TI-GAMER Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I have access to purchasing a 2nd PEB but wanted to get some opinions and advice to see if it would be worth me buying it. What are the advantages of having a 2nd PEB? How do you hook up a 2nd PEB to 1 TI Console and access it? Can you backup a floppy disk directly from a source disk in 1 PEB to the Destination disk in the other PEB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 having a second PEB is a good option for a backup PEB. You can also hook up 2 PEB's together, people here have done it, this will increase the amount of cards you can have accessible to the TI system. as far as backing up a floppy disk, you best bet is to have multiple drives in one PEB. All cards have CRU addresses and must not cross with other cards. For instance you cannot have 2 32k cards in a PEB or accessible by the TI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrax27407 Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Jim Fetzner is (or will be) producing a side port splitter that will allow two P-Boxes to run simultaneously from a single console. You can copy from a disk drive in one P-Box to another (i.e., DSK1 or DSK2 to DSK3) in a second P-Box. The second P-Box provides the power and the drive is connected to the FDC in the first P-Box. Having more than one P-Box is helpful if you have run out of slots in the original P-Box. A second could house multiple RAMdisks, a second RS232 card, and a speech card, for example. The only restriction is that there MUST be a Flex Card in each box and you can't have two cards addressed at the same CRU address. The total number of CRU addresses easily surpasses the number of slots in a single P-Box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 So if I understand correctly, the main advantage is just to use additional cards and or Floppy Drives if you fill up the 1st PEB. Any duplicate cards that are placed in the 2nd PEB must also be modified to use different addresses than those same cards placed in the 1st PEB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 correct. I do not have 2 PEB's hooked up at present. I do have one PEB and I have 2 drives internal to the PEB and 2 external to the PEB. Just really depends on what you will be using your TI for and if you need that many cards. With 2 PEBs you could extend to get an extra 7 cards as you would need both flex cable interfaces to connect them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Each card built for teh TI had a set of standard CRU addresses (some could be changed by the user--usually RAM Disks). Multiples of most cards won't help much (although it IS possible to put two disk controllers in if one of them is an HFDC). Memory cards will never give you anything more, up to two RS-232 cards can be used (but one has to be modified to use the alternate CRU address built into the OS), and you can add lots of RAM disks. You can also add several Mechatronic GRAM Cards, and one of each of a multitude of weird and wonderful TI and third party cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrax27407 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 My current setup is: P-Box #1 AVPC 80-column Card TI Flex Card SNUG HSGPL Card 1.5 Meg Horizon RAMdisk 3.5 Meg HRD16 TI RS232 Card SNUG BWG FDC (with clock) DSK1 and DSK2 Box Full Projected P-Box 2 TI Flex Card RS232 -2 Quest 512K RAMdisk Quest 512K RAMdisdk Quest 512K RAMdisk Rave Speech Card DSK3 Box almost full 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 CorComp 32k mem TI Disk controller TI RS232 (with HDX modification) SID Master99 Flex cable interface Hope to add a RAMDisk or two soon... Also hoping to get one of Jim's brilliant proto boards. Used to have a Triple Tech card in there... Traded for a complete Funware cart set. Used to have a CorComp disk controller... Traded for a Horizon RAM Disk, which I eventually traded for an MBX system. I don't know how many third party cards I've sold and traded over the years... I miss the HRD, but love my MBX, so... No real regrets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 9, 2015 Author Share Posted May 9, 2015 Corcomp RS232 Card (Temporary) TI RS232 Card (Sent to Arcadeshopper for an HDX Upgrade) TI DIsk Controller (Would like to buy a CorComp if I can get one at a reasonable price) Flex Cable Card TI Memory Expansion Card DSK 1 (Have 2 x DSDD Floppy Drives that I am considering installing) Nothing fancy yet but always keeping my eyes peeled for something cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 TI DIsk Controller (Would like to buy a CorComp if I can get one at a reasonable price) Have you considered the << 80 track upgrade >> for your TI Disk Controller? It's a BUTT-LOAD cheaper, while it will give you one less drive (3 instead of 4) you'll still be able to save 360K per disk, just like the CorComp card. With all the money you will save by NOT getting a CorComp card, you may want to buy << one of these >>. Just something to consider. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budz2355 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 TI DIsk Controller (Would like to buy a CorComp if I can get one at a reasonable price) Can you get one at ANY price? ....I can't find ANY cards on eBay besides the standard 4 that grace most p-boxes. P.S. I also have a second PEB (not hooked up at the moment), so this thread is AWESOME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
budz2355 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 Hope to add a RAMDisk or two soon... If you add three I'll pay you for one in gold!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 9, 2015 Author Share Posted May 9, 2015 Can you get one at ANY price? ....I can't find ANY cards on eBay besides the standard 4 that grace most p-boxes. P.S. I also have a second PEB (not hooked up at the moment), so this thread is AWESOME! Someone local has one and a few people here on the forum made offers but now he doesnt want to sell it (GRRRRRRRRR). All of the offers were in the $200 range which seems to be the going price as no one knew of the other offer prices and someone pointed out that one sold in the last year on ebay for $250. I would love to have it but I just cant justify the $$$ amount right now as I still need some other items for my TI 1st. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atrax27407 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 I expect that the RAMdisk market will open up significantly in the near future. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 I expect that the RAMdisk market will open up significantly in the near future. I hope you are right... on affordable, NEW REPRODUCTION type units. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted May 9, 2015 Share Posted May 9, 2015 (edited) the more extravagant rare cards come available from time to time on ebay, just have to be patient. It took me a few years to finally score my SCSI REV F card. Some times estate sales have TI items and rare ones at that and they can be had for fairly cheap. I found my Myarc FDC in a resale shop in a PEB, of course I had to purchase the whole PEB, but shipping and all was less than $130 for a fully loaded PEB with the myarc FDC. All I had to do was upgrade the eprom to get it to 80 track. I sold the rest of the PEB cards and made my money back. As I said patience is key as well as scowering the internet. taking some time to visit estate sales, etc. And you may just get lucky.. Edited May 9, 2015 by Cschneider Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed in SoDak Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 I bought a second TI/PEB setup as backup but ended up setting both systems up. One I used to print or for disk copying or library chores. The seond might be online or used to pass the wait with a round of Parsec. They were set up in my photo darkroom and used near daily to time film and print development processes. In that situation, both systems had my Timer program running so if one crashed, I could simply switch to the second TI and keep going. Or use both to time two different process at once. It was also handy in programming, as I could just move a disk with work-in-progress to the other system for testing or making a quick backup without disturbing the programming session. Other than linking them by RS232, I never tried piggybacking the two together. -Ed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Does anyone happen to know what a PEB weighs without any cards or floppy drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Not sure... But if youre looking for a blank, empty PEB, I will have one very soon for sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 I am looking at one now but trying to get an idea on shipping. Do you have any idea what you will be asking for it including shipping? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 No. For a dedicated 99er who plans to be around a while, I will cut a nice deal. I have two now, and a third on the way, so one will be getting parted out. I'll let you know once I have the new PEB, we will come up with something... I'll basically just want to recoup (some of) my shipping from the new PEB. Cheap as I can make it. My only request is that if you need to sell it or decide to get out of the hobby, you offer it for sale on here or I will even buy it back from you. Hardware is becoming scarce. Would like to keep it all as close to the core as we can. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Fair enough and I agree 100% with you. Not a whole lot of us left and it would be nice to keep parts within the community as much as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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