New board: MonSTer

[Fujiyama]

Can we hope for a Christmas present for our Ataris this year?

[Carl_R]

A MonSTer for Mega STE would be nice to find under the tree...

[Gaiyan]

Am I to understand that there are no MonSTer for STFM available? The website seems to hint that they are and I can add one in the cart. Anyone know?

[frank.lukas]

When you would like to pay via paypal it says not available. So you can not buy any MonSTer at the time.

[Gaiyan]

When you would like to pay via paypal it says not available. So you can not buy any MonSTer at the time.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

[Bikerbob]

Please do more boards! I would like one for my MSTE!!

James

[alanh]

I could use another pair of hands, but everytime that happens, it ends up sucking more of my time.

I'll get there.

[guus.assmann]

Hello Alanh,

I am able and willing to help out.
I've build quite a number of MegaSpeedy PCB's for the Atari 8 bit.
That has a Xilinx XC 95144 and I hand soldered those.
The only thing that can be a setback, I'm in the Netherlands and postage is not so cheap.
PM me if you see some possibilities.

BR/
Guus Assmann

[Rustynutt]

Can I ask for an plcc to dil adapter for a PAK while your working on boards for the STe?

[emcclariion]

Following Alan, would like one for me Mega STE......

[emcclariion]

just checked paypal seems to work are we ok to make the purchases now Alan?

[Fujiyama]

I hate to ask again, but having not heard anything for a while: has the MonSTer project been shelved or is a new batch planned for the not too distant future? I'm still hoping to secure one for my STe

If the problem is time constraints, would it be possible to team up with others here who are capable of getting a batch out?

[frank.lukas]

Lotharek's Lair ?

[alanh]

I'm here.

[Fujiyama]

Good to hear from you Alan
My STe is eagerly awaiting a MonSTer

[RA_pdx]

My STE is also waiting for a MonSTer.

[Fujiyama]

Can we still hope for a new batch?

How about my previous suggestion of teaming up with others capable of producing them to ease the workload? Or other possible solutions to keep this awesome add-on alive.

[alanh]

Yes. We can........

[RA_pdx]

Any news when STE MonSTer with PLCC will be available again?

[alanh]

I've got a about 3 STE, and 3 MegaSTE boards right now that need testing first.

My soldering rig is getting set up later, but I'll need to find some new parts again, which may put the cost up a bit.

I'll certainly ping on this thread when I'm operational again.

[saulot]

@alanh Will there be posibility to update MegaSTE MonSTEr firmware somehow? If I remember correctly you have made some improvements at some point (,but I'm not sure how crucial it was and what was actually improved).

[alanh]

The only way of updating firmware (and I'd need to check if there was a good reason to update it) is to return it to me.

[MegaSTEarian]

As I’m fairly new on that, I have some questions.

I assume this expansion card offers 4 or 8 more MBs of RAM and the ability to have more TOS versions available.
It also adds two ide ports.
Am I correct? Am I missing anything?

I read that it disables blitter on the STE in general or just MegaSTE? Can this be avoided as I’d hate soldering?
Also, can an IDE to SATA Adapter be used so more modern disks can be used?

[alanh]

8MB more on ST/STE, 6MB on MegaSTE.

Yes, more TOS versions due to it's Flash chip, and two IDE ports.

It can also take a Real-Time-Clock module. That's seperate though.

It only disables the blitter on the MegaSTE by default, but soldering, can fix it. Or if you are lucky, the chip in question might be in a socket, at which point I did have an expansion board that allows you to just take the chip out, and plug this in.

I've used SATA adapters before, but there seem to be quite a few out there, so no guarantees here.

[MegaSTEarian]

Thanks alanh

How come ST/STe can take more RAM compared to Mega STe?
Also, can the two IDE ports take respective master/slave on each channel?
Finally, are there plans for GPU support or even integration?