What's the latest Atari related thing(s) you've bought on ebay?

[manterola]

8 hours ago, Simon Carter said:

A boxed 1029 printer (that needs a bit of a clean), and a copy of 'Atari 130XE Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner' 

 

A good day...

 

Painted red, it would look pretty similar to the Seat Ibiza

[cwilbar]

finally got to an 810 disk drive I bought on eBay a while back.

 

cleaned/lubed rails, cleaned head, not initializing right,

swapped in a known working 6507, no change,

swapped in a known working ROM, no change,

swapped in a known good 6810 RAM, no change,

swapped the RIOT, yay.... initializes properly now....

now start swapping chips that were pulled out back in.....

swapped in the original ROM, good, still works,

swapped in the original 6810, good, still works,

swapped in the original 6507, bad....

 

So, bad 6507, and bad RIOT, attempt boot, computer doesn't see drive,

swapped the 3806.... bingo.... SIO back, drive works great, booting proptected and no protected disks with no read errors....

 

so, bad 6507, bad RIOT, and bad 3806..... wonder what happened to this one.... spike on the SIO taking out the 3806, then back to the RIOT, and back to the CPU ?????

 

Well, other than being a bit yellowed like most 810s, it is now working good.

 

 

[BillC]

44 minutes ago, cwilbar said:

finally got to an 810 disk drive I bought on eBay a while back.

 

cleaned/lubed rails, cleaned head, not initializing right,

swapped in a known working 6507, no change,

swapped in a known working ROM, no change,

swapped in a known good 6810 RAM, no change,

swapped the RIOT, yay.... initializes properly now....

now start swapping chips that were pulled out back in.....

swapped in the original ROM, good, still works,

swapped in the original 6810, good, still works,

swapped in the original 6507, bad....

 

So, bad 6507, and bad RIOT, attempt boot, computer doesn't see drive,

swapped the 3806.... bingo.... SIO back, drive works great, booting proptected and no protected disks with no read errors....

 

so, bad 6507, bad RIOT, and bad 3806..... wonder what happened to this one.... spike on the SIO taking out the 3806, then back to the RIOT, and back to the CPU ?????

 

Well, other than being a bit yellowed like most 810s, it is now working good.

The SIO cable was likely unplugged with the power supply plugged in, this is known to sometimes damage the 3086 transistor array, this may have caused the CPU/RIOT failure at the same time. The following is from the Atari FAQ:

Quote

Rich Mier professes:

You've been plugging and unplugging the SIO cable with the 1050 power pack plugged in, right? That's a no-no. Most of the time it's okay, but about 1 in 10, 20 times, it will blow out 'U-1'. It's a CA/LM 3086 I.C. at the right, rear of the main board. A 14 pin DIL chip. Actually it is an array of 5 transistors.

 

Unplug the power pack from the 1050, then unplug the SIO cable. Power can be ON on the CPU. The problem has to do with the secondary winding of the Power Pack. Remember, the problem only occurs 1 out of 10 - 20 times that you do it, not all the time.

 

It doesn't really matter if the 1050 Transformer has power on or off, it 'Might' happen if plugged into the 1050. It is really bad on 810's.

Edited March 7, 2022 by BillC

[cwilbar]

24 minutes ago, BillC said:

The SIO cable was likely unplugged with the power supply plugged in, this is known to sometimes damage the 3086 transistor array, this may have caused the CPU/RIOT failure at the same time. The following is from the Atari FAQ:

I could see it with the device on....  I'd have to look at the schematics, but I'd find it odd that it could do it with the power switch off.... 

 

But regardless, I'd think that would stop with the 3086.... not continue on through the RIOT and to the CPU.... that sounds like a bit more of a hit than a simple unplug while live scenario....  but who knows.... I don't have any of the history, nor likely did the person I bought it from on eBay....  as most eBay sellers are just buying low and trying to make a buck.... they don't care if the stuff works/doesn't/etc....

 

Occasionally I've bought stuff on eBay from the original owner.... but more than not, it's just someone flipping things they scored cheap to make a buck (nothing wrong with that.... thats the nature of capitalism .... buy low, sell high ? ).

 

Either way, it is happy now.  Have a stack of drives to get to.... then I have to determine the keepers and move the remainder.

 

 

[TGB1718]

Just got packs 10 in each of  2N3906 and 2N3904

£1.75 inc. postage

[_The Doctor__]

what's the latest Atari related things you've bought online?                seems the most fitting topic name as you read the thread

[TGB1718]

56 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

what's the latest Atari related things you've bought online?                seems the most fitting topic name as you read the thread

Maybe start a new thread

 

[Mclaneinc]

Make it wife / partner friendly by naming it "What I nearly brought online but didn't, honest..."

[OmaOhneBH]

How about just 'What?' ?

[Beeblebrox]

I'm in love.....!!

 

She's just this minute landed and is in almost mint condition...

 

        

 

 

The keyboard feels amazing!!

 

Better stop for now as this is getting borderline pervy! 

 

Will likely do a blog or post a thread at some stage as this is an interesting one........(I'll leave it there for now heh heh)

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[TGB1718]

11 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

I'm in love.....!!

 

She's just this minute landed and is in almost mint condition...

?

[xrbrevin]

1 hour ago, Beeblebrox said:

almost mint condition

congrats Beeble! large A8 - all the more to enjoy ?

remember to add your serial to the list. theyre a rare beast - even more so in this country

now you just gotta decide what mods it gets... ? (dust cover recommended)

[Beeblebrox]

2 minutes ago, xrbrevin said:

congrats Beeble! large A8 - all the more to enjoy ?

remember to add your serial to the list. theyre a rare beast - even more so in this country

now you just gotta decide what mods it gets... ? (dust cover recommended)

@xrbrevinThanks. Was a struggle to find that was removely affordable I can tell ya. I can't believe the condition of the case, keyboard and buttons. This was one looked after machine. I don't think it's received any modern casing treatment but I could be wrong.

 

I've be revealing more soon. Gonna crack her open over the weekend. As I say gonna be an interesting one ....let's just say she ain't stock in her current condition! I already have one initial plan of action after consulting with Tf_hh 

Watch this space..

 

I will log the serial on the AA thread yup.

 

Apparently 105,000 1200XL units were made worldwide by Atari.

 

This is also a very interesting article BTW (with some interesting timelines and info:http://www.geekometry.com/2014/08/in-defense-of-the-atari-1200xl/ )

 

 

 

(Man I gotta stop referring to this 1200XL as she!)

 

[+mytek]

32 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

Apparently 105,000 1200XL units were made worldwide by Atari.

And @bob1200xl and @Timothy Kline own half of them.

 

Well maybe not half, but a good chunk none the less

 

Your acquisition looks very clean - congrats.

 

[Mclaneinc]

 

Congrats Beeble my old mate, your pressie is in da house..

 

Deffo U1MB it and do all the little hacks, I know you plan to PAL it, welcome to the UK 1200 club..

[Mclaneinc]

18 hours ago, mytek said:

And @bob1200xl and @Timothy Kline own half of them.

 

 

And both have been very kind towards others, thank you..Hope the old TV shop is keeping you busy Tim, Bobs always busy

[Beeblebrox]

1 hour ago, Mclaneinc said:

 

Congrats Beeble my old mate, your pressie is in da house..

 

Deffo U1MB it and do all the little hacks, I know you plan to PAL it, welcome to the UK 1200 club..

@Mclaneinc thanks. Yup. One happy camper here! Plus day off work and sun is shining!!? (Yup, sun shines in the UK from time to time eh?!) 

 

Will do a blog or separate thread at some stage but she powered up OK earlier today on my crt via svideo. This is an NTSC machine all the way from the States. 

 

Got plans but defo U1mb. Some advice from Tf_hh and Fjc already so for once kinda know what is required. Only initial issues with the machine include no led power light coming on and a few non responsive or intermttant keys - but will sort the mylar, etc and do all the research. I know the 1200XLs are prone to kb issues. 

 

Not opened it up yet but casing and keyboard are in absolutely amazing condition. Aluminium function buttons and badge look mint. 

 

I suspect it has already had one of the clear pic mods as image quality is IMHO very good. It had already undergone some obvious modding at some stage in it's life. It has its own modded s-video out as well as a single RCA audio jack. Works well giving full colour output. If the single OS mod is needed I am planning on doing that having watched FJC's U1mb install vid which covers it. 

 

Played Atariblast! via my Atarimax maxflash 8Mb version of the game as well as the same cart version of Flob. Cart port works fine. Even with NTSC colour output (with all the wrong colour pallete) it looks great. 

 

I love the design and it looks great next to my other XLs. I love it. ?

 

Gonna be a fun weekend methinks. Final of the Six nations Rugby unions Super Saturday tmrw and A8 tinkering on the cards. 

?

 

 

[Mclaneinc]

 

You have mucho fun there...

[mimo]

@Beeblebrox welcome indeed to the UK 1200xl owners club. 

I should really get around to modding mine, but it's so nice and original and minty fresh I can't bring myself to do it.

Funny, but the 3 I previously imported were modded to hell 

[Beeblebrox]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:26 PM, mimo said:

@Beeblebrox welcome indeed to the UK 1200xl owners club. 

I should really get around to modding mine, but it's so nice and original and minty fresh I can't bring myself to do it.

Funny, but the 3 I previously imported were modded to hell 

@mimo  thanks -  a belated reply here. Been busy upgrading and fixing the 1200XL

I know what you mean re modding. They are such nice looking machines. However as this was already modded it made the decision for the further mods/upgrades easier for me. 

 

*************

 

Bit of an update - This A8 already had the S-video port and a mono RCA jack preinstalled from a previous owner's upgrade. Worked no problems. Really good image output and audio from them - again albeit in NTSC pallette. The original Din monitor port works too, although with a DIN to S-video cable that only outputs black and white). I do wonder if this machine has undergone the clearpic mod - not had time to look into it.

 

It's an NTSC machine which I'll be converting to PAL (thanks to Tf_hh) in the coming months.

 

I've spent the last few days doing the following:

• Converting it from the dual OS to single OS (including new 28 and 20 pin precision sockets installed for the U1MB)
• Swapping the 74LS08 with a 74F08 IC for stability
• Installing U1MB and adding the 100pf capacitor to it, (a well documented fix needed to correct instability which causes the bios to crash)
• Adding detatchable header connectors for the S-video and RCA jacks so I can remove the main board easily when needed in future without desoldering the wiring every time.
• Fixing the keyboard mylar, (which took nearly 2 days to troubleshoot and fix - don't ask!!).
• Flashing the U1MB with the latest FJC firmware to replace the decade old original.

Externally in absolutely amazing condition and inside is pretty impressive too. This machine has been well looked after over the years.

 

Few pics:

(Honestly the first pic doesn't do it justice).

        

 

        

 

   

 

 

 

 

                   

 

 

 

 

Games - albeit still currently in NTSC pallettes - running off the S-video port to my 10" CRT TV:

      

 

                 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[leech]

9 hours ago, Beeblebrox said:

@mimo  thanks -  a belated reply here. Been busy upgrading and fixing the 1200XL

I know what you mean re modding. They are such nice looking machines. However as this was already modded it made the decision for the further mods/upgrades easier for me. 

 

*************

 

Bit of an update - This A8 already had the S-video port and a mono RCA jack preinstalled from a previous owner's upgrade. Worked no problems. Really good image output and audio from them - again albeit in NTSC pallette. The original Din monitor port works too, although with a DIN to S-video cable that only outputs black and white). I do wonder if this machine has undergone the clearpic mod - not had time to look into it.

 

It's an NTSC machine which I'll be converting to PAL (thanks to Tf_hh) in the coming months.

 

I've spent the last few days doing the following:

• Converting it from the dual OS to single OS (including new 28 and 20 pin precision sockets installed for the U1MB)
• Swapping the 74LS08 with a 74F08 IC for stability
• Installing U1MB and adding the 100pf capacitor to it, (a well documented fix needed to correct instability which causes the bios to crash)
• Adding detatchable header connectors for the S-video and RCA jacks so I can remove the main board easily when needed in future without desoldering the wiring every time.
• Fixing the keyboard mylar, (which took nearly 2 days to troubleshoot and fix - don't ask!!).
• Flashing the U1MB with the latest FJC firmware to replace the decade old original.

Externally in absolutely amazing condition and inside is pretty impressive too. This machine has been well looked after over the years.

 

Few pics:

(Honestly the first pic doesn't do it justice).

        

 

        

 

   

 

 

 

 

                   

 

 

 

 

Games - albeit still currently in NTSC pallettes - running off the S-video port to my 10" CRT TV:

      

 

                 

 

 

 

 

Just an opinion, but why change it to PAL?  Arguably the Ataris were kind of meant to be NTSC.  Some of the PAL colors are very... not great on the Atari.  Granted I do have a PAL 600xl with 64kb of RAM specifically for the few things that don't support NTSC.  But the extra display speed, alternate (arguably better) pallette... just makes me wonder why you would make it PAL. 

 

(Note: I am mostly basing the color bias based on Star Raiders' shields.  I haven't played enough on the PAL computer I own to really see what else is different.  Granted. There isn't just ONE version of the NTSC 'standard' on Atari 8bits...)

[Beeblebrox]

11 minutes ago, leech said:

Just an opinion, but why change it to PAL?  Arguably the Ataris were kind of meant to be NTSC.  Some of the PAL colors are very... not great on the Atari.  Granted I do have a PAL 600xl with 64kb of RAM specifically for the few things that don't support NTSC.  But the extra display speed, alternate (arguably better) pallette... just makes me wonder why you would make it PAL. 

 

(Note: I am mostly basing the color bias based on Star Raiders' shields.  I haven't played enough on the PAL computer I own to really see what else is different.  Granted. There isn't just ONE version of the NTSC 'standard' on Atari 8bits...)

@leech  Ah you may not have clocked it but I am in the UK so most of the time the colours are understandable off with my PAL display equipment whilst it's NTSC, plus a lot of the games and demos I have won't run on NTSC (either corrupted display or won't run at all). All of my Rastaconverter images are all PAL.

So keeping this NTSC machine sourced from the States as NTSC wouldn't work for me. 

 

Thankfully the conversion is going to be dead easy and also will be reversable if I ever wanna revert back to it  - thanks to Tf_hh. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[leech]

3 minutes ago, Beeblebrox said:

@leech  Ah you may not have clocked but I am in the UK so all the colours are understandable off with my PAL display equipment whilst NTSC, plus a lot of the games and demos I have won't run on NTSC. Plus of course all of my Rastaconverter images are all PAL.

So keeping this NTSC machine sourced from the States as NTSC wouldn't work for me. 

Ha, I saw that, just figured most displays will work with either.  But that does answer the question of what you are using it for and why PAL, thanks! 

 

I know in Amiga Land, unless you are running a Video Toaster, you may as well just stick with PAL.  But I think a vast majority of the software (old classic stuff anyhow) for the Atari is NTSC (with all the 'fun' that gave us).

 

Man, how nice it would have been back in the day if 'they' had just picked a standard.... that goes for voltage too.

[Beeblebrox]

@leech  

 

"Ha, I saw that, just figured most displays will work with either.  But that does answer the question of what you are using it for and why PAL, thanks! "

 

Sorry - I don't follow.  As per previously mentioned it won't work for me in PAL for the reasons listed above.  

 

I have old PAL CRT displays and an NTSC output will most of the time display all the wrong colours for most PAL games, images, etc I wish to run, or games/demos won't run at all, (the game Albert for example, or demos like Cyberpunk and Numen). So a PAL conversion is the only option to get me a 1200XL running a PAL display like all of my other PAL A8s. I alternate between my PAL machines, (800XL, 600XL, 800), and plan to have the 1200XL hooked up as well.

 

Check out one of my all time favoute games running on this 1200XL NTSC - all the colours are wrong as would be expected running off an NTSC chipset A8 on 50Hz PAL display equipment/PAL games.

 

So my 1200XL NTSC on my PAL CRT:

 

    

 

and what the colours should look like (and will do on the 1200XL after the conversion to PAL):

 

   

 

 

Another example, here is Globe's excellent 128K 3D raycasting demo running on my 1200XL currently, (where also moving around all the colours fluctuate):

 

 

and what it should look like:

 

 

and Flob on my 1200XL NTSC:  

 

 

vs what the colour scheme should look like:

 

 

 

Few other examples (where Blinky's scary school has glitches and is unplayable - nevermind the psychadelic colours heh heh:

  

 

   

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Beeblebrox

[MichaG]

 

Just bought on ebay: a SIDE2 and a TV with S-Video for my XEGS (modified)