Help a new 8-bit user

[MacbthPSW]

I happily aquired an Atari 130XE today, along with two disk

drives - an Atari XF551 and an Indus GT, which looks pretty

cool.

 

The 130XE works fine, but I'm not sure about the drives - I

scrounged around the thrift store and found an Atari power

supply that fits properly, but it's labelled "For use with Atari

400/800 Personal Computer System" - Output: 9V AC, 31 VA.

Neither drive specifies the power requirements.

 

So, can I use this PS with the drives?

 

Also, what do I need to xfer files from my Windows PC to

the 130XE/drives? Will this do the trick?

 

http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentati...tion/index.html

 

Do I need any programs on the Atari side to make this

work? Thanks!

--

Robin Harbron

Macbeth/PSW

[classics]

I happily aquired an Atari 130XE today, along with two disk

drives - an Atari XF551 and an Indus GT, which looks pretty

cool.

 

The 130XE works fine, but I'm not sure about the drives - I

scrounged around the thrift store and found an Atari power

supply that fits properly, but it's labelled "For use with Atari

400/800 Personal Computer System" - Output: 9V AC, 31 VA.

Neither drive specifies the power requirements.

 

So, can I use this PS with the drives?

 

You can use that power supply with the XF551. If you plug it into the Indus it will destroy the drive.

 

The Indus GT requires a 9-15v DC power supply, center positive. It is the same power supply as the one used on the Atari 5200 game system.

 

Also, what do I need to xfer files from my Windows PC to

the 130XE/drives?  Will this do the trick?

 

http://www.atarimax.com/sio2pc/documentati...tion/index.html

 

Do I need any programs on the Atari side to make this

work?  Thanks!

 

Yes thats what the interface is for. It uses software on the PC side not the Atari side, so your Atari will need nothing special except the cable.

 

Note thats my web site, so my advice may be biased I'm sure some other more objective people will step up to help too.

 

Steve

[Nukey Shay]

Keep in mind that the disk drives do not contain a disk operating system of their own in rom (like the Commodore drives do)...so you'll need at least one Dos-formatted disk to be able to use the drive to write new programs. Commercial game disks usually either require no Dos (i.e. it reads the file directly from the boot sectors), or it contains it's own loading program called from the boot file.

 

Search the forum for nodos for a Basic example of how to get around this...if you find yourself without a Dos to boot.

[bjk7382]

Note thats my web site, so my advice may be biased  

 

Steve

 

This is the thread that made me wander over to your site and get one of those tonight. I am looking forward to using it

[deathtrappomegranate]

I've got one. It's excellent!

[MacbthPSW]

You can use that power supply with the XF551.  If you plug it into the Indus it will destroy the drive.

 

The Indus GT requires a 9-15v DC power supply, center positive.  It is the same power supply as the one used on the Atari 5200 game system.

Thanks very much for the advice!

 

The next day, I was trying the 130XE out with the 3 A8 carts I have. I played a few games of Cavern of Mars, then left the machine running it while I worked on my PC for a while. After maybe 30 minutes, I heard a whine coming from the monitor, and went to look, and the screen was rolling a bunch of colours around. I turned it off, and back on, same thing. The power supply felt quite hot, but nothing worse than I've experienced with C64 ps bricks. It continues to behave this way, though I haven't let it run long enough since to see if the PS gets hot.

 

It occured to me to check out the only other A8 system I have, an XEGS, and using the power supply from that, the 130XE works fine, so I'm relieved that it's just the PS.

 

So my question: Any problem using the XEGS PS with the 130XE? The 130XE PS says 1.5A output, while the XEGS PS is just 1A. And could there be something wrong with the 130XE or cart that would cause the PS to fail? Like I said, it worked fine for about half an hour - maybe the PS was just ready to fail? I haven't used it much at all since, because I don't want to wreck anything else.

 

Also, I own many many C64 and C128 power supplies - it'd probably be pretty easy to hack one of these together with the connector from the dead XE supply.

[MacbthPSW]

Keep in mind that the disk drives do not contain a disk operating system of their own in rom (like the Commodore drives do)...so you'll need at least one Dos-formatted disk to be able to use the drive to write new programs.  Commercial game disks usually either require no Dos (i.e. it reads the file directly from the boot sectors), or it contains it's own loading program called from the boot file.

 

Search the forum for nodos for a Basic example of how to get around this...if you find yourself without a Dos to boot.

Thanks for pointing that out - I don't have a Dos disk. I found that nodos program - so once I use that to format a disk, I'll be able to transfer a proper Dos to disk using the SIO2PC?

 

Thanks for the help!

[classics]

The XL and XE computers all use the same power supply with the exception of the 1200XL which uses a completely different plug, so your ok. If its Atari and it fits, go with it.

 

If you adapted a C-64 supply be sure to only use 5V. The rest should not be connected to the Atari.

 

To answer your other question, if you have SIO2PC you dont need the 'nodos' program or any other program. You just boot DOS right off the PC using SIO2PC.

 

After you boot from the PC if you really want a 'real' DOS disk you can make one just by formatting a disk and using the 'H' option of DOS to write system files.

 

Steve