Quote:
Originally Posted by dreadnought
That's very impressive (especially the price). Congrats! So, is any soldering required? How do you exactly connect it, and would it work with my 1040 STf?
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From an user point of view is a completely plug&play device; soldering is not required.
You need a micro SD card, and write this hard disk image file; the hard disk is self bootable, you don´t need a diskette with a driver. The driver resides in the micro SD card. This hard disk image is compatible both for your Atari and Windows PC!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vqA...ew?usp=sharing
You need to power it with any mobile phone charger (via micro USB). The device its externally connected to your Atari STf hard disk port.
The operation instructions, as well the update instructions are attached to the original post.
It shall work on your 1040 STF; this device is based on the code of Jean-Matthieu Coulon. He tested on a STF with TOS 1.04, and a STE with TOS 1.62, and STE with TOS 2.06
My machine, the Atari from the videos, is a 1040 STE with TOS 1.06
Now I can execute the larger size games I am developing, such the Metal Slug port
Loading speed is around 10 - 12 x faster than diskette.
However there are two firmware versions, the original and the modified one that worked on my STE. Other users, with STFM reported that modified one operates correctly, and original not.
-On the update package, the two firmwares are available; the device is easy to update.
Prior to modify the firmware, I encounter many hard disk writing problems; now I am implementing a circular buffer in order to process up to two ACSI (hard disk port) commands at same time in order to enhance the performance more. But this will take many time, many experiments.
Currently the units are shipped with modified firmware and complete instructions about how to operate it, and how to update it.
The price is a compromise on components cost, soldering materials, and needed time (it requires many manual work). The idea is to provide an accesible mass storage device for everyone, and more SD card compatible and faster than Satan.
Obviously UltraSatan is better, and much faster, but it cost more than 3x; and the difference for any Atari user is not much noticeable.