MegaSTE / STE IDE Adapter Installation Guide

Thanks for purchasing the IDE adapter. It's taken a little while to perfect with my many IDE devices I have. Some of the devices I have tested are:-

IDE → CF adapters

IDE → SATA adapters with SATA hard drive

IDE → SD card adapters

IDE hard drives, Seagate, IBM, Maxtor, IBM and Western Digital

IDE CDROM drives.

Hopefully it will work with your devices too !!

I have tested these IDE boards out personally on my STE or MegaSTE to confirm they work 100% in my environment before shipping.

The IDE adapter fits over the 68000 CPU in the MegaSTE or STE computer. If your 68000 is not installed in a PLCC socket, then this IDE adapter will not work for you. Let me know if this is the case, as I may produce a version for this type of STE.

TAKE CARE.

Installation can be tricky at initial installation because the 68000 pins are quite stiff. Take your time and avoid bending the pins.

Also, if you remove the IDE board, you may find the MegaSTE/STE no longer boots up. This is usually because the pins no longer make contact with the 68000.

BEWARE ON THIS, AS YOU MAY NEED TO BEND THEM BACK !!!!!

You can see here where the location points are. The pins on the IDE adapter need to fit into this area behind the 68000 pins.

The PL and SL jumpers are for connecting external LEDs for hard drive activity. These indicate the primary (PL) and secondary (SL) IDE connectors.

There is also the STD/REV jumpers. By default the jumpers are installed for the default configuration “STD”. i.e. you can see the “PRIMARY” and “SECONDARY” words labelled on the IDE ports. If you connected the jumpers to “REV” the IDE ports are reversed.

Interrupt Line Cable

The INT has the single cable attached which should be connected to the Atari ACSI DMA port on pin 10. See the picture on how to attach the clip.

MegaSTE

NOTE: If may be helpful to remove the PSU while you install the IDE adapter in the MegaSTE.

There is a three pin cable attached to the MegaSTE pins which internally connects some processor signals. If you have the MegaSTE Bus adapter board this cable will be attached to an external board which must be installed into U11. As in the following picture.

Any problems ?

Let me know via the Atari Forums.

Thanks for your interest and looking forward to how you get on with your IDE devices !!!

Alan.