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Mikael Hildenborg edited this page Jun 19, 2026 · 4 revisions

Atari-link:

The purpose of Atari-Link is to give developers using m68k-atari-dev toolchain the possibillity of developing for real Atari computers the same way they are used to target the Hatari emulator.
If you aren't a developer and only want a ACSI SD-Card hard disk emulator, then there are many other options with better support.

Project goals:

  • Must work on any Atari ST/TT computer.
  • Must work on any TOS version.
  • No driver or software needed on Atari or PC.
  • Must provide serial communication between Atari and PC.
  • Must provide fast file transfers between Atari and PC.
  • Hardware should be "easy" to build.

The solution is a device that connects to the Atari RS-232 port, the ACSI port and the PC USB port.
This may sound simple, but it is filled with potential problems. There is a page describing problems and solutions if you want to know more.

Hardware:

The hardware was designed with the goal of being possible for anyone with a hobby level of soldering knowledge to build.
So no soldering of surface mount components. Several design desitions have been made to avoid mistakes when building the hardware.
Check out the build hardware page for a detailed step by step guide of building and setting up a device.

Config:

The SD-Card used by the hardware needs to be configured for the firmware to know what to do. The SD-Card needs to be formatted in FAT/exFAT, and it should contain a "config.txt" file together with at least one Atari hard disk image.
The hard disk images are the same kind of images used by emulators such as Hatari.

Config file example:

Com:
	Baud:		9600
	Stop:		1
	Parity:		0

System:
	AcsiId:		0

Drive:
	Image:		tos32mb.img
	PartToLun:	YES
	Acsi:		WRITEABLE
	USB:		READABLE
	Volume:		ATARI_RULES
	Vendor:		IsPotato
	Product:	AtariST SD Drive
	Version:	1.0b

The file is a bit fragile, so be careful when editing it...
The example above sets up a drive that is read/write enabled on the Atari while read-only on PC.
Com:, System: and Drive: must begin on a new line.
There can be up to eight Drive:, but the limit may be less depending on system.
AcsiId: Is the ACSI device id the first Drive: will be assigned to. The following Drive: ACSI device id's will sequentually follow.

Drive settings:

  • Image: Is the name of the hard disk image to use for the drive.
  • PartToLun: If "YES" then the partitions of the hard disk image will be presented as separate drives when exposed to USB. If this is set to "NO", then Windows will fail to discover the partitions.
  • Acsi: Set the attributes for ACSI access: "READABLE" or "WRITEABLE" (writeable is also readable).
  • USB: Set the attributes for USB access: "INVISIBLE", "READABLE" or "WRITEABLE" (writeable is also readable). "INVISIBLE" means that it is not exposed to USB.
  • Volume: Volume string (max 11 chars). Default: ATARI_RULES
  • Vendor: Vendor string (max 8 chars). Default: IsPotato
  • Product: Product string (max 16 chars). Default: AtariST SD Drive
  • Version: Version string (max 4 chars). Default: 1.0b

It is not recommended to have "WRITEABLE" enabled for both Acsi: and USB: on the same drive, as it most likely will end up in a corrupted drive.
If USB: isn't "INVISIBLE", and Acsi: or USB: is WRITEABLE, then the performance of the drive will be lowered. The reason to this is described in: problems and solutions.

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