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Sio2SD


Heaven/TQA

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I ordered and received my SIO2SD from Pigula -- and it's really nice! Very professional!

 

Mine was purchased completely assembled/tested. All I needed to do was prepare my SIO cable, attaching crimp-on connectors at one end. This can be seen in the photo:

http://marcinprusisz.pl/sio2sd2/P3290069.jpg

 

In addition, a small signal diode (included) must be soldered in the cable. I chose to install the diode at the SIO2SD end of the cable, just before the crimp-on connectors that are used. I did double-check to be sure I had the correct lines to connect to the SIO2SD! The docs are very clear as to the correct connections.

 

From there, all I needed to do was FAT format an SD card (not included -- mine is a 512MB model), then create a folder called "Atari" and then copy a bunch of ATR images into that folder. Inserted the card, booted the Atari, and it sprang to life! The LCD display is excellent, and using the key-switches was easy with just a little practice. Having the LCD screen is extremely useful in selecting images and changing settings.

 

The default high-speed SIO setting is a Pokey divisor of 6, or 68837. Using my Black Box high-speed drivers, I was able to successfully boot MyDos at a setting of 3 or 89488. At a setting of 2, or 99431, the system would not boot. I didn't try other drivers, although from past experience, I'm sure other high-speed drivers would perform similarly. I remember reading a magazine review (years ago) of the then-new US Doubler which said that the normal SIO beeps now sounded like a machine gun. This sounds like one of those multi-barreled machine guns!

 

Am I happy with my purchase -- you bet! Best of all (as the guy on TV says) I didn't pay $200, nor $150, not even $100 including registered mail air delivery.

 

The device does not include a case. I've decided to put it into a small plastic electronics project box. (Probably no Lego's... ;) ) The only difficult part of inserting this in a case is that the push-buttons are about 3/4" below the level of where the case will be, so I will need to make some "extenders" to reach from above the case to the buttons. I have a pretty good idea how I will do this, and assuming I'm successful, I'll post a couple of pics when I' done.

 

-Larry

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Someone could make a complete brochure of this product. It seems to be very good hardware and cheaper. But still some info is missing:

 

- Include a direct SIO connector?

- Is possible to use SIO2PC too?

- How much amperes stole this device from the Atari?

- Manage XEX files?

- Emulate 2 disk drives?

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Someone could make a complete brochure of this product. It seems to be very good hardware and cheaper. But still some info is missing:

I need a little time for made good manual for this interface!

 

- Is possible to use SIO2PC too?

Yes of course (but You must use one DIODE BAT85)

 

- How much amperes stole this device from the Atari?

 

I tested this interface with oryginal power pack on Atari 65XE/800XE/130XE with 1MB Ram, Covox, Stereo, Internal Sparta Dos X, and 4 Os Rom!

 

- Manage XEX files?

Yes XEX and ATR files!

 

- Emulate 2 disk drives?

Interface emulate 8 disk drives!

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I ordered and received my SIO2SD from Pigula -- and it's really nice! Very professional!

 

Mine was purchased completely assembled/tested. All I needed to do was prepare my SIO cable, attaching crimp-on connectors at one end. This can be seen in the photo:

http://marcinprusisz.pl/sio2sd2/P3290069.jpg

 

In addition, a small signal diode (included) must be soldered in the cable. I chose to install the diode at the SIO2SD end of the cable, just before the crimp-on connectors that are used. I did double-check to be sure I had the correct lines to connect to the SIO2SD! The docs are very clear as to the correct connections.

 

From there, all I needed to do was FAT format an SD card (not included -- mine is a 512MB model), then create a folder called "Atari" and then copy a bunch of ATR images into that folder. Inserted the card, booted the Atari, and it sprang to life! The LCD display is excellent, and using the key-switches was easy with just a little practice. Having the LCD screen is extremely useful in selecting images and changing settings.

 

The default high-speed SIO setting is a Pokey divisor of 6, or 68837. Using my Black Box high-speed drivers, I was able to successfully boot MyDos at a setting of 3 or 89488. At a setting of 2, or 99431, the system would not boot. I didn't try other drivers, although from past experience, I'm sure other high-speed drivers would perform similarly. I remember reading a magazine review (years ago) of the then-new US Doubler which said that the normal SIO beeps now sounded like a machine gun. This sounds like one of those multi-barreled machine guns!

 

Am I happy with my purchase -- you bet! Best of all (as the guy on TV says) I didn't pay $200, nor $150, not even $100 including registered mail air delivery.

 

The device does not include a case. I've decided to put it into a small plastic electronics project box. (Probably no Lego's... ;) ) The only difficult part of inserting this in a case is that the push-buttons are about 3/4" below the level of where the case will be, so I will need to make some "extenders" to reach from above the case to the buttons. I have a pretty good idea how I will do this, and assuming I'm successful, I'll post a couple of pics when I' done.

 

-Larry

 

EDIT DELETED- found answers on page 2 of this thread.

Edited by yorgle
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I suspect it can't be done (at this time) -- but is it possible to add or remove an ATR image to/from the SD card directly from the Atari (without inserting the card into a PC)? Incidently, I've been using a little SD card to USB adapter to add/remove files from the card, and that works very well.

-Larry

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Thought of another question. Is it possible to use a file/selection viewer as with SIO2IDE to make ATR selections on the SIO2SD?

 

Would the same SIO2IDE software work for this purpose, perhaps with some modest changes?

 

-Larry

No! SIO2IDE is other hardware.

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Question for electronics gurus here: can I substitute a Schottky Barrier Diode #5082-2835 for the BAT85? Here are the maximums for the 5082:

 

forward voltage: 340mV

reverse voltage: 5.0 V

Reverse Leakage Current 100nA (at 1V)

DC Power Dissipation: 150 mW

 

Yes, no problem.

The diode needs only to have a low forward voltage.

It should be below 0,8V.

Mostly, even a 1N4148 will do fine.

Or an AA119 Germanium diode. (Even the OA79....)

 

BR/

Guus

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Problem: assembled my SIO connector per instructions (including diode between SIO pin 3 and SIO2SD pin 4). Formatted a 1gig SD card in FAT, created a folder called ATARI and put some images in that folder. Plugged in the SIO2SD to my 800xl and flipped on the power and.... nothing. :( No matter what I do all I get is a blank LCD. The red LED lights momentarily when I first turn on the computer and the LCD backlight comes on, but nothing is displayed. Pressing the keys on the SIO2SD does nothing. I checked my connector and I'm getting 5.1V at pin 1 of the SIO2SD connector and everything is wired according to the instructions. I've tried putting the SIO2SD.bin file in the ATARI folder on the card, but that doesn't do anything either. Any ideas on what I'm missing?

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Problem: assembled my SIO connector per instructions (including diode between SIO pin 3 and SIO2SD pin 4). Formatted a 1gig SD card in FAT, created a folder called ATARI and put some images in that folder. Plugged in the SIO2SD to my 800xl and flipped on the power and.... nothing. :( No matter what I do all I get is a blank LCD. The red LED lights momentarily when I first turn on the computer and the LCD backlight comes on, but nothing is displayed. Pressing the keys on the SIO2SD does nothing. I checked my connector and I'm getting 5.1V at pin 1 of the SIO2SD connector and everything is wired according to the instructions. I've tried putting the SIO2SD.bin file in the ATARI folder on the card, but that doesn't do anything either. Any ideas on what I'm missing?

 

Send some photos - (sio2sd connector, Atari SIO connector, and blank LCD)

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Did you program the Atmega chip?

You need a cable between printer port and the Atmega chip and the software for flashing.

The sio2sd.bin on the sd will work after flashing the contoller.

 

Bernd

 

I purchased my SIO2SD from a person on ebay. After it arrived, I asked him for instructions and he emailed me a link to a webpage that appears to be the exact same as the instructions Larry (see above posts) received with his SIO2SD from Pigula. The guy I purchased from said nothing about having to program the Atmega chip so I assumed this was already done. If I have to buy a programmer now I will not be happy.

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Did you program the Atmega chip?

You need a cable between printer port and the Atmega chip and the software for flashing.

The sio2sd.bin on the sd will work after flashing the contoller.

 

Bernd

 

I purchased my SIO2SD from a person on ebay. After it arrived, I asked him for instructions and he emailed me a link to a webpage that appears to be the exact same as the instructions Larry (see above posts) received with his SIO2SD from Pigula. The guy I purchased from said nothing about having to program the Atmega chip so I assumed this was already done. If I have to buy a programmer now I will not be happy.

 

OK!

 

This is a diagram of pin ATARI SIO CONNECTOR:

 

-------------

/2 4 6 8 10 12\

/1 3 5 7 9 11 13\

-----------------

 

And good connection:

 

1 pin sio2sd (brown) cable connect to 10 pin Atari SIO

2 pin sio2sd (white) cable connect to 4 pin Atari SIO

3 pin sio2sd (orange) cable connect to 7 pin Atari SIO

4 pin sio2sd (black) cable connect to 3 pin Atari SIO

5 pin sio2sd (blue) cable connect to 5 pin Atari SIO

 

 

As I can see on your photo some wires are not jointed good enough.

for example:

 

5 pin sio2sd (blue) cable You connect to 10 pin Atari SIO

4 pin sio2sd (black) cable You connect to 4 pin Atari SIO

 

And Atmel are programmed for 100% - I made this interface ;)

Edited by Pigula
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Tip: ASCII Art like this here works good if wrapped in "code" tags-

 

 
-------------
  /2 4 6 8 10 12\
 /1 3 5 7 9 11 13\
 -----------------

 

Good luck with the interface setup, SIO2SD is a great and reliable

device to work with.

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I built my own SIO2SD interface, and I notice that sometimes (seems to be after I'm in the config menu) the device won't boot up properly. As in, I'll turn my Atari on, and I get no display on the LCD, except backlight and a slight greying on the first line.. (Typical response from an initialized LCD). Often the light for the SD card access will be on (and stay on, no flickering)... It won't come back to life for me until I erase and reprogram the ATMEGA..

 

Possibly there is something being saved into the EEPROM incorrectly, causing the device to not boot properly? It'd be nice to be able to see the source code for the SIO2SD!

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