Just ordered the Sdrive-Max

[Ricky Spanish]

Looking forward to playing around with it. Looks to be a interesting piece of tech !

[Justin Payne]

@Ricky Spanish Any reason why you went with the SDrive-Max instead of the FujiNet?

[Ricky Spanish]

6 minutes ago, Justin Payne said:

@Ricky Spanish Any reason why you went with the SDrive-Max instead of the FujiNet?

I don't know anything about FujiNet. I'm very new to all this aftermarket ATARI stuff.

[pseudografx]

SDrive Max is a nice little device. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.

[TGB1718]

17 minutes ago, Justin Payne said:

Any reason why you went with the SDrive-Max instead of the FujiNet?

Price maybe ?

[Justin Payne]

@TGB1718True. You do save $20 but you miss out on all of the features.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Justin Payne

[Ricky Spanish]

2 minutes ago, Justin Payne said:

@TGB1718True. You do save $20 but you miss out on all of the features.

I paid $111CAD (including shipping).

[erichenneke]

I love both devices, each better/easier for specific purposes.

 

My only minor complaint on sdrive max is that I wish there was an easy way to boot off of a real floppy drive as D1: and have the sdrive max set as D2:, D3:, etc.   I was surprised and disappointed that there isn't a way to do that. Otherwise, it's a fantastic and super easy device to use. 

 

[Justin Payne]

@erichennekeI have both as well (I actually have two SDrive-Max's) but so far the FujiNet is the hands down winner. Sure, no on-device screen but I always used the menu. I mean, other than the small price increase, I can't think of any reasons why one would go with the SDrive-Max options. I'll still keep mine and use them on my other Atari's but for my main system, the FujiNet will be the primary alternative storage device that I'm going to use.

[Ricky Spanish]

7 minutes ago, erichenneke said:

My only minor complaint on sdrive max is that I wish there was an easy way to boot off of a real floppy drive as D1

Forgive my ignorance, but it'll still boot as D1 just by hooking it up to the computer, correct ?

[erichenneke]

6 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Forgive my ignorance, but it'll still boot as D1 just by hooking it up to the computer, correct ?

But if you have the sdrive max in the sio chain as well then the boot device must be D1: off the sdrive max.  So in that case you have to change the physical drive to D2: (or D3: or whatever) so there is no D1; conflict. 

[Ricky Spanish]

1 minute ago, erichenneke said:

But if you have the sdrive max in the sio chain as well then the boot device must be D1: off the sdrive max.  So in that case you have to change the physical drive to D2: (or D3: or whatever) so there is no D1; conflict. 

Gotcha.. as I don't have a physical disk drive. So I guess the SDrive MAX will default as D1 (sorry for the newbie questions) ?

[Beeblebrox]

When I first got back on the A8 scene I got me an Sdrive max as it was cheaper and they are all over Ebay. Sold it to buy my SIDE3 a few months later - never looked back. BTW You can get new Fujinet 1.6 in the UK for £50. SDrive max retails for around £35-45 on Ebay - very reasonable for what it does.

 

If you move on to another device it certainly doesn't hurt to keep a hold of the Sdrive max and if it does what you want it to - great. For me the loading speeds of SIDE3 and the ability to play a music XEX or view a Rastaconverted image, loading almost instantaneously, to then drop back to the menu to select another; and not to mention play PDM music tracks... is why SIDE3 is worth the extra. (That's just scratching the surface of what it can do).  Same goes for AVG cart I hear with it's great features. 

 

I also own an SIO2USB cable which comes in very handy at times. (plus I own Incognito for my 800.)

 

Fujinet will be something I'll possibly look at but once the new SIDE3 beta firmware is available I think I'm gonna fall all over again for SIDE3. 

[Ricky Spanish]

3 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

When I first got back on the A8 scene I got me an Sdrive max as it was cheaper and they are all over Ebay. Sold it to buy my SIDE3 a few months later - never looked back. BTW You can get new Fujinet 1.6 in the UK for £50. SDrive max retails for around £35-45 on Ebay - very reasonable for what it does.

 

If you move on to another device it certainly doesn't hurt to keep a hold of the Sdrive max and if it does what you want it to - great. For me the loading speeds of SIDE3 and the ability to play a music XEX or view a Rastaconverted image, loading almost instantaneously, to then drop back to the menu to select another; and not to mention play PDM music tracks... is why SIDE3 is worth the extra. (That's just scratching the surface of what it can do).  Same goes for AVG cart I hear with it's great features. 

 

I also own an SIO2USB cable which comes in very handy at times. (plus I own Incognito for my 800.)

 

Fujinet will be something I'll possibly look at but once the new SIDE3 beta firmware is available I think I'm gonna fall all over again for SIDE3. 

I just need it to load/save basic programs.

[Justin Payne]

@BeeblebroxYeah, the Side3 is also nice. Because it does carts and disk images, that is a nice advantage. In fact, I wonder why the Ultimate Cart is more expensive when it appears to offer less functionality.

[erichenneke]

15 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

I also own an SIO2USB cable which comes in very handy at times.

I TOTALLY agree with this SIO2USB comment too.  

[Beeblebrox]

16 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

I just need it to load/save basic programs.

Cool. Sounds like it'll be ideal for you for now.

 

Just to check you know about the power considerations if you have an SDrive max which you intend to power with an external power supply? (If you do, make sure the internal switch inside the Sdrive max is set to not take power from the SIO - otherwise it's be fried...and quite possibly the A8 too!!).

 

See here: https://www.8bit-tronics.com/_files/ugd/dbcc85_8fe3ba119af3436dbc8138dc813660f6.pdf

 

There are advantages of having the Sdrive max powered separately - not least that powering off your A8 when it does have it's own power supply means it's mounted drives aren't reset each time.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[Beeblebrox]

Just now, erichenneke said:

I TOTALLY agree with this SIO2USB comment too.  

Indeed... and respect for RespeQt  (see what I did there?!) 

[Ricky Spanish]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

Cool. Sounds like it'll be ideal for you for now.

Thanks !

[Dopy25]

I want to jump in and piggyback since this is a hot topic, but can anyone point me in the direction of a utility program to run from the Sdrive Max that will allow me to test the ram and keyboard functions on an original 800? (not XL/XE)

 

[Beeblebrox]

@Dopy25  Not sure about keyboard testing on the 800, but this might help regarding the ram:

 

EDIT: for keyboard testing just boot to memopad or with the BASIC cart installed in the left cart bay, to the redy prompt - then just test the alpha and numeric keys. (Granted you won't be able to test start, select or option function keys). Or have I got the wrong idea? 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[Mrshoujo]

2 hours ago, erichenneke said:

I love both devices, each better/easier for specific purposes.

 

My only minor complaint on sdrive max is that I wish there was an easy way to boot off of a real floppy drive as D1: and have the sdrive max set as D2:, D3:, etc.   I was surprised and disappointed that there isn't a way to do that. Otherwise, it's a fantastic and super easy device to use. 

 

There is a way to boot off a real 1050 as D1: and use the SDrive Max as D2:. I forget the procedure but I was able to do it. I booted a disk sector copier on a 1050 and copied disks to virtual disks on the SDrive Max as D2: to create ATRs of them. Just have to remember to Save the image after doing the sector copy, then unmount it from D2: so you can check it by booting it later or have the SDrive Max create another "new blank" disk.

 

I went with the SDrive Max because I prefer to have my data hosted locally.

[Beeblebrox]

19 minutes ago, Ricky Spanish said:

Thanks !

@Ricky Spanish   So are you externally powering it or just powering off the SIO just outta interest?

[Ricky Spanish]

11 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

So are you externally powering it or just powering off the SIO just outta interest?

I would assume powering from the SIO would be the best route ?

[Beeblebrox]

20 minutes ago, Mrshoujo said:

 

 

I went with the SDrive Max because I prefer to have my data hosted locally.

@Mrshoujo  So here AFAIK only SIO2USB (and Respeqt) or Fujinet has data hosted elsewhere (a PC or a network/server respectively).

 

Of course with Fujinet you also have it's SDcard so you could have your data on that instead. (EG you don't need to access your data from servers across wireless if you just want to use the SDcard) No idea about speeds for the latter.

 

Any cart based SDcard solution (AFAIK) such as SIDE3 and AVG will presumably always read data faster from the sdcard than the likes of SDrives/SDmax, SD2SIO, etc. (Possibly the same for Fujinet's SDcard(?))

 

Certainly the loading speed of SDrive max - even when used in conjunction with an U1MB'd A8 and hi speed mode enabled - was still much slower than loading from the SIDE3s SDcard IIRC. I forget but loading say a 21k Rastaconveter image on Sdrive max with hi speed mode enabled took maybe 10 seconds, compared with less than a second on SIDE3. Much slower when the Sdrive max was set to standard data speeds. Then I'd have to unmount the file, mount another, reboot to load the next and so on. 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Beeblebrox