mirror of
https://github.com/skoelle/moonweb-site.git
synced 2026-09-17 17:00:25 +00:00
39 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
39 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
---
|
|
title: "ACSI2STM: Atari ST Hard Drive Emulator"
|
|
section: "retro"
|
|
tags: "retro"
|
|
description: "An ACSI to SD card hard drive emulator for the Atari ST based on an STM32 microcontroller, bought but not yet in use."
|
|
layout: base.njk
|
|
parent: "/retro/"
|
|
---
|
|
<h1>ACSI2STM: Atari ST Hard Drive Emulator</h1>
|
|
<div class="detail-content">
|
|
|
|
<p>I bought an ACSI2STM adapter but haven't put it into a machine yet. It's a hard drive emulator for the Atari ST built around an inexpensive STM32 microcontroller and an SD card, an open-source project by retro16.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>What it does</h2>
|
|
<p>ACSI2STM connects to the ACSI (DB19) port at the back of the Atari ST and emulates a hard drive. It can work in three ways:</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><strong>Mount SD cards</strong>, standard SD/SDHC/SDXC cards (FAT16/FAT32/ExFAT) appear on the Atari.</li>
|
|
<li><strong>Expose raw SD cards</strong> as ACSI hard disks connected to the Atari.</li>
|
|
<li><strong>Expose disk image files</strong> as hard disks connected to the Atari.</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>It also provides an UltraSatan-compatible real-time clock if you add a simple 3V lithium battery such as a CR2032.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Hardware</h2>
|
|
<p>The hardware is a custom PCB that can be ordered preassembled directly from JLCPCB. The board attaches straight to the DB19 port at the back of the ST and has three microSD card slots, with the firmware supporting up to five SD card readers. It's designed to be easy to build, extremely cheap, reliable and safe for the vintage machine. The project is mature and considered finished, with both software and hardware complete. It can even work on STs with broken DMA chips using the PIO firmware.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>My Setup</h2>
|
|
<p>I bought an ACSI2STM adapter, but it isn't in use anywhere yet, so it sits among my other uninstalled extensions. The <a href="/retro/ultrasatan/">UltraSatan</a> currently provides the ACSI hard-disk storage on the "Low" machine, so the ACSI2STM would be an alternative or a spare for another machine.</p>
|
|
<p>I also collected all the parts to build a second unit from scratch, following the open-source <a href="https://github.com/retro16/acsi2stm/blob/stable/doc/hardware.md" target="_blank">hardware guide</a>, but never got around to soldering it together. If it eventually gets built, it could go into the <a href="/retro/mega-st-heirloom/">"Heirloom"</a> or the <a href="/retro/mega-st2/">Mega ST 2</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Gallery</h2>
|
|
<img src="acsi2stm.jpg" alt="The ACSI2STM adapter" width="640" height="640" loading="lazy">
|
|
<p class="caption">The ACSI2STM adapter, not yet installed.</p>
|
|
<p>The PPERA-HD-GAMES pack (1 GB iTOS version + 7 GB full pack, January 2026) was bought from Peter Putnik for 30 EUR.</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Sources</h2>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://github.com/retro16/acsi2stm" target="_blank">ACSI2STM - GitHub (project page)</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</div> |