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_______________________________________ ST-REPORT 19 January 27, 1988 _______________________________________ Editor: Ron Kovacs Part of The ST Xpress Magazine Monthly Disk Syndicate Publishing Staff -------------------------- Ron Kovacs Calamity Jane Mr. Goodprobe Eric Plent No room this week for me!!! Seeya Next week! _______________________________________ CONTENTS _______________________________________ January Atari News/Rumors..................................Larry Richards 520STFM One Meg Upgrade....................................Stephen Brown Trackball Part 1...........................................George Robbins Trackball Part 2...............................................Greg Zepka Supra Hard Disk Fix--From Zmag Archives '87-........................Supra Analog Confrence...................................................Delphi Toll Free Computer Oriented Numbers............................Ron Kovacs Probing Your ST -=Computer News Update=-....................Mr. Goodprobe _______________________________________ JANUARY ATARI NEWS AND RUMORS _______________________________________ Compiled by Larry Richards for B.A.S.I.C. and the Dateline BBS Copyright (c)1988 Brooklyn Atari Society and Dateline BBS All rights reserved This article may be freely reprinted in user group newsletters and uploaded to non-commercial BBS's, provided the above copyright notice is included, and credit is given to the author, the Brooklyn Atari Society (B.A.S.I.C.), and the Dateline BBS (718-648-0947). Permission is also granted to GEnie, CompuServe, and Z-Magazine/ST Report to distribute this article, providing that the above conditions are met. ATARI HARDWARE NEWS The Atari Laser Printer, the SLM804, finally made its debut early in December. Retailing from $1595.00 to $1995.00, it includes a Diablo 630 emulator (for use with non-graphics word processors [such as Word Perfect, Word Writer ST, etc.] and non-Mega ST's), a DMA interface box (the item that reportedly had been holding up its release), and no RAM. The printer requires a Mega (or an ST that has been upgraded to at least 2 megs of RAM) in order to produce full graphics. Atari dealers will be selling a "complete desktop publishing workstation", including the laser printer and a Mega, for about $4000. This compares favorably with the $6000+ pricetag of the Apple LaserWriter alone, but the ST is still lacking in the professional desktop publishing software available for the Macintosh, and the Atari Laser Printer cannot be used with any computer other than the ST/Mega. Professional software for the ST, such as Publishing Partner Professional, Calamus from ISD Inc., and Deskset from G.O. Graphics, has been announced, but is not yet available. Early reports from dealers are that sales of the printer have been very sparse, but that the Mega owners who have purchased them are delighted with the units. With the right software, the Mega/SLM804 combination COULD take the desktop publishing market by storm, but for now the jury is still out. On the 8-bit front, the long-awaited XF551 disk drive, the double-sided, TRUE double density replacement for the now-scarce 1050, has finally been released. Unfortunately, ADOS, the new version of DOS that would allow users to take full advantage of the XF551's increased storage capability and speed, is still not ready and the drives are being sold with DOS 2.5 in the package, and a hastily re-done DOS 2.5/1050 manual (with the references to "1050" simply changed to "XF551") included. Atari says that as soon as ADOS is completed it will be included in the XF551 package. In the meantime, SpartaDOS (a new version, 3.5, has been released which will allow use of the high-speed option on the XF551 and the Indus drive - the older version 3.2 will also work with the XF551, but will not allow use of the high-speed mode), TopDOS, and MYDOS will all allow use of the full 360K storage capacity of the new drive. Why would Atari release it before their own DOS was ready? My guess is that the lawsuit by Nintendo (claiming that there were no disk drives available for the XE Game System) forced Atari's hand on this. The XF551 is done in the now-familiar XE gray, and is very sleek and small (much smaller than the 1050). Internally, it seems to consist of a standard IBM-style half-height 360K drive mechanism, an interface, and a disk controller board (similar to the old Percom drives). This would seem to make it an easy target for hackers, and articles are already starting to appear showing how to replace the mechanism with an 80-track (720K) mechanism, a 3.5" mechanism, or how to attach a complete ST drive (such as the SF354) to the XF551 as drive 2 (or 3 or 4). Most of these modifications will require patches to the XF551 ROM, so they should not be attempted by beginners, but they ARE possible. NON-ATARI HARDWARE The Translator ONE for the Magic Sac, put out by Data Pacific Inc., which enables Magic Sac users to read, write and format true Macintosh format disks, was released in early December, and aside from some early problems caused by some non-spec chips (which were quickly corrected by Data Pacific), it works as advertised, and works very well. Packaged with version 5.x of the Magic Sac software (the latest is 5.9), a very well-written manual, and all the necessary cables, it consists of a small gray metal box about 2/3 the size of an SF354/SF314 drive. Using a standard ST floppy drive cable, it plugs into the ST's floppy drive port, and any external drives plug into it (the internal drive on the 1040ST is automatically affected when the Translator is plugged into the external drive port). It also uses 2 standard MIDI cables (included) to plug into both MIDI ports (it will have to be disconnected from the MIDI ports when a MIDI instrument is used, but it can be left connected to the floppy port). Reading and (especially) writing Mac format disks is slow, but this will only have to be done at the beginning of a session (to copy the data to a Magic format disk) and possibly at the end (to copy new data back to a Mac format disk for use on a "real" Mac). The Translator automatically senses if the disk in the drive is a Mac or Magic format disk and sets itself accordingly. Price is $279.95. The Translator ONE is also available as part of the Magic Sac Professional, which consists of the Translator, a Magic Sac+, and the Epstart Epson printer drivers (to allow use of Epson-compatible printers with most Mac software). STILL MISSING The following products were announced at Fall Comdex in November. Here is their present status: At the time this is being written (late January), the Atari PC has still not made its appearance on the market. The original PC (now dubbed the PC-1) has now been joined in vaporware limbo by several new PC models which were announced at Comdex in November, including a 386-based clone with VGA graphics. All the new models include internal expansion slots. Word has it that the PC-1 is already on sale in Europe, though, so it may see the light of day here after all, but its $700 price tag does not make for a very attractive package. Also announced at Comdex (Atari did not attend Winter CES this year) was a $600 CD-ROM drive, which will also be able to play standard audio CDs. The announced shipping date was "late January or early February", but Atari spokespersons have lately been mentioning March (maybe it will be out by summer). Atari also announced the ABAQ, a super graphics workstation based on the INMOS T-800 32-bit transputer chip. The system would require a Mega as a "front end". It is being developed by Perihelion in England, but would be manufactured by Atari (reportedly both Apple and Commodore were offered it but turned it down before Atari took it). The operating system is called Helios, and is a full multitasking, multiuser system. An MS-DOS emulator is also being developed for it that, because of the blinding speed of the T-800 chips, would be able to run MS-DOS software at greater speeds than an AT. Graphics modes range from 1280x960-16 colors to 512x480 with 16 million colors. Price was announced as "in the $5000 range", which would take it out of the home market, but completely blow away anything else in the "professional workstation" market. Atari has had MANY inquiries from businesses in that market since announcing ABAQ, and although it had been expected that the system would not be ready for quite a while (the most common guess was at least a year), Atari now says that prototypes will be going out to developers "very soon". Chalk that up to the fact that the system is not being developed by Atari, just marketed by Atari. The final product announced by Atari at Comdex was the "Moses PromiseLAN" (no fooling!), a local area networking system that would allow ST's and PC's to be networked using IBM NETBIOS, or networked to Apple computers using AppleTalk. Atari had initially said that this system would be available in "early 1988", but now says that it will not be available until after the other Comdex products have appeared (including ABAQ). CHRISTMAS 1987 SALES Atari's video game sales for the 1987 Christmas season were very, very good, according to the company. They sold out of both the 7800 and the new XE Game System. Sales of the XE Game System in particular were very encouraging to Atari, as they reportedly sold more XE Game Systems this year than the total number of XE COMPUTERS (130XE and 65XE) sold in the past few years combined. The strong sales have caused more than a few software producers to re-evaluate their plans for Atari 8-bit software, especially with the new 256K bank-switched cartridges available to protect their programs from piracy. Look for many new titles to appear in the months ahead, especially with Atari committed to continuing (and expanding) their video game TV ads this winter and spring. On the computer front, Atari claims that they also sold out of ST's and Megas because their single factory in Taiwan could not keep up with the demand for all the various Atari products, and production of ST's and Megas had to be limited because of that. Also, most of the ST/Mega production goes to Europe, where the demand is very high. This is why Atari claims they cancelled to TV ad campaign for the ST's/Megas. Since they sold out of the small supplies of these computers that were available in the U.S. it made no sense to them to spend a lot of money on advertising. They have announced that they will be opening two new factories in the U.S. during 1988 which will be solely committed to producing ST's and Megas (and associated products) for sale in the USA. Once these factories are open and "on-line", they promise to begin an "aggressive" advertising campaign (where have we heard that tune before?). We'll see. NEWS TIDBITS (AND RUMORS) According to Neil Harris on GEnie, Atari will be making the new ST ROMs available without the Blitter chip for those who either don't want to wait for the Blitter, or don't want it. Distribution of upgrade kits including the Blitter are being delayed until it becomes available in the 64-pin DIP form that would be necessary for the upgrade. He did not give a date for availability of the ROMs or a price. He also said that Atari is working on a complete rewrite of GEMDOS (not GDOS), correcting many bugs and speeding up many functions while adding some new features. This new version of TOS would be available to developers soon in the form of a disk file, and would be available on ROM later this year. Again according to Neil Harris, Microsoft Write for the ST is now shipping. Atari says that the light gun included with the XE Game System will be made available to 8-bit computer users as soon as a new, improved version of Bug Hunt, the light gun game included with the XEGS, is finished. The gun will be packaged with Bug Hunt and sold for "$30-$50". ANALOG Computing has been purchased by LFP Inc. (Larry Flynt Publications) and will resume publication beginning with the March 1988 issue. ST-Log was also included in the sale and will resume with the March issue also. The same people will be in charge of the editorial content of the magazines, and the only visible changes will be an increase in production values (better paper and printing) and MUCH better distribution (an old problem with ANALOG). All current subscriptions will be honored. Rumor has it that OSS Inc. will be merged with (taken over by) ICD Inc. OSS, a long-time producer of Atari 8-bit systems software and languages (including DOS XL, MAC/65, Basic XL/XE, and Action!) and Personal Pascal for the ST, had run into some hard times of late (mostly due to their ill-advised release of Personal Prolog for the Macintosh, their premature announcement of Personal Pascal 2.0, and the general weakness of the 8-bit market). The fact that they rejected GFA Basic for the ST (the authors refused to change it to OSS' specifications), which later went on the become the most popular commercial Basic for the ST, did not help them either. ICD, producers of SpartaDOS and many, many hardware products for the 8-bit computers, should be a good home for the fine OSS products. Supra Corp. has released the SupraModem 2400, a 2400 baud, Hayes-compatible modem, for a list price of $179.95. It is selling in the stores for about $150. It can be connected directly to the ST serial port, but requires a P:R: Connection, 850, or other interface to be used with Atari 8-bit computers. Atari has announced that the following games have just been released in cartridge form for the XE Game System (and all XL/XE computers): BattleZone, Rescue on Fractalus, BallBlazer, Blue Max, Lode Runner, David's Midnight Magic, Hardball, Fight Night, Barnyard Blaster, Archon, One on One Basketball, and Star Raiders II. _______________________________________ ATARI 520ST FM 1 MEG UPGRADE _______________________________________ by Stephen Brown Having recently upgraded a 520ST FM to 1 Megabyte memory successfully, I wanted to let others know how I did it. There are several warnings that I want to give you first though: 1) This upgrade will void your warranty. 2) This is NOT a beginner's project! Even though the following should take you step by step through the process, I have to assume that you know the basics of working on a printed circuit board. There is no way to warn you about every situation that might arise in the upgrade process. For example, do you know how to control the solder flow? What do I do if I break something? What if after I get it all back together it doesn't work???? You have to be aware that YOU are trading off the chance of damaging your Computer for the monetary savings of upgrading yourself and learning the joy of Hardware Hacking. For myself, I think the experience is well worth the risks. The items that you will need are: 1) 16 256K 150ns Dynamic Rams (cost around $3.50 a piece) 2) 16 16pin Soldertail DIP Sockets (cost around $2.00 total) 3) 16 .1uf Ceramic Disc Capacitors (others can be used, but this is what I used. around $2.00) 4) A coil of core resin solder (Radio Shack No. 64-001. $.89) 5) A 25 watt soldering iron (Radio Shack No. 64-2070. $4.95) 6) Phillips screwdriver and a small regular screwdriver. 7) Small pliers 8) Wide masking tape 9) Paper bag 10) A prying implement. I used a carving fork but a thin pry bar should work as well. OK..OK..stop laughing!!! Your sitting there saying "He wants me to take a crowbar to my ST!! "; One interesting problem I came up against trying to take the Motherboard out of the case bottom; was that it was "glued" onto the posts that support the disk drive. More about this later. 11) A No.61 drill (This size matches the DIP Socket legs nicely.) 12) A Flexible Shaft Drill. (Undoubtedly, the hardest item to come by. A jeweler, woodworker or many other craftspersons might let you borrow one. You do have a friend in one of these fields don't you? A RENT- ALL place might have one also. I don't recommend any other type of drill; the flexible shaft allows precise drilling.) 13) 6 to 10 ft piece of wire to ground yourself. 14) Small scissors or wire cutters. (To trim excess capacitor leads.) Are you ready to start? OK Step by step now. 1 - Ground yourself with the wire. If you remove the center screw in the electric wall socket plate and wind one end of the wire around the screw and then screw it back into the wall. Now wrap the other end of the wire around your bare wrist. 2 - Turn your computer over and take out all the screws. There aren't any screws under the label. 3 - Carefully flip the computer over and remove the cover. 4 - Lift up the keyboard and fold it over to the right and lay it down. Using the pliers, gently pull off the connector. 5 - You will see 2 metallic shields; 1 covering the power supply and the other at the back of the drive area. Remove screws to detach the shields. There is also a small RF shield to remove in the area where the UNDO key would be. You'll notice that these are metal screws (closer threads) and most of the rest will be regular screws. Don't mix em up when you put everything back together or you might strip the holes. 6 - Look at the Disk drive connectors... The larger connector just pries off to the left with the small screwdriver. The smaller connector is a locking one; you have to pry up the top flap so the locking tab will slide out when you pry the connector off; again it slides off to the left. Lift up the Drive and set aside in a safe place. 7 - Now you have to take out the Power Supply board. There are 2 screws holding it in place and you have another locking tab type of connector. After all of these have been removed, you'll notice that the Power Supply board has 2 tabs that slide it into place on the Motherboard; just work the board free keeping these tabs in mind. Put the PS Board in a safe place. 8 - Twist the little metal holding tabs that hold the metallic RF shield down and remove all the rest of the screws that hold the metallic RF shield in place. These screws also hold the Motherboard to the bottom of the case. 9 - As you have probably noticed, the RF shield does not want to come off easily. It is hanging up on the back side of the computer....In order to get the RF Shield off it's CROWBAR TIME! 10- This will hereafter be known as THE INFAMOUS STEP No. 10. If you look at the posts that the Drive was resting on, you'll probably notice they look like they are supposed to stay attached to the Motherboard. But if you carefully look under the Motherboard in that area (A flashlight helps here), you'll see the posts are attached to the bottom of the case too! ATARI applied a solvent or glue where the case post meets the Motherboard post. This bond has to be broken somehow..... In my case, I took a long carving fork (You know the one that hangs on the wall next to the spatulas and soup ladles?) and reached under and popped the posts free. The large spoon that hangs next to the potato masher might work even better! Seriously though, if anyone out there knows of a better way to accomplish this let us know. 11- Now that the Motherboard is free from the case, you should be able to work it free from the back slots in the case. 12- Take off the RF shield. Set it aside. The bottom of the Motherboard has another RF shield on it with an insulating liner between it and the Motherboard. Gently pry up the front of the Motherboard with the screwdriver and you can then work it free from the bottom RF shield. Set the bottom RF shield and insulating liner aside. 13- Now enjoy the beauty of your well designed Motherboard. 14- You should be able to identify the area where the new socketed rams will go right above the existing rams. The capacitors go between the rams. (If you can't find this area, you have either don't have a 520ST FM or have no business attempting this upgrade!) The existing 512K is that row of chips closest to the front of the computer. 15- The next step is to "mask off" the area where you'll be drilling the holes so that no drilling scraps will short out anything later. In other words, cut up the paper bag so that you can tape it to the board around the drilling area. Use as big a pieces as possible so that there will be no seams for drillings to slip into. 16- Now comes the drilling of 288 holes (16 for each Ram and 2 for each capacitor.) The drilling is pretty much straightforward; just drill thru the center of each solder hole and don't tilt the drill. Take your time. Occasionally clean the scrap off the drill and work area. After all the holes are drilled, flip the board over and thoroughly clean up the scrap and burrs around the holes. 17- Insert a DIP socket from the top of the board, flip over and solder all the legs. You'll find that if you place the soldering iron tip to the side of the leg and apply the solder to the iron and leg simultaneously, it flows perfectly. After all the DIP sockets are in place, pull the legs of the capacitors though their holes and snugly seat the capacitors next to the rams. They do look high but the RF shield does fit over them. Solder the capacitors in place and snip off the excess wire. 18- Check all the solder joints!!!! Make sure every leg has been soldered and hasn't shorted out against another one. 19- Get your new Rams and notice that there is a notch on the top of each one at one end. This notch should face the back of the computer when you insert each Ram into it's DIP socket. 20- Now you have to put the computer back together. After you have the computer back together, power it up and test it out. If you don't have a Ram testing program, power up a Ram sensitive program like a word-processor or after loading ST Basic type ?fre(0); if you get 712592, congratulations!! If you power up and you get garbage or nothing or upon checking your memory you only have 512K, you'll have to open the computer up again and check all your solder joints and everything else. There is a possibility that you had purchased a bad Ram or 2 but not likely. If all else fails, you can reach me on GEnie at the EMAIL address of S.BROWN7. Even though I warned you you were taking a chance on upgrading yourself, I might be able to help. _______________________________________ Atari Track-Ball Modification _______________________________________ by George Robbins Per request, I am reposting the original article on converting WICO and perhaps Atari 2600 trackballs to mouse-compatible devices. While I have not tried the conversion, what the original author describes seems to be quite reasonable. One other approach that might be easier would be to obtain a spare mouse, extract the little logic board and attach it to the various LEDs, photo- sensors and switches... The original article in comp.sys.amiga describes how to convert WICO and Atari 2600 track balls to work with the Amiga. Converting for the Atari ST is essentially the same, except for some disagreement between Atari and CBM on which quadrature signals go to which "joystick" lines. Pin Amiga Atari === ===== ===== 1 Vertical X-B 2 Horizontal X-A 3 Vertical-Quatrature Y-A 4 Horizontal-Quadrature Y-B 5 Pot X N.C. 6 Left Button Left Button 7 +5V +5V 8 Ground Ground 9 Pot Y-Right Button Right Button As you can see, the pin-outs are compatible enough that no harm will result if the two are interchanged, however since the quadrature outputs don't match up you will get pointless twitching instead of useful motion. Simply switch the wires going to pins 1 thru 4 until you get it right. A minor problem is that the WICO trackballs are discontinued, so unless you already know where to find one, you may have problems. Ok, here it is, sorry I took so long to post it. I have tried to make this understandable, if you don't know what an LM 339 or a DB9 is, maybe you shouldn't try this. Wico track ball modification. Converting the Wico track ball into an Amiga mouse compatible track ball is a fairly simple procedure. But if you are uncomfortable with a soldering iron, get some competent help. You could damage your Amiga if you make a mistake when assembling this project! You could also void your Amiga warranty! You will definitly void your trackball warranty! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! Ok, now that that's out of the way here are the gory details. The stock trackball contains a small pc board, this will be removed and replaced with one containing an LM 339 quad comparator. The comparator simply converts the output of the opto-coupler to a TTL level pulse. Both the X and Y axis use two emitter-detector pairs. The output of each of these detectors is fed through one of the comparators. The output of the comparator is then fed to the Amiga's mouse port. Since the output of the trackball will be identical to the mouse's output, the modified trackball will work with ALL software that uses the mouse. Here we go! Remove the 6 (six) screws from the bottom of the trackball case and open it (right-side-up please). In the lower-right corner there is a small pc board with two connectors. Remove the board & connectors. You can toss the board, and the cable that has the joystick connector. (The cable only has 7 wires and we need 8. You can scrounge the 11 pin male header off of the board.) Cut a piece of perf board the same size as the original board. Just make sure it fits in the same place as the original. The plastic grooves will hold it perfectly. Two cautions here: make sure the top can be screwed down without hanging up on the new board, and make sure all your components will clear the standoff near the board! Using the (crude) schematics below, wire up the circuit. You will need to drill a hole in the case to mount a second switch (for the right button). Make sure the second switch will clear all existing hardware! Wire the second switch between ground and pin 9 on the DB 9 connector. It is a good idea to place a medium sized capacitor (10-20 uf) across +5 and ground where power enters the perf board. Parts List: Wico Trackball No.72-4545 Wico Corporation Consumer Division 6400 W. Gross Point Road Niles, Illinois 60648 800-323-4014 Joystick Extension Cord Radio Shack No.276-1978 LM 339 Quad Comparator Radio Shack No.276-1712 14 pin DIP Socket Radio Shack No.276-1999 Soft-Touch Switch Radio Shack No.275-1566 Perf Board 11 pin Male Header (can be removed from Wico) 10 - 20 microfarad capacitor (12V or higher) Resistors (1/4 or 1/8 Watt, 5% tolerance) 280 Ohm (4 each) 3.3K Ohm (4 each) 6.8K Ohm (4 each) 100K Ohm (4 each) Wico TrackBall Internal Connector (Color code assumes Wico is consistent in their wiring.) 1 Pushbutton White 2 +5 (Y-axis) Red 3 +5 (X-axis) Red 4 Ground (Pushbutton) White 5 Ground (X-axis) Black 6 Ground (Y-axis) Black 7 N/C --- 8 Y-axis output Violet 9 Y-axis output Blue 10 X-axis output Green 11 X-axis output Yellow Pinouts for LM 339 ------------------------ 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 ) . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ------------------------ 1 Output 2 2 Output 1 3 +5 Volts 4 Input 1- 5 Input 1+ 6 Input 2- 7 Input 2+ 8 Input 3- 9 Input 3+ 10 Input 4- 11 Input 4+ 12 Ground 13 Output 4 14 Output 3 Amiga Mouse Connector (DB 9 Female) ------------- \ 5 4 3 2 1 / \ 9 8 7 6 / --------- 1 V pulse 2 H pulse 3 VQ pulse 4 HQ pulse 5 N/C 6 Button 1 (Left) 7 + 5 Volts 8 Ground 9 Button 2 (Right) ---------------------------------------------- Connections from Wico Connections from LM 339 11 pin socket to LM 339 to DB9 (Mouse port connector) Wico -> LM 339 LM 339 --> DB9 ---- ------ ------ --- 1 (to pin 6 on DB9) 2 1 2 3 \__+5 Volts 13 2 3 3 / 1 3 4 12 \ 14 4 5 12 >--Ground N/C 5 6 12 / (pin 1 on Wico) 6 7 N/C +5 Volts 7 8 4 Ground 8 9 6 9 10 10 11 8 --------------------------------------- O +5 Volts O +5 Volts \ \ 3.3K Ohm / / 6.8 K Ohm \ 100K Ohm \ +-----/\/\/\/-------+ / / +---+------+ (Pins 5,7,9,11) /1/4 Output to /__________/ LM Amiga \ \ 339 \ (Pins 1,2,13,14) \ / 280 Ohm \ ---+ \ \ Input from ball >-------+ ----- (Pins 4,6,8,10) --- - \ 3.3K Ohm / \ ----- --- - There it is! The above information was obtained from the Amiga Hardware Reference Manual, and from tearing apart my mouse & trackball and trace- ing out the schematics myself. (Mostly from tearing my hardware apart!) Any errors in the above information are mine (but for a few hours work they can be yours too! ^) ), not Evans & Sutherland's. They are kind enough to pay me to play with their computers, they have no control over my ramblings here on usenet. The above infomation is the correct version. In my first posting + 5 volts and button 2 were switched on the DB9 pinouts. There have been a lot of inquiries about doing the same modification on the Atari 2600 trackball. I hadn't seen the Atari untill two days ago, but I can now tell you that the same procedure will work for it. In fact it is a little easier on the Atari trackball because the LM339 is already present. Just remove all the components from the board except the 339, the supply voltage filter (inductor + electrolytic cap near the 6 pin header), and resistors R9 - R18. Actually you'll have to remove those too because they are the wrong values, and the 339 socket blocks several traces that need to be cut. (As I remember 430K and 10K should be swapped for 100K and 3.3K respectively.) The biggest problem is that Atari wired the 339 as a non-inverting comparator, and Amiga uses an inverting comparator. So you'll have to CUT AND JUMPER (those that flinched may leave the room) to get the inverted configuration (see above data for the correct circuit). I don't plan to do a detailed plan for the Atari trackball, if the above information doesn't mean much, don't try it yourself. This general plan should work for all trackballs that use a pair of opto- couplers on each axis. The old TG trackball for the Apple II (and probably other computers) will NOT work since it uses a pair of pots. I hope this helps all you hardware hackers that can't live without a real trackball. Have fun, and don't blow up your Amiga! _______________________________________ Atari Trak-Ball Modification For The ST _______________________________________ by Greg Zepka (CX22) ,this is the trak-ball with two buttons. This is a straight forward converstion for an ST style "Mouse-Ball". It is intended to be the easiest conversion (8 solder joints), and the least expensive. All that is needed is a db9 connector cord with all the wires in it. A Radio Shack Joystick extender can be used for this by clipping off the Male end, and stripping the wires. Trak-Balls are currently on sale at various top stores such as Kay Bee's. All directions refer to Top as where the cord and buttons are. The Trak- Ball is disassembled by removing 4 screws on the base, and prying it apart. Remove the ball, wheels, and bearings. Remove all IC's except A1 (the LM399 or CA399E). Unplug the cord from the circuit board. Unplug the cord from the circuit board. Clip the four wires that were on the left leaving both black wires, and the orange wire. Clip the orange, black and red (cord to button wire) leaving over two inches so you can solder, the new cord on them. Leave the Black wire connected to the buttons. On the left button clip the wire going to the right button. (the mouse has two seperate buttons. Remove the circut board to make soldering easier. (note the screws) You will be making solder joint to four resistors (yellow, orange, yellow, and gold) on the top and topside of the circuit board. \ 5 4 3 2 1/ \ 9 8 7 6/ A picture of a DB9 connector note this is a mirror image of the one in the atari manual as this is the plug, not the connector. You will need to know which wire is which with. An ohm meter or continuity checker (light and battery). Pin 1 Up/XB to top of resistor R11 (Note if you want the wire 2 Down/Xa " " R14 and the buttons at the 3 Left /Ya " " R13 bottom reverse 1-2,3-4, 4 Right/Yb " " R12 6-9 connections) 5 Not Connected 6 Left Button Connect to red wire going to left button. 7 +5 volts Connect to orange wire going to flat connector. 8 Ground Connect to Black wire going to flat connector, note it also jumps to both buttons. 9 Right Button Connect to Red wire going to right button. Wrap all wire to wire connections to prevent shorts. Connect the flat connector. Make a knot on the new cord to fit inside for a strain relief. Reassemble making sure of no mechanical binds (they are easy to make on the opto wheels, with one of the new wires). This mod has been tested on a 520st and a 1040 st with various pieces of software (I liked the performance). The mouse arrow should move back and fort smoothly when you move the ball. If it jiggles you have the x-y wires mixed up. (check the buttons). If it will not move in one direction it may be a mechanical bind with a wire and the op wheel. I have used this on my 520 and friends 1040's but make no guarentee of proper operation. You may find it helpful to add additional buttons such as a push on, push off (they are available in small sizes) or other push buttons of a higher quality. If you have any question or comments let me know. Gregory Zepka (Compuserve No.76556,114) _______________________________________ SUPRA HARD DISK FIX _______________________________________ Reprinted from the ZMAG'87 Archives Originally captured from CompuServe No.: 20446 S12/SUPRA Corp. 29-Apr-87 00:52:05 Sb: Supra Autoboot v2.61 Fm: Supra Corp 76004,565 To: All We have found the problem that SOME people have been having with all devices being selected while running the Supra Autobooter V2.61. The autoboot software is supporting the SCSI standard of 7 LUN's (Logical Unit Numbers), but the Adaptec AC-4000,the Xebec S1410, and maybe the Seagate ST-225N are NOT properly supporting the SCSI standard. WHO DOES THIS AFFECT: This DOES NOT AFFECT 95% of Supra's customers, this MAY affect early Supra customers who purchased 5.25 inch 10M and 20M drives. This DOES NOT AFFECT those people who have built their own systems using our dma->scsi interface and the Adaptec AC-4070 contoller. This DOES AFFECT those people who have built their own systems using the Adaptec AC-4000, Xebec S1410 using our dma->scsi interface, and owners of the Atari SH-204 as it uses the AC-4000. HOW TO RECTIFY THE PROBLEM: Either send in your original Supra Utilities disk, or 19.95 to: Supra Corp. ATN Supra Format 1133 Commercial Way Albany, OR 97321 _______________________________________ ANALOG CONFRENCE _______________________________________ Edited by Ron Kovacs for ST-Report TEXT OF CONFERENCE ON DELPHI REGARDING ANALOG BUYOUT JANUARY 17, 1988 Andy> I'd, first, like to welcome all of you attending this conference. My name is Andy Eddy and I'll be moderating the CO. I'd like to welcome our guest for today... Lee Pappas is publisher of Analog/ST-Log magazines. He is here today to explain the current situation and answer your questions. Lee, would you like to start by giving the lowdown on what is going on and what has taken place in the past few weeks? Lee> First, ANALOG has signed contracts with a publishing company in LA. That company is LFP, Inc....Larry Flynt Publishing. We expect to have the next issues of both mags out in 3 weeks. Let me give a few words about the changes...First...Larry Flynt has little to do with daily operations of the company...as a whole. He will have nothing to do with the editorial contents of either magazine. Changes you will see include new (glossy) paper, a heavier stock inside as well as a heavier cover. More color pages thoughout, INCREASED distibution, Much improved service, and a steady frequency. What you won't see is ads for Hustler and the like. LFP, Inc. also publishes a Mens fashion mag, a running mag, a new automobile mag, a motorcycle pub and a Heavy Metal mag. With many more non-pornography titles on the way. Andy> Thanks, Lee. So the fears..that this will be anything like Hustler will not materialize. This will remain the same Analog as before..but with some changes in the "production" end..not the editorial. Lee> OK. There WILL be changes..Because I won't have to deal with such things (as much, anyway) as distribution...subscription problems, and production, I can spend more time on editorial...that goes for Clayton as well. Andy> So you don't see anything but beneficial changes for the mags? Lee> Actually, let me say this...the only way someone will know we are owned by another company is a small blurb on the staff page. As far as changes go, I expect an even more steady stream of quality editorial since it will be the main direction of our time working on the mags. Maurice M.> Okay. I want to get this subject out of the way now especially in light of recent messages in the forum. Certain people have hinted that there will be changes in the magazine because of whom the ownership is. The point, I think has been refuted. However, DF Scott has in recent messages hinted that several of us writers were in a "dillema" over the ownership change and might no longer write for ANALOG. I would like to put to rest any fears readers might have about mass-defection of writers by asking you, Lee, if you are aware of any other regulars "leaving" because of this ownership change. Lee> No, not at this time. Let me respond to your comments. While I don't whole heartedly agree with Larry Flynts views. I am looking at what that company can do for our magazines. They don't know ANYTHING about what we publish, they (LFP, Inc) are leaving us alone in what we do. To them profit is what they want, editorial content is 100% up to what we do. They'll make the magazine look better, distribute it better, and put out a quality looking product, it's still up to me, Clayton, Maurice, Charles Johnson, Andy Eddy, MAtRat and the rest to put out a good magazine in product. To answer Maurice's question, other than Scott, no one has more than batted an eyelash over the buyout in terms of who it is. After the intial shock wheres off on the buyer's name, they settled in and want to get back to work. Andy> Lee, could you tell everyone when the contracts were signed so everyone knows how recent these developments took place? Lee> Yes...last Monday is when Michael Des Chenes and I signed. We are waiting to get them back from LA now then it will be official. Chadwick> sorry if I missed an answer (arrived late), but is the editorial line up changing at all? Are we writers still going to have our columns? Can we expect a different editorial focus? Lee> Hia, Ian. Haven't spoken to you in a while! The new buyers don't know the Atari field AT ALL. Columns (I take it you refer to Ian's Quest!) will remain. It is up to me, and ultimatly the readers, which columns remain. However, your's is one of the favorites and WILL remain. It isn't like these guys in LA will read a column by Ian (or anyone) and say "I disagree with what this guy saids about Magic Sac...get rid of 'em!" After all they don't know Magic Sac from a nice set of whatever. dan> Will there be both magizines as before, analog(8bit) and st-log? Clay> Okay... I just wanted to add before the subject got changed, that the "electronic mag" is not directly associated with ANALOG --it's something Matt does on his own. The only reason I mention this is that he obviously is not using the magazine's resources but his own. He does a good job, but the text is not editted by our staff. dan> thanks, when is the first publication? again Andy> Within 3 weeks, Dan. WHITEWIZARD> you said that the analog depends on the 8-bit...Does this mean that you might stop publishing in the future if the 8-bit fails (ANALOG, not ST-Log)? Lee> ANALOG depends on the 8-bit market ...Lets say that advertising right now isn't overwhelming and ANALOG would most likly take a new heading (orientation) in the event 8-bits REALLY dwindle. I could see a change happening probably this year some time... WHITEWIZARD> Would you combine ANALOG and ST-Log agian? Lee> Again, it is mostly up to the ANALOG staff, not LFP, Inc. Yes, I could see us doing one mag--but here is the problem. The ANALOG name is the best known, if we put in ST-Log then the mag becomes a general Atari mag again. If we kill ANALOG and continue ST-Log...well ANALOG has the more known name and that would be a mistake. Chances are ST-Log might have some 8-bit coverage...but that is all up in the air right now. When we are in place after a couple months we'll look at the whole picture. MADMODIFIER> With many software publishers spreading out to the Amiga..... Is there any chance that Analog might do the same? Lee> I have plans to do another computer oriented mag but can't say much (exactally nothing) about it. MADMODIFIER> You mean we might see AMIGA LOG <grin>? Lee> No Comment. But I hope to have a new project out in late Spring. STeve M.> What direction will ST Log be taking in terms of content? General readership, programming, or what? Clay> I can't see much that will change in ST-Log. Is there something you WANT to see changed? STeve M.> No, just was hoping there were not going to be any drastic changes now. Thanks. Lee> I feel we have a good balance of information, sophistication and programs. I think Clayton, myself and our new west coast person will have more time to look at each issue well in advance and look at it's contents to see what blend of information it has...thus boosting the magazines quality...(not that it needs boosting <grin>) in addition, hopefully we'll add more pages too. Clay> The combination we've had in the past has worked out well, I think. I don't see any reason to change it. (More pages would be nice.) _______________________________________ COMPUTER RELATED TOLL-FREE NUMBERS _______________________________________ These numbers should be verified before they are relied upon. Abacus Associates ....................... 1-800-547-5995 Access Unlimited ........................ 1-800-527-3475 Advanced Logic Systems .................. 1-800-538-8177 Aerocomp, Inc. ........................... 1-800-824-7888 Allenbach Industries ..................... 1-800-854-1515 Alpha Products ........................... 1-800-221-0916 Ammicro .................................. 1-800-251-5110 Applied Microsystems ..................... 1-800-468-4474 Archive .................................. 1-800-343-0314 Atlantic Computer Accessories ............ 1-800-327-6933 BASF .................................... 1-800-343-4600 Beagle Bros. ............................ 1-800-854-2003 Beck Mfg. ............................... 1-800-BECK-MFG Bottom Line .............................. 1-800-343-0726 B T Enterprises .......................... 1-800-645-1165 Calsoft .................................. 1-800-423-5290 C D C .................................... 1-800-692-5235 Compaq Computer Corp. .................... 1-800-231-9966 CompuAdd Corp. .......................... 1-800-531-5475 Compukit ................................. 1-800-231-6671 CompuServe (outside Ohio) ............... 1-800-848-8199 CompuSoft ................................ 1-800-854-6505 Computer Applications Unlimited ......... 1-800-354-5400 Computer Discount of America ............. 1-800-526-5313 Computer Distribution Assoc. ............. 1-800-523-2909 Computer Exchange ........................ 1-800-547-1289 Computer-Line of Denver .................. 1-800-525-7877 Computer Mail Order East ................. 1-800-233-8950 Computer Mail Order West ................. 1-800-648-3311 Computer Outlet .......................... 1-800-634-6766 Computer Plus ............................ 1-800-343-8124 Computer Power Solutions ................ 1-800-237-6010 Computer Shack ........................... 1-800-392-8881 Computronics ............................. 1-800-431-2818 Cosmopolitan Electronics ................. 1-800-393-3785 Creative Computer Center ................ 1-800-327-9294 Data-assette ............................. 1-800-523-2909 Data Dynamics Technology Books .......... 1-800-423-6665 Data Services, Inc. ..................... 1-800-835-1129 Delphi (General Videotex) ................ 1-800-544-4005 Digital Equipment Corp. ................. 1-800-DIGITAL Dilithium Press ......................... 1-800-547-1842 Discount Software ........................ 1-800-421-4003 Diskette Connection ..................... 1-800-654-4058 Diskette Junction ....................... 1-800-321-5134 Duck Co. ................................ 1-800-392-8881 Dynacomp, Inc. .......................... 1-800-828-6772 Early Games ............................. 1-800-328-1223 Electronic Protection Devices ............ 1-800-343-1813 Electronic Specialists, Inc. ............ 1-800-225-4876 Epson America ............................ 1-800-421-5426 Fort Worth Computers ..................... 1-800-433-SAVE Hayden Software .......................... 1-800-343-1218 Ironsides Computer ....................... 1-800-528-9537 Jade Computer Products ................... 1-800-421-5500 Langley-St. Clair Inst. Syst. ........... 1-800-221-7070 Leading Edge Products .................... 1-800-343-6833 Level IV Products ........................ 1-800-521-3305 Lobo Systems ............................ 1-800-235-1245 Lyco Computer Marketing & Consultants .... 1-800-233-8760 MagiComp ................................ 1-800-528-9900 Marymac Industries ....................... 1-800-231-3680 Med Systems Software .................... 1-800-334-5470 Memotech Corp. .......................... 1-800-662-0949 Microcomputer Business Systems .......... 1-800-638-1857 Microcomputer Games ..................... 1-800-638-9292 Micro Data Supplies ..................... 1-800-321-3552 Micro-Design ............................. 1-800-531-5002 Micro-Ed ................................ 1-800-MICRO-ED Micro Images Industries ................. 1-800-223-1182 Micro Management Systems ................. 1-800-841-0860 Micromint Inc. .......................... 1-800-645-3479 Micro Merchant ........................... 1-800-652-8391 Micro-Systems Software ................... 1-800-327-8724 Microtek, Inc. .......................... 1-800-854-1081 Montezuma Micro ......................... 1-800-527-0347 National Computer Products ............... 1-800-854-6654 Nebs Computer Forms ...................... 1-800-225-9550 Nonagon Software ......................... 1-800-942-2058 Okidata .................................. 1-800-OKIDATA Omega International ...................... 1-800-343-0873 Pacific Exchanges ....................... 1-800-235-4137 Pan American Electronics ................ 1-800-531-7466 Penguin Products ........................ 1-800-732-0641 TriSoft .................................. 1-800-531-5170 Universal Software ....................... 1-800-343-8019 Valpar International ..................... 1-800-528-7070 Vespa Computer Outlet .................... 1-800-633-2252 VR Data .................................. 1-800-345-8102 Zebra Computer Products .................. 1-800-492-0182 _______________________________________ PROBING YOUR ST _______________________________________ by Mr. Goodprobe The Latest and Greatest in Computer Tidbits... Well howdy there my friends, I trust your holidays were as half as pleasant as mine! Our family spent the holidays out in Denver where we were promptly snowed in! But fortunately we were there to be with family and friends, and a super time was had by all. For the next few weeks I want to go to a free-form type article and share with you some computer-related news that directly affects us all in one way or another. So pull up a nice warm cup of coffee, and enjoy... AST Corp. (a major board manufacturer who is pulling back on production on Apple II products by the way, I guess it means that 8 bit machines of all types are getting hit hard eh?), has announced they are producing 2 new scanners for the MacIntosh, both which handle 300 dots per inch nicely. I imagine some ingenious-type person will soon compliment the programming wonders of David small of Magic Sac fame by producing the necessary interfacing needed to allow some of these type MacIntosh add-ons to work with the ST running under the Magic Sac influence. Its only a matter of time... Then again it might not be quite that easy as Hewlett-Packard had to send their interface for the Mac to allow it to run their Scanjet scanner, back on an indefinite hold to clear up some mysterious problems it was having. They wouldn't say what those problems were, but it was serious enough to stall indefinitely production of the unit. Along that line, would anyone care to comment on the feasibility of Hypercard applications running on the ST with Magic Sac? I imagine that if you have a memory upgrade of at least 1.5 meg, using a memory upgrade such as the module available from New World Software for $139, you could take advantage of the power of the 1 meg and up memory limitations of Hypercard and its myriad of applications. Yea? Nay? November 1st Genie reduced the rate it charges for 2,400 baud service from $15 an hour down to $12.50 an hour during non-prime time hours. Also, 44 new cities received local access to this fine service, and one sad note is that January 1st the sign up charge was due to go up from the special price of $18 to $29.95, but 2 free hours of connect time will be added to the package. Aegis has announced plans to produce a line of 3-d modeling and animation modules for the Mac II. The Magic Sac is looking more and more a necessity eh? One product recently produced for the Amiga I would REALLY like to see for the ST is called Liquid Light. This little number allows you to attach a Polaroid camera to the amiga and then make instant slides and photographs made of art drawn via any of the numerous Amiga paint programs. It is said that the resulting pictures has colors that would take your breath away. If you care to bombard this firm with letters (hint hint) that they might see the financial need to produce such a wonder for the ST, the address is: Liquid Light 2301 205th ST. Torrence, CA. 90501 213-618-0274 Computer users in the know are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first computer designed by Steve Jobs, who left Apple Computer in 1985. He formed a company called NEXT, and here is what I think you will see from this fine gentleman. Low end will have: 4 Meg ram 68030 Microprocessor 17" B&W monitor 1,280 by 960 resolution 256 shades of grey 5,000 price tag Common to both will be: MIDI port Stereo Sound Unix OS Mouse port Serial and Parallel ports SCSI port with DMA NFS Ethernet Adapter 9600 baud modem 1.44 MB 3 1/2 drive Postscript video Floating-point co-processor The high end machine has: 68030 processor 8 meg ram 16" color display 1,280 by 960 resolution 16 bit planes Price: $9,000 The graphics engine has been designed already we hear, and boy is it ever fast! Apple is set to introduce in January its line of "next generation" Laserprinters, the most notable feature I saw in them was a built-in 68020 micro, and will use the Canon engine. IBM has just discovered a way to allow a hard disk to hold 50 times more data than previously thought possible, only problem is that head to read these drives does not at this time exist! A serious blow, I feel, as been dealt to owners of US robotics modems of the 9600 variety. As we know, there exists no clear protocol for this baud rate. And now Compuserve and Western Union have announced they will be using the Hayes 9600 baud modems. This gives the Hayes modem the edge on becoming THE protocol for 9600 baud usage. Commodore is also releasing 3 new versions of IBM clones in the first part of "88. There will be one each based on the 8088, 80286, and the 80386...so Atari and Commodore still go head to head where ever computers gather eh? The 80386 machine actually was pretty good looking, it even had a built-in 40 hard drive. They also showed their Bridge-board for the Amiga 2000, an XT and an AT version, pretty snazzy, but way overpriced, still is a much better deal to just get a clone...(an Atari clone no less!) Until next time...Keep those Atari's hummin'! Mr. Goodprobe (on lend from) Midtown TV _______________________________________ ST-Report Issue 19 Janaury 27, 1988 (c)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company _______________________________________