New Development Idea ? PEB option ?

[Shift838]

So I was asked about a PEB today and it got me to thinking. I know there are a lot of us out there that only have one PEB and a lot of Ti'ers that do not have one at all and they are getting harder and harder to find.

 

I don't have the skills to do this, but I am sure others do. So Here is the pitch.

 

It would be nice if someone could design a new PEB board that could be mounted in a newer PC case like an ATX motherboard. It would be really cool if it could take the existing power connections from the new ATX PC power supplies and have the mounting holes lined up with existing ATX mounts.

 

I believe the power supply would still need to be modded to work with the TI cards.

 

This would be beneficial to those wanting to build their own PEB with all the nice fans, lighting etc. As well as open new options to existing TI'ers that do not have a PEB.

 

Thoughts anyone?

 

Any takers want to take on the project? I would be happy to help as I would probably learn a lot.

 

 

[Manic1975]

I suggest same idea in earlier topic. It would be nice to have new design of PEB motherboard. Maybe it would be nice to have new memory expansion card (32k or more with memory banking) and disk controller (possibility to connect HxC floppy emulator). I suggest new PEB motherboard with new memory expansion card and disk controller.

CF7+ and nanoPEB are only new device for expanding TI99/4a and only new device for relatively easy PC to TI file transfer.

This new PEB motherboard with memory expansion and disk controller would give all user who don't have original PEB or any other original stand alone expansion unit to expand their TI to full use.

[RickyDean]

I suggest same idea in earlier topic. It would be nice to have new design of PEB motherboard. Maybe it would be nice to have new memory expansion card (32k or more with memory banking) and disk controller (possibility to connect HxC floppy emulator). I suggest new PEB motherboard with new memory expansion card and disk controller.

CF7+ and nanoPEB are only new device for expanding TI99/4a and only new device for relatively easy PC to TI file transfer.

This new PEB motherboard with memory expansion and disk controller would give all user who don't have original PEB or any other original stand alone expansion unit to expand their TI to full use.

There was a new design back in the day. The Rave99 PEB, in the process of mounting mine in Dell Case, will get there someday....

[+Ksarul]

There were several after-market PEBs, actually. The Australians did a three-slot PEB backplane, Ryte Data did a PC backplane called MicroStuph (I have one of these), and someone in Holland did a nice expansion box as well. The Dutch one may have never made it past prototyping, as I've only seen pictures of them (Berry Harmsen may know more there). The Australian one was published in an issue of the Brisbane User's Group newsletter (TI-BUG), with the necessary stencils to make your own.

[Osgeld]

as an outsider with no TI experience, looking over the schematics it doesn't seem that complicated, using an ATX power supply does present challenges

 

in the schematics I see the voltages are coming off a transformer and its left to the cards to regulate, this may be a pain, ATX does not have negative voltages (well it has -12), and no 16 volt rail... depending on the currents involved it may be economical to have a sub supply to generate what is needed on board

 

but since I have nothing to reference in the real world I wouldn't feel comfortable doing any design

Edited January 28, 2016 by Osgeld

[Tursi]

PEBs run fine on an ATX power supply for most cards (all the common ones, anyway). Many people have done that mod, and the lack of 16v isn't a problem in most cases. Putting 12 volts on both the 16v and 8v lines suffices (as all cards are expected to do their own regulation).

[Omega-TI]

What might be nice is a pre-made converter, one that has the ATX power input connections on one side and the TI output power connections for the back plane on the other. This would be great for people wanting to put their TI guts in a modern case -OR- for an easy fix for those with failing TI power supplies. Plug and play... it's a great concept and is one reason the F18A has done so well. Anyway this would serve both 'camps' needs and wants, while at the same time making it financially viable to whoever decides to make it. Heck, I'd buy one just to have on-hand in case of a future failure, which WILL happen someday.

[RickyDean]

You know, and I've mentioned it before in another area here, I've always wanted to try interfacing ISA PC peripherals to a TI or Geneve. I have some backplanes(they look similar to the Rave99 motherboard) that were designed for an intel 186 standalone card and supporting cards for I/O and such. I've wanted to build an adapter card that would plug into the backplane and allow the use of a TI or Geneve in the system and try to interface the PC cards to it. This would be a home brew PEB, I just have to figure how to communicate with the cards and make them function, thereby giving one access to older IDE, SCSI, and so forth.