How to install Ultimate 1MB in an Atari 800XL

▶Purchase Ultimate 1MB: lotharek.pl/pr...
▶Purchase Ultimate 1MB with my firmware: lotharek.pl/pr...
▶Download my U1MB firmware: atari8.co.uk/f...
▶Donations: www.paypal.me/...
▶Website: www.atari8.co.uk
▶Facebook: / atari8
Soldering and test equipment:
● Kaleep 8586 2-in-1 Soldering and Hot Air Rework Station: www.amazon.co....
● Amtech NC-559 Tacky Flux: store.rossmann...
● Goot Wick Desoldering Braid: store.rossmann...
● Cynel Sn60Pb38Cu2 Tin/Lead Solder Wire: www.tme.eu/gb/...
● SysCheck v.2.2 by tf_hh: www.abbuc.de/co...
Equipment and software used for video production:
● Open Broadcaster Studio: obsproject.com/
● Logitech B910 webcam: amzn.eu/42EH5Qf
● Logitech C910 webcam: amzn.eu/gxMSNg0
● EZCap USB AV/s-video capture dongle: amzn.eu/gW2mF5O
● 135W Photography Studio Softbox Light: www.ebay.co.uk...
● Final Cut Pro
● Mid 2014 Apple MacBook Pro
#atari
#8bit
#retrocomputing

[@rideon41]

Great video! Just one comment, I had to remove the strain relief brackets from the cables on one of my machines as it wouldn't fit otherwise.

[@flashjazzcat]

Thanks! I mention (I think - unless it got edited out) in the video that you might have to file the front edges of the strain relief clips down to clear the back of the keyboard. This is the method I used on the reference machine (the source of some of the wiring photos); the clips are filed at a forty-five degree angle and everything fits OK (the keyboard is AWC or Alps). The RTC battery needs to be resting almost flat on top of the Harting connector, but I have no trouble getting the lid down.

[@youarepredictable]

Just bought my 800XL with socketed chipset. Gonna do this shortly after it gets here this weekend!

[@MoparStephen]

Everyone using this upgrade needs to be using fjc's firmware. And if you're using his firmware, please hit the donate button!

[@mariusd.141]

Even when you are not into atari 8bit at all, these FJC's videos are pretty entertaining and cool. I also love the musical interplays. Great work FJC! Greetings from the Netherlands. Marius.

[@jeremycoyle8306]

Great video. The Sid James clips are brilliant.

[@flashjazzcat]

Thanks!

[@Mclaneinc]

Informative and fun...Just how a video should be!

[@markfisher696]

Sid James laughs are perfect. Every time my brain registers the innuendo, out he pops. (Yak Yak)

[@Technoid_Mutant]

You can re-use the ribbon cable connectors if you are careful. After removing the back, heat the cable and connector a bit and peel it off the pins. The connector is free now and re-usable.

[@flashjazzcat]

Yes: I re-use the Harting connector on the MMU cable, but since I had already bought plenty of IDC connectors, it made sense to use a new one. Good tip regarding using heat to soften up the cable, though. :)

[@LeftyLabs]

Lovely work as usual, FJC! When I installed a U1MB in one of my 800XL's, I took most of thesignals from completely different places than you. I grabbed HALT, RESET and R/W from vias just above ANTIC, and PHI2 from the leg of a resistor just above SALLY.

[@flashjazzcat]

Thanks Herb. In most cases it probably doesn't matter much where you pick off the signals, aside from the buffered/unbuffered Phi2 matter I mentioned on Facebook (sometimes that can make a difference). My prime objective is to avoid soldering wires to directly to the legs of ICs, especially if said ICs are in sockets. There's always a via nearby.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

I see from your recent videos you've been upping your video editing game! Love it. Great video too, I will shortly be refurbing my old 800xl and wanted to try the U1MB so now I have a guide!

[@davidhoitinga8467]

Great i love the Atari.

[@javiervidaurre6325]

Nice job on the de-soldering. It's as if the chips were never there, sort of.

[@AtariSTGuy]

Another great vid! Thanks!

[@bpbrainiak]

I feel so inspired =)

[@acht_bits]

So that's how it's done. Now it's clear I'll never have a U1MB in any of my Ataris ;) Can't do stuff like this. Too bad.

[@flashjazzcat]

That's why technicians like me offer an installation service, unless you mean you have an ethical objection to some aspect of the install. In that case, nothing can be done.

[@acht_bits]

@@flashjazzcat I like your humor. It's just that I can't solder and right now I wouldn't know of a "local" installation service for doing so. I'll start searching.

[@tonibianchetti]

I was expecting less soldering. But I understand it’s a substantial upgrade of the machine

[@flashjazzcat]

You solder four wires if you already have (quality) sockets in the correct places.

[@tonibianchetti]

flashjazzcat yeah, I think if soldered once in your life four wires are nothing :-) And drilling? Is it optional, just to keep all steady?

[@flashjazzcat]

@@tonibianchetti Yeah: I appreciate what you're saying. As for drilling: some people are happy to let the board flop around freely or balance on one leg (only one standoff is supplied, which kind of encourages such habits), but I suppose you can secure it as you see fit.

[@tonibianchetti]

flashjazzcat 😆 damn bad habit spreading through one legged hardware. Thanks so much for your creativity and willingness to spread the Atari love

[@gryzman]

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just have it as a straight memory upgrade, no Rom stuff - just the smallest package possible that only delivers 1MB ? Many have the SD cards and so on with fujinet now, so no need for duplication there

[@flashjazzcat]

Nothing wrong with a bare RAM upgrade: you could install tf_hh's 512K SRAM board which sits under the ANTIC chip, if that's what you wanted. But Fujinet can't run SpartaDOS X (since it's on ROM), doesn't provide a hardware real-time clock, can't provide a PBI ROM which will drive a cartridge-based hard disk, and can't provide OS high-speed SIO support via a PBI driver. So with Fujinet, no U1MB, and the stock OS ROM, you're limited to slow 57600 baud IO outside of the soft-loaded SIO driver which boots the Fujinet menu, which is about 20 times slower than a SIDE3 hard disk, for example. With U1MB's PBI high-speed SIO driver, you can at least get 126Kb/s (divisor 0) transfers over the SIO bus. I don't see many U1MB features which Fujinet is capable of implementing at all, and no Fujinet functionality which U1MB redundantly duplicates.

[@fragalot]

27:35 NTSC means Not The Same Color (colour)

[@flashjazzcat]

There are a few I've heard over the years. 'Never The Same Color' and 'Never Twice the Same Color' to name but two.

[@TheHighlander71]

At the risk if sounding stupid, I'd like to know what the U1MB is actually for. What does it do? Currently I have the AtariMax, but I guess that doesn't hold a candle to what the U1MB can do, or can it?

[@flashjazzcat]

It provides 320, 576 and 1088K RAM upgrades (selectable), 4x OS ROM (flashable), 4x BASIC slots (flashable), built-in SpartaDOS X, battery-backed real time clock, built-in PBI BIOS to drive SIDE2/SIDE3 as an OS-compliant hard disk host adapter, built-in high-speed SIO driver (with my firmware), multiple configuration profiles (my firmware), built-in high-speed XEX/ATR loader, and more. Many features discussed on my U1MB firmware page: atari8.co.uk/firmware/ultimate-1mb/

[@TheHighlander71]

@@flashjazzcat Thanks! That's extremely versatile.Much more so than what I have now. Also thanks for that link I'll have a closer look at what that all means.

[@fragalot]

So the way you installed the Ultimate !MB board must mean you forego the RF shielding when you put the 800XL back together?

[@flashjazzcat]

Absolutely: no shield (at least, not the top; you can fit the bottom half if you want).

[@cesargaldamesbert]

Hi, I have ordered an ultimate 1mb (custon firmware) and I have an sdrive max in my 800XL. Can you show how to play the games in sdrive max with the ultimate 1mb… how this works togheter?

[@flashjazzcat]

To boot from the SDrive Max, simply disable SpartaDOS X in the U1MB settings (or type COLD /N at the SDX command prompt).

[@8_Bit_Power]

Just installed U1MB to my 800XL as per your instructions (great video). After the install 800XL boots into self-test and displays two red bars for the OS. I am able to go into U1MB setup screen and able to change and save options there but when i reboot it always goes to self-test and shows bad ROM. I double checked all connections to the 800XL board and they're OK (no shorts or soldering fault, and proper connection points). I tried buffered and non-buffered PHI2 connections with the same result. Can not figure out what is wrong. I have the U1MB from Lotharek (brown PCB) and I noticed P1 connector on the board is missing pins 1 & 2. Hope you can help me solve this problem, many thanks. And oh, the 800XL works fine with the original chips in place.

[@flashjazzcat]

The only possible explanations are connectivity issues (ribbon cables), a wiring error, socket problems, bad ROM on U1MB (unlikely), or a dead U1MB. So I'm afraid you'll have to check everything again or get in touch with the vendor. It's easy to connect one of the four wires to the wrong via and be totally convinced you've done it right, but there's almost certainly an installation error here. Pins 29 and 30 on P1 are unpopulated because it's connected via a 28 way ribbon cable to a 28 pin socket, but 28-way IDC connectors presumably aren't available, so a 30 way connector was used with two pins left empty.

[@8_Bit_Power]

@@flashjazzcat Thank you for your immediate reply.. Missing pins on the U1MB board connector are 1 (square pin designator on PCB) & 2 which are VPP and +5v on the OS ROM socket, not the missing ribbon cable on pin 29 and 30, nevertheless you seemed to be bang on about the ribbon cables. After I posted my question here, I continued troubleshooting the problem and to my surprise the install started to work if/when I bent the ribbon cables a certain way, but stopped working again if i moved the U1MB to a different position. So I replaced the ribbon cables and that permanently fixed the issue. Thanks again for the fast reply.

[@flashjazzcat]

@@8_Bit_Power Good stuff. And yes: I misunderstood your point regarding P1, but those unconnected signals are simply not needed on the OS ROM connector. So really, we have 26 of those 30 pins used, and this is perfectly normal.

[@back2skooldaze]

Jazz can you please tell me whats the length of the stand offs? I know you said the hole is to be 3mm but id like to know the length of the stand offs to see whats on ebay i can buy

[@flashjazzcat]

Did you not get any with the board? Look in the bottom of the box. Cut them to the appropriate length with an exacto knife.

[@fragalot]

I've modded my Atari 800XL but it was back in the late 80s and early 90s. Mine has a RAMBO XL 256k RAM upgrade, and my 1050 drive has the US Doubler upgrade. I used SpartaDOSX extensively with this since it took advantage of the 256k RAM (192k ramdisk) as well as the disk fast R/W speeds of US Doubler. So I have a couple of questions. Will this Ultimate 1MB work on my existing 800XL with 256k RAM? It has eight 32k RAM chips installed; will I have to remove the RAM or the RAMBO XL board? The board replaces a small chip (i forget which one), and I don't have the original chip anymore. I'm sure a google search will show you where the board goes. Also is the Ultimate 1MB compatible with US Doubled 1050 drives in high speed mode? I've noticed that a newer version of SpartaDOSX is built into the Ultimate 1MB, so I assume it is.

[@flashjazzcat]

I just asked Candle if the existing RAM upgrade would still work with U1MB when Ultimate's 'Stock' memory configuration is selected, and he says he thinks it will, but it would be better to take the machine back to stock condition first. U1MB implements 320K, 576K and 1088K memory models as well as the base configuration. I think the latter yields 128K on a 130XE, so it might work with the RAMBO board. As for USD high speed mode: absolutely. My U1MB firmware implements Hias' high-speed SIO code at the PBI level, so you no longer need a patched OS to enjoy high-speed IO regardless of which DOS is used.

[@randyginden3852]

just received a 1mb ultimate board ( with FJC FIRMWARE) and was wondering where can i find the MMU and OS Rom sockets for an Atari 800xl? and info you could supply would be greatly appreciated.

[@flashjazzcat]

The locations are shown in the video: you can see me connecting the MMU and OS ROM cables to the appropriate sockets. It's the same on your machine.

[@sigmiami]

I want to do this to my 800xl

[@saroku]

Where did you get that mylar for the keyboard and the luma fix?

[@flashjazzcat]

I can't remember, but if you look on the AtariAge forums, a couple of people are producing aftermarket Mylars now. I think the machine's owner purchased the Mylar.

[@vannielaney1442]

What is male mmu white adapter called i broke a pin on mine

[@flashjazzcat]

It's generally called a 'Harting' connector. TME link: www.tme.eu/en/details/kk20025c/idc-connectors/conec/220f10099x/

[@vannielaney1442]

Thanks I appreciate it