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Should I pass up this old 800?

I can convert some software sometimes, but not that. I'l keep looking. It's not priority, just something I'd like to do.

Has anyone ever used any kind of telnet to make an ST(or something) talk to a PC when the PC was using hyperterminal? Gotta transfer files somehow.
 
UPDATE

I decided to take the old fdd apart and look at it. I figured I couldn't hurt it since it didn't work anyway.

I found a bad belt. That might be the WHOLE problem! We'll see. I'm gonna go to a few vcr repair shops (they still exist here) and see if I can find one that fits it. It's 5" long folded and about a 1/4" wide. TOO EASY!

I'm finding all kinds of PITA ways to connect from win/dos to the ST, how about Linux? They both have terminal programs, too. Does anybody have any info? I'm searching.
 
Best Electronics is the most favored of suppliers.
http://www.best-electronics-ca.com/
I use a Link 2 which is an ASCSI adaptor to convert the proprietary HD port to normal SCSI and use a Syquest ez135 (or one could use an Iomega SCSI Zip) hooked up to my MegaST so I can use different set-ups on the portable disks or have space for memory-hungry midi files.
And of course have access to other chained SCSI devices such as CDs and scanners. I dont know if there are any hacks to use the paralell port for other devices than printers.

There were a bunch of ST hardware hacks including an IDE adapter done by Mario Becroft of N.Z. http://gem.win.co.nz/mb/atarihw/
but I see he no longer sells his cards. Some one in the U.K. used to supply Mario's cards and might still possibly have some stock.

There was also a very extensive ST FAQ which a quick Google didn't bring up immediately.
Possibly the atari.org page has it.

I'd imagine you might be able to do a serial or modem transfer but without an FDD you wouldn't be able to use a controlling program on your ST.

The ST FDD's were always the weakest link IMHO. I think I have 3 STfs with nonfunctioning internal FDDs. Many non-Atari FDDs(not HD) could be used in Ataris and ISTR that you reversed the data connector (I'd check this with more authoritive ST people than I). There was even a simple hack to use a 5.25 floppy.
I once hacked an FDD with allignment head problems using trial and error(I had no O-scope)
but with present prices (they were about $200 at the time) for Atari FDDs it generally isn't worth the effort.

You might also check out the Google Atari (ST or 16bit ?) newsgroup archives.

I'm not sure but I believe there was a program (Minix ?) to connect to UNIX which would imply that Linux68 would work. I believe there's lots of discussion on this in the ST newsgroups.

Lawrence
 
Ouch. $99 usd for that adapter, out of my pricerange. They're out of stock of the $39 one, I'd get that one.

I like the selection of Best, but their prices are prohibitively expensive. They charge in the hundreds of dollars for things! I'm gonna place a (relatively) small order with them, but for the most part they're too expensive.

I've found a few places that i can get stuff from, http://www.vintagefunworld.com/ has a bunch of stuff for older computers, including the atari, and various little places around the net. That link is probably the most extensive.

And I love trading with you guys. Y'all are at the top of the list, heh heh.

One of these days I'll get some kind of hdd adapter for the atari or find a unix-style os that works out of rom.

Ataris are cool but I guess they can be difficult.

/EDIT I figured out that the FB2 controllers aren't directly compatible with the ST, the x and y axis are reversed. I'm not going to bother with an adapter, I'll just get a 2-button controller with a turbo setting, since the joystick only moves the cursor one pixel at a time when it's being used as a mouse.
 
I'm a little frustrated. I got a new belt for the SF354 fdd and it seems to be working. It sees disks and got the busy light on and everything.

Everything I read says that an ST can read pc disks, but it only sees its own disks. The pc is a win2k laptop, all standard stuff. What the heck am I doing wrong?

If I could get a disk with some kind of terminal program on it I could access the pc and grab whatever files I want but I gota get terminal through the FLOPPY! ARGH!

Is there any kind of command prompt I can get to with the st? That way I can type in the commands to listen to the serial port. Jeez Louise it's frustrating.
 
There's an ecellent ST emulator called STEEM. Possibly you could do some kind of workaround with that. I think the only difference with the PC disks was a header with the volume number on it. You could possibly use STEEM to use Procopy to format a single sided disk. I'd try the Atari ST
newsgroup to see if you can get a double-density FDD cheap. Your going to have to get one at some time anyway.

Lawrence
 
How do I get it to DO that? It has a built in terminal program-- how do I get to it? Do I hit a key or something as it boots up? I have the 354 drive, it works, and I would LOVE to get it to go into terminal mode. Heck, I even hae a modem I could force. But how do I get it to go into terminal mode???

I think I told y'all that I hurt my back, and the vicatin that I was prescribed makes this whole process go SOOO much better, heh heh.
 
I went ahead and ordered a terminal program from vintagefun. It's an original atari floppy disk and they guarantee that everything works. And it was cheap.

I found a pinout to make a bus mouse work on the st. I happen to have an old bus mouse from a long time ago and plenty of db9 cables that i can cut up and connectors and things. The bus mouse is in a trunk under a lot of heavy things, though, and my back won't let me get to it right now. It'll pass.

There's been a lot of hacking on the st with everyone's different projects. I like it. Maybe it's the vicodin talking.
 
Regardless of the candy wrapper incident, I still got yet another 354 drive from vintagefun. I now have three and they all seem to work the same way. They see there's a disk but they report no data on them. DOS reports data on all the disks I have tried. So I am gonna troubleshoot. The cable is suspect, it has a lot of bite marks from Joe's cat or whoever was living with him at the time (I mean a pet, ha ha). So I ned to find one of those cables somewhere. All three drives can't have the same flaw. I mean, the odds are against that.
 
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but those external floppy cables are "gold".
Harder to find than a vigin ewe in a shepherds flock.

Are you sure the disks you're using are single sided ? The "zine" disks likely had a complex method of formatting a floppy to allow reading by both SS and DS users. I think the SS were 8 sector by 40 track.

The other possible explanation is the fdd controller chip is dead. Many users replaced them with the "Ajax" chip in order to be able to use HD disks.

Lawrence.
 
All the disks I tried were at one time readable by that computer, and some were atari disks. Like the language disk. I might see about that ajaz chip you mentioned. I guess I'll check the continuity of the cable, see if it's getting through all the pins. Multimeter time!
 
I forget which disk that came with new Ataris that the VT52 emulator was on, ISTR that the great ST graphics program Neochrome was on the same disk. Their was also a "Logo" program that was on one disk. Possibly the language disk with Atari Basic.

I'll see about putting together that fdd hacking file tomorrow and see if the new board can handle attachments. Also pack up the 1040 and find shipping cost.

Lawrence
 
I tested the cable with the multimeter and it checked out for continuity. The only thing left is the controller on the computer itself. I looked up those ajax chips and when I can fidn them they're expensive. IIRC best electronics wanted $60 for one. Er, I'll get a terminal car instead and figure somethign else out.

T, I am gonna be up to my ears in Ataris but that's okay. It'll give me plenty to tinker with that is relatively inexpensive and that's good news for my wife. And they stash pretty easy, too.

I was confused at first why people kept telling me to flip the ribbon cable inside the drive or install it upside down, but then T's and the moldy one came in and I saw what everyone meant. I have one of the early drives that had a very different 14-pin header type cable on the inside with the angular eject button. T's and the moldy one both have pretty standard innards, looks like.

Heck, I might get a 1050 5.25" drive to work with it.

Micom, your goodie box is getting fuller, heh heh.
 
I was putting together some stuff today and ran across mu old mitsumi 1.2mb 5.25" fdd. I got to looking at it and it has ID jumpers! Clearly marked! Definitley not meant strictly for a windows system as it has four different ID's that can be switched on. And since the pins are the same I think I'll play around by running it on the st, heh heh. I have an empty case. I'll use it to slave whatever to the st. And I know if I dig around I'll find a 360k drive that I'll set up, too. I mean, why not? I have the pinouts and I have lots of cables and pins to do it with. While i was rummaging I found a bunch of old fdd cables that I've had stashed for a rainy day.

I think I'm gonna play around with some plastic mold injection so I can make my db9 w/o the side holes. As a test I was gonna use my db9-db25 adapter to line up the pins, then squirt some oil on the female part of the adapter (or maybe I'l oil it first, it's vicodin time) and then form some hot glue around it and have some kind of strain relief. I bought some pins to make my own plugs and sockets "one of these days" so I'll just do it. I'll have some free time tomorrow evening. And I bought a crapload of pins, like a ream of 200 each of male and female.

Isn't it wonderful how one thing leads to another? I mean, when I got my first computer the last thing on my mind was plastic mold injection. Sounds like the start of a great new thread! "When you got into computers, what did computers get you into?"
 
I don't know where it came from or how I ended up with it but I dug out from my box of drives an Epson SMD-340, the one that shipped with an Atari upgrade kit oh so long ago. I have most of the jumper settings, the ones that were set by atari at least. Now I have to get the ajax chip. As far as I read, the kit had in it the drive and a replacement controller chip. Sometimes it really pays to be a pack-rat!

/edit http://atariarchives.org/cfn/08/09/03/0267.php

http://www.cheek.org/atari/computer.htm

That's where I read it.
 
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