Atari SIO Interface using Arduino as SIO2USB

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

How to interface your vintage Atari 130XE (800XL and others) with a laptop in order to download and play games using the laptop as a substitute for the Atari floppy disk drive.

Theory:
Let's not forget that the Arduino Duemilanove Board has an FT232RL interface for USB transfers to your Atmega chip. (Dec/2011 update: This doesn't hold true for the new Arduino UNO boards, which replaced the FT232 with an Atmega8 chip.)

Well, removing the actual Atmega 328 from the board will let you play with the onboard FT232RL and use it to interface with the ATARI. (actually I'm not 100% sure if removing the microcontroller is at all necessary, but I didn't want to take any risks).

You need only four wires from the SIO connector at the atari and no arduino code required.

The COMMAND pin is located at the unsoldered X3 connector on the duemilanove, so I soldered a row of four pins even though you only need to use PIN 4.

Links:
thanks to Kinnon Stephens: http://www.stephens-home.com/sio2usb/ (Notice that his pinout differs from mine because he is interfacing against the SIO CABLE while I am interfacing against the Atari onboard Connector).
and here: Atari 8-Bit SIO Connector
and here for the 810 Drive Emulator: http://retrobits.net/atari/atari810.shtml

Works like a charm, takes 10 minutes.

Connection details:

The Atari serial connector pin-out (view when looking at the back of the Atari)

1 1
2 4 6 8 0 2

/ o o o o o o
/ o o o o o o o \

1 3 5 7 9 1 1
1 3

1 clock in
2 clock out
3 data in ------------------ > To Pin 0 on the Arduino board (RX)
4 GND --------------------- > To any GND pin on the Arduino board
5 data out -----------------> To Pin 1 on the Arduino board (TX)
6 GND
7 command (active low) --- > To Pin 4 on the X3 connector on the Arduino board
8 cassette motor control
9 proceed (active low)
10 +5V/ready
11 audio in
12 +12V (400/800)
13 interrupt (active low)

I used a protoshield for a cleaner connection. Note the 4-pins soldered to the X3 connector, that's the only soldering required for this project.
The Atmega microcontroller was removed.

2

Transfer floppy disks into .atr images or save .atr images into floppy diskettes!
(SIO21050 or SIO2XF551 or SIO2DRIVE).

You can interface other peripherals like a floppy disk drive (Atari 1050 or XF551) using a software called ProSystem (http://www.atarimax.com).

In this case the connection is different, and my gratitude goes to Nick Kennedy for letting me know that (http://pages.suddenlink.net/wa5bdu/1050.txt) where he states:

"The COMMAND line is a bit more complicated. In SIO2PC it uses a gate which converts TTL to RS-232. It will now need an opposite conversion, RS-232 to TTL. (...) Currently the RI (ring indicator) line, which is an input, is used. The new hardware will use the RTS line, which is an output."

Well, RTS didn't work for me, but DTR pin did.

So starting from the same setup as the above post, this time two changes are needed:

  • TX and RX get inverted
  • and COMMAND line goes to the solder spot on the Arduino board labeled RESET-EN (right next to the USB connector) which goes straight to DTR(pin 2) on the FT232RL

Here's the photo while archiving floppy diskettes to .atr files using an Atari XF551 drive (no Atari computer required):

There is no need to open the cover of the drive for this project. The reason why you see it open is because I don't have the original power supply thus I had to open the case up and supply 12v and 5v directly to the drive from my bench power supply.

3

I'm an old Atari guy. Pure awesome. Bravo.