+rdemming Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 all signals, including rd4 rd5 and s4 s5 are present on this pbi connector, so nothing is left out or deprecated Interesting. So why is the extra eight-pin connector required for proper operation of the external cartridge when IDE Plus is connected to an XL machine? RD4, RD5, S3, S5 are not present on the classic PBI connector, but they are present on Candle's "new and improved" PBI connector. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 RD4, RD5, S3, S5 are not present on the classic PBI connector, but they are present on Candle's "new and improved" PBI connector. Ah - thank you. The word "this" was clearly the important one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 @Candle Can you publish the pinout for your revised PBI with extra connections? If there's a standard which is an "extension" of the original design, I'd like to adopt it and perhaps mod the 1200XL to suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 You can just do these mods to a 1200XL and change out the OS for an 800XL or XE OS and get the same result much, much easier. Not that I've ever found any problem with my 1200XL OS so far anyway, but all the best mods and OS/memory improvements are already available for the 1200XL, so you can acheive the exact results you want without creating or modding another XL MOBO. Or get the 32-in-1 OS and have them all at your finger tips. Basically, the 1200XL MOBO is the perfect board to do modifications too in the first place; it may hav been crippled in certain areas compared to the 800XL, but it has it's advantages too, and when the de-crippling mods are done, along with all the other upgrades you want, it's the best of the best in Atari 8-bits. I've already done an S-video upgrade, PAL ANTIC conversion, fixed all the *minor* bugs like lack of poer to the SIO port, etc, done an XE compatible 1meg upgrade, and next I'll be adding the 32-in1 OS chip and Pokey stereo upgrade, then continue on with some of the mods you've mentioned too. Also and internal IDE hard drive, there's plenty of room the 1200 for it all! The 1200 MOBO is the best one to upgrade! Gunstar, Are you running REV 11 or REV 10 of the 1200XL OS? I found that REV 11 is 99% compatible with the 600/800XL OS and the REV 10 has issues. I have never seen a stock 1200XL with REV 11. I'm guessing they fixed the bugs and never made it to production since the production run was only like 6 months. I'm running whatever I want to run, but Rev.11 (well, WARP OS R11), I have a 32-in-1 OS which has 1200 Rev. 5 and 10, 400 OS A, 800 os B, 800 compatible, all XL/XE/XEGS OS's including PAL. ARGS OS, several Onimon, several MyIDE and of course what is usually installed, APE WARP+ OS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 (edited) I started thinking about a new mobo in a 1200XL again after replying to this thread, and an idea occured, that I want to know if it would be possible, seems like it should be to me...The 800 had the extra controller ports, I love to see those come back, but of course we all know that ram upgrades are using those ports in memory banking. But if a new mobo is designed, couldn't it be designed for both? They don't have to work at the same time, if your using the extra controller ports then extended memory could be shut off just leaving the 48k or 64K base memory. If the controller ports aren't being used, then extended ram is enabled. Does the XE banking still use the extra ports? Edited October 31, 2011 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 counterproductive, but posible, go for it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 (edited) counterproductive, but posible, go for it Why did you even make/leave this comment? It's irrelevent. I know it's "possible" anything is, I was wondering if it would be reletively simple or involve a lot of new circuitry. "Go for it?" This is a discussion about what to include in a new mobo, I'm not doing the new mobo, i'm adding to the discussion with ideas. "counterproductive?" How can it possibly be counter productive to add back into a new 8-bit board 4 controller ports and the ability to play the classic 4-player games like M.U.L.E the way they were meant and still have the ability to use extended ram? A completely irrelevent comment... Edited November 1, 2011 by Gunstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+orpheuswaking Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 completely irrelevent AND counterproductive 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sloopy Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 counterproductive, but posible, go for it Why did you even make/leave this comment? It's irrelevent. I know it's "possible" anything is, I was wondering if it would be reletively simple or involve a lot of new circuitry. "Go for it?" This is a discussion about what to include in a new mobo, I'm not doing the new mobo, i'm adding to the discussion with ideas. "counterproductive?" How can it possibly be counter productive to add back into a new 8-bit board 4 controller ports and the ability to play the classic 4-player games like M.U.L.E the way they were meant and still have the ability to use extended ram? A completely irrelevent comment... having a feature for (mostly) one game, where it makes thousands of games non-usable is counter-productive... and the alternative of having the PORTB bits change use depending on a trigger (whether it be a 'firmware selection' or physical jumper) is not the trivial task you are making it out to be. Doing this as switching circuitry in the machine using a 6520, would be arduous, using a CPLD to emu the 6520 would be easier, but still a bit of a task to get it working correctly in all situations... (think about the fun getting something like the Antic Music Sampler to work)... Although there are several people in the community capable of doing this exact thing, the only one i know of who has done something close is warerat, and you can ask him how easy it was... no matter who goes and makes a new A8 mobo, i am sure if you design this part of it, they would more then likely put it in, if its a nice clean design... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rybags Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Probably 95% or more of software out there gets stick/trigger info from the shadow registers. If a new motherboard with modern day MMU/PIA/Super IO processor was made, just have a revised OS and have ports 3/4 coming from somewhere else in mapped I/O. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Yes,,, but, actually, you may take into consideration that one configuration only reads from the 6520 and the other only writes to it. (more correct - one sets it to inputs and the other outputs) It may not be too messy to do both 4-joysticks or 2-joysticks... Sample the state of $D303 to determine what mode you are in... Re-boot to change modes... The controlling factor is which OS you are running, I would think, although you might need a little hardware to make the extra joysticks play nice with the OS bits. I know I miss MIG Alley Ace! Bob counterproductive, but posible, go for it Why did you even make/leave this comment? It's irrelevent. I know it's "possible" anything is, I was wondering if it would be reletively simple or involve a lot of new circuitry. "Go for it?" This is a discussion about what to include in a new mobo, I'm not doing the new mobo, i'm adding to the discussion with ideas. "counterproductive?" How can it possibly be counter productive to add back into a new 8-bit board 4 controller ports and the ability to play the classic 4-player games like M.U.L.E the way they were meant and still have the ability to use extended ram? A completely irrelevent comment... having a feature for (mostly) one game, where it makes thousands of games non-usable is counter-productive... and the alternative of having the PORTB bits change use depending on a trigger (whether it be a 'firmware selection' or physical jumper) is not the trivial task you are making it out to be. Doing this as switching circuitry in the machine using a 6520, would be arduous, using a CPLD to emu the 6520 would be easier, but still a bit of a task to get it working correctly in all situations... (think about the fun getting something like the Antic Music Sampler to work)... Although there are several people in the community capable of doing this exact thing, the only one i know of who has done something close is warerat, and you can ask him how easy it was... no matter who goes and makes a new A8 mobo, i am sure if you design this part of it, they would more then likely put it in, if its a nice clean design... sloopy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 The XE uses the same $D301 port as the XLs. It isn't that complicated, really. If you boot the 400/800 OS in a 1200XL, you get 4 joysticks (6520 set to read) and if you boot an XL OS (either 1200XL or 600XL/800XL), you get memory banking bits and such. Of course, the wiring isn't there for joystick 3 and 4, but that is mostly just copper... Bob I started thinking about a new mobo in a 1200XL again after replying to this thread, and an idea occured, that I want to know if it would be possible, seems like it should be to me...The 800 had the extra controller ports, I love to see those come back, but of course we all know that ram upgrades are using those ports in memory banking. But if a new mobo is designed, couldn't it be designed for both? They don't have to work at the same time, if your using the extra controller ports then extended memory could be shut off just leaving the 48k or 64K base memory. If the controller ports aren't being used, then extended ram is enabled. Does the XE banking still use the extra ports? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candle Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 i was just merly suggesting i'm not intend to do it - thats all but if you only discussing (daydreaming) about new motherboard - carry on its just that similiar discussion never ended with something you can actually buy, or at least see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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