Description
The Atari 810 disk drive was introduced at the unveiling of the Atari 400/800 computers at the Winter CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. January 1979.
There are two versions of the Atari 810. The MPI version which has a door handle that swings up and you slide in and out the 5.25″ diskette. The other was the Tandon version (what this is modeled after) which has a spring-loaded up/down door that when opened would eject the diskette out about 1 to 2 inches out of the drive opening for easy removal.
The Disk drive is an SIO device with 2 ports on the rear of the unit to allow “Daisy Chaining” of other peripherals onto the SIO bus. Up to 4 Atari 810’s could be connected together, each drive has its own unique Drive Number ID from 1 to 4.
This SDrive-MAX is beautifully crafted to look like the original Atari 810 floppy drive from 1979 and great attention to detail has been put into its design.
The SDrive-MAX is a modern solution to the old problem of not enough disk space on your Atari 8bit computer. SDrive-MAX is a floppy drive emulator that emulates up to 4 physical floppy drives and one tape drive. Store thousands of floppy drive images on a single micro SD card that loads just like the original floppy did.
The all-new SDrive-MAX also functions flawlessly alongside physical drives giving you the ability to back-up those aging floppy disks onto modern storage that will last. It is incredible that floppy disks from 40 years ago still work, but it is only a matter of time before the data on them vanishes forever. The SDrive-MAX allows you to copy all of that data of the aging floppy for use far into the future. You can copy from the SDrive-MAX to physical drives just as effortlessly as from a physical disk to the SDrive-MAX.
The SDrive-MAX comes with a large touch-screen display, a 16GB micro SD card, an external power supply for maximum flexibility and a stylus for easy control. SDrive-MAX’s can get power from the SIO cable, but we include an external power supply for the original 800/400 computers that do not supply power fast enough to the SDrive-MAX to boot from it. You can also load CAS images using the SDrive-MAX since it also emulates the old tape drives used in the ’80s.
Item includes:
- SDrive-MAX.
- Supports “ATR”, “ATX”, “CAS”, “COM”, “BIN”, “EXE”, “XEX”, “XFD”, “TAP”, “IMG” images.
- 16gb microSD Card.
- 3′ cable with SIO plug.
- Touchscreen.
- Stylus.
- Stylus holder built into the drive.
- Optional External power supply (Input: AC 100-240V Output: DC 12V 1A US style plug).
- Power switch modification allowing either power over SIO cable to the external power supply. External power is highly recommended.
- SIO modification to allow for SDrive-MAX to operate along with physical drive connected to the SIO bus.
- Working Power LED.
- Working Drive Activity Light.
- Footpads.
The case is available in either left-handed or right-handed versions. The stylus is on the left side for the left-handed version and the right side for the right-handed version.
About the Cases
The original design for these cases was done by Steve Boswell of Atari8Bit.net. We took his base design and made a few changes that we think improved the design a little. We added multiple parts so we could have a black drive door with the brown basal, we added some holes for the power and activity LEDs, added a place for a switch to select between SIO and external power, and closed the back wire slot, and made a hole for the wire we use with our drives. Steve did an amazing job recreating the look of the original drive and we just love it. In the spirit of Open-Source, we are releasing our STL designs so that anyone who would like to print their own can. Make sure you check out Steves’s site for all kinds of cool Atari related things and thank him for this amazing case design! Steve has a great deal of talent when it comes to 3D modeling and design.
Please note – The documentation for the SDrive-MAX is included on the SD card, please read it before use.
SDrive-MAX Files
Randall Kindig –
This is an absolutely beautiful and well-built kit! I love all the little added improvements over building one yourself, such as the data light, power switch, built-in SIO fix and so much more. This looks SO much like a miniature 810 drive and works very well.