29 replies to this topic

[Official Ninja]

I just acquired my second US Mega STe. 4mb with a 210mb Quantum hard drive that takes about a minute before it wants to start working.
I should have another SCSI drive on the way to replace it. Floppy drive works great. Keyboard has a few dead keys. I already ordered a replacement mylar from Best Electronics. $30 isn't too bad and Brad says it is much better than the stock mylar. The front right corner of the case has some damage the previous owner fixed by super gluing the pieces back on like a puzzle. Still doesn't look too bad.
I'm happy! Now I have this backup MSTE I can hook up to the TVs to play games.

Here it is:




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[visionik]

Is that the one that was on eBay for a bit with a mono monitor?

I just picked up another mega ste 4mb from eBay. No hard drive, but it looked like it was in good shape and I've been waiting a while for one that looked good.

[Official Ninja]

visionik, on Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:59 PM, said:

Is that the one that was on eBay for a bit with a mono monitor?

I just picked up another mega ste 4mb from eBay. No hard drive, but it looked like it was in good shape and I've been waiting a while for one that looked good.

Yeah. It was on eBay with a mono monitor. I contacted the seller after the auction was over and offered to buy the system minus the monitor. Not only did I not want the mono screen, I didn't want to pay shipping for it
Got the system for a good price as far as USA models go.

The replacement Mylar for the Keyboard came from Best already and was super easy to install. Now the keyboard works 100%.

[visionik]

I should have thought of asking for it without the monitor!

It worked out well though as I wanted an SC1224 for my VBXE upgraded 130xe.

The mega ste I got has no HD. I just need to find an internal storage device to use with it.

[Official Ninja]

Does it have the hdd controller inside? I hear they are hard to come by.

I just discovered my new MSTE has a high density disk drive.

At some point i'll start a thread with questions about that.
Like if I move the HD drive to my other MSTE will that one do HD?

[Christos]

No, it's both the HD drive and a mod at the fdc.

[visionik]

I'm not sure if it has the hdd controller or not. In any case I plan on putting an UltraSatan internally with one of these cables:

http://joo.kie.sk/ultrasatan/cables/

http://www.freemint....ultrasatan.html

-J

[Official Ninja]

Christos, on Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:39 AM, said:

No, it's both the HD drive and a mod at the fdc.

Hi Chris. I found the install document here:

http://dev-docs.atar...rch.php?find=_3

Direct to PDF:
http://dev-docs.atar...ll_Man_1991.pdf

Anyone know, is it correct to assume that if my one MSTE has a 720K drive, it doesn't have the parts (specifically the chips) listed in the install / upgrade manual?
So with out those no HD for that MSTE?

HD is nice but with an Ultra Satan on the way, it really doesn't matter I suppose.

[Official Ninja]

Got luckey. All I had to do was put dip switch 7 up and install the HD drive in my "better" MSTE and it works fine.
Moved the 720K drive to the backup machine and it works well there.

Still I'd like to find another of these HD drives. C301371-001 is the part number.
Anyone have one they are willing to sell?

[guus.assmann]

Hello Official Ninja,

In many cases the 1772 with the 02-02 marking will also work just fine.
Most of those can handle the "overclocking" just fine.
And the Ajax-chip that you mention will do of course. But it's much more expensive. (Try at Best-elektronics)

BR/
Guus

[DarkLord]

guus.assmann, on Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:04 AM, said:

Hello Official Ninja,

In many cases the 1772 with the 02-02 marking will also work just fine.
Most of those can handle the "overclocking" just fine.
And the Ajax-chip that you mention will do of course. But it's much more expensive. (Try at Best-elektronics)

BR/
Guus

You're right. If you follow the "Modified ST Hassles" thread over at AtariForum, you'd see that Sean's HD
floppy kit worked great with most WD1772's, especially the 02-02 variety.

But...not...always.... In the case of my STacy, we never could get the mod to work until I swapped mine out
for an Ajax, and it was an 02-02, so its a general rule, but not a hard and fast rule...

Oh, btw - I got my Ajax chip from Best Electronics - they are on sale right now for $29.95.

[Official Ninja]

So,I moved the official Atari HD drive to my main STe. Then I decided to see if I could adapt a very common Teac drive to the other MSTe. (Thanks Fox-1 for the idea.)
With very little modification I was able to adapt the "cross" front of the mste drive to the 8front if the HD Teac drive. Works really well and looks great.

[Official Ninja]

Here is the Mega STE with a standard TEAC 1.44mb HD drive installed. The modifications were super simple to do and it works perfect.
Also, as you can see from the pics it looks like the original drive. You cant tell it was replaced with an easily available TEAC drive.

[tjlazer]

Nice! I got to add a 1.44 drive to mine sometime. Can you post all the modifications you did to make it work? Were these cosmetic mods to make it fit the face?

[Official Ninja]

tjlazer, on Sun Feb 5, 2012 11:07 AM, said:

Nice! I got to add a 1.44 drive to mine sometime. Can you post all the modifications you did to make it work? Were these cosmetic mods to make it fit the face?

Hello. I tried three different Teac drives and all had the same trouble. They didn't want to read / write 720k disks reliably. I changed to a Sony drive and all works well. I also tested a Mitsumi drive that worked fine. However these drives I had to solder a jumper between pins 10 and 12 to make the drive DS0. The teac drives has jumpers or solder pads to do this more easily.

As for modifying the drives I can easily explain.

1st remove the 720k drive from the MSTE.
From this drive remove the cross shaped front plate and press button. These are what you see through the system case.
On the cross shaped piece clip off the top two tabs, leaving the ones on the sides.
On the button clip off the plastic that locks into the mech. File it smooth, so the back of the button is flat as can be.
On the HD drive remove the face plate and button.
Now because of the ST eject button being so large you have to cut the frame away on the HD drive to make clearance. I used a hack saw blade. Be careful of getting metal chips in the drive. It's easier than it sounds. I will attach a pic to show.
Now the Sony drive I was able to place the button in the cross shaped face plate with the tab faced inward (the little piece to keep it from falling through) and then fit the cross shaped faceplate to the drive. It doesn't snap in, just hold it there careful and install the drive. The front of the mste will keep it in place.
With the Teac drives I had to place the front cross shaped face plate in the case top and the butt the drive up against it during install of the drive.

Hope that's clear. I have to go to my PC and edit this post with a pick of the drive mod.

OK, pic attached. You can see the Teac drive has a cast metal frame and where i cut it to remove a section to make room for the button.
The Sony and Mitsumi drive have a stamped sheet metal frame and I had to cut it in different spots to make room. The picture is an example.
Common sense will tell you what and where to cut.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by Official Ninja, Sun Feb 5, 2012 1:08 PM.

[Official Ninja]

So, a modified standard drive works well. However it doesn't behave exactly like a stock drive.
I started a thread over at Atari-forum about it.

http://www.atari-for...=202198#p202198

Edited by Official Ninja, Sun Feb 5, 2012 7:50 PM.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

This is known issue. The reason is that Atari used non standard way to detect disk change. And it works only with some specific drives. New drives are not such, of course.
More, and concrete hints for fixing it: http://atari.8bitchi...o/flomodam.html

[ParanoidLittleMan]

Considering not booting from DD floppies when SW7 is on : this is TOS solution problem. And not only one. For instance steprate handling is poorly solved too in TOS 2.06 , I recommend that set SW7 back to off, and use some good floppy utility for formatting, copiing floppies. HD mode wil lstill be operaive. Good formatting SW offers much more options than Desktop formatter/copier. There are PC compatible formats too, 1.44 MB or more.

[Official Ninja]

Thanks, good info.

I have a SMD-300 drive on the way to me. I'm not sure if this drive works the same as the SMd-340 / 380.
Was the SMD-300 used as stock in the Falcon?

[DarkLord]

Using TOS 3.06 on my PAK equipped STacy, with Ralcool's HD floppy mod, TOS 3.06
wouldn't recognize the 1.44 drive either, apparently it was looking for the dip switch
as well. STacy's don't have one.

So...a guy over at Atariforum uploaded a small AUTO folder program that installs the
cookie that TOS version 2.xx and higher looks for. It works for me. Why don't you try
it and see if it gives you the HD format option and doesn't interfere with your AUTO
loading games?

 bitz.zip   44.29K   14 downloads

Look inside the AUTO folder in the ZIP file for the program itself.

HTHs.

[Official Ninja]

Thanks DL! I'll try it out.

I did more testing tonight and ParanoidLittleMan is right about it being a TOS bug. Even in my MSTE with the official Atari Epson SMD-340 HD drive, you cant auto boot these games with switch 7 on. It goes right to memory test instead. So it wasnt my Sony HD drive at all, but a problem with TOS 2.06. I shouldnt say cant... it will work sometimes but it is rare.

Also with switch 7 off the sony drive has no troubles swapping disks and behaves exactly like a stock replacement drive!

To format HD disks I simply use FCOPYPRO. Works great.

Still, I'll try the above program DL attached....

Edited by Official Ninja, Mon Feb 6, 2012 6:26 PM.

[Official Ninja]

DarkLord, on Mon Feb 6, 2012 3:22 PM, said:

Using TOS 3.06 on my PAK equipped STacy, with Ralcool's HD floppy mod, TOS 3.06
wouldn't recognize the 1.44 drive either, apparently it was looking for the dip switch
as well. STacy's don't have one.

So...a guy over at Atariforum uploaded a small AUTO folder program that installs the
cookie that TOS version 2.xx and higher looks for. It works for me. Why don't you try
it and see if it gives you the HD format option and doesn't interfere with your AUTO
loading games?

bitz.zip

Look inside the AUTO folder in the ZIP file for the program itself.

HTHs.

DL, using this app the system behaves just as if the switch 7 was on. So disk swapping stops working.

Edit: Well now I'm confussed. Now disk swapping doesn't work at all no matter what...
I don't know what to think... Maybe it is just random luck. Just like the autoboot games. Every once in awhile, they boot....

Edited by Official Ninja, Mon Feb 6, 2012 6:33 PM.

[wood_jl]

Official Ninja, on Mon Feb 6, 2012 6:28 PM, said:

Edit: Well now I'm confussed. Now disk swapping doesn't work at all no matter what...

Didn't Atari do something weird/nonstandard with the disk change detect mechanism?

[Official Ninja]

wood_jl, on Mon Feb 6, 2012 6:52 PM, said:

Official Ninja, on Mon Feb 6, 2012 6:28 PM, said:

Edit: Well now I'm confussed. Now disk swapping doesn't work at all no matter what...

Didn't Atari do something weird/nonstandard with the disk change detect mechanism?

Yeah. I actually found a thread over at atari-forum that had some good info on the subject,..
I think what I'll do when I have some time over the weekend is open my other mste and play with that. See what happens, how it acts with these same drives.
Because of the inconsistent results I'm wondering if I should order an Ajax chip from BEST for this new MSTE of mine. How does it detect disk swaps reliably and then 2 hrs later not at all?

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I repeat: disk change (disk swap) detection works only with specific drives, because Atari used non standard way. You need whether:
1. To find compatible drive and use it - the hardest way, I guess .
2. Modify floppy drive according to instructions here: http://atari.8bitchi...o/flomodam.html
3. Press Esc after every disk change, to force system to see new disk. But it works only from Desktop .
Ajax chip will not help in this. It is just more reliable with HD floppies.

I really need to compose list of Atari's stoopid and lazy solutions over time.

Examples: Floppy formatting: despite DOS compatible basic format (FAT12) it is not really DOS compatible until TOS 1.04. And even then, they use FAT len of 5 sectors instead 3 .
AUTO run. SW must have extension PRG. But we know that AUTO run is not for SW using AES (windows, dialogs etc). And programs not using mentioned have normally extension TOS. So, why not TOS extension for AUTO folder SW ???????????????
There is more, but enough for today. Some may think that I'm Amiga agent here