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acadiel

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Posts posted by acadiel

  1. Posted

    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

     

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

    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

     

    C64B9CDF-D147-4829-8FCE-7E2FFEB623F4.jpeg

    B0E13F36-0A7C-43B4-B5CF-52215423BEBF.jpeg

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    16 minutes ago, Casey said:

    What happens if you do this:

    OPEN #1:”TP”,OUTPUT,VARIABLE 30 

     

    Does that limit the maximum line length ?  I saw a reference to this in the Thermal Printer’s manual about adjusting the record size but it just said “Don’t supply a value higher than 32”

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

  6. Posted

    51 minutes ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

    Is this an industry change where the 'standard' was 3.5" then later reduced, but everyone still calls it 3.5" versus the actual size? 

     

    (Sort of reminds me of the first time I went to buy 2"x4" studs and my wife - who used to help build houses - thought it was comical that I complained to the store that I didn't get actual 2x4 wood. )

    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

     

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    6 minutes ago, FarmerPotato said:

    I had a colleague who worked in a Wisconsin paper factory. This stuff comes out of a 100 foot wide machine that fills a room. It is then sold to packagers for slicing. 

     

    I emailed customer service at my favorite Wisconsin distributor, Uline, to ask if they can source 3.5".

     

    Nakagawa is a packager of thermal paper rolls. They make a 4.125" inch size, which is distributed widely.

    I have not actually seen a TI thermal printer since the 1980s.. does it have any wiggle room for wider paper?

     

     

     

    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:  

     

    The TP can't fit anything larger than the 3.5" - it's an exact fit.  

     

    -jg

     

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    9 hours ago, ralphb said:

    Yeah, but for using the PEB, I'll be working on a PEB card, as there shouldn't be major layout changes between sidecar and card.

    I'm just looking for flexibility.  :)

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    8 hours ago, RXB said:

    I found this as I knew they still make 3.5 inch thermal printer paper as we still use it at Freightliner.

    $35.84 for a 10 pack of rolls?

     

    https://www.amazon.com/Single-Ply-Thermal-Paper-Rolls-White/dp/B00G9ANEX0/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1586628606&refinements=p_n_feature_keywords_two_browse-bin:7064748011&s=office-products&sr=1-1&fbclid=IwAR2tEykve19nBgtTL0GIwEgLVyusFlNuvPHTzK0d5Oh1e_5cqbCdbF9G640

     

    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.

  11. Posted

    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

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    6 minutes ago, brain said:

    Mine is FAT32, since it's a larger card.  I tried a freshly formatted FAT32 card, with good results.

     

    One thing you can try is running a terminal app and selecting the COM port of your Arduino @ 57600 bps. Reset the Arduino.  You should see:

     

    Mount SD RC: 00                                                            
    Device ID: 0x64
     

    If not, then we have other issues.

     

    Jim

     

     

     

    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

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    13 minutes ago, Vorticon said:

    Thanks! I wish they'd do that with our Board re-certification exams :lol:

    But seriously, are hams still actually talking or is most of the traffic now on RTTY or some other computer assisted means?

    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.

     

  20. Posted

    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.

     

     

     

     

     

  21. Posted

    6 hours ago, brain said:

    I had the HSK signal on the wrong pin.  Working now.

     

    Let me look at your pinout.

     

    It looks like you have your top row of HEXbus and bottom row of hexbus switched around (and D2/D3 swapped).  looking at the underneath of your board, you have (L-R) (on top row): HSK, BLANK, D3 D2 and (bottom row) D0, D1, BAV,GND.

     

    But, you have have (L-R) Top: D0, D1 BAV, GND and Bottom: HSK, BLANK, D2, D3

     

    Try that.

     

    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.  

  22. Posted

    3 minutes ago, atrax27407 said:

    All of them are probably legit. The T56 was available on Ebay from the manufacturer for $156. Keep in mind that the TL866II will NOT do anything above 18V.

    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.

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