card?  There would have to be a reason it boots into low res.  I haven't installed mine yet as I have been doing 8-bit projects.

[+DarkLord]

Not sure. I do not currently have 2 cards in play.

 

I don't think I've ever even used 2 cards at once - how far (gigs)

can you do that? I've got a 4 gig card in - can you still use another

4 or 2 gig card? Do you have to use HDDriver (or whatever software

you're using) on it as well?

 

Thanks.

 

[swatcop]

17 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

Not sure. I do not currently have 2 cards in play.

 

I don't think I've ever even used 2 cards at once - how far (gigs)

can you do that? I've got a 4 gig card in - can you still use another

4 or 2 gig card? Do you have to use HDDriver (or whatever software

you're using) on it as well?

 

Thanks.

 

Sure you can.  You just have to keep partitions to the size your TOS version can manage, and you can only access the number of partitions that TOS can see (I think its 14 ~ C D E F G H I J K L M N O P).  Assuming your 4gb SD is broke into 500mb partitions, roughly 8 partitions, you have K L M N O P left.  I use an 8GB SD, but leave myself a few partitions for inserting USB Thumb-drives.

I used HDDRVR to set everything up including the Thumb-drive.

[+DarkLord]

Okay, gonna start a new message thread for this, and not hijack LED's n stuff. 

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/304895-using-2-sd-cards-with-an-ultrasatan/

 

 

Edited April 5, 2020 by DarkLord
Added message link....

[leech]

10 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Okay, gonna start a new message thread for this, and not hijack LED's n stuff. 

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/304895-using-2-sd-cards-with-an-ultrasatan/

 

 

Ha, the last person I had requesting them wanted blue ones, but I have not heard back about their address, then the lockdown happened, so I haven't really been building any. 

 

So instead been modding Atari 8bits...

[+DarkLord]

I'm gonna try something semi-radical and if it works out

I'll need another yellow LED.

 

I'll let ya know.

 

[tjlazer]

Here is my SCSI2SD 5.1 installed in my Mega STE! 

 

Been having issues with the driver software and corruption.  But I think it might of been due to a bad connection on the SCSI host controller.  Seems to be ok now.

 

As a side note, I just tried to put Petari 1GB SCSI HD games demo image onto a 1GB SD card and it boots right up!  Will need to do more testing.

 

http://atari.8bitchip.info/DiskImgPP1.html

 

Many thanks to his work on his game adaptions and fixes!

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by tjlazer

[+DarkLord]

Success. Without damaging the US board, searing my fingers, or burning the house

down, I managed to install a 4 pin header in J8. Honestly though, without some of

the better tools like the hot air stations 'n stuff, I gave up on removing the existing

drive LED's at D11 and D13.

 

For those of you who are sensitive to such things, spoiler alert - don't read this next

part. I took one of my X-Acto knives (think super sharp scalpel) that I use when I

build set models for D&D and simply cut them out. Solder is soft, after all.   

 

<gasp> <horror><shocked looks> Yeah, yeah, I know - but it worked without too

much effort and no damage to the board, which was the key part for me.

 

Anyway, here's a few pics:

 

[leech]

1 minute ago, DarkLord said:

Success. Without damaging the US board, searing my fingers, or burning the house

down, I managed to install a 4 pin header in J8. Honestly though, without some of

the better tools like the hot air stations 'n stuff, I gave up on removing the existing

drive LED's at D11 and D13.

 

For those of you who are sensitive to such things, spoiler alert - don't read this next

part. I took one of my X-Acto knives (think super sharp scalpel) that I use when I

build set models for D&D and simply cut them out. Solder is soft, after all.   

 

<gasp> <horror><shocked looks> Yeah, yeah, I know - but it worked without too

much effort and no damage to the board, which was the key part for me.

 

Anyway, here's a few pics:

 

Nice!  But I upgraded to GURPS years ago, and mostly 3d print miniatures now instead of putting models together...

 

Oh, awesome work on the UltraSatan mod too!  How do the multi-colored ones look on the hard drive?

[+DarkLord]

Now. I've got a theoretical question for the experts following this

message thread.

 

I'm very happy with the results that we've gotten here so far.

 

But...I'm an Atarian - I always want more and the best, at that. 

 

So...is there any reason why the power LED on the top of the Ultrasatan

boards couldn't be removed and then use that for one of Leech's most

excellent LED's, while also using another LED off of J8 to show drive

activity?

 

I know, you're going to say but there's only one LED window on the 

Mega STe's removable hard drive bay. 

 

Right, but I examined a spare that I have, which is cracked but other

wise okay, and that plastic window piece just pries right out.

 

Why couldn't we match it up on the inside, using the 2nd one for

placement, drawing an outline and making a hole (to match) for

a second LED window? Then hook up the drive LED and the power

LED to them.

 

Boom - super nice light show for our Mega STe's.

 

Thoughts?

 

[+DarkLord]

5 minutes ago, leech said:

Nice!  But I upgraded to GURPS years ago, and mostly 3d print miniatures now instead of putting models together...

 

Oh, awesome work on the UltraSatan mod too!  How do the multi-colored ones look on the hard drive?

 

Yeah, the 3D stuff is great - you ever deal with HeroForge? Expensive but I like their stuff and they keep improving

all the time. I got into the cardboard stock stuff (#110) and made some pretty cool things with it. I got really super

creative at one point and built bases with thin sheet metal underneath. I then built my cardboard model pieces with

magnets inside, so that you could "stick" them anywhere on the bases with nice stability. Honestly, I just enjoy

building things and tinkering.

 

I think most of us here have that in common, at least to some degree. 

 

As far as the colors go, psychedelic baby, psychedelic. 

 

Okay, off topic but here are a few examples of the D&D stuff (keep in mind, everything is #110 stock paper!) 

 

[leech]

55 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

 

Yeah, the 3D stuff is great - you ever deal with HeroForge? Expensive but I like their stuff and they keep improving

all the time. I got into the cardboard stock stuff (#110) and made some pretty cool things with it. I got really super

creative at one point and built bases with thin sheet metal underneath. I then built my cardboard model pieces with

magnets inside, so that you could "stick" them anywhere on the bases with nice stability. Honestly, I just enjoy

building things and tinkering.

 

I think most of us here have that in common, at least to some degree. 

 

As far as the colors go, psychedelic baby, psychedelic. 

 

Okay, off topic but here are a few examples of the D&D stuff (keep in mind, everything is #110 stock paper!) 

 

Damn, that looks amazing!

Yeah, Heroforge is where I had my players design their character, then I would print them.  I am really happy with the Wood PLA I bought, the minis look fantastic in them. 

I haven't built full on environments for them though, that is sweet!

I was thinking through setting up a projector or getting a Table with an inbuilt TV though...

[+DarkLord]

We all thought about pitching in and doing the VR table thing. It

seems like it's got a lot of potential but it never panned out....

 

[leech]

7 minutes ago, DarkLord said:

We all thought about pitching in and doing the VR table thing. It

seems like it's got a lot of potential but it never panned out....

 

That definitely seems like it has potential, I do have the VR setup, but then for it to work, everyone would have to as well.  But then with the self-isolation, it would have been well worth it!

[swatcop]

4 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Now. I've got a theoretical question for the experts following this

message thread.

 

I'm very happy with the results that we've gotten here so far.

 

But...I'm an Atarian - I always want more and the best, at that. 

 

So...is there any reason why the power LED on the top of the Ultrasatan

boards couldn't be removed and then use that for one of Leech's most

excellent LED's, while also using another LED off of J8 to show drive

activity?

 

I know, you're going to say but there's only one LED window on the 

Mega STe's removable hard drive bay. 

 

Right, but I examined a spare that I have, which is cracked but other

wise okay, and that plastic window piece just pries right out.

 

Why couldn't we match it up on the inside, using the 2nd one for

placement, drawing an outline and making a hole (to match) for

a second LED window? Then hook up the drive LED and the power

LED to them.

 

Boom - super nice light show for our Mega STe's.

 

Thoughts?

 

I could see this being useful for an external cased UltraSatan, but with it being powered off the Mega itself I'd just stick with how it is (personally).  If the Mega is on... the US is on and we have a nice new light to indicate that thanks to Leech.

 

Of course, this is coming from a guy who just wired up power and disk activity lights to a RPi 4 which is cased in a Checkmate A1500 case - along with an 030 accelerated A500 motherboard, 2mb Chip RAM and 128mb Fast RAM lol.  My point is, I totally get the desire to do mods ?

 

[leech]

1 minute ago, swatcop said:

I could see this being useful for an external cased UltraSatan, but with it being powered off the Mega itself I'd just stick with how it is (personally).  If the Mega is on... the US is on and we have a nice new light to indicate that thanks to Leech.

 

Of course, this is coming from a guy who just wired up power and disk activity lights to a RPi 4 which is cased in a Checkmate A1500 case - along with an 030 accelerated A500 motherboard, 2mb Chip RAM and 128mb Fast RAM lol.  My point is, I totally get the desire to do mods ?

 

Ha, I screwed up when I ordered my Checkmate A1500 case, and didn't get the A500 keyboard connector, so have to wait for that now, but I need to design a back plate for holding the HDMI, Ethernet and SD Card connectors for the Vampire V2 that I have in there with my A500+

[+DarkLord]

Okay, back on topic. I've got a complaint. 

 

So...I'm sitting in front of my LED enhanced Mega STe now...

 

On the left, a power on light that equals a solar flare in intensity, causing me to don sunglasses, 

 

On the right, a HD access light that when it's flashing causes "Blinded by the Light" lyrics to run through my head,

 

and then I access the floppy disk.... blink, blink....

 

Yep, gonna have to find a way to get that floppy disk light to match the other two in all their glory. 

 

 

[leech]

2 hours ago, DarkLord said:

Okay, back on topic. I've got a complaint. 

 

So...I'm sitting in front of my LED enhanced Mega STe now...

 

On the left, a power on light that equals a solar flare in intensity, causing me to don sunglasses, 

 

On the right, a HD access light that when it's flashing causes "Blinded by the Light" lyrics to run through my head,

 

and then I access the floppy disk.... blink, blink....

 

Yep, gonna have to find a way to get that floppy disk light to match the other two in all their glory. 

 

 

Ha!  Well, I guess there is the potential to either put a brighter LED on the Floppy drive or add a resistor to the other two to lessen them.

[swatcop]

I don't use a floppy drive that often since installing the UltraSatan but the light on the FD is pretty dim comparatively.  Probably going to just throw a Gotek in the MSTe as all of my other Atari's and Commodore computers have them.  Its just a hell of a lot more convenient than trying to find working/reliable disks in my 30 year old pile of them.  

 

Here I go off topic, again but truth be told, the only reason I hadn't yet is I have to design a Gotek mount or do semi-major surgery to the Gotek itself to use the 3d print that has already been designed (have to de-solder and relocate the buttons).   While I appreciate the aesthetics of the Atari drive holes, it'd sure have been a lot easier if they were all like the Falcon!

Edited April 19, 2020 by swatcop
picture was wrong format

[tjlazer]

On 4/9/2020 at 1:31 PM, DarkLord said:

Success. Without damaging the US board, searing my fingers, or burning the house

down, I managed to install a 4 pin header in J8. Honestly though, without some of

the better tools like the hot air stations 'n stuff, I gave up on removing the existing

drive LED's at D11 and D13.

 

For those of you who are sensitive to such things, spoiler alert - don't read this next

part. I took one of my X-Acto knives (think super sharp scalpel) that I use when I

build set models for D&D and simply cut them out. Solder is soft, after all.   

 

<gasp> <horror><shocked looks> Yeah, yeah, I know - but it worked without too

much effort and no damage to the board, which was the key part for me.

 

Anyway, here's a few pics:

 

So wait you cut off the LEDs on the Ultra Satan?  Why not just leave them on?  It's not visible when the cover is installed.

[+remowilliams]

9 hours ago, tjlazer said:

So wait you cut off the LEDs on the Ultra Satan?  Why not just leave them on?  It's not visible when the cover is installed.

 

It's required.

 

From Lotharek: cannot be simpler. 2 leds, longer legs close to each other, one lead for one sd card slot

removing bottom leds (red ones) will be needed.