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| About the Atari 130xe | [hide] |
The Atari 130xe was one of the last 8 bit computers built by Atari. This one is from a lot of
rare (old) computers I bought in a flea market. Unfortunately, this computer was non-fonctional
when I got it. This page describes the steps I took to repair this computer. Hopefully,
the information here will be useful to someone someday...
|
| Power adaptor | [hide] |
I did not have a power adaptor for this computer so I built one using a suitable
power adaptor (5 volts, 2.5A max... probably more than enough) and a DIN connector.I found the power connector pinout in the Atari 8 bit FAQ: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/atari-8-bit/faq/. Here is the pinout, copied from the FAQ:
Power Adapter Plug (all but 400,800,1200XL,1400XL,1450XLD):
7 6
3 1
5 4
2
1. +5V
2. Shield
3. Ground
4. +5V
5. Ground
6. +5V
7. Ground
|
| First problem: RAM | [hide] |
When I powered up the Atari for the first time, the memory test screen immediately appeared. The
test failed (shown by many red boxes). It was likely that one or many memory chips were defective....
To fix the problem, I needed to locate and replace the bad memory chip(s). So I desoldered half
of the memory chips (a total of 128 solder joints) and installed sockets.The DRAM chips that were initially installed in my atari were of the 4264 type. Luckily, I had some compatible memory chips in stock (some km41256-15). I used an elimination process to find the bad chip (swap old chip with new chip, test, put the old chip back...). In the end, there was only one bad chip. Just for reference (It was hard to find) here is the pinout for the 4264 RAM chips:
__ __
NC -| \/ |- Vss
Din -| |- /CAS
/WE -| |- Dout
/RAS -| |- A6
A0 -| |- A3
A2 -| |- A4
A1 -| |- A5
Vcc -| |- A7
'------'
After replacing the bad RAM chip, the memory test screen would not appear at powerup anymore. Only
the 'OK' basic prompt. When I ran the memory test later (typing BYE at the basic prompt and selecting
the test from a menu), no more errors were visible.However, when I tried typing in a basic program, I discovered that some keyboard keys did not work :( |
| Second problem: Keyboard with non-working keys | [hide] |
So, some keys were non-functional. First, I had to determine what was really causing the problem.
Was it the keyboard itself or the associated circuitry on-board?I disconnected the keyboard and using a small piece of wire, I tried connecting a pair of keyboard connector pins in all possible combinations until I saw a non-working character appear on screen. So it was a keyboard problem! 
Next I opened the keyboard. Inside, there was a plastic sheet with an electrical circuit
drawn on it, using some sort of conductive ink. Finding the broken tracks under the keys
was easy, but I had to use a multimeter to find breaks in the ribbon that goes to the motherboard.
To repair the tracks, I bought a window defogger repair kit. This paint conducts
electricity very well and dries real fast! I used a very small brush to repair the
tracks, but it was sometimes very hard not to paint over the neighboring tracks. I corrected my mistakes
by scraping the paint with a sharp knife tip.(Note: This good idea is not mine. It's a suggestion someone named Aaron made in reply to a question about an Atari 800xl keyboard in the comp.sys.atari.8bit newsgroop in 1999. Here is a link to this thread on google groups. 
On these two pictures, you can get a closer view of the repair.
Now that the keyboard was repaired, I was able to type the 'BYE' command, which
made the test menu appear. I was able to confirm that all the keyboard keys were
functional.
|
| Projets futurs | [hide] |
| Now that I have a functional Atari 130xe, I'm considering building an SIO2PC cable. With
this cable, it's possible to connect the Atari with a PC with the PC emulating an Atari
floppy drive. This means it is not necessary to use real disks (and to own a floppy drive,
which I dont) to use software downloaded from the net... But since I dont have an SIO connector, I plan to build the interface directly inside the Atari. This means there will be a DB9 connector on the Atari. I'm also thinking about buying or building a cartridge for games. To be continued... |
Website coded with | Last update: March 02, 2007 |
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