SDrive-MAX is a cheap and easy way to build yourself an Atari disk drive emulator using an Arduino UNO board. In a previous article I described how to build one yourself. To make our SDrive a little more attractive, you can add LEDs. The POWER LED, of course, lights up when the device is connected to power (or gets 5V from the Atari), and the ACTIVITY LED blinks when loading a program.
How to connect LEDs:
- POWER LED: anode (longer leg) through resistor approx. 1 kΩ to supply +5V, cathode (shorter leg) to ground (GND)
- ACTIVITY LED: anode through 470 Ω resistor the same way to +5V, while the cathode to RX output on Arduino board
A few tips:
- Do not connect diodes without resistors, otherwise they will fry 🙂
- Get a higher resistance (e.g. 1.5kOhm) if the diodes shine too brightly.
And this is what the final result looks like: