Mechanicjay Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 This is interesting to me as well. I've wanted an ATR8000 years, but they seem to be going to bigger bucks than I care to spend in recent years. I'd be super interested in a version with the Co-Power 88 as well, because why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Spancho Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 3 hours ago, nemike said: As I said in my first post I do plan to reduce the size of the pcb ... Do you think that the PCBs size can fit into Mega ST chassis? And if the interfaces still could fit to the positions of the Mega ST, we had a perfect fit. At least for the XE line of computers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 (edited) I have a couple originals, but I've not tested them beyond powering them and seeing the red light come one. What procedures could I use to test them? Edited October 28, 2020 by danwinslow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 15 hours ago, nemike said: My intention was to reproduce the ATR8000 not re-implement it. I'm not opposed to the idea of changing the memory as I have changed the power but my plan was to use all the same DIP through hole components. Mike The reason the 8-bit computers of the time, and the ATR8000/8500, used DRAM was simply because of price. At the time static RAM was much more expensive that DRAM, even with the refresh circuitry required by the latter. In the 90's there were 486/Pentium motherboards with fake cache memory chips to reduce cost. These days most SRAM is less expensive than DRAM and also occupies less PCB area even when just the RAM is considered, even more PCB area is saved when considering no refresh circuit requirement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 21 hours ago, videofx said: I would definitely be interested in buying one Is all the software still available? I have some software and the ability to make copies. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I have a working 16K ATR8000 that I upgraded to 64K so I could run CP/M. I also have a currently non-working 64k ATR8000. I believe that onboard power supply isn't working and I haven't gotten around to repairing it. I'd like to replace the on-board power supply circuit with a modern external power supply. I'd be interesting in putting a new ATR8000 kit together, particularly, if it includes the MSDOS/CO-Power 88 daughter board. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemike Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 15 hours ago, Larry said: I've had several originals (none currently), so I am reasonably familiar with the hardware. I'm interested, but have several concerns. First, the original is HUGE. The pcb alone would be very costly. Is yours going to be smaller? Second, what about the copyrights? Third, the original was only capable of 1X SIO, and probably cannot be made faster with its original hardware design. Fourth, what about the obsolete parts? There was a really good article in Antic or Analog magazine about producing the ATR8000. I'll try to locate it. Larry does bring up a good issue, what about copyrights?? Does anyone know what happened to SWP Microcomputer Products?? Who ended up with the properties? Anyone know? I'd like to get permission to reproduce this for us hobbyiest. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuf Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I dont see anything in the copyright database for SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. Unless they registered things under some other name it'd be hard to tell if anything was actually registered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Hello Mike You're gonna use a switching power supply and want to reduce the size of the PCB. So you're not gonna make a 1:1 copy. I really would consider replacing the DRAMs with SRAMs. More modern, easier to use and it needs less space on the PCB because you need less hardware. Sincerely Mathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 I think that Charles Marslett (MyDos) was involved with it. He has a web site, so you might contact him. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venom4728a Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 Please count me in too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemike Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Mathy said: Hello Mike You're gonna use a switching power supply and want to reduce the size of the PCB. So you're not gonna make a 1:1 copy. I really would consider replacing the DRAMs with SRAMs. More modern, easier to use and it needs less space on the PCB because you need less hardware. Sincerely Mathy So here are my thoughts on this, if there are no copyright issues I plan to make the first batch of these reproducing the circuity as it originally was, once I get those working and then I can make changes going forward. As I said I’m not against making sensible changes but I also don’t want to deal with multiple unknowns since I don’t have a real ATR8000 to compare against. The reduction is size is really to keep the price of the pcb’s down. Should I keep the edge connectors for serial and parallel or change to DB25’s ? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemike Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 1 hour ago, Larry said: I think that Charles Marslett (MyDos) was involved with it. He has a web site, so you might contact him. Thanks Larry!! I’ve reached out to Charles, here’s hoping he responds and has some help tracking this down. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blues76 Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 depending when this happens, I would be interested on one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, nemike said: So here are my thoughts on this, if there are no copyright issues I plan to make the first batch of these reproducing the circuity as it originally was, once I get those working and then I can make changes going forward. As I said I’m not against making sensible changes but I also don’t want to deal with multiple unknowns since I don’t have a real ATR8000 to compare against. The reduction is size is really to keep the price of the pcb’s down. Should I keep the edge connectors for serial and parallel or change to DB25’s ? Mike When @MEtalGuy66 reproduced the MIO he updated the original serial/printer ports to PC compatible pinout, this allows the use of commonly available cables. This would be DE9 for serial and DB25 for printer. In addition changing the FDD edge connector to a 34-pin FDD type header would allow the use of more commonly available floppy cables as well. Edited October 29, 2020 by BillC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, tuf said: I dont see anything in the copyright database for SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. Unless they registered things under some other name it'd be hard to tell if anything was actually registered. The company name is Software Publishers, Inc. of Arlington Texas, at least that's what's in the ATR8000 manual. https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/software-publishers-inc.html Edited October 29, 2020 by BillC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nemike Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 1 hour ago, BillC said: The company name is Software Publishers, Inc. of Arlington Texas, at least that's what's in the ATR8000 manual. https://www.bizapedia.com/tx/software-publishers-inc.html Software Publishers Inc is what they were called when they first made the ATR8000, they later changed their name to SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. see page 4 in http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SWP/ATR8000_CP-M_Supplement.pdf Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuf Posted October 29, 2020 Share Posted October 29, 2020 22 minutes ago, nemike said: Software Publishers Inc is what they were called when they first made the ATR8000, they later changed their name to SWP Microcomputer Products, Inc. see page 4 in http://vtda.org/docs/computing/SWP/ATR8000_CP-M_Supplement.pdf Mike Yeah don't see that either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Lange Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 I'd support a project like this. Another option to consider is (eventually...) the Co-power 88 add-on with 8088/MS-DOS compatibility. Maybe eventually integrate into the same PCB.. /dreaming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krap Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Hi! I'm interested, with Co-Power88. -- mg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 I'm surprised at the interest in the Co-Power 88 add-on. What is of interest? (How would you use it -- or is it just because it once existed?) -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechanicjay Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 11 hours ago, Larry said: I'm surprised at the interest in the Co-Power 88 add-on. What is of interest? (How would you use it -- or is it just because it once existed?) -Larry Because running a weird MS-DOS on an Atari with a Brainslug is a near irresistible level of wtf. 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 2, 2020 Share Posted November 2, 2020 Speaking of the Co-Power-88... I came across schematics for it while working on the ATR8000 section of the Atari hardware site I'm putting together. I can't remember which site it was from ATM, but here are the files. SWP Co-Power-88 - Schematics.zip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+MrFish Posted November 3, 2020 Share Posted November 3, 2020 I see I have here the Co-Power-88 disks and a bunch of various CP/M-86 manuals and so forth too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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