Hello from an enthusiast that has recently been reintroduced to TI-99/4A

[sixsevenco]

So I've been busy. Since my first post, I've done the following:

 

1. Ordered a $4 composite cable for easier hookup to a TV. I'm sill waiting for it to be delivered directly from China. --> Next step, buy a composite to VGA adapter. Has anyone done composite to VGA? All of the Composite-->VGA adapters on amazon look the same; I am assuming they have the same guts, and are just rebranded. Some reviews for these adapters say vintage electronics product a B&W video output. I'm a little concerned about this. I need to do more research. Maybe one day, I'll get the guts to do the F18A mod.

 

2. Ordered a TI Program Recorder for $22. The auction closed on Thursday morning, and I'm still waiting for the ebay seller to ship it. Grrrrrr.

 

3. Ordered a FinalGROM 99. THANKS RALPH!!! I'm planing on putting it in an old, black shell, because I prefer the aesthetics of that vs the 3d printed ones. Hopefully mounting it in a shell and doing the buttons wont be too hard.

 

4. I JUST Bought a 99/4 (PHP1200) from a local seller for $90. I still need to pick it up. In the pictures, it looks very clean with few blemishes. It has the flex cable interface (and cable), 32K expansion, RS232 card, disk controller card, and floppy. I'm not sure if it all works, but I'll find out. If it all works, this is a good price, right? I'm seeing similar PEBs on ebay for triple that (including shipping).

 

 

Still to do:

 

1. Assuming the PEB works, will any 5.25 floppy disk work? Or do I need to buy special ones? Any suggestions on inexpensive sources for floppies? I'm trying to keep costs down to prevent the wife from shutting down my new hobby. :)

 

2. I am REALLY wanting an Atari joystick adapter. While I may go with a new texelec adapter, I don't prefer the aesthetics of the exposed circuit board. I'm assuming there are vintage ones out there still... Anyone have an extra vintage one and want to hook me up? I've also debated building one. I'm not handy with a soldering iron, but this would probably be a good project on which to cut my teeth...

[Opry99er]

Wow!!! Youre well on your way, sir!! Good stuff!

[+adamantyr]

Great acquisitions!

 

You'll want double sided double density disks, the high density 1.2mb ones won't work.

 

One suggestion, once you get the composite cable, go to your local good will or value village and see if you can get a decent TV with composite plugs for cheap. They work well enough for the TI. I just picked up a TV VCR mix for $40 that's pretty good.

 

 

A good modern solution is a Gotek or a Lotharek drive, that would let you emulate drives on micro SD cards or USB. However that may cost enough you'll have to defer it so you don't get yelled at.

[+Ksarul]

That was definitely a good price on the PEB.

[sixsevenco]

Just picked up the PEB and hooked it up. I never had one of these before. I read that they were loud, but seriously, this is LOUD. I will be looking into doing that fan mod ASAP. The flex cable interface seems to be working great; everything started up fine. The floppy drive and the disk drive appear to be working. I don't have any 5.25 floppies to test, but I tried to access drive in XB, and it would light up, and start clicking. Given my current resources/tools, I'm not sure how to test the 32K expansion card and the RS232 card. I have Terminal Emulator II, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it to activate the RS232 card. I'll keep researching...

 

EDIT:

 

Just found about the SIZE command.

 

11840 Bytes of Stack Free

24488 Bytes of Program Space Free

 

I think my 32K expansion card works!

Edited February 26, 2018 by sixsevenco

[Opry99er]

Youre in good shape, brother!! Great get on that P Box!

[+adamantyr]

Do a search on eBay for blank DSDD floppy disks. I see a few auctions for them, just make sure you don't get any HD ones.

 

Unfortunately you will need a means to format disks, and the TI doesn't have that natively built into the console. The disk controller and PE Box was typically sold including a Disk Manager 2 cartridge. When you get your FinalGROM you'll be able to load the DM2 image, that's your cheapest option.

 

There is disk-based software for disk formatting as well that could be run from Extended BASIC, but you'd need someone to send you a floppy disk copy of it.

[+arcadeshopper]

testing the 32k card requires a program.. there's a great tester in the 32k sidecar thread or for finalgrom or flashrom boards..

 

also to test rs232 type OLD RS232 in basic, if you see a 255 at the top of your screen, the card is responding properly also OLD PIO will also do the same, you can actually connect two TI's with a null modem cable and SAVE RS232 on one, and OLD RS232 on the other and it will transfer the file.. hit Fctn-4 to end the load prematurely after you see the number.

 

further rs232 testing requires a terminal program such as TE2 or Fast Term or Telco or mass transfer.. you will probably want to get something set up to make disks for the TI.. did you get a disk manager cart? if not you need one to format disks.. DM2 is the best TI version to get but harder to find, also the latest and greatest is Disk manager 2000 by Fred Kaal and it's available on his site for download to the pc then you will have to figure out how to get it to the ti.

 

The easiest way to move things to the 4/a is to use HDX on a PC with a "good" serial port and a straight through cable. I sell a disk for $2 that includes the software needed to copy files from the pc to the TI on the TI side, the HDX server is free and is here: http://www.ti99-geek.nl/under projects. it runs on windows (xp or newer) and also I've had luck running it on linux on some versions in wine.

 

lots of info in the FAQ in the pinned post including a link to walking you through HDX

 

Greg

 

Greg

[sixsevenco]

testing the 32k card requires a program.. there's a great tester in the 32k sidecar thread or for finalgrom or flashrom boards..

 

also to test rs232 type OLD RS232 in basic, if you see a 255 at the top of your screen, the card is responding properly also OLD PIO will also do the same, you can actually connect two TI's with a null modem cable and SAVE RS232 on one, and OLD RS232 on the other and it will transfer the file.. hit Fctn-4 to end the load prematurely after you see the number.

 

further rs232 testing requires a terminal program such as TE2 or Fast Term or Telco or mass transfer.. you will probably want to get something set up to make disks for the TI.. did you get a disk manager cart? if not you need one to format disks.. DM2 is the best TI version to get but harder to find, also the latest and greatest is Disk manager 2000 by Fred Kaal and it's available on his site for download to the pc then you will have to figure out how to get it to the ti.

 

The easiest way to move things to the 4/a is to use HDX on a PC with a "good" serial port and a straight through cable. I sell a disk for $2 that includes the software needed to copy files from the pc to the TI on the TI side, the HDX server is free and is here: http://www.ti99-geek.nl/under projects. it runs on windows (xp or newer) and also I've had luck running it on linux on some versions in wine.

 

lots of info in the FAQ in the pinned post including a link to walking you through HDX

 

Greg

 

Greg

 

arcadeshopper, thank you for all of your help. With OLD RS232, my RS232 card behaved as expected, so I imagine it's OK. I think my PEB is fully functional! And thank you for the excellent FAQ. I've been reading through over and over. Also searching the forum, which is a treasure trove of information and help. I've been scouring the forum lately, and last night I was looking into the HDX solution. I found your post on how to do it with a stock RS232 card. I think I will soon have all of the pieces to make that work. That will be my next task.

[+arcadeshopper]

 

arcadeshopper, thank you for all of your help. With OLD RS232, my RS232 card behaved as expected, so I imagine it's OK. I think my PEB is fully functional! And thank you for the excellent FAQ. I've been reading through over and over. Also searching the forum, which is a treasure trove of information and help. I've been scouring the forum lately, and last night I was looking into the HDX solution. I found your post on how to do it with a stock RS232 card. I think I will soon have all of the pieces to make that work. That will be my next task.

Sounds good let us know if you have any questions or issues. Also I am stocking modified rs-232 cards in my site again so you can use HDX on the ti directly from software instead of having to use the one disk manager program.

 

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