+Larry Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Kewl Setup Larry.. What Capture card are you using?... Thanks. It's an ATI All-In-Wonder. I've used these for about 10 years with the A8 -- love 'em for their clarity and versatility. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danwinslow Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 rox! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndusGT Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I added this comment to another thread, but perhaps this is a better choice. Has anyone tried an IDE-SCSI bridge with the new firmware and an IDE flash drive? This is what I'm currently using in my Black Box and its great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 "8 gigabytes per partition with SpartaDOS X 4.42" is not true. Although we are working on expanding the filesystem further, the actual 4.42 can "only" do 32 MB per partition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I added this comment to another thread, but perhaps this is a better choice. Has anyone tried an IDE-SCSI bridge with the new firmware and an IDE flash drive? This is what I'm currently using in my Black Box and its great. Yes, I tried and it did not work. I believe there are some hardware components missing in the MIO HD interface that prevent its functioning. -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I added this comment to another thread, but perhaps this is a better choice. Has anyone tried an IDE-SCSI bridge with the new firmware and an IDE flash drive? This is what I'm currently using in my Black Box and its great. Yes, I tried and it did not work. I believe there are some hardware components missing in the MIO HD interface that prevent its functioning. -Larry It's the fact that the ACARD (or whichever SCSI-IDE bridge you are talking about) doesnt support early-SCSI legacy arbitration modes.. Get a device that does (like modern Seagate drives) and it will work.. The MIO was designed before a "cut & dried standard" for SCSI-II arbitration was in place.. It lacks bi-directional control of one line, which unfortunately is necessary for the arbitration mode that some of these manufacturers have chosen as "the only mode" to support for legacy 8-bit SCSI devices.. To change this on the MIO end would require some quite significant hardware changes, which would make it incompatble with the original MIO.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 "8 gigabytes per partition with SpartaDOS X 4.42" is not true. Although we are working on expanding the filesystem further, the actual 4.42 can "only" do 32 MB per partition. Oops.. My bad... I need to fix that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+warerat Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Good news and bad news. Good news is that I think I've found the root cause for those of you that have PM'd me about using newer drives that almost seem to work (I'm working with a Seagate ST373405LC right now that sort of works). Bad news is that it's not looking like software. But I'll need some more time to confirm that with certainty. That aside, I will releasing version 1.4b3 soon with the following changes since 1.4b2: - Full 32-bit LBA addressing is now supported so the entire capacity on large drives can be accessed. Your drive must support extended read/write CDBs so smaller capacities may not work properly. - Extended 24-bit SIO sector addressing like KMK IDE is supported, but no DOS can use it yet. - Extended 24-bit sector sizes returned in Percom config block like KMK IDE. - MIO internal config menu able to address sectors >999999 for drive configuration. In other words you're not limited to addressing only ~240MB on the disk. - Additional SIO commands to query drive information (mfr, device name, serial, firmware, etc) and capacity (max number of addressable blocks and default block size). - Increased performance of 6%-8% for on-board RAM disk read/writes. - Lots of internal changes to make room for more disk code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndusGT Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I added this comment to another thread, but perhaps this is a better choice. Has anyone tried an IDE-SCSI bridge with the new firmware and an IDE flash drive? This is what I'm currently using in my Black Box and its great. Yes, I tried and it did not work. I believe there are some hardware components missing in the MIO HD interface that prevent its functioning. -Larry It's the fact that the ACARD (or whichever SCSI-IDE bridge you are talking about) doesnt support early-SCSI legacy arbitration modes.. Get a device that does (like modern Seagate drives) and it will work.. The MIO was designed before a "cut & dried standard" for SCSI-II arbitration was in place.. It lacks bi-directional control of one line, which unfortunately is necessary for the arbitration mode that some of these manufacturers have chosen as "the only mode" to support for legacy 8-bit SCSI devices.. To change this on the MIO end would require some quite significant hardware changes, which would make it incompatble with the original MIO.. Thanks, that clears it up very well, still that does not take away anything from the MIO, It's worth it just for the RAM disk.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Defender II Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 (edited) Good news and bad news. Good news is that I think I've found the root cause for those of you that have PM'd me about using newer drives that almost seem to work (I'm working with a Seagate ST373405LC right now that sort of works). Bad news is that it's not looking like software. But I'll need some more time to confirm that with certainty. That aside, I will releasing version 1.4b3 soon with the following changes since 1.4b2: - Full 32-bit LBA addressing is now supported so the entire capacity on large drives can be accessed. Your drive must support extended read/write CDBs so smaller capacities may not work properly. - Extended 24-bit SIO sector addressing like KMK IDE is supported, but no DOS can use it yet. - Extended 24-bit sector sizes returned in Percom config block like KMK IDE. - MIO internal config menu able to address sectors >999999 for drive configuration. In other words you're not limited to addressing only ~240MB on the disk. - Additional SIO commands to query drive information (mfr, device name, serial, firmware, etc) and capacity (max number of addressable blocks and default block size). - Increased performance of 6%-8% for on-board RAM disk read/writes. - Lots of internal changes to make room for more disk code. Will that possibly require a major or minor hardware change? "That aside, I will releasing version 1.4b3 soon with the following changes since 1.4b2:" Wow! That is great! Thank you so much for your work on this project. Is the higher SIMM >1M already in the current configuration? What size can/will it be? Does anyone have a source for the larger SIMMs? Edited April 1, 2009 by Defender II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Theres plenty of places.. just Google "16meg 30pin SIMM"... But SIMM sizes larger than 1meg require an add-on board, which we have not released yet.. No firmware support has been added for memory configurations larger than one meg so far.. But we do have a working prototype of the expansion hardware (I posted a picture of it earlier in this thread).. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ataridano Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 I've been wanting to post here all week. I recieved my MIOs on Saturday and they look great. Unfortunatly I've been keeping busy and only got as far as plugging one in and playing around with the menu a bit, just to see it work I do have a couple questions though: I had actually forgotten but I did order mine without the plastic cases. Would it be possible to let us know where you're getting them from so I can order them directly? I have also found it rather odd that any documention I find regarding the MIO mentions the 130XE and the 800XL, but no mention of the 600XL. Is there any reason a 600XL should not be used with the MIO? If the 80 column add-on board becomes available it would be the perfect upgrade From what I've seen so far I would say that the MIO is a must-have for any Atari w/ PBI that's used for anything beyond occational gaming. With an 80 column board, provisions to use a 16M simm, and some sort of "PBI2SD" drive, this would be the end-all of upgrades! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MEtalGuy66 Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 The plastic cases come from PacTek Enclosures.. The model is CM69-180. They are available in black or Bone color.. The original MIO used the CM69-120. You have to do all the millwork yourself to make the case fit.. Yep. It works fine with a 64k 600XL.. If you want SD capability, theres several SIO based solutions.. We dont have plans to incorporate SD into the design of the MIO or any future expansions.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 (edited) (Quick question: Does the MIO need to be connected to a harddrive before the computer will boot. Or can I use the MIO without a hard drive attached.Mine is not allowing atari to boot with MIO attached.) Ahh, now I have it working. I read a little deeper into the MIO documents and figured out the problem. I had never thought of using the MIO without a hard drive, but thinking about it a bit, that's an interesting idea. I thought for a moment that rdea6 might be using it with a MyIDE, but that won't work because the MyIDE contains no PBI drivers. I wonder if an internal, PBI-friendly IDE flash-type drive could (fairly easily) co-exist with the MIO? How about it Bob1200xl -- do you think your flash drive might be able to co-exist fairly easily with the MIO (or not)? -Larry Edited April 3, 2009 by Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bob1200xl Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 The PBI protocol options each 'bit' at $D1FF to see if there is ROM (code, actually) at #D8xx when the bit is set. If there is, the OS JSRs through $D819 (I think) and executes PBI code for whatever device is connected. The CF drive uses one (any one, really) of these bits, leaving the other 7 for MIO to use. As long as MIO doesn't hog all the $D1FF bits, CF should be OK. A better solution, since you already have all the hardware in place, is to just re-code the MIO to use the CF card instead of a SCSI drive. That would give you the MIO partitions and menu. Bob (Quick question: Does the MIO need to be connected to a harddrive before the computer will boot. Or can I use the MIO without a hard drive attached.Mine is not allowing atari to boot with MIO attached.) Ahh, now I have it working. I read a little deeper into the MIO documents and figured out the problem. I had never thought of using the MIO without a hard drive, but thinking about it a bit, that's an interesting idea. I thought for a moment that rdea6 might be using it with a MyIDE, but that won't work because the MyIDE contains no PBI drivers. I wonder if an internal, PBI-friendly IDE flash-type drive could (fairly easily) co-exist with the MIO? How about it Bob1200xl -- do you think your flash drive might be able to co-exist fairly easily with the MIO (or not)? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 In looking through various Seagate drive descriptions (both on eBay and the Seagate web site) I find "suffixes" of WC -- W means "Wide?" as in 80-pin? WC -- What does C mean? I can't find a "dictionary" of Seagate descriptors. How are 68-pin drives differentiated? Anyone? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 WTF is a "hard drive"? Aren't all drives hard? The last time I took a floppy disk drive out and banged it on the table, it dented the table and hard pieces of plastic broke off. I think it's the disk (the round, brown part) that's floppy. Try this: poke a floppy disk with a screwdriver and it see that it just kind of flops around. Now, open up a hard disk drive and poke the disk (the brown, round part) with a screwdriver. It doesn't flop. Now bang it with the screwdriver. It makes a sharp clink, like hard metal. So it's the disk that's hard or floppy, not the drive. If you're too lazy to say "hard disk drive" then say "hard disk" like we all said in the early 80's when we could not afford one. And since "floppy disk" can be shortened to "floppy", you can say "floppy drive" because it's a drive for a floppy, even though it's hard. But don't say "hard drive" because it's not a drive for a "hard". "Hard drive" came from the non-techie PC user base. Tech savvy folks like us should not lower ourselves to that level! Mumbling rant continues off-line... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+warerat Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 In looking through various Seagate drive descriptions (both on eBay and the Seagate web site) I find "suffixes" of WC -- W means "Wide?" as in 80-pin? WC -- What does C mean? I can't find a "dictionary" of Seagate descriptors. How are 68-pin drives differentiated? Anyone? -Larry N = Narrow 8-bit 50-pin W = Wide 16-bit 68-pin WC = Wide 16-bit 80-pin SCA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+warerat Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 WTF is a "hard drive"? Aren't all drives hard? The last time I took a floppy disk drive out and banged it on the table, it dented the table and hard pieces of plastic broke off. I think it's the disk (the round, brown part) that's floppy. Try this: poke a floppy disk with a screwdriver and it see that it just kind of flops around. Now, open up a hard disk drive and poke the disk (the brown, round part) with a screwdriver. It doesn't flop. Now bang it with the screwdriver. It makes a sharp clink, like hard metal. So it's the disk that's hard or floppy, not the drive. If you're too lazy to say "hard disk drive" then say "hard disk" like we all said in the early 80's when we could not afford one. And since "floppy disk" can be shortened to "floppy", you can say "floppy drive" because it's a drive for a floppy, even though it's hard. But don't say "hard drive" because it's not a drive for a "hard". "Hard drive" came from the non-techie PC user base. Tech savvy folks like us should not lower ourselves to that level! Mumbling rant continues off-line... Can we call it a fixed disk then? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 ... Mumbling rant continues off-line... Can we call it a fixed disk then? Seems like most of mine are broken 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roydea6 Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 In looking through various Seagate drive descriptions (both on eBay and the Seagate web site) I find "suffixes" of WC -- W means "Wide?" as in 80-pin? WC -- What does C mean? I can't find a "dictionary" of Seagate descriptors. How are 68-pin drives differentiated? Anyone? -Larry Also I found this text on one of the SCSI documents: WC drives ---------- WC/DC drives section Setting the SCSI ID jumpers The SCSI ID for WC model drives is normally set over the SCSI bus by the host system using connector contacts 39 (ID0), 40 (ID2), 79 (ID1), and 80 (ID3). Users need not install jumpers to select SCSI ID. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 In looking through various Seagate drive descriptions (both on eBay and the Seagate web site) I find "suffixes" of WC -- W means "Wide?" as in 80-pin? WC -- What does C mean? I can't find a "dictionary" of Seagate descriptors. How are 68-pin drives differentiated? Anyone? -Larry N = Narrow 8-bit 50-pin W = Wide 16-bit 68-pin WC = Wide 16-bit 80-pin SCA How about the 'LC' drives? I have one of those too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+warerat Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 In looking through various Seagate drive descriptions (both on eBay and the Seagate web site) I find "suffixes" of WC -- W means "Wide?" as in 80-pin? WC -- What does C mean? I can't find a "dictionary" of Seagate descriptors. How are 68-pin drives differentiated? Anyone? -Larry N = Narrow 8-bit 50-pin W = Wide 16-bit 68-pin WC = Wide 16-bit 80-pin SCA How about the 'LC' drives? I have one of those too. LC = Wide 16-bit 80-pin SCA Low-Voltage Differential. These work single-ended also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClausB Posted April 4, 2009 Share Posted April 4, 2009 Mumbling rant Whoa. Sorry, coffee too strong this morning. Hope I didn't come off as a "brown, round part" myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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