TIPI - TI-99/4A to Raspberry PI interface development

[ElectricLab]

So can anyone use CHATTI? or still only testers?

 

Anyone with a TIPI can use CHATTI - I just have to enable it on a per-account basis at this time. I wanted people to be able to opt-in in case they didn't want to participate in chats. I have activated it for your account, and I'll likely be changing the registration process to enable it by default. I'll put some time in on that once I get TIPI CHESS completed. Hopefully this weekend.

[Shift838]

 

Anyone with a TIPI can use CHATTI - I just have to enable it on a per-account basis at this time. I wanted people to be able to opt-in in case they didn't want to participate in chats. I have activated it for your account, and I'll likely be changing the registration process to enable it by default. I'll put some time in on that once I get TIPI CHESS completed. Hopefully this weekend.

 

what url do I need to point it to myti99.com/CHATTI ???

[Omega-TI]

 

what url do I need to point it to myti99.com/CHATTI ???

 

The program does everything automagically. In fact I'm on there NOW and just left you a message.

[jjh76]

I don't own a PEB so I have no idea how you'd manage the power connection, but for those who do have one and want to power the PI from the PEB itself, there are several battery powered ups options that can safely shut down the PI on power loss. Put a stackable header on one and you should be able to use it without needing to make any changes to the TIPI itself.

[Sinphaltimus]

Sweet! I WILL play with this over the weekend, you'll know when you start seeing my artwork posts.

 

 

OK, I'm convinced, I have to RTFM - this is the first time i have ever seen let alone used TI-Artist and using the TiPi mouse drier with it. Is pretty easy to figure out but in using the alphanumeric feature I couldn't figure out a "BackSpace" function and inadvertently discovered how to resize the font on the fly. So this very first image ever is garbage.

 

Thank you so much for this guys. It aint photoshop but it's still fun to use. I can't wait until i come to grips with it. some interesting TI-Art will be the result. Now if only I can figure out how to get that TI slideshow to work with the TI-Artist Art - hat's be cool. Anyway, TTFN. Gonna go play around with TiPi a bit. Last time I tried, CHATTI wasn't working well for me so time to try again.

 

 

I'm well aware of how to spell TI-Artist BTW - I was just goofing off playing with the tools or I would never have uploaded this. LOL

 

 

EDIT: I wanted to use one of each feature and label it - then I missed the "N" in "Lines" and went bonkers.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Sinphaltimus

[ElectricLab]

 

what url do I need to point it to myti99.com/CHATTI ???

 

I just published a little more info on myti99.com about how to connect.

[Shift838]

 

The program does everything automagically. In fact I'm on there NOW and just left you a message.

 

does CHATTI just use port 80 or a different port # ?

[Omega-TI]

 

does CHATTI just use port 80 or a different port # ?

 

Use 9918

[+jedimatt42]

Use 9918

Corey has updated documenation on CHATTI here: http://myti99.com/

 

-M@

[+jedimatt42]

Well design rules check passes, and now the PEB board looks like this:

 

 

At scale paper-fit test looks good so far.

 

There are mounting holes for optionally stuffing the PI in the Peb. It's power and other cables will have to run out the back.

 

No provision for Peb supplied PI Power.

 

I'll mull this over tonight, and send it off to get printed.

 

I've had good luck so far with JLCPCB. Next step is to try a sideport build with the TIPI board I just received from them. They are faster than OSHPark, which seems odd.

 

-M@

[Shift838]

Well design rules check passes, and now the PEB board looks like this:

 

Screenshot from 2018-04-22 18-00-07.png

 

At scale paper-fit test looks good so far.

 

There are mounting holes for optionally stuffing the PI in the Peb. It's power and other cables will have to run out the back.

 

No provision for Peb supplied PI Power.

 

I'll mull this over tonight, and send it off to get printed.

 

I've had good luck so far with JLCPCB. Next step is to try a sideport build with the TIPI board I just received from them. They are faster than OSHPark, which seems odd.

 

-M@

 

very nice. how long does JLCPCB usually take to get them tooled and to your door? They are overseas right?

Edited April 23, 2018 by Shift838

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Nice and simple layout. Is there a specific reason for using the surface mount ICs, in particular the '244s and '245? I ask only because from a repair perspective, they are the chips that bear the brunt and are often in need of replacement.

[+FarmerPotato]

Nice and simple layout. Is there a specific reason for using the surface mount ICs, in particular the '244s and '245? I ask only because from a repair perspective, they are the chips that bear the brunt and are often in need of replacement.

Not speaking for Matt, but I realized that TI doesn't have a DIP for SN74LVC245A (there is a 244) which I chose to go between 5V bus and 3.3V chips (my FORTI project).

[Shift838]

Nice and simple layout. Is there a specific reason for using the surface mount ICs, in particular the '244s and '245? I ask only because from a repair perspective, they are the chips that bear the brunt and are often in need of replacement.

 

Could there be an SOIC 20 SMD to DIP used then a socket on the board to allow for easy change... That's up to Matt and his design team..

[Shift838]

i like the option to mount the raspberry. Even with no Pi provisioned power, it still cool.

[+jedimatt42]

The only thing I gain by building these for people is practice. So I went with surface mount, to develop that skill.

The CPLD is designed to take the 5v signals, the only part across chips that needs to be 3v is between the CPLD and the PI's GPIO.

I could have used LVC for the 244's but would have had a harder time routing the power. And LVC's are more expensive.

I also wanted the '245 output to be 5v to reliably get to that flex card. LVC chip still only has one output voltage, so it offers no advantage in this case.

-M@

[+jedimatt42]

very nice. how long does JLCPCB usually take to get them tooled and to your door? They are overseas right?

I don't recall exactly when I ordered, but they charged me on April 12th ( probably the next day )

 

OSHPark advantage is free shipping.

 

JLCPCB shipped DHL express for $25, and this included 5 Tomy Tutor keyboard pcboards, and 20 TIPI sideports to test. That set of pcboards cost me about $40 + shipping, where the same TIPI sideports cost $200 from OSHPark, and the Tomy Tutor boards would have been over $300.

 

They aren't purple and gold though

 

-M@

[+Ksarul]

Tomy Tutor Keyboard PCBs? I think I wants some of those. . . :DROOL

 

One note on PEB card design: you probably want to make sure that you angle the corners of the PEB connector just a bit, as that makes card insertion a LOT easier. I do the same thing to the PCBs for the cartridge boards.

 

I tend to use Sitopway for my boards, as they are quick and their prices are reasonable. I haven't tried JLCPCB, so I may have to look them up. . .

 

I also second the Insane One's comments on 244s and 245s. They have a high in-use failure rate due to normal operational stresses, which makes easy replacement a serious long-term use advantage.

Edited April 28, 2018 by Ksarul

[+jedimatt42]

Hotair gun and some chip quik. I've removed and replaced a few of these hct245s already. Really not that hard.

 

Tomy Tutor : I'll PM you

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/182783-tomy-tutoranyone/?p=4012382

 

-M@

 

-M@

[jjh76]

I don't have a tipi yet, and I don't really know how these things work, but in the pics I've noticed that the tipi only uses 8 of the pi's 44 pins. So I've been wondering, would it be possible to mod the 32k sidecar to add one or more ram chips, connect the sidecar to the unused pins on the pi, and then use the pi's memory to create some virtual ram banks that can be swapped out to the chips on the sidecar?

[+jedimatt42]

I don't have a tipi yet, and I don't really know how these things work, but in the pics I've noticed that the tipi only uses 8 of the pi's 44 pins. So I've been wondering, would it be possible to mod the 32k sidecar to add one or more ram chips, connect the sidecar to the unused pins on the pi, and then use the pi's memory to create some virtual ram banks that can be swapped out to the chips on the sidecar?

GPIO on a PI is much slower than the rest of the PI.

 

You'd be better off starting from a new design completely.

 

-M@

[jjh76]

Well, was only a thought. I wish I could design something. Give me a parts list and clear instructions for a non-smd project and I could probably build it, but designing something from scratch is a bit above my skill level.

[Omega-TI]

Pondering yet another idea...

 

First off, yes I know TIPI is WiFi... but three little details have been nagging me the past couple of hours....

 

#1 TIPI's RPi 3 has multiple USB ports.

#2 My PC has multiple USB ports.

#3 The TI99HDX program has a companion called TI99Print that already works.

 

Why re-invent the wheel? Couldn't a software upgrade be written to SIMULATE the HDX on the RPi giving everyone print capability?

[+jedimatt42]

Pondering yet another idea...

 

First off, yes I know TIPI is WiFi... but three little details have been nagging me the past couple of hours....

 

#1 TIPI's RPi 3 has multiple USB ports.

#2 My PC has multiple USB ports.

#3 The TI99HDX program has a companion called TI99Print that already works.

 

Why re-invent the wheel? Couldn't a software upgrade be written to SIMULATE the HDX on the RPi giving everyone print capability?

The PI is linux... We don't have to re-invent the wheel, we just have to integrate software that already exists. Integrating into HDX's server application for anyone but Fred would be just as difficult as just integrating epson emulation libraries on linux.

 

And then you'd have to turn on your PC to use your TI again.

 

Taking some of Fred's source code for handling the printer stream might be worth doing if we continue to struggle with epson2ps. However, if you just wait a bit.

 

Print on the PI isn't a huge priority. Segment of the user-base that would ever use print is probably close to 2%.

 

-M@

[jonecool]

I've mostly browsed this thread, admittedly. My apologies if I've missed this topic if already discussed...

 

However, has anyone thought of creating a "portal" for libraries of TI carts/disks that can be easily loaded via TIPI. Essentially, eliminating the need for FG99 as any TI file you can imagine is already browsable via an on-line library via CALL TIPI("URI1.PORTAL")? While the FG99 is great, the TIPI seems poised for replacing it in the future. Imagine, instead of the FG99 cart-based menu system, you can enter a remote portal that has a list of *ALL* available ROM's structured as /DEV, /GAMES, /TOOLS, etc. (perhaps allow users to upload new ones, with admin approval). Then browse into those folders and load any cart directly, mount supplemental disks (Adventure series, Infocom...), etc. Granted, there would need to be some scratchpad RAM/ROM available to store the downloaded cart (via an add-on/extension to TIPI perhaps) and mapping to disk libraries that allows storing the cart and making it available after reset (but not power off, then again maybe power off with a battery backup to maintain the last downloaded cart). Or better yet, allow the TIPI+Pi to automatically sync the on-line repository to a local Pi-stored copy for faster browsing of the menu system and access. And/or Load the last downloaded cart via the DSR (from the Pi) into the TI menu system on restart not requiring any additional hardware/battery backup (but likely an EPROM upgrade).

 

I saw in a prior YT video where Matt had launched Ambulance from a remote server and tried the same which worked great. I can only assume such a portal as the one described above is likely already under development/consideration. If it's not, are there any guidelines/recommendations on it's development? This would be a great way to preserve the history of the TI in a way that utilizes TIPI which appears an ultimate goal, perhaps with multiple sites/mirrors for storing the master library of carts/disks. Coming from someone who's been away from the TI community for 35+ years, this could be easily an incorrect assumption. But, an assumption nonetheless. Possible or pipe dream? Seems very possible from what I'm seeing so far.

Edited April 30, 2018 by jonecool