acadiel

On what I call the "data" side of the Thermal printer PCB are: U10 SN74LS126AN - "QUADRUPLE BUS BUFFERS WITH 3-STATE OUTPUTS" U11 SN74LS244N - "Octal Buffers And Line Drivers With 3-State Outputs" U12 CN36006N 8116 S 1501709-2 - 4K DSR ROM U13 SN7407N - "HEX BUFFER DRIVER" U14/U15 2x SN74LS138 - "3 LINE TO 8-LINE DECODER/DEMULTIPLEXER" The Thermal Printer side of the circuit has: U1/U2/U3 - ULN2003AN - High Voltage, High Current, Darlington Transistor Arrays U4/U5/U6/U7 4X SN74LS259N - "8 Bit Addressable Latch" U8 SN74LS (can't read - maybe 122?) U9 74LS02N - Quadrupule 2-input positive NOR gates

Not that I see. It's just a bunch of logic chips and a 4K DSR ROM (I'm thinking it's a 2532 pinout if I'm not mistaken, so I need to get a 2764 to 2532 adapter.)

Awesome! Thanks! I need to get into the 'parts' thermal printer unit that I have and figure out what the pinout of the ROM is - it might indeed be a 4K one (which I can just write to twice and hookup to an 8K EPROM after shifting around pins.) There's no tech manual on the thermal printer, so I'll be looking for the disk controller and RS232 pinouts for their DSR ROMs to get an idea about what the pins are when I substitute. First step will be putting a socket in after using my desoldering iron. Fred's 4K ROM RS232 pinout: http://www.ti99-geek.nl/Projects/ti99hdx/Files/RS232_Ram.txt

That does work within a program - but is there a way to do this with LIST, etc.?

It’s just a rebranded TI Extended BASIC. No difference whatsoever.

That might be exactly what it is. Whereas we probably use all 32 columns across with our printer, the other receipt printers, etc, probably aren't using the extreme right two characters, so they don't care. Anyone finding someone who's willing to cut exactly 3.5" rolls - will help out all of us /4A users with rolls. In the meantime, I'd still like to get the DSR edited so we can put 30 instead of 32 characters so we can use the old paper. Actually, what would even be better is if we had someone put a command line on the TP device so accept different line lengths. i.e. OPEN #1:"TP.LL=30",OUTPUT

Awesome! Yes, that's what someone else suggested - see if they can source a 3.5" roll custom cut - I don't know if they'd entertain it for a small amount of rolls, but it's worth asking. edit: I emailed these folks too asking them if they could get 3.5" https://www.pospaper.com/contact-pos-paper/ The bad thing is that people are marking 3 1/8" stuff as 3.5, when it's not. I've purchased two types of rolls advertised as 3.5, but they measure as 3 1/8". That includes the one Rich mentioned above. So, we have to be careful that we verify that it's actually 3.5" wide (whatever we find.) examples: https://www.amazon.com/Single-Ply-Thermal-Paper-Rolls-White/dp/B00G9ANEX0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1586788262&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin%3A7064748011&s=office-products&sr=1-1 says 3.5" in the title, but it's 3 1/8". https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermal-Paper-Rolls-for-Cash-Registers-and-Point-of-Sale-Receipts-3-5-x-190-feet/283424690178?hash=item41fd6d9002:g:IM4AAOSwmn1ckoga says 3.5 in the title, but it's 3 1/8" https://www.ebay.com/itm/NOS-New-Panasonic-Panafax-Thermal-Paper-3-5-x-325-Roll-Whiteboard/223871323431?hash=item341fc54d27:g:sdMAAOSwFFBeKmL- says 3.5 in the title, but it's 8 1/2" LOL https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zebra-Z-Select-4000T-3-5-x-1-5-Thermal-transfer-paper-label-3-Rolls-1570/263673765369?hash=item3d642e5df9:g:XhkAAOSwZela8zHz is actually 3.5", but it's labels, not continious rolls etc The TP can't fit anything larger than the 3.5" - it's an exact fit. -jg

I'm just looking for flexibility.

Richard, look in the description. It's 3 1/8. They describe it as 3.5, but it definitely isn't. I have tried ordering two of those and they are not 3.5.

With two washers on the left, I can get 31ish characters, or 30 if we want to play it safe, on the widely available 3 1/8” paper. This would allow people who haven’t been able to use the printers to do so again. There’s not that much difference between wrapping on 30 characters vs 32.

So... Those with Thermal printers know that they usually take 3.5" (88.9mm) paper. In today's society, the widest that is made is 3.125" (79.375mm). The thermal printer has a small margin on the left, 32 characters, and a small margin on the right with the 3.5" paper. With the 3.125" paper, you can get exactly almost 31 characters on the paper. I was thinking of adding some spacers (0.1875" or 3/16") on both sides of the 3 1/8" paper to center it, and maybe seeing if we can modify the DSR ROM for the Thermal printer to do 30 character lines. However, I'm not too terribly good at figuring out where the >20 that I need to modify in the DSR ROM needs to change to >1E. Thus, I'm asking for help here... attached is the Thermal Printer ROM. It looks like there's a lot of empty space in it - so hopefully someone with some time and disassembly knowledge can look through it and see if they can find where the spacing and line length is... Thanks ahead of time for the help! tp.rom

Pass through to the PEB - so I can add other items like the SID99, etc.

Hey, Ralph - have you considered putting a pass through on right of the sidecar?

You're probably going to have to dump them again and compare them/rename them to their proper versions. That's really cool that they were constantly updating the software, though!

Yup, here you go. Best I could get after I reset it.

So, Schmitzi has TS 1.2 and TS 2.2 on his EPROMs. I have TS 2.0. So there's at least three different software versions. Schmitzi, please dump/name the 1.2 and 2.2 ROMs if you can. I'll put the 2.2 in mine to see if it works.

Yep, I see that on the com port when I boot it up. I also see a bunch of %ff's scroll when I try to do a SAVE or OLD From the TI-74 (or CC-40). Just for troubleshooting, I hooked my Hexbus cable to my 8pin to 10pin Dockbus adapter and hooked the TI RS232 up to the 74, and ran a BASIC program to print "HIHIHI" to the 20 device. The PC terminal emulator saw it fine; so I know the Hexbus cable as well as the 8-10 pin adapter is working well. When I hooked the Arduino up to the same 8-10 pin Dockbus adapter (and reversed the top four pins and then bottom four pins because of my pinout difference), still no joy at SAVE "100.FILE". Tried formatting the SD with FAT and FAT32. I'm sure it's something stupid. LOL

Yours flashed just fine - but still same result. Another question: The SD card - does it need to be formatted in FAT or FAT32?

Depends. Our local repeater is somewhat active. A lot of things are happening in the DMR or other digital modes, but I don't have one of those receivers yet.

Just a further set of troubleshooting... I made an 8 pin female to (2) four pin females and tried flipping over the top and bottom connectors (to where they went right to left instead of left to right). I went inside the CC-40 and touched GROUND to the GND on the Arduino and there's connectivity. Right below GND is the D2 pin, which does go to A2 on the Arduino. So, I know the orientation is correct. SAVE "100.FILE" keeps giving me I/O error 255 on device 100. I do notice that if I withhold power from the Arduino that the IO indicator stays on the CC-40. the IO indicator on the CC-40 does also briefly light up on power up.

Looking straight at my Hexbus connector (female cable that connects to the board) __ ______| |______ | | | 4 3 2 1 | | | | 8 7 6 5 | |----------------| (top row) 1 GND - Arduino GND 2 BAV - Arduino 7 3 D1 - Arduino A1 4 D0 - Arduino A0 (bottom row) 5 D2 - Arduino A2 6 D3 - Arduino A3 7 N/C 8 HSK - Arduino 3 The problem is that there's no solid reference for the numbering as well as male vs. female - vs. way you're looking at the connector. To me, the top row of the Hexbus connector is the one with the notch.

So, back to my question - what won't my 866CS do that the new ones (TL866II and T66) will? I've been able to handle just about everything so far that I need - 1284P, 27XX, 27XXX, 29FXXX, 49FXXX, 27C010/020/040, etc. The only thing I have ever had difficulty using the 866CS or my 844USB (BK Precision/Elnec) programmers for has been PALs/GALs. Those are the really strange beasts that I have trouble reading/programming.

Thanks. Did you find one on the TU that I have? I have no idea what it can/can't do - what the PSU specs are, etc.

Here's my EPROM copy in case it's newer. hamsoft-ts2-0_2764.bin

So, I still have the original 866 that Bob sent me the link to on eBay (the legit one). Still running v6.85, no issues. What makes the II special that I would want to upgrade to it? Also, there are 200+ sellers on ebay selling it right now, so which one are the legit ones?