Finally, a reliable inexpensive RAM upgrade for the Atari ST! (That you can make yourself)
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- It's difficult to upgrade the RAM on a lot of early Atari ST machines. The upgrades that were commercially available back in the heyday of this machine were all pretty flaky could cause damage to your machine.
In this video, I'll show off an upgrade created by Anders Granlund that while hard to install, promises to be super reliable and cause no damage to your machine. You can also make it yourself!
--- Video Links
Part 1: • This Atari was nearly ...
Part 2: • I figured out what is ...
Part 3: • Retrobrighting worked ...
Part 4: This part!
SMMC 0012 Atari ST 4mb RAM upgrade:
• 0012 Finally, a reliab...
Project for 4mb RAM upgrade for the Atari ST by Anders Granlund:
github.com/agr...
Indoor Retrobriting: (Blue box)
• A new way to fix yello...
• Indoor Retrobrite Foll...
Adrian's Digital Basement ][ (Second Channel)
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Deoxit D5:
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Universal ZIP sockets: (clones, used on my ZIF-64 test machine)
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--- Links
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--- Instructional videos
My video on damage-free chip removal:
• How to remove chips wi...
--- Music
Intro music and other tracks by:
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"I don't know what 2022 is gonna bring for me, I think there's potentially gonna be some changes in the future for me ....but I'm not gonna talk about that at this point....."
*Adrian, ARE YOU OK? WE LOVE U SO MUCH! Hoping that your health is in good condition and your situation is positive.*
Spoiler: Adrian quits his day job and decides to do RUclips full time. 🤪
Remove the plastic spacer from the pins, and snip off 2 mm of the ends. You have extra 2mm if it is enough.
Also install some pin sockets for the jump wires, and pins on the wires so you can remove it any time without soldering.
I don't think he can do that, those look like machined pins and not your standard 2.54 pin header, if you remove spacer from those you'd still have a thick part of the pin getting in the way.
Those pins are really good and don't wreck sockets (round profile, smaller diameter, and nicely rounded end), but yes, have to watch the height if it's critical.
I designed a TRS-80 model 100 RAM expansion a year or so ago which plugs into its system bus (the one under the cover on the back). I was going to use those machined pins and had to absolutely make sure it'll all fit (and it did).
Since then I've been slacking off on writing software for it :P
@@ZXRulezzz seems like a good field for experimentation with different kinds of pins!
I second that, how exactly he extracts the spacers might be a bit tough tho. Maybe he could use pliers to carefully pull the plastic off without bending the pins, or maybe cut the plastic away. Honestly I think it might be best to remove some pins from the spacers before soldering them to the board, of course he would have to redo the pins on the expansion card.
I was going to say the same. I can sometimes slide the plastic spacer off if it's only a few pins or sharp cutters can crack the plastic to release them. I then cut a piece of heatshrink to size and Drop it over each pin and cut it to the top of the heat shrink giving me a guide to get every pin the same height. You may find it harder to plug back in as the pins are tapered at the ends and you would have cut the taper off
I was thinking the same. You do get the feeling he backed out more because of the instabilities than the fitment.
Changes? Hope everything is alright with you Adrian. Love what you do - hey even the lows are part of the adventure. It sucks, but it makes the victories sweeter.
Hey, you started with a working ST and you finished with a working ST. Anyway, I think there's real value in showing your mistakes, and it reflects well on you to do so. Your projects usually end well, and a "fail" here & there only makes the wins that much sweeter. Best wishes to you & your family sir.
I remember modding my 520 as you describe back in the day. Chips soldered directly to the original bank with ras and cas bent up 180 degrees to run a pair of bus bars along the top set. Worked perfectly for years.
That was how the 520ST+ came out of the factory, IIRC.
Half pcb, half deadbug, epic!
Yes, I did the same to my 520 STFM and it seemed to work well. I used cheap second-hand memory chips (from a UK main-frame scrapping company) and followed directions in a magazine (early 1990s).
@@Ray-ds5dc Happy Memory Essex ?
I've only been watching you for a few months, but watching how you handle failure and disappointment is inspiring, and I'm glad you still include those moments in your videos.
Maybe you can fit it in, just get rid of the black plastic stand-offs on the pins? Perhaps that give's enough room for the keyboard to fit.
this is exactly what I was thinking
Destructive removal?
Dude, that Atari I donated is STILL making videos! So freaking cool. I keep getting surprised that this was a deep rabbit hole in the end. I never would have guessed just peeking under the hood.
Hopefully, the changes are positive. I know you've been struggling with formatting for the last couple of years.
I will admit, while watching this, I was wondering "Will sockets make it too tall for the keyboard?" Sadly, it did.
As someone suggested, you may be able to remove the spacers on the headers, clip the leads short and fit it in. All depends on how far off the fit is.
As soon as removing the RAM was brought up, I immediately thought sockets, then clearance. I figured he would had done the same, so when he started talking sockets, I presumed he checked the clearance before proceeding. I was kinda surprised when the KB didn't fit.
I believe the reason your getting non-deterministic issues is because grounding that address line isn't doing what you think it's doing.
It does disable the upper memory.
But, it also remaps the upper addresses to the lower addresses.
Think about it, if the Atari tries to write byte at a high address, with that bit of the address line grounded, it's still going to enable the lower chips instead, thus overwriting that memory.
This will even fool the system test, when it checks if those upper addresses can be written to and read from, it will pass that test and think it has 4mb, even though that line is grounded. -- This is why the flakey behavior is event based (opening a program or changing a setting, etc.)
If you really want a physical switch that will disable half the RAM, you'll need a logic gate (or a diode) that takes the /CE lines high when that high bit is set.
Games are working because they aren't using that upper memory.
Nice catch! I do believe you're right.
Wouldn't just disconnecting A9 be sufficient? After all, the A9 pin on the MMU wasn't connected to anything initially.
@@UnseenMenace No! you must remove the CE {BAR} signal as well.
Hmm... I also think you are spot on with this. Also think he should disolder the pin headers from the add on board, and get replacement ones of the correct length, rather than trying to cut down the existing ones to try to make them fit.
Adrian - really enjoy your videos... A quick tip, to remove all those sockets more easily, capsim tape around them, and protect the other areas , USE A HOT AIR GUN with a small wide nozzel and the sockets should just drop out if the board is raised off yhe bench.
I waited for the 1040ST. I still have it and the monitor and a hard drive as well. Still works. My Grandchild came over and played games on it quite often. Got it boxed up. 1 meg of memory. Woohoo. Still remember being on the dial up ST Boards and going to the Mug Clubs. Plugged it into my stereo with the 3D sound which was just three audio plugs and converted it to 2 and plugged in the TV and voila played driving games on the TV with the nice 3D stereo sound 17Hz to 22kHz Polk speakers. Awesome. Also had a 24 dpi pin printer. The early days of computing with a mouse. Eat your heart out Apple.
This brings back memories. I started my computer knowledge back when i had a TI-99/4A home computer which my parents bought for me . I remember when I got my first floppy disk for Christmas. When I got the 32K RAM memory expansion for it I I was so happy.
My first computer was an old Packard Bell with Windows 3.1 installed on it, but in my teenage years I read all kinds of books, programming manuals, etc. for all these old computers for fun. One of my favorites was one that had BASIC text adventure games for the TRS-80. It had some kind of robot as a mascot for it, iirc
It wasn't a complete bust. It was an amazing attempt with a slight learning curve!
Great to see that it's working, and good idea with that switch :)
"Oh no..." was my reaction when you got to the part where you mentioned socketing the thing - and immediately regretted not mentioning keyboard clearance.
I have updated the readme for the project on Github to specifically say not to use sockets.
So, for what it's worth, big thank you for the contribution.
Even if it was a bit of a fail right now for your machine I think the video itself is a success!
It was fun watching it (and very relatable because I think we've all ended up in quite similar situations at some points, I certainly have :) )
I'm sure this video will be super helpful for anyone else who attempts to install the thing.
About your machines random issues, I too would suspect the power or noisy signals. These machines can be a bit flakey.
Which are flakey? Any ST or the early version here?
Maan I feel you, I had so many cases like thisone when you think "yes I make it better" with enthusiasm and good feeling and then you found fatal flaw in your doing after you are done. Ugh I completelely feel your pain.
@ 29 minutes in the video, where the ram test had failed once at 4 M. I keep wondering about cross-talk between those long wire runs to your switch and the traces on the ram board. At the RF frequencies the machine is running, those signal lines can start to act like antennas. 8MHz, right? That's around 38 meters on the shortwave band, ha!
If you have stability issues down the road, maybe move the switch to the other end of the ram board and shorten those wires on that address line.
EDIT: I just got to where you discovered the keyboard doesn't fit. Damn! I felt your pain man. Crap.
2Nd Edit: take the plastic spacers off the pins and trim them all a mm or two?
Hey Adrian, thanks so much for sharing. Even in disappointment there is learning - you've saved someone (or several someones) out there in the community a lot of frustration and rework - so, major thanks for your contribution! Have a Happy Holiday and I look forward to many more of your entertaining and informative videos. Cheers!
p.s.: Did this kind of stuff way back in the late 80s working at the University of Oregon Bookstore Computer Shop (Hi John and Mark if you're still around!). Upgraded a lot of customer 520s and fixed a lot of defunct switching power supplies (the *bane* of my existence). I'm really glad to know this hardware is still working and bringing joy, I really had a lot of fun in that scene during the period.
This is one of those efforts that just needs a short break. I was wondering at the beginning if you had done a dry fit. Regardless, showing us some of the set backs is as important as showing us the victories. This modification will come back stronger after you take a break from it and we'll all be better off for your experience. I love the passion and I can feel the pain when something doesn't work out. I love that you keep it real.
It's really not a fail mate. It's a triumph in knowledge sharing! Anyone doing electronics has been there and experienced the cold chill that runs down your spine when you see things have not gone as well as expected... love your continent dude... I'm wondering about my st2 mega that I want to upgrade, maybe just buy sockets and a bag of ICs...
Warning your users of such a thing: Failed successfully. It's all about the journey Adrian, glad you showed us this, you could have pretended it never happened. :D
You live and you learn, Still a great video. Think about it. You just saved the others that would have done the same thing the frustration and possibly in the process of removing the sockets rip out a via or damage the board and not know how to trouble shoot it like you can.
Still a Job well done!
i have to say that the two-tone of the keyboard actually looks kinda nice, and still pretty darn cool on what it takes to upgrade any vintage computer like what you have done with your atari
This channel always gets an automatic thumbs up, rain or shine, success or fail. There's always something to learn, which counts as a win in my book, even if it's learning the hard way. :)
OMG! Adrian I felt so bad for you when the keyboard went back in and wouldn't fit. Thank you for all your work!!
Aww bummed me out seeing how bummed you were about the mod install problem. It’s so nice for you to share your mistakes as well as your many many more success stories because it makes viewers feel like mistakes/setbacks can and do happen for everyone and that’s fine and we can all learn something and gain something. Thank you so much for the channel and everyone you bring to it!
Thank you for this! I appreciate seeing this accidental fail a lot. It's a great reminder of checking clearance in these tighter packed machines! Thank you!
I have used tinned wire instead of pins in these situations. I would take the most tight fitting diameter (0.5mm) and feed it through the holes of the pcbs directly into the sockets below. The wire then gets cut with a generous margin and soldered afterwards. When the wires are soldered, you will have a very close fitting pcb with pins in the perfect length. I made a shrink dip 64 -> dip 64 adapter for a 68k cpu that way. It was only slightly taller than the original. Sometimes you have to get creative ;-)
D'oh. I was thinking about hight as soon as you mentioned adding sockets!
Hopefully you get your 16bit mojo back at some point in the future but all your diagnostic and repair work is such a good watch.
Thanks for sharing your adventures in electronics ^^. Wishing you the best of successes for 2022 :).
Thank you for sharing your knowledge, expertise and experiences! This is not a fail... just
a bump in the road. Thanks to you, all who see this can take it from this point forward.
Good luck and good health!
tbh as a long time Atari ST user, the original 520STs were infamous for being just a little bit temperamental. even without a RAM upgrade
jiggle it a bit until it works. they're just like that
One of the first (successful) soldering jobs I ever did involved expanding the RAM on a piece of audio equipment in preparation for replacing its ROM with a more feature-packed one. I had to clear some unpopulated spaces for 4164 RAM chips, and the best idea I had at the time was using an aluminium paper clip to push through the hole as I heated it with the iron.
Amazingly I didn't damage anything and the whole thing was a success (though I dread to open it up and check my work).
Good job! Reminds me of a low-tech "desoldering" kit you can ebay. Basically a set of paperclip sized hollow tubes on handles. You heat up the join and push the aluminum tube over the pin. The solder sets, but doesn't stick to the aluminum. A bit slow, but I use them for fussy pins now and then. Edit: I found them really good if you were having trouble with solder on the front of a board that you couldn't reach, and just wouldn't budge. I bet with care, they may be good for protecting weak traces too as there's no suction or adhered wick.
@@R.Daneel FWIW, desoldering needles are usually made from stainless steel (my $4 set is) as solder does not stick to that, and aluminium is likely to be a bit fragile for thin tubes like that.
I am still watching your old movies and your channel is the best. Greetings from Poland
Your disappointment was painful to watch, but you deserve the thumbs up. I can't wait to watch your final solution for this Atari. Cheers from Belgium 👍😉
As far as putting the sockets in and the keyboard not fitting; it so relates to "it's not just me." Thanks so much :-)
Well, there's a lesson to be learned in everything. The lesson this time is "quadruple-check clearances when adding sockets. ESPECIALLY when stacking mods on them, and ESPECIALLY when they are located near the lower part of the case where there's less space below the keyboard." Still a great video, as usual.
Adrian, back in the day (around 1989) we would do lot's of ram upgrades. If i remember right, with instable computers we would insert a 33 Ohm resistor on each line of cas, ras. Reason would be the noise on the longer cables and found that it would be best to have the resistors as close the ram as possible (end of cable). So at the end of the wires we would shorten the wires and connect the resistor to the wire and ram, and use heatshrink for isolation. I think it was because we found that the 5 volt on the pins would go up to 6 volt spikes on rare occasions and the resistor would help reduce this voltage, resolving the problem. Hope this could work for you as well. Kind regards ( always love your content ).
I was already screaming NOOO, don't put the sockets, then Adrian, you added a switch! Darn, why I had not written about my concern after last video :(
I had an Atari 520 STe in 1990, by then the 512kB to 1MB upgrade was easy, just a small single board which plugged into a special socket they had added to the main PCB. Fond memories of a great machine.
Weirdly though, the keys still being discolored actually still makes it look like a color scheme you would have expected a company to choose back then.
20:13
What a neat solution, feeding the botch wires through those holes. 😎👍🏻 Looks so nice.
The 2 tone look actually looks pretty nice on that unit.
Adrian, I don't usually comment, but I want you to know how much I love your videos--but also, make whatever changes are best for you. Sometimes I see the amount of work you do and wonder how it could be possible. So I guess, take it easy, and don't become another RUclips burnout.
I think I know what you mean by changes. The world isn't right. Stay true to yourself. Love your content. You're a genuine soul.
5:30, I actually did this upgrade to my original machine (1988-90ish?), but mine had spaces on the board for the extra ram. However, the traces were not complete, and I had to run a TON of wirewrap to every chip. Still to this day I can't believe it worked. It was a ratsnest of blue 30 gauge wire! Also, back then there was a RAM shortage and RAM got REALLY expensive. Remember, those chips are only 16k each. I think they were like 10-$12 each at one time.
I also added a RTC to the board and wrote an assembly app that would automatically call out to the Naval Observatory on bootup to set the time in the early 90s. The RTC didn't have a battery, so it would otherwise reset on power down. That software is still out there in the "Crawly Crypt" archives that you can find online. Every once in a while someone would send me a check for 10 bucks to my parents old address for it. lol
Sure hope all is well. The tenderness in your voice during the sign off was palpable.
In the 80s, I sent my 520ST to New York for a RAM upgrade. They did it by piggy-backing each individual RAM chip. The 1 MB total
worked great.
what you can test is to remove the black spacers on the expansion board and shorten the pins to see if it fits under the keyboard.
I kept thinking you should install sockets, and was so happy when you decided the same. Never gave thought to the install being too high! What a rollercoaster if emotions. Hopefully this video will save others from the same predicament.
6:05 The little handwritten note on the box is reminiscent of the movie "A Christmas Story". Fràgile...must be Italian. Happy Holidays! 😁
Was thinking you should install sockets, then was happy when you decided to at 16:50. (Felt the pain at the end as if I made the same decisions as you)
A smart hardware hacker did you say, piggying back a second set of ram chips on top of the existing one... Well that's precisely what a friend of mine studying electronics did for me back in the days, not for an ST but for an Amiga 500, still same idea... It worked perfectly. I remember regretting not having the battery backed up clock that came with the official RAM expansion but it might have been what saved my machine from death by leakage in the end! And yes the old girl still works fine after more than 30 years!
I think all you have to do is cut the pins shorter and get rid of the black plastic spacers and it will fit nicely. Keep up the good work, Adrian! I always check on your channel for any new content, whenever you upload anything, I don't sleep until I have watched it.
That's a very cool upgrade, shame about the keyboard not fitting. I did a couple of RAM upgrades to ST's back in the 80's and early 90's. Each one was a 2MB upgrade but kept the original RAM intact to give 2.5MB total. And I remember being very nervous about pushing the board onto the MMU, but it all worked really well. There was also a couple of flying leads to add and small grabbers were used which attached to the pins on a couple of chips., but no tracks to cut or anything to solder.
Love how you show the 'fails'. I always learn something when I watch your vids.
Nice video. 7 Years later Atari was still creating fun with RAM, this time on the Falcon as the Memory board connectors are two different heights, yet some third party RAM board creators did not take this into account, so the board could short against the RF Shield.
I enjoy all your videos. Hey, things happen we learn with you. I’ve worked with and studied electronics for 30 years and still question/ look up things I do on home projects. I’m in IT now so I do not repair equipment at component level anymore, I really miss those days.
you are earning ten times what a repair tech does.
companies used the lure and history of electronics to con generations of techs to work for peanuts.
yet a lot of the old school electronics companies with unique products and skills, managed to run themselves into the ground (hello Gardners Radio, hello Flight Refueling).
the shareholders, MBAs and accountants made out like bandits, everybody else not so.
@@joefish6091 , you are absolutely right. I’ve seen radio shops, board repair shops and other maintain equipment type businesses just tank. Between the change in technology and miss management they didn’t have a chance. People really had no where to go so they had to re-class their careers and start over.
The cool thing about your videos is that you even upload them if the result isn't all that pleasing.
Also we get to see what may become another project for another day in another video.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only guy who's all gung-ho about permanently soldering in mods, only to realize seconds later that it's taking up too much space. 😂 Plus, I'm terrible at soldering. I just keep on making a mess of things, though! At least I'm persistent. 🙄 Great video.
Hi, just pull off the plastic spacers on the back of the expansion board (pull each of them with a flat screwdriver or anything similar)! Then short the legs in order to be able to make the expansion board as close to the main board as possible ;)
Someone said : "if you remove spacer from those you'd still have a thick part of the pin getting in the way". In this case I suggest you remove all the pins from your expansion board and replace them with constant diameter pins (hard to do but worth it I think).
The reveal at 19:07 was sick af. Very clean. Love the xmas green and red combo XD. It was sad that you had to remove it!
I really felt your disappointment Adrian but it was a worthwhile journey. Thanks for sharing.
The original 520's had openings for the added RAM. As many now know, the early 520 was just a 1040 with 16 empty DIN locations. I modded hundreds of them for people prior to Atari changing the motherboard to the version shown in this video.
I still have two ADAP samplers I bought from Hybrid Arts.
Which DIN locations?
Adrian, your videos are always enjoyable and educational. I was sorry to see that the RAM install failed, I could tell you were disappointed.
Regarding changes that might happen next year, I sincerely hope that they are not related to anything bad. You don’t deserve that.
Adrian, can you cut the pins shorter then pull off the plastic bits from them? That would allow the board to rest right on top of the sockets instead of standing up so high. Since the original chips fit under the keyboard while in sockets I would imagine the board could too. It did not appear to be any thicker than an original chip from what I could see.
Came here to say this. It could work.
You could also insert them from the top, solder them from the bottom, and then cut the exposed top pin off to prevent shorting out. Alignment would be A LOT harder I think like that, but you’d get a much more flush installation
The git repository explicitly said to solder the board directly, unfortunately a case of rtfm 😕
The turned pin headers he has used have a wider section that is moulded into the plastic so you can't do that. The only real alternative is to remove them and solder in .5mm bronze wire that will go into the sockets. That way the total height will be roughly the same as the DIP chips. That's quite a lot of work however.....
@@akkudakkupl if you rtfc(omments), you'd have noticed that the github page was updated with that info due to this video.
Oh man, watching this episode and instantly noticing the potential keyboard fitment issue caused me to start 😱 screaming in my mind! I noticed instantly that those sockets were potentially going to cause problems, it was both frustrating and entertaining all at the same time! Really enjoyed this episode tho!
I really think you should just make a little wire harness for the ram upgrade! That would allow you to switch between the original ram and the upgrade quite easily! Just add some pin and socket leads like how PC’s have PC speakers and power switch sockets and plugs!
What do you think about that idea Adrian? Fellow viewers what do you think? Would it be worth the effort? It would just allow you to have an easy plug and play option to easily switch between the original ram, the ram upgrade, along with still having the switch between the 1&4 megs? You would just need to find socket pins to attach to the homemade wire harness and some pin sockets in a few areas?
I hope this idea makes sense! What does everyone else think of the idea?
Looking forward to what the new year has in store for you Adrian! You have one of my favourite channels, along with one of the nicest and warmest hearts on all of RUclips!
My health hasn’t been good enough to support my favourite RUclipsr’s, like yourself on Patreon, as I’m sadly on disability, but I’m hoping in the new year that it will be possible as my health has started to improve! It would be such an honour to support you when I am able to! Please don’t stop making such amazing videos! Your passion and love for retro computers is so inspiring and lifts my spirits every time I’m having a bad day! It helps distract myself from the agonizing pain I’ve been in! Thank you soooo “Freaking Much!”!!!!!
💻 ❤️ 🙏 ❤️ 💻
The important thing in this video is good work practices. The computer remains in excellent condition and now it is much easier to replace a ram chip.
I hate it when I forget to dry-fit things and end up screwing myself over, you have my full sympathy.
You should try to remove black pastic spacers on the pin, trim them a bit, and plug the extension back.
Hi Adrian! Changes?!?! Hope You are doing wel. I enjoy Your channels so much. Dont be sad, You made it working. Only what needs to be done is design of patch module, where you could change the pins, or you could fully redesign the whole patch module to be plugged only the reqired ports with patch cables and module plugged eg inside on some stands. You fix it, You made it working, that is important!
That is a true shame that the sockets made the RAM expansion too tall to install the keyboard. It is helpful for future upgrades of that type since you now know to check and make sure everything will fit together before using an alternate approach to a motherboard upgrade.
Again, I'm feeling very bad for you. I know it was hours of work you put in there. The one really good thing is that since the RAM is now socketed it makes replacing a bad chip pretty easy!
Thanks for sharing. The fail videos may actually be more helpful than the success videos in my opinion.
Best DiY videos are those where things doesn't works at the very first time, so we can have a full experience and watch the repair to a mod too
Thanks Adrian. This is my go to channel for retro computing. You are indeed a master.
Oh dear Adrian. I feel for you my friend. I think we've all done what we thought was best only to find out that we couldn't make it work.
I know it has been forever ago, but if you remove the black parts of the riser pins, and trim your pins shorter, it will plug back in lower and you will be good to go. Put some Kapton tape on the underside to prevent cross talk on your DIP sockets.
One simple thing you can try before going all ballistic on it, is to remove the little plastic bits on those pin headers; just make sure to lift them off perfectly perpendicular to the board so you don’t bend the pins. Then, measure the length of an IC pin from any of the RAM chips you removed, and cut all the pins on the bottom of the RAM expansion board to that length. You’ll still have to mount the toggle switch elsewhere, but the keyboard should now clear the RAM expansion board, now that it’s (roughly) the same height as a 16-pin DIP IC! HTH! 😍
We've all had these sort of moments. At least it wasn't on something worthwhile like a Commodore system. (/me waits for the hissing to start).
I'd love to get some donations to be able to do a few videos. Great stuff. I was cringing as you put those sockets in and thinking this was going to end badly for you assembling it too ;) Sorry it failed to go together in the end.
I remember my 520ST, it didn't even have the TOS ROMs, had to load TOS from disk. Later installed the TOS ROMs, to free up (192KB?) RAM. Might have done the piggyback upgrade to 1MB. Purchased Mega ST4 with built-in SCSI hard disk after that. Thanks for this great video.
Gain of field effect transistors increases as they warm up. I predict that your timing constraints are borderline and easier met as the transistors get faster. I would remove those black plastic separators, clip the leads shorter and see whether they fit then.
I was thinking this also. it should make the difference
Well I hope the changes you talk about at end, are positive ones for you and the Ch !! As I've learnt so much and enjoy all your vids.. So hope the new year brings allot more of the same great content and Merry Christmas !!
Sorry mate, you can´t win ´em all... so sad that it did not fit, super video as always with your productions. I´m amazed of the depth of your knowledge in this field, truly amazing, always super interesting to watch.
Good to see that it at least works, it's just those darned sockets!
If you want to improve long term reliability solder all ICs to the board. No sockets! I know that sounds scary but it works wonders. On your expansion board remove the black plastic pin separators then trim the pins by that amount. Might get you enough clearance.
My first computer was an Atari 520st that supposedly that came from either the University of Berkeley or nasa. My uncle worked for both of them back then and got some that were being replaced with something newer. Another comment: you would not believe how handy cheap Chinese made lockpicks and broken key extractors are when soldering and otherwise fixing electronics!
The joystick and mouse ports are wired directly to keyboard controller. Then the keyboard talks serially to the 6850 UART on the mother board.
I believe i was first person to make a 4 wire remote keyboard. I made a nice case out of acrylic plastic, with db9 ports for mouse, and joystick. I used phone cable and jacks/plugs to make to connection to mother board.
I was also first person to make a program called Omnires/OneRes. A program that allows one to run monochrome or colour programs on opposite monitor. The program was the result of a dare from my friends.
Good to see the Atari get expanded.
Good idea putting in those sockets. Since you were removing all those chips anyway, may as chuck in some sockets to make reversing this if required easier.
EDIT: Damn tolerances.
This brought back memories. (no pun intended) I remember doubling the memory on my Amiga 1000 by piggy backing RAM chips and wiring on address line from them down to the board.
Those days were all about hacking things in. It was real back then! So to speak. Ha.
Might be worth putting the scope on that 5V rail - 4.8V is pretty marginal, and bad filter caps can manifest that way - the voltmeter will show something like an average, and bad filter caps may mean much deeper dips.
I had scary issue with the buck regulator in an ethernet switch - I measured the logic rail at 5V with my multimeter and thought it was fine, but put the scope on it anyway. Turns out it was actually supposed to be a 3.3V rail derived from the 48V PoE supply, but the filter cap had dried up completely - what the multimeter reported as "5V'" was actually narrow spikes of 48V! Incredibly, all the logic survived.
Great effort!
You can still use sockets - just remove plastic part from pins, leaving bare pins and cut pins shorter one by one.. 😉
Really crazy how quickly chips have improved between early 2010s and now. The crash problem was because you were clicking on button too fast.
Don't be discouraged. If you are not bailing on a diy project once and a while you might be trying to optimize a system / process / mod that might not need to exist! I think this is a good example. Not that they didn't do a good job on the board or the mod, but that it just didn't work out, and that's ok. :) Excellent video keep being awesome, I appreciate the shooting schedule you keep and it definitely brightens my lunch break on Saturday :)
I would desolder those decoupling caps too for better fitting the expansion board. Now that the old RAM IC's are gone, you really don't need those.
I was so bummed for you when I saw the case wouldn't fit! I was thinking you could 3-D print a racing stripe spacer for the case and a couple of plastic washers to raise it all up to fit.
you can try breaking the black plastic of the stand off pins you've installed on the memory upgrade so the pin can be pushed down more into the memory sockets ...that may help the memory upgrade board back rest directly on top of the memory sockets you've installed
upvoting for awareness. I was thinking this too
pull all the black plastic spacers off the header pins, then either cut the pins short or hit them with the soldering iron to slide the pins up. get the red board right down on the sockets and it might fit
yup! I had the same thought
30 years ago, I remember my ST had a ram upgrade and suffered random or intermittent boot issues where it would just crash, pressing down on the keyboard keys would adjust a loose connection and it would work again.
Dang that stinks about the fitment with the keyboard....I think I voted for the sockets. I vote for more Atari!!!