How Atari ST Service Engineers Diagnosed Faults In 1989 - Rare Hardware Hands-On!

[@ctrlaltrees]

"Cat & Korsh sold soft and hardware mainly for the Commodore 64/128; products for serious hobbyists like multi carts, overclocking sets, chip testers and productivity software. So in that light them buying diagnostics kit for the ST, doesn't seem to be out of place. Maybe they were looking to clone it or something. As for their further adventures in ST land, there doesn't seem to be much. C&K is mentioned in a Dutch ST software catalog with a single title (atarimuseum.nl/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Software_overzicht_1988.pdf), a light synth in the Games section. I think they stopped trading in 1991 or thereabouts. Incidentally, looking at that software catalog makes clear how little emphasis there was on games. As you rightly said, in mainland Europe, the ST was very much positioned as a productivity machine." Regular commenter Erwin Bierhof had this to say over on my Patreon. For some reason KZbin keeps eating his comment so I'm posting it here as it has some very interesting background info from the point of view of a Dutch guy who was around at the time 🙂

[@atarimuseum_nl]

Cat & Korsh was a regular computer shop on the border of Rotterdam, nothing fancy ;-) It was actually based in a commercial building in Capelle aan den IJssel, a town on the east side of Rotterdam. As a kid I visited them often to buy cheap blank floppy disks (5.25) Cat & Korsh cannot be translated, it is probably a combination of some abbreviations. They were a.o. an official Atari dealer in The Netherlands, they sold products direct to the consumer or to other stores in The Netherlands and Belgium. They published adds regurarly in Dutch computer magazines, for example in the Dutch STart Magazine (with a _lot_ of Atari products!). About the cartridge label, I can not say it is genuine or not, but I would not make the conclusion that it is not original. Also in the Benelux countries the ST was mainly a games machine ;-)

[@monkstandinglast]

Blast from the past seeing those floppy disk cases, missed a good old pun there "tossed the incompatible machine to one side" nice vid cheers

[@10p6]

Interesting Video. Back in the day they also had a test cart that had cables with connectors for all the ports including the STE joystick, so the cart could test everything in one go, with no external boards or cables required.

[@Chriva]

Those wrinkles has always been there. It's caused by the wave soldering technique they used back then :)

[@leeshepherd6512]

Seconded.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the info, I've only ever seen this on 1970s and 80s electronics so assumed it was age related. You learn something new every day! 😁

[@JesterEric]

The ST was only marketed as a games machine in the Uk after mid 1987 and especially 1988 when it was available bundled with 20 games. There was a magazine in the UK, ST World, that became just for serious users

[@creventa]

Worked for one of the largest Atari resellers 1988 to 2001, way past their demise by which Evesham just sold PCs. Dropping a ST from 3 inches onto a flat surface fixed many an issue. Convincing customers to do that was the challenge

[@leojrgensen2819]

JLCPCB also makes it alot easier for people living in the EU, since they collect that EU Vat, and offers cheap p&p, not like that other one, where you would have to pay alot to have one of the large logistics companies collect the EU Vat.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Exactly. Been using them for years and very happy with them. 🙂

[@MacMelmac]

Love those old diagrams and schematics, a proper drawn Atari ST with its floppy drives and not just a generic computer. They did it really well back in the days.

[@jakobole]

I cut my first "IT-teeth" helping out at a danish billboard-design company. They used Atari TT's and "Calamus" as their main software. "Syquest-disks" was also a thing there :)

[@boelwerkr]

If i remember correctly, the audio test only checks the registers for validity, and did not try to make an output. I think it's that way to not annoy the personal to much when testing boards all day long.

[@JVHShack]

As with any rare hardware, I recommend documenting it towards the goal of cloning it for posterity, even if it's a bit dodgy in use. Yes, I myself prefer JLCPCB over the other one due to their shipping costs, even here to the USA.

[@woodand]

congratulations on the "Best Use of Photo Driving Licence" Award 2022 ..... cant wait to see what you'll use it for next year .

[@10MARC]

Cool find! It's always great to track down old hardware like that. I hope you do a modern recreation of the diagnostic tool. That would be quite clever.

[@georgwalt7978]

vital, dump the roms

[@RobSchofield]

I think the serial port dongle was a loop-back, cross-connecting the Tx/Rx and the DCD control lines on the port. I'd definitely be up for a clone of the card, please! Great video, thanks.

[@delinuxspecialist]

Yes, I remember that too, I used the card many times when repairing Atari ST machines back in the day :)

[@RetrogradeScene]

A computer museum jumble sale sounds amazing!!!

[@dennisp.2147]

Inkjet printers were available by the mid 1980's so it's completely reasonable that the janky looking label for a cartridge dated 1990 is in fact, original. It's obviously a low-volume item, not sold to the public, so there would be no reason for a flashy expensive run of printed labels. It's even possible that they made the cartridges in small batches as needed.

[@jonathanwhiteside6092]

I have a remake version that I purchased on-line, unfortunately the vendor has closed their shop down. I do have the dongles too, so have full testing capabilities, as I have a multi-cart that covers ST through to TT at the flick of a switch. With regards to the STE, the one thing the STE diags don't do is test the advanced 15 pin ports, and I don't know what lead is required for those, or if one even exists. It's also worth noting that for machines with no display output, you can still hook up a null modem cable to a PC or other serial terminal, and get the output from the diagnostic cart there.

The DSUB15 ports require a special loopback board connected with the ST DMA fixture board with three wires. It's an interesting device, it has even separate monitor input and output, separate 16 MHz crystal etc.

[@moonove]

Hi dude. Thanks a lot for your discoveries :) Always brings me back to my childhood ;) I have a question. Where did you get your VCS controller in grey ? Is it homemade ?

[@TheBasementChannel]

Great video, but can you please do a review on the Euro spec A Team van?

[@ctrlaltrees]

Today, still wanted by the government, I survive as a soldier of fortune...

[@TPau65]

Interesting piece of hardware which definetly needs further investigation!

[@dennisp.2147]

The serial dongle you are missing probably just connects RX and TX pins.

[@M0UAW_IO83]

Wonder if that Serial port dongle is the classic old loopback one?

[@richardpeel6056]

"The Canon BJ-10 is a printer that was first released in 1987. It uses bubble jet printing technology, which allows for high-quality and precise printing. The printer is compact and lightweight, making it portable and convenient for users who need to print on the go." It could be used on Atari ST set in Epsom LQ mode with a couple of flicks of micro switches. I had one on my Atari but it got stolen so I replaced it with an Canon BJ 200-EX which allows bulk paper insertion. Personally I prefered the BJ-10ex which I lost as it was more portable (being laptop shaped).

[@DeadCat-42]

I've had the exact same issues with serial cables, db-9 to db-9 doesn't mean all the pins are connected. just the rx and tx.

[@joebadger]

Great! I love niche gear like this.

[@lactobacillusprime]

Funny how the Dutch receipt actually has a spelling mistake of the verb, It states “Is behandelt” that should be “Is behandeld”, which could mean something like “has been dealt with”, “has been treated”

[@M0UAW_IO83]

Or it might be correctly spelled German, which would fit with the Google translate which was shown at the start?

[@DoomWarriorX]

very likly because the manual is in german. And "behandelt" is german and would be correct. Maybe the shipper was either from german speaking part of Belgium or Luxembourg and was a bit confused by the time of writing

[@VincentGroenewold]

Did the pin out of those Ebay cables match? Very interesting!

[@ctrlaltrees]

I need to test them, they're either not fully wired or not wired straight through for some reason. I was in such a rush to get the video finished that I just chucked them in a box, never to be seen again 😅

[@Drucklufttroete]

@@ctrlaltrees They might be null-modem cables - they swap pin 7 and pin 8, which shorts +5V to ground on Atari joystick ports

Exactly, those are null-modem cables.

[@CRTdrone]

Pretty sure those Atmel OTP roms are modern. They most likely used a NOS cart shell and PCB to make the cart recently.

[@wyokaiju992]

Man sponsorblock is a beautiful thing

[@winstonsmith478]

That hardware/firmware definitely needs to be analyzed, documented and cloned.

[@mickster150arcade]

they are still available new.

[@DaveVelociraptor]

Hello Jack!

[@itsanarse]

😁

[@p_mouse8676]

Interesting that the invoice is in Dutch but the next printed page is in German?

[@ctrlaltrees]

Indeed. Perhaps they lived near the border.

[@aaroncheah2088]

What modern LCD monitor compatible with the 520STFM? What do I need to output VGA from it? Any place to buy the cable or adapter?

[@TPau65]

1. There are "15khz monitor list atari" on google, of course mostly not "modern" ones as they don't support 15KHz and/or have no VGA input. I have two NEC 1970NXp. 2. You need a ST-to-VGA adapter from e.g. centuriontech, or build one yourself as I did. Schematics can easily be found in the net. Be careful, most VGA adapters are monochrome only! There are only a few ones which support color and mono!

[@chenzora2417]

Hi ctrl-alt-rees, I have been following you. You do a great work. I work for NextPCB. We would like to sponsor your projects. You can send a DM for more details. /Dolphin

[@rjbrake]

Holy fuck dude.... 7 minutes and still haven't seen anything