Ksarul

I seem to have found the issue with the Über-GROM board. I replaced all of the 22uF caps with .1uF caps and I fixed my own stupidity issue--I put the proper 1nF cap in the position for C1 (which is what is supposed to be there--I just built my first batch of them using .1uF caps, and that really messes up the board). I built a pair of them the new way tonight, and everything looks to be working properly electrically--and I wasn't able to crash my 99/4A with either one of them through a number of tries to do just that. Gazoo, this board should work fine to house XB2.7 (or RXB or Winfried Winkler's XB-3). I do have spares if you need one. . .you'll just have to get a programmed ATMEL1284 for the GROM side. Atrax, I'll be sending yours back to you as soon as I finish a couple more tests--but it looks like you won't have any further problems (so far), and I'll also be sending the 512K ROM only board for you to cross-test with, as it uses the same scheme for the ROM-side banking as the Über-GROM.

Peter Kull did a lot of programming for the TI in the 1984-1988 timeframe. He did the XB routines here, an XB Compiler, and a FIG Forth cartridge. Most of the programs are a bit hard to find, as they weren't widely distributed in Germany while he was active (and he had them copy protected), and didn't make it out to the rest of the world at all until long after he'd left the TI scene.

The hardware for the 99/8 Hex-Bus is in the OSO chip, Michael. All of the logic for that is in the complete internal diagram for the chip, which is up on WHT. The rest of the interface uses standard logic chips, all of which are identified on the schematics for the /8. I put all of the development documentation for the 99/8 that survives up on WHT a few years ago. Only one or two documents are missing--and unless someone else has them, they are probably only to be found in TI's archives--if they weren't shredded years ago. I got my set through direct and indirect contacts with three of the engineers that worked on the /8. Between them, they had almost everything that ever existed for it.

Well, we also have some possible confirmation from the Amiga site too--as several of those folks are using it, and we can use their monitors. . .still no guarantee--but close.

On the card edge traces--they are exactly that, wide circuit traces. I usually just set trace width to .030 to .050 (depending on the application I plan to use the board for) and draw then at the right .100 spacing (or at other intervals, again, dependent on the planned end use). I don't know how EagleCAD does the corners on boards--but on ExpressPCB or CopperConnection, I just use the insert corner function--and insert as many as I need and then move them to get them to where I want them.

The one you removed is probably a 32Kx8, not a 16Kx8 like the one it was stacked on. Was your cart the Mechatronics XB or the XB2+? If it was the latter, you need additional space to store the APESoft routines--and they are only important from an access standpoint until they get loaded into low memory.

Later in the thread they advise against using the 5-pin connector. Also look at the pictures in post #7, as they show it connecting to the 8-pin. The three colored wires are the R-G-B lines going to the first three positions, the Gray wire is CSYNC, and the Black wire is Ground.

Actually, looking at the connectors carefully, shouldn't you be using the 8-pin RGBS header right next to that 5-pin header? That's what the Amiga uses. . .see this thread: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=66922

Hey, goats are delicious! In any event, TI-Sissy does seem to have a TI--and is interested in it, so it really doesn't matter whether the presented personal data is true or not--so long as the interest in the TI is there, I say WELCOME! Crawling back under my bridge to look for more goats, or maybe a sheep or two to roast and eat. . . LOLOL

I know that drill, Jon. The boys do like my TI and Tomy computers though, so they do give me a little time to work. And it is definitely a true statement on the cartridge boards--I've bought a LOT of parts to support all of those efforts (enough to supply me pretty much forever for most components I needed). I just got the 74LS378 512K boards in BTW. Two of them are on their way to you and Tursi for testing as of about 30 minutes from now (two to each of you). I'm still waiting for a batch of 1nF capacitors to arrive. . .and I ordered them before I ordered the boards!

I paid something like $12 for a similar adapter that allows Atari-style joysticks to do the same. . .

I nabbed one as well--I needed a supplement to my 30-year-old oscilloscope. . .

I've got the disk versions of Munchman and TI Invaders, but IIRC, they don't have the source code on them. . .I could try and run this through my OCR software, but experience tells me it needs a LOT of cleanup when it is done. That was part of what took so long with the PARSEC code. I do like this Sound Ripper though--it will come in useful if I ever get time to actually program again. . .

I still have a pair of the original TI Joysticks around here. Those had a shorter base than the ones pictured here--and had a very short stick with a ball on top that had ridges on it like one of those dipping balls for honey. The fire button was on the side too. 30 minutes of playing TI Invaders with those and your fingers were beginning to leak blood. . .or go numb. I usually use either the Prostick II or my Wico Trackball, depending on the game. My boys prefer the Red Ball or the Bat Handle Wico sticks. . .

About the only way to get this one for less than $25 is if it happens to be in a larger lot of cartridges. Other than that, it usually hits $25-$35, sometimes more if it has the original manual with an undamaged keyboard strip (it was part of the manual cover and you could cut it loose, IIRC from when I bought mine back in 1986/7). The manual is a lot harder to find than the cartridge is. . .although neither part is particularly rare (about the same as any other 3rd party TI cartridge sold for several years).

Unfortunately, it does, Rasmus. That is an unavoidable issue with off-the-shelf ICs. I plan to experiment with a GAL replacement from Mathew Hagerty that gets rid of the problem (and is switchable between Inverted and Non-Inverted), but that is a future project for now.

Well, there was a Pyuuta in it--and Pyuuta games will run on a Geneve, so it wasn't off-topic at all. . .

Scary is that this guy has sold two of them over the past two years at this kind of inflated prices--one for $2,100 and the other for $1,800. The cheaper one was sold in early 2013. . .

Note that this basically has all of the ROM-side capabilities of the Über-GROM, but no GROM-simulation capability, Dano. I did the layout on a whim last weekend, as I wanted to reduce the part count on the 512K Guidry board and I realized it would be really easy to replace the 74LS379 with a 74LS378 and make the necessary changes to the traces on the board. I then ordered a batch of them to test on Monday, and was informed this morning that they were in the mail, so I should see them in a week or so.

I'm just waiting for my newest cartridge board design to show up at my door so that I can build and test them. If it works, it will be a non-inverted 512K cartridge (the opposite of the Guidry boards, but identical to the Über-GROM carts Jon, Tursi, and I have been working on). The nice thing on this one is that it will use any EPROM from 8K to 512K, and it will bank through the whole space in 8K increments without any need for the switches that were needed with the Guidry board of that size (I put up a picture of the 512K Guidry board in the cartridge thread a couple of weeks ago). The bare boards of the new design should get here within the next week or so. I'll make sure I send one to Bob Carmany if they work, as he'll then be able to get practice making the EPROMS for these (and the Über-GROM) boards with it, as the build is the same, it just uses EPROMs instead of FLASH.

I may have one of those as well, Dano. I'll try and dig it up to see if mine is in better shape than yours is, just in case.

Nice work, there!

Nice videos, Nathan. I like the support you built to make the cart easier to fabricate too. . .

As a long-time member of the TIGG, I can tell you that very few issues of Tijdingen exist in an English translation. I can usually piece together what an article is saying once I figure out what the shift between it and German is for any given word, but those words unique to Dutch still give me issues. . .but I like the challenge. Every issue is definitely worth the read.

After reading this thread this morning I was rooting through some of my computer magazines and found an advertisement in the Dec 1980 issue of Interface Age for the ZX80. . .mail order only. I should probably scan that ad in sometime.