Yep, I have the dubious distinction of being the one who wrote the firmware and some of the software for the duplicator board. Well, it paid for a new car, anyway. The history of the board is long and complicated, and would probably best be left hidden, to protect the guilty and innocent.
So, I will present to you what matarials I still have in my grubby little paws. The artwork for the board was sent to somebody in Georgia whom I no longer can remember the name of (or, at least, that is what I think happened to it). The schematic seems to be missing as well, although, it was a very simple board. It had an 8k x 8 ram, a 6502, what I think is an 8k x8 rom, and a decoder (it has be 16 or 17 years since I did that thing, give me a break!).
The code was assembled with the Atari Macro assembler (this came on a disk, as opposed to the assembler-editor cartridge, which will not assemble the code). In the source, you will find some uncommented code that doesn't seem to do anything, and it doesn't. What that is is the runtime library for the Action! cartridge. I put that in there as a marker so I could tell if I got ripped off.
The thing I liked most about the board is that it really sped up disk access for the 1050, and I also was able to do double density, or was I? Can't remember, but that was one of the goals. Yes, I am pretty sure I was able to do double density with the thing.
Somewhere around here I still have some boards. When I find them, I will post pictures. I also still have the original prototype as well. That will be a little more difficult to find.
Anyway, here is the source. Probably no longer useful, but, it may be fun to look at.
Ascii Version
of
Firmware
Atascii Version
of ALL source code
Here are a couple photos. I found a couple of boards.
This is one of the production boards. They sent me the ones that didn't work as part of my payment. Goodie.
I think this one of the ones that I fixed. I would sign them and give them to my freinds. This one must not have made it.
This is one of the prototype boards. I had
these made at a local PC board shop. They always made extras so I
had a few still kicking around. I only built up one of
these.
I am still trying to find the bread board............Latest
update....(10-10-2004).....I finally found the breadboard. Here
are the pictures:
There are two empty sockets...the long socket (40 pins) is where the
6502 is supposed to go, and the other socket (the 28 pin socket), is
where an eprom is supposed to go...I can't remember if it was a
27128 or a 2764. I might have made it so it would take
either...who knows.