______ _____ / __/___ ______ ____ ______ ______ ______ ______ /\ \_ \/ / __ \/ _\/ /___/ \/ \/ \/\ / \/ \ / / / ____/ /__\ ____/ /___/ / / / / \/ / / _/ / _/ / _/ / _/ / _/ / _/ / _/ / _/ _/ x /_ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ \ / / \___ / \___ / \___ / \___ / \_/.sNs.\___ / \_/\ / \_/ \_/\__ / \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ The VEctroniX NEWSletter Issue #15 [January 17, 1998] Contact VEXNEWS for submissions, un/subscription, information or whatever reason at all: vexnews@mindless.com To get previous issues send an email with the subject "get vexnews #xx" -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- i am the bullet in the gun i am the truth from which you run i am the silencing machine i am the end of all your dreams -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- No, it's not _another_ copy of issue #14... ;-) I don't think I have ever written so much crap in my entire life as I did in last issue. I don't know who I was trying to fool, but that studying should be an important part of my life, that is pure bullshit! Anyway, there was a little problem with people not getting this issue, so two copies were sent out, sorry for that, but I hope things will work better from now! It's now official that the Alternative Party will take place during easter 1998, see the full information below! And if you're still sitting with an old ST/STE computer, have a look at the hardware modification found in this issue! /Phoenix -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- [ Contents of VexNews Issue #15 ] 1. Lame or Quality Releases?! .................... Phoenix / Vectronix 2. UCM New Thinking ..................................... mOd / .tSCc. 3. Alternative-Party Info ......................... Setok / Aggression 4. Hardware Modifications ............................. Martin Graiter -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- [1] LAME OR QUALITY RELEASES?! by Phoenix/Vectronix [phoenix@weirdness.com] During my daily dose of irc today I got quite, if not _very_ surprised by a conversation (or what to call it) with Orby/Elite. He said our releases are lame(!), that we didn't check our releases, they were non-working or whatever it was, the exact words was "lame" though. As argument he said something about CAB 2.6 which I never managed to really understand what he meant, but obviously there was something he was not very happy about, whatever that now might have been. Then when he couldn't explain why the CAB crack was lame he started talking about our old cracks of previous MagiC versions and compared them to our newer ones. He thought those were good cracks as you could enter any serialnumber you wished. He kept going on about how good cracker he was and that his modifications to the programs always worked and so on, blah blah... Believe me when I say I was almost a little shocked to hear these arguments coming from a cracker(!). He should know very well that the purest and best possible way to crack a program is to get a 100% working installable serialnumber! And that it should be the goal of all cracks! As it was a big surprise for me to hear these words from someone who's appearantly into the same business as ourselves, I think it might be in order to explain why the Vectronix releases are like they are! I don't want you to think we make life more difficult for you, requiring you to enter a serialnumber or whatever without a reason! Vectronix stands for quality, we want you as user of our releases to know when you lay your hands on a Vectronix release that this is something special. We want to give you a non-modified original, not tampered with in any way, not stripped down, not changed, manipulated or anything! The release shuld be like it just came out of the original box! We want to give you a 100% working serialnumber, and this will somehow also be your guarantee that the copy you have in your hands is, and also will behave exactly as an original version would have done if you had bought it yourself! Some programs requires a serialnumber to be installed successfully as they check the serialnumber when you run the program at a later time. Of course it would be possible to patch both the install program and the main program to get away from this, it would be a very quick and also dirty job, and it would also break all our believes in quality! I hope you as user of our work can see the advantages with having to enter a serialnumber, and that it in the end pays off! You know that you can trust your copy! Regarding testing and packaging of our releases I don't think I need to say more. I wrote about this in a earlier issue of VexNews, and the procedure is still the same! We are perfectionists and we make sure our releases works the way they're supposed to do! End of discussion! I find it both weird and sad that the crackers in Elite seems to have this opinion against ours. I'm sorry to say it but their behavour from time to time makes me doubt more and more about them! Sometimes I don't understand how they think or what they're doing, but... it's their problem. They work the way they think is best, and we work in our way, it's as simple as that. It's just a shame they have to express their feelings about how we do our job when they don't have better arguments to come with. One thing is sure though, and that is that Elite has changed during the years.... If you for some reason is not happy with one or more of our releases, don't hesitate to contact us! We'd love to hear from you and sort out eventual problems! We could of course fuck things up, despite all rumours, we're only humans! Usually problems arises though with people are stripping our releases, removing/changing .nfo files, renaming files and even installing and then repacking our releases. Sometimes I don't believe my eyes what people are doing! We can of course not take any responsibility for those modified archives, but we will be glad to help you with our original releases! -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- [2] UCM NEW THINKING by mOd/.tSCc. [jur96mct@studserv.uni-leipzig.de] From the next issue of UnderCover on we like to have a new topic, called "Chatbox" or something like that. In that article, anyone can say anything to anyone. It's just an idea from the PC-mags and there it works fine. So people have to write only "little" notes, like: mOd of .tSCc. says to evil/DHS Nice homepage. I guess your's is the best in the net. Keep on going. and send it to Ucm or one of the contactsmen. And then we release all that. There can be commercials for new products with Ansis and such stuff. At last it is also pretty good for telling your opinion some people you are not in contact with. If you have something to add in this corner, mail mOd/.tSCc. now! --- This sounds like a nice initative from UCM, but the question is if there's really a need for it? Most people are online on the internet today, many are they who spends the nights on irc chatting with each others. Compared to the PC scene the Atari scene is not that big, there is usually no problem getting in touch with people. But I don't know, perhaps I'm wrong... Let's see what happens! A suggestion for the UCM people would be to be online more themselves though, it would help them making UCM even better... ;-) /Phoenix -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- [2] ALTERNATIVE-PARTY INFO by Setok/Aggression [with permission from WWW] The Story This was one of those funny ideas that keep annoying you when you're supposed to be having a normal day. Just when one more boring day is about to pass by unnoticed it hits you. There I was chatting on IRC with some strange people and before I could do anything about it I was already typing out something like "Why not have a really DIFFERENT computer party?". Oops! Fatal error $00F4. What made it even worse was the fact that people seemed to actually like that idea.. Something was definitely wrong here, and I still haven't figured out what that something was. The Idea Gather a whole bunch of computer freaks together. Filter out all the multimedia PC and AGA Amiga people. What's left? A bunch of total weirdos who think 'life' is a bunch of pixels moving across the screen occasionally colliding with each other. The name of this event? The Different Party? The Weirdo Party? The Pathetic Party? Nope, it's just a boring 'Alternative Party'. Maybe the name isn't terribly enlightening but we're geeks, we don't need good names. The Machines Just some of the computers you can take part with: Altair Amiga500-1000 Amstrad CPC464/6128 Apple I/II Archimedes Atari BBC Commodore PET/VIC/64/128 Cray Digital Alpha Dragon IBM RS6000 PC (286 or less, no GUS/SB or modern gfxcards) Silicon Graphics Sinclair ZX80/ZX81/ZX Spectrum/QL Sun Microsystems ...and the list goes on, use your imagination if you have any... In fact, the weirder and rarer the machine, the better. We'll also try to bring a whole pile of really strange machines for everyone to try out and have fun with. The Place Turku, Finland in a large (3000m^2) building called "Palatsi" (http://www.turku.fi/nuorto/palatsi/). There are all the necessary party facilities in the building: showers, audio equipment, video equipment, cafe, internet connection etc. It is right in the center of the Turku city so it is practically surrounded by hamburger restaurants, shops and all other sources of Coke (there's even a Megazone nearby for those who love shooting at each other with laser beams). The Dimension Easter 1998, 10th-12th April. The Price Your Soul plus: - 100 Finnish marks (about 20 US dollars) if a reservation is made beforehand - 130 Finnish marks (about 26 US dollars) if the entrance fee is paid at the door. - 20 Finnish marks if you happen to be a female, regardless of whether you make a reservation beforehand or pay at the door. (this means we would prefer if people made reservations instead of paying at the door) The Compos Any machine but new PCs (>286) and new Amigas (AGA) can take part in the compos. We will have a variety of machines to present the demos on but if you have a rare machine it doesn't matter, just bring it up to the compo stand! For this reason the compos might actually be spread out for a longer period of time. The machine must also be able to produce some standard kind of visual output for the demo compo. VGA, RGB (with correct cables) or TV are all OK. At this point in time we have planned a demo, chip music, ASCII graphics and rare computer compo. DEMO - Must be under 5 MBs. - Machine must produce some standard graphics output. - Only weird machines supported! - Should contain a screen explaining which machine it's being run on. CHIP MUSIC - Must contain no samples. - Machine has to have an audio out to connect to the amplifier (TV out is OK). ASCII GRAPHICS - Resolution 80x25 - Must work on any machine which supports standard ASCII characters. - Will be shown with the 'cat' command or something similar. - The terminal will be set to vt100/vt102/vt220 so you can create special effects and animations! RAREST COMPUTER COMPO - There will be a prize given to the person who brings the weirdest and most obsolete computer to the party. The Gods Themselves Contact us for any extra information on the party, to suggest a good idea or if you want to become an official sponsor. It would also be nice to hear from you if you already know you'll definitely be there :-) Aggression and Friends ---------------------- email: setok@fishpool.com phone: +358-50-5911083 smail: Kristoffer Lawson Asemakuja 3C 53 02770 Espo Finland Alternative Party List ---------------------- email: altparty@fishpool.com If you're interested you can join this list by emailing majordomo@fishpool.com with the text 'subscribe altparty' in the body. Current Sponsors Fishpool Creations Oy Ltd. email: info@fishpool.com phone: +358-0-6857995 +358-400-616499 smail: Fishpool Creations Eerikinkatu 28 00180 Helsinki Finland DISCLAIMER More compos and events might be added or the compo rules changed. This text file will be updated whenever necessary. Note Eventual updated information about the Alternative Party can be found on the official www site below! http://www.fishpool.com/alternative-party/ -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- [3] HARDWARE MODIFICATIONS by Martin Graiter [graiter@starmail.com] Build your own DD-HD switch for the Atari ST/STE. ©1997-1998 Martin Graiter So you want to use 1.44Mb floppies? And your old 720Kb floppies as well? No problem! Here's a one-chip solution that takes care of things for you! Before you start you should consider the following: If you don't feel confident with an Ohm-meter and a soldering iron, or if you're not familiar with schematics, then don't attempt this project. There is no shame in not being skilled with everything on earth. I also sell ready-built DD-HD circuits, built and tested to function. Maybe you should rather buy one and then only solder 5 wires instead of going through all the moments of measuring, soldering and fault-searching? This modification is unnecessary for the MegaSTE, TT, and Falcon, because they can already deal with HD floppies "from factory". In order to use HD floppies you MUST have a 1.44MB (sometimes referred to as 2Mb) diskdrive. The old SF314 won't do the job. Teac's FD235HF-drives are suitable, as is Sony's model MPF520-1. There are other drives too, but I can't name them all here. If the diskdrive outputs a High Density Detect (HDD) signal on pin 2 of it's bus, then it's suitable! This signal has sofar (in my experience) always been positive logic (active high). Means that when you have a DD disk in the drive, the output on pin 2 will be LOW (0V). When an HD disk is inserted the signal will shift to HIGH (+5V). You also have to have a suitable Floppy Disk Controller (FDC) chip in your machine. If your chip has the marking "WD1772 02-02" it is OK. Also if the marking is "Atari XXXXXX (lots of numbers)" it will work. But if your chip says "VLSI" or "WD1772 00-00" it will most likely NOT function. In that case I suggest you swap with someone, or buy another FDC. Additionally you need a program that will change the steprate to 6ms (milliseconds), Fastcopy, Bootsie, Flopcontrol are such programs, but there are others too. I patched my TOS 2.06 so that the default steprate is 6ms instead of 3ms. No program needed after that. And finally you need HD disks. PLEASE don't use your old 720Kb disks for this! Some people have drilled holes in their DD disks as to fool the diskdrive to format them at 1.44Mb. This is an extremely bad idea!!! You'll be sorry you did it, I promise! Don't go the other way either! I don't want to go into discussions on why or what happens, but you'll regret this too! Disks are cheap, just buy a pack (or loan one from your buddy). And now some theory: The WD1772 chip is designed to work at 8MHz, but thanks to the good quality of the chips produced, this can be greatly overdriven. Most WD1772:s will happily hop along at 16MHz, and even at 32MHz! In order to run 1.44Mb disks we will overclock the WD1772 to double speed, 16MHz. Since we're interested in using the old 720Kb disks as well, we'll want to switch between 8 and 16 MHz alternatively. That can of course be realized by hand switching, but more elegant is to perform this automatically. Which is precisely what we'll do here! If you study and comprehend my schematics you will probably figure out how to be able to use even 2.88Mb disks? I didn't bother, since 1.44 disks is the standard nowadays. A positive effect of this clock doubling is that the data transfer rate between the DMA and the FDC also doubles! However, all timings are half as long and so is the steprate. Instead of getting 3ms we get 1.5ms when running at 16 MHz. To rectify this we set the steprate to 6ms, which gives 3ms in reality (since everything is halfed at 16MHz). You follow? It doesn't matter that the steprate becomes 6ms when running at 8MHz, it just makes the drive somewhat noisier. We also need to break the connection of pin 18 of the FDC, (which is CLK IN,) from the permanent 8MHz feed and instead feed the pin with the output from our circuit. In order to perform an automatic switching between 8MHz (720Kb DD-disks) and 16MHz (1.44Mb HD-disks), depending on what types od disks we put in our A and B drives, we will utilize the services of a 74LS151 chip. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- General pinout for the 74LS151: 74LS151 +---\_/---+ D0-D7 are data INPUTS D3 |1 16| +5V D2 |2 15| D4 D1 |3 14| D5 D0 |4 13| D6 DATA OUT |5 12| D7 DATA OUT |6 11| DATA SELECT A STROBE |7 10| DATA SELECT B GND |8 9| DATA SELECT C +---------+ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This chip has 3 control inputs, A,B,C, that will determine which of eight input lines will "come out". We feed half of the input lines with 8MHz and the other half with 16MHz. The control lines will be High Density Detect from drive A (HDD0) and High Density Detect from drive B (HDD1). We will also use the signal Drive Select 1 (DS1), which activates drive B. We needn't use Drive Select 0 (DS0) since we simply assume that DS0 should count as active if DS1 isn't. Note that this signal is negative logic (active low). Next step will be to make a truth table, as to determine which inputs shall be fed 8MHz and which 16MHz. It looks like this: A=DS1 C B A B=HDD0 ------+ C=HDD1 0 0 0 |D0 --> 8 0 0 1 |D1 --> 8 0 1 0 |D2 --> 8 0 1 1 |D3 -->16 1 0 0 |D4 -->16 1 0 1 |D5 --> 8 1 1 0 |D6 -->16 1 1 1 |D7 -->16 The only thing left is to tie STROBE to GND (to enable the chip) and we're done! We substitute the D0-7 markings with 8 and 16MHz respectively, we do the same with the ABC select lines, only here we put in the names of our signals as above to the left. That's it! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Logical schematic of the DD-HD switching: 74LS151 +-------+ +--------+ | 16MHz |------>2,12,13,14| | +-------+ | | | | +-------+ | | | 8MHz |-------->1,3,4,15| | +-------+ | | | | DS1----------->11| | HDD0--------+------------------->10| | | HDD1-----+----> 9| | _|_ _|_ | | | R | | R | +--7|STROBE |5-->CLK OUT |2K2| |2K2| | | | | | | | | +--------+ +---+ +---+ | 8 16 | | | | | +--------------+---+-----+GND +5V --------------------------------------------------------------------------- After theory we only need to realize the circuit in real life. You will find 16 MHz on pin 39 of the SHIFTER (not on the STE!) and 8MHz in the empty hole where pin 18 of the FDC used to be. DS1 is found on pin 19 of the PSG (Yamaha YM2149 or General Instruments, GI, AY-3-8910). Ground and +5V can be found everywhere on the motherboard. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connections in the function as DD-HD switcher: 74LS151 16MHz quartz crystal +---\_/---+ +---------+ 16MHz |1 16| +5V NC |1 14| +5V 8MHz |2 15| 16MHz | | 8MHz |3 14| 8MHz | | 8MHz |4 13| 16MHz | | CLK OUT |5 12| 16MHz | | NC |6 11| DS1 | | GND |7 10| HDD0 GND |7 8|-->16MHz GND |8 9| HDD1 +---------+ +---------+ If you have an STE model you will also have to add a quartz crystal, this because the STE doesn't have a good enough 16MHz signal for our purposes. Easiest is to use the type with 4 pins, it is defined as above. The numbering of the legs is correct, even though there are only four of them! A good general advice is to keep the connecting lines as short as possible, also determine exactly where you'll put our little circuit before you start connecting things… Before we get our hands on the actual making of the switcher, we have to consider the signals HDD0 and HDD1. The HDD0 signal has to be connected to the second wire of the floppy ribbon cable. The first cable is normally coloured red or dotted red. You can carefully cut free about 2cm (one inch) of wire no 2 from its "neighbours". Then you can cut it off at the side closest to the motherboard connector. Peel off the plastic isolator a couple of mm on the end. This naked thread you'll solder to the HDD0 wire coming from our little board. It is good practice to isolate the connection with some shrink-tube (I am not sure this is the correct English word? I'm talking about a small hose made of a material that shrinks when you heat it.) ___________________________________________________ | 4|_________________________________________________4_| | | 3|_________________________________________________3_| | | 2|_____|_CUT HERE!|________________________________2_| | | 1|_________________________________________________1_| | +--------+ +--------+ Motherboard Floppy connector connector Alternatively you can connect to this wire by going to the underside of the motherboard. There you'll seek up the solder joints for the floppy cable. It will look something like this: []()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() pin 2-->()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()() You will recognize pin 1 by the rectangular pad, no 2 is right below no 1. If you decide on this solution you shall not cut the wire as described above! It is important that you lead your wire to the upper (component) side without using holes that will accomodate screws or plugs when the case is reassembled! The HDD1 signal is to be connected to pin 7 of the connector for the external drive. This pin is grounded and you'll need to disconnect it from ground. You can do that by either cutting it off and bending up what's left, as depicted in the drawing below. Or, you can play dentist and pull it out from it's hole on the underside. This means you'll have to suck the hole clean from solder and be sure that the pin will move freely! You can also keep your soldering iron to the hole and then pull the pin out from the other side. Of course, the rest of the pin must remain in the circular connector! Right side view: Outer view: ______________|| |--------------|| 11 10 |--------------|| +----| || 9 8 || | || _||_ | CUT! || 7 13 12 6 || | | / || || | | / || 5 14 4 || | |__/___________|| ||__|___|| | | || 3 2 || ||_| |____|| 1 || || Should you decide that you'll never need to connect an external (B:) 1.44 drive to your machine, well, then there is no need to do this at all! The HDD1 signal is already defined as LOW through the 2K2 resistor connecting it to ground. In fact, if you won't connect any 1.44 diskdrive as B: you can just tie HDD1 to ground, with or without any resistor. You will still be able to use 720Kb diskdrives on B: if you want to. Those who have the (good old) 520ST without internal drive will in any event have to do the above mentioned modification, with the HDD0 connected to pin 7! Should there be need for an HD drive as B:, then an extra hole will have to be drilled in the 520ST case and an extra wire drawn from B:s pin 7 to HDD1. These are the appropriate connections to make if you want to make your own cable from the external circular connector to the rectangular Shugart connector on the floppy itself: External circular Shugart connector connector 1. Read Data-----------------30. RDT 2. Side 0 Select-------------32. SSL 3. GND----------------------- 1,3,5,7,9… (all odd wires are GND) 4. Index Pulse--------------- 8. IDX 5. Drive 0 Select------------10. DS0 6. Drive 1 Select------------12. DS1 7. High Density Detect------- 2. HDD 8. Motor On------------------16. MON 9. Direction In--------------18. DIR 10. Step----------------------20. STP 11. Write Data----------------22. WDT 12. Write Gate----------------24. WGT 13. Track 00------------------26. TR0 14. Write Protect-------------28. WPT And now, let's get hands on the very DD-HD switcher! If you plan to build this on a veroboard, I'd suggest the following approach: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSION FOR THE ST RANGE, NOT FOR THE STE! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What you need: 1*74LS151 chip 1*220 ohm resistor 2*2.2 Kohm resistors 1*3mm LED Cut a piece of veroboard This is the intended that is 9 modules high component placement: and 6 modules wide. |+5V 6 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 |6 +---+---+---+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+---+---+-|-+ | O | O | O | O | O | O | 16MHz| O O----\_/----O O | | | | | | | | | | | _|_| | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O | | | | | | | | | | | | | R | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O |220| | | | | | | | | | | |Ohm| | O | O | O | O | O | O | 8MHz| O O O |___| | | | | | | | | | | | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O | | | | | | | | | | | | Anode | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O | (+) | | | | | | | | | | (LED) | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O | (-) | | | | | | | | | | | Cathode | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O-----------O | | | | | | | | | /-----\R2K2 ___ |R2K2 | O | O | O | O | O | O | CLK OUT| O O O O O___O | +---+---+---+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+---+-------+ | DS1 HDD0 HDD1| GND| |GND UNDERSIDE UPPER SIDE The two 2K2 resistors will be standing up, the LED and it's 220 resistor aren't necessary for the function, but will indicate that you've found +5V and GND (by emitting light) and it will impress your friends! But, no point in placing out the components yet, first you'll have to prepare your veroboard! You will start by cutting lanes at appropriate locations. When all up-down DISconnections are made, we will also need to make left-right CONnections. We will achieve that without using one single wire! Preparation of the underside: Start disconnecting the up-down Continue by inserting the chip lanes by cutting traces in them and making the sideways connec- as shown in the left figure. tions by soldering drops of resin across the dividing lines. 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 +---+---+---+---+---+---+ +-----------+-----------+ | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O | O O O | +===|===|===| |===|===| +-----------+ +-------| | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O O | O O | | |===|===|===| | | | +-----------+ | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O O O O O | | |===|===|===| | | | +-----------+ | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O O O O | O O | |===| | | |===|===| |---+ +-------+ | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O O O | O O | | |===|===|===|===| | | +-----------+---+ | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O O O | O | O | |===|===|===| |===| | +---+-------+ +---+ | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O O | O | O | O | | |===| | | | | | +---+ | | | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | | O | O | O | O | O | O | +---+---+---+---+---+---+ +---+---+---+---+---+---+ Insert also the other components and make sure you're not cutting off the long wires on the ends of the resistors which will go to GND and +5V on the motherboard. See the figure with the component placement. You will now need to determine where on your motherboard you'll be placing the DD-HD switcher. Best is a location close to the FDC. The signals CLK OUT, 16MHz and 8MHz should be as close as possible, as to keep wires short. Here is a suggestion for the placement in the Mega ST models: ============ | || | External floppy connector | || | |___||___|= <--bent out pin 7 ||| ||| HDD1 -------- J4 ____ R28 O ---(____)--- GND \ O O O \ |GND \ | | | | | |DS1| +-------------+ | O O O O O O|CLK OUT CLK | _ +-----+ | +--------------------||------+ LED|(_)| 74 | | |28 18 15| | | LS | | | O | |_|_| 151 | | \ 8MHz WD1772 02-02 | || || | O|8MHz /(under) (FDC) | +--------------+ ||R|| | | | | \ 7406 | ||_|| | | | 1 14| / | | | | | O|16MHz +----------------------------+ +--------------+ +-|-+--^--+---+ _ / +---+ _ (_)---|L46|---(_) +----------------------------------------+ +5V +---+ |40 21| +--39--------------- | | |40 16MHz \ DMA | | / | \ Shifter | | / | 1 20| | +----------------------------------------+ | 1 +-------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- VERSION FOR THE STE RANGE! (can also be used on ST machines!) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This version has simply been "stretched" in order to accomodate an added component, the quartz crystal. On most STE:s you can't utilize the 16MHz signal present on the motherboard. Nothing prevents this design from working on an ordinary ST as well. It's just a matter of economy, the crystal is an extra cost. What you need: 1*74LS151 chip 1*220 ohm resistor 2*2.2 Kohm resistors 1*3mm LED 1*16MHz quartz crystal Component side: |+5V | +---------------------|---------------------+ | O----\_/----O O | | | | _|_ | | O O | | +---------------\ | | | | R | | o o | | O O |220| |NC +5v| | | | |Ohm| | | 8MHz| O o 74LS151 O |___| | | | | | | | 16MHz | | O O O | | | | | | | | O O O | | | | | (LED) | | | O O O | GND 16MHz| | | | | o o | | O-----------O \---------------/ | /-----\R2K2 ___ | CLK OUT| O O O O O___O | +---------|---|---|-------------------------+ | DS1 HDD0 HDD1| GND| |GND For this version of the DD-HD switcher we need a somewhat bigger veroboard, 9*11 modules (holes). We will prepare it in similar manner to the previous design, by cutting DISconnections on the vertical lanes: 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | |===| |===|===|===| |===|===| | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | |===| | |===|===|===| | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | |===|===|===|===|===| |===|===|===| | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | |===|===|===|===|===| | | |===|===| | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | | |===|===|===|===| | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | |===|===|===| |===| | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | | |===| | | | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | | | | | | | | | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | O | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ Next step is to make horizontal CONnections between the lanes. You will insert the components from the other side before you go about it. The modules should have connections as in the drawing below: 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 +-------------------------------+-----------+ | O O O O O O O O | O O O | | +---+ +-----------+ +-------| | O O O | O | O | O O O O | O O | | +---+ | +-----------+ | | O O O O O | O | O O O O O | +-------------------+ +-----------+ | | O O O O O O O O O | O O | | +---------------+---+ +-------+ | O | O O O O | O | O O O | O O | | | | +-----------+---+ | | O | O O O O | O | O O O | O | O | | | +---+-------+ +---+ | | O | O O O O O | O O | O | O | O | | | +---+ | | | | | O | O O O O O | O | O | O | O | O | | | | | | | | | | O | O O O O O | O | O | O | O | O | +---+-------------------+---+---+---+---+---+ It is advisable to measure between the "fields" with a resistance meter, to make sure that there are no connections where there shouldn't be! Here you won't have to connect a 16MHz wire to the motherboard, since that signal is generated "on board". After you've assembled the veroboard, you'll have to make connections to the motherboard too. Placement in an STE: If you place your switcher just above the FDC chip, you'll have easy access to all relevant solder points on the motherboard. You will find a nice hole for your DS1 wire on the rightmost (no 1) hole of W300. There will also be a convenient via just to the right of C305 where you can take your 8MHz signal. GND and +5V can be taken from the proper sides of the capacitors C303 and C304. GND is also found on pin 14 of the FDC. ============ | || | External floppy connector | || | |___||___|= <-- bent out pin 7 ||| ||| (HDD1) -------- | +-+-u-+-|-------+ | | | +----\| | | ||| | || GND|C303 |o| ||| | || | | | | _ | || +-+ +------- | | |(_)| || | | |74LS244 | +---+ \----/| +-+ | U307 |oooooo | | +------- GND _ +5V +---------------+ +5V| C304 ---(_)--- +--------------+ +14--------------------------+ | 7406 / |GND 1| | U305 \ | | +--------------+ | WD1772 02-02 / | (FDC) \ | | | | |15 18 28| | +------||\-------------------+ 2|= HDD0 DS1 _ |<--Cut this track, ______| | ---(_)--- / or bend out pin 18! ^ W300 O O O C305 o<--8MHz | W301 O O O | | The floppy ribbon base on the motherboard. You will also need to configure your Teac drive so that it appears correctly to your switcher. Here are some of the jumpers on various revisions of the FD235-HF: 1) DS0 DS1 +---+ | O | O | | | O | O +---+ 2) +-------+ |O O| HH0 +-------+ +-------+ |O O| OP +-------+ O O LH1 O O HH1 O O D1 +-------+ |O O| D0 +-------+ 3) +-------+ |O O| +-------+ +---+ | O | O | | | O | O +---+ +---+ | O | O | | | O | O +---+ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This project is Bed & Breakfast ware. I expect you to accomodate me for one night and one breakfast should I decide to visit your town. (I like to travel) Send me a postcard with your name and adress if you use it in your computer! Email is nice too, but postcards are preferred! Commercial use is granted as long as a licencing fee is payed to me. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Graiter Majstångsgatan 9E SE-414 72 Göteborg Sweden, Europe graiter@starmail.com -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- The Vectronix News Mailing List (c) 1997 Vectronix, All Rights Reserved.