ACML

I've owned it for about three months and have used it many times, but I would not say may testing was exhaustive. To date, I have not found any issue with compatibility. It uses the same SDRIVE.ATR software as the SDRIVE MAX. It easily swaps disks (Left button increments one drive # and right button decrements one drive #). There are bright color LEDs to tell which drive slot is active. To me, the simplicity is a plus. What is the longevity of cheap LED screens? I thought some of the SDRIVE MAXs, maybe early versions, have/had issues playing well with other SIO devices. But trust me when I say that you will not be disappointment with the Lotharek Fujinet 1.7 Pro. The only thing holding me back from saying the SDRIVE mini is perfect is that old antiquated menu screen that all SDRIVEs have to suffer. About 1/3 of the screen real estate is wasted on a useless directory path. You only get to see the full filename of the currently selected file. The Ultimate Cart or SIO2SD version 2.5 menu is far better. The Fujinet menu selection system is awesome!

If you are referring to Lotharek's new mini SDRIVE, it is a fantastic little device. I especially love the joystick navigation and the ease in jumping drives with the two little buttons. Awesome solution for XEX and ATR files. As for the Fujinet, the new Lotharek Fujinet 1.7 Pro is super nice and I highly recommend it. The navigation on the SD card library is top notch to include joystick navigation. The SAM voice telling which drive is active is nice as well. Today, if I had to pick one as a new enthusiast, I'd pick the SDRIVE micro/nano from Lotharek for price (under $30) and if you are will to spend more, the Fujinet 1.7 Pro also from Lotharek. Either gets you covered for disk and file images, but to round out the complete capability, I'd also get one of the above and an UNO Cart which runs ~$65. The UNO Cart gives you the ROM world up to 128K.

The back inputs are separate video (LUMA & CHROMA), not composite. S-video has both LUMA and CHROMA, but they need to be in the form of two RCA jacks. https://www.ebay.com/itm/125026312900?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D261963%26meid%3D36119fcffdb8426395c5f27f0b3ad21d%26pid%3D101875%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D386702352801%26itm%3D125026312900%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DSimplAMLv11WebTrimmedV3MskuWithLambda85KnnRecallV1V2V4ItemNrtInQueryAndCassiniVisualRankerAndBertRecallWithVMEV3CPCAutoWithCassiniEmbRecallManualAndQueryItemPopRecall&_trksid=p4429486.c101875.m1851&itmprp=cksum%3A12502631290036119fcffdb8426395c5f27f0b3ad21d|enc%3AAQAJAAABkPLO2vTSn8FFlF4VJviAe7ddcmEU4ycwNszGAc2piT06VLUCOoX9lwHMdB56DHnREfBsGkySUWitVRKcoMXGN8ZNArcWx4YUvJvNTUp1L6U0IxCN87FIkWV91SgE4XbQ3jnWVPlwN%2F75WZ3S6VYumVEO3K7VNiQjGgvMb94OO8HFYEWwZaLBsaDSwQ6jbwspqNMXlZb%2F9EgpmpebUDh0oHXohoHbM72Be6LtpCSt2PbKQTJ%2Fs0deojXMtdXUUXDld36ugRjvmxwTYYPx8b7smp1vgaSyuTlTuGfE%2F7O6WkS0AbVo%2BKdR1FznJuWiqNDmr85nT87pHa5IWJGwPBEzPU9wzA8nYlu4oGBMfEbCYtsDt5w8RZR6cNCDG3mubG5MEH7u7xPLt0CjCvVlr9ny02V3%2BXXH1viMVqiIDNvxY33rJbe8roBv6B5Lk4yWed36JzJ6ME%2Fp8bXkTWY%2Fob8RazGW8J4UCyqy5NTg3ZmPXyq88U6kOojw3HL%2BtWUJzzM74%2FFQF3GKHU6WkmurAayzMmA%3D|ampid%3APL_CLK|clp%3A4429486&itmmeta=01HSE0WVA8VER221TZ1YH7XZNM

I have owned both form factors and without a doubt, to me, the new Lotharek Fujinet Pro (v1.7) is an outstanding choice. It's built very solid. It does require a SIO cable, but those are like $15-20. The issue I had with the original form factor was that it was a very tight fit in the SIO port, and my fear is that the 3D printed SIO connections could be more prone to failure because of the direct stresses on the PCB they are attached to. The build quality of the Lotharek Fujinet Pro is much better than the original form factor. Other comment: I see a lot of 3rd party SIO cables that don't include all 13 lines. What's up with that. I know some devices only need, say five of the 13 lines, but if the cable is in a pass-thru configuration, it won't pass the other 8 signals. For that reason, I opted to use an OEM SIO cable to ensure all 13 pins would be available for any downstream devices in a pass-thru configuration.

I've upgraded a lot of 1200XL motherboards and I've noticed that the older REV 13 boards have milder jail bars than the newer REV A 1200XL motherboards. Don't know why, but I'm noticing a trend. The jail bars already exist in the stock LUMA signal going to the monitor jack. Plug a stock 1200XL into the s-video of your LCD/LED flat screen and you'll see jail bars in the B&W s-video (i.e. no CHROMA connected on the jack). Point being that the jail bars effect is already there before modifications.

I've noticed that a stock 1200XL has jail bars and it's there in the LUMA signal. That means the stock video circuit that does not have CHROMA connected to the monitor jack already has the jail bar effect in the B&W LUMA signal going to the monitor jack, so I don't think the ClearPic2002 mod introduced the jail bars as they were already there.

Of all the 1200XL keyboards I've seen, they all have a glossy dark key. The 800 (beige), had flat (Hi-Tek and Stackpole) as well as glossy (Mitsumi) keys. Like kheller2 stated, the letters were either really bright white or just a shade off. Any abrasive on plastic would likely dullen or damage the lettering.

Xuel, That did the trick. Works great now on a SDRIVE loader. Thank you very much, again!

The SDRIVE has no problem loading previous XEX versions of Joust, so the issue is with this XEX file, not the SDRIVE.

The SDRIVE loader has been around awhile and is pretty robust, so I feel there has to be something different about this XEX.

This version still won't load and execute with the SDRIVE loader for some reason. When the load finishes, you just get a silent black screen.

I have no idea what the screen clitch was, but the main issue fixed was that the proper space was added between the left score and the lives remaining symbols. It's a small thing, but someone fixed it. Xuel has cracked many games to be compatible with XL OS and is very talented in 6502 coding. He has fixed many game issues in the past.

Any idea why this won't load with SDRIVE? It works fine with SIO2SD and Fujinet, but the XEX on SDRIVE will not execute. It loads, but goes to black screen and never starts.

Is the pin circled supposed to be connected to that thick trace or is that a short?

By looking at the PCB traces, I think your BREAK key might also be an issue. The BREAK, CTRL and SHFT keys have a common trace. You can test the CTRL and SHFT keys using the HELP keyboard function, but not BREAK. To test BREAK, pop in a BASIC cartridge and at the READY prompt, press BREAK, the cursor should drop down one line. If it doesn't respond, it too is affected. If that is the case, you either have a broken trace in the mylar as Beeblebrox mentions above or if that one trace corresponds to one of the nine fingers that meet at the PCB, you may have not built up the carbon trace to the same height as the other 8 fingers and that no is not making contact. If BREAK does not work, the issue is on the green PCB side and likely not the mylar side.