ATM-Turbo upgrade
ZXNet echo conference «real.speccy»
My question was about the possibility of upgrading the ATM Turbo 2+
(7.10) circuit as cheaply as possible to hardware clock-by-clock compatibility with the Pentagon 128 and Kempstom mouse.
The idea is to create a modern, cheap, well-thought-out design, produce boards
in small quantities and sell them to Spectrum demoscene enthusiasts (that's why we need 100%
hardware mode Pentagon 128), CP/M and ATM-Turbo family. No income. But without any losses.
More information on ATM-Turbo can be found on the Maxagor website:
http://atmturbo.narod.ru/
ICQ message Maxagora:
=============================================================================
It’s not difficult - 8-10 ordinary microcircuits. True for a passive mouse, or you will have to
tinker with regular mice by connecting it to the controller directly from the photodiodes. There are
universal PC keyboard and mouse controllers at the same time. I have one.
Like the GS it has the same connector for the slot. There is m/s 1819BE31 (+ ROM for it -
apparently similar to the keyboard controller in ATM) and it emulates Kempston rat ports, transferring signals from modern mice to Kempston signals.
Previouslysold in Scorpio. Now it is also sold in St. Petersburg at Nemo. I don’t know whether there is a schematic and ROM firmware for BE31 available for free distribution. Try
asking Fido on zx.spectrum and real.speccy, maybe someone knows, I will also be happy to read their answers (for now I can only read). And so, theoretically
it is possible to modify the existing PC keyboard controller in ATM so that it works with
the Kempston mouse. In general, 7.10 has RS-232, and you can connect a mouse with a COM connector (Microsoft-mouse) to it, and use it through programming located on the BE31 mamak, but this will not be according to the Campston standard (when ATM-2+ was created in Russia, this standard was practically not known). So
it would be necessary to modify the controller in hardware (+software - change the ROM firmware),
so that it, just like that universal controller (which is sold by HEMO), could
emulate Kempston mouse ports.
==========================================================================================