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aftyde

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Everything posted by aftyde

  1. There it is! Given my eyesight and below average soldering skills - time for a new MB then.
  2. Can't seem to find a 9901. I did check the keyboard cable and connection to the board - all good. Sadly, most of the chips are soldered onto the board. Checked the PCB where the keyboard cable is connected - seems good. At least the pins tested OK. No obviously toasted caps or resistors, no smell or other evidence that the magic escaped. Any other ideas?
  3. Hi Everyone, my TI console no longer has a working keyboard. Powers on just fine, comes up with the TI logo screen. No key works. It's like the keyboard is completely disconnected. This is a daily driver. It hasn't been moved and I love the keyboard actually - opened it up and reseated the cable. No change. Still - no key works. Any ideas on what might cause the failure? Thank you, Arthur...
  4. Full and working Geneve system. Seems like a fair price. Thoughts? https://www.ebay.com/itm/404626761411
  5. Yes! 80 col CP/M on the TI would be high on my list - though, running CP/M in a terminal session on the Ti-PI sort of scratches the itch!
  6. Still getting it set up (am ssh'd into my PI in the USA from here in Singapore) - I downloaded this... https://github.com/rsta2/cpmemu Logged into the TIPI - downloaded and compiled the code - works very well, and built a fairly complete CP/M 2.2 System Disk which is a hacked up combination of tools from the Xerox 1800, the Commodore 128 CP/M disk and some bits and bytes from other Z-80 CP/M 2.2 distributions. Once I have access to my TI-99 console - the trick will be setting up the terminal type. I have no idea how to do that in CP/M - but should be able to figure it out. Then get WordStar configured for that terminal... And at that point - I'll load up all the wordstar docs I still have from college (back in the 80's) and I'll be good to go. Used to run an Apple ][+ clone with a Z-80 card in it. This should be just as awesome!
  7. Interesting - will definitely take a look and appreciate the pointer. This all came up when I spotted a FB post about Foundation CP/M cards. Figured I'd get my PI based CP/M environment kitted out. Used to do quite a bit on an Apple ][+ with CP/M back in the day - and still have all my documents from back in the day. Would be super cool to have Wordstar on the TI99!
  8. Quick question - is there an F18A supported VT100 / ANSITERM solution for the TI99? Looking for something a little more industrial grade for use with the TIPI. Apologies if this is the wrong forum for the question.
  9. L@@K RARE!!! Check this madness out... https://www.ebay.com/itm/362913282202 Yours for a starting bid of $199.99 ONLY! (not even a Make an Offer option)
  10. That's an interesting approach - I did try Classic99. I might give it another whirl...
  11. Hey Team, So, got the TIPI going - and TI-BASE seems to like it! (meaning all RW operations work, no corruptions; did not expect that) - so, mounted an encrypted USB disk on the TIPI and put my data on that. Works like a champ. TI-99 PEB with world class encryption - good stuff. I also have MAME running on my laptops - I'd really like my files on MAME to be on a network share such that the TI99 and the MAME emulated machines can see DSK4. as the same thing. That would allow for the laptops to access the data over OpenVPN - thus eliminating the amount of data I carry with (which usually changes, and then I get to sort that all out manually). However, it looks like MAME has no option for file systems - just disk images. I've tried Classic99 FIAD and always up with corrupted database index files after running TI-BASE. So, no Bueno! Wonder if I'm missing something obvious - perhaps another approach I could take with MESS - features, or configuration options I don't know about. Would value your thoughts! Thank you, Arthur...
  12. Hey Team, I've been waiting for TI dust covers to turn up on eBay or Arcadeshopper - no dice. Same for a nice plastic case specifically designed to hold TI carts. I know there were some cases made and sold - but haven't been able to find one. Anyone with some spares?!? Post them here! Let's make a deal! Cheers, Arthur...
  13. Love the Atari and the Libretto - had the Toshiba back in the day and always wanted an 800.
  14. New house in the Reno NV area - got the TI set up. It's a fairly modest system but gets used every day (running a database). F18A, firehose, RS-232 w/HDX mod, SID music card, TI 32K, TI disk controller w/80 track DSSD mod (80/80/40). Drives are 2 Lotharek SD card diskette emulators (max 1440) and 1 TI External disk drive enclosure with an IBM (Shugart) drive (max 720). Soon to add a TIPI on PEB (Thanks Greg). Boots into the XB 2.7 Suite cart by Tony Knerr (RIP). Get's the job done!
  15. Here's a fun thing. I have this old TI drive enclosure with a full height DS/DD IBM Shugart drive in it. I seem to recall using it as a DS/SD drive before - I have a TI controller with the 80 track mod - so it'll do 80/80/40. (the 80's being Lotharek drive emulators). Oddly, I couldn't get a good DS/SD format out of the old Shugart. Kept getting errors on the second side. However, it would format SS/SD disks perfectly, no errors, and verify them. Fast forward, digging through closet and find an old IBM PS/2 5.25 floppy I ordered on eBay at some point in the past. New in box. So I open it up, pull the IBM cable, replace with (freshly made) ribbon, reset the DS to DS2 - and do a test format and verify and it works like a champ. So I button the PS/2 drive up - and set it aside. It's cool - but I like the black TI drive with the old Shugart (presentation matters) - so I had resigned myself to run it in SS/SD mode. Well - I plug it all together - and test the disk formatted on the PS/2 drive on the old IBM Shugart and it reads just find, both sides - so I verify - disk checks out. Get a blank that it had problems with before - format and verify in DS/SD mode - works! Is it possible that an oxidized ribbon cable connector on the back of the TI controller is to blame. Heads are clean - drive is in alignment. If the Shugart is OK - it must be the cable?!? Cheers, Arthur...
  16. You're the first person who's recognized it! Used to watch it on CBC as a kid - from the Detroit side... on an old B&W set.
  17. I keep a pretty large parts database - basically, I've inventoried everything I have. Got tired of looking for things, and not finding them, and buying another - and finding the first. We've all been there. So back in the day I used TI-Base to start a database build - and still use it to this day. Right now, it's tracking roughly 4000 items per DB - and these are on 2880 sector disk images (lotharek, on a MyArc 80 track DS/DD disk controller). This is the biggest and most reliable storage I can find - and I've literally tried everything. Something about the way TI-Base is written makes it wonky on all other media - hard disk, IDE, SCSI, HDX, TIPI - yeah... Most of my posts involve trying to expand storage in the hopes I can pull it all together. Cheers, Arthur...
  18. Hey Guys, After a long lockdown in Singapore I'm finally re-united with my TI sys here in the US. Pretty standard console w F18A, PEB w 32K, RS232 (w HDX mod), TI disk controller w 80 track mod and a SID card. On my other system (overseas) - I use both HDX and TIPI - and storage for important stuff is mapped across a network using NFS (on the TIPI) and I have a small VM that runs the HDX server - pointing to the same storage. This is a daily driver... so it gets used for work related stuff every day. I'm running a TI-BASE locally on Lotharek drives. At the beginning of my session, it copies the DB from remote storage to floppy (since TI-BASE doesn't run predictably on any mapped remote storage (and I've tried everything, SCSI cards, IDE, HDX, TIPI, you name it)) and at the end of the session backs it up to the NAS (which itself is encrypted, backed up to the cloud and so on) I think I should "pick a method." I like HDX because it's just super reliable. The TIPI (at least 18 months to 2 years ago) was cool - but seemed to require a lot of tweaking to use reliably as backup or remote storage. Maybe I just need an updated DSR? Thoughts? Thank you, Arthur...
  19. In 1979 I begged my dad to let me take a summer class in Basic Programming when it was announced that the school district was getting computers (Apple ][ actually). "You had better learn something, or you'll have to pay me back!" he exclaimed. Needless to say, I was a natural... however there was no way I'd ever talk him into buying me a computer. This was 1980 and we didn't even have a VCR (or cable) - however, he was willing to provide an opportunity... So when a bunch of Jordache T-Shirts, ahem, fell off the back of a truck in Detroit - I set up a stand at the Union City Flea Market selling discount designer clothing. I worked my ass off all summer and paid a premium price for a TI-99/4A (it had 16K) - of course, friends with Trash-80's and Apple's were curious but it became obvious that in BASIC the TI was no speed demon even with 16K. I eventually got the mini-mem and Extended Basic but it just wasn't awesome and the TI community at the time was small. It did however help score my first programming job porting games to the TI for Aardvark Software in Walled Lake MI - and eventually I moved on to the C64 with VICModem, Apple ][ clone (a Syscon) with custom ROM's, then a ][e, then Leading Edge Model M IBM compatible... The TI (with all the gear) was just too expensive to consider expanding giving it's poor performance, small end user community, limited market for software and expansion... However, it always held a special spot in my heart as the computer that launched a 40 year career in IT - at least 5 of those spent reloading Windows or compiling Linux kernels... LOL Basically I got back into TI when, around 2000 - I discovered that I could easily build the TI system of my dreams as gear was exceptionally easy to come by on eBay. So I built out two complete systems - and kitted them out with P-Gram cards, Lotharek floppy emulators, HDX, TIPI and so forth. It's been fun - and it's allowed me to reconnect with people who, surprisingly, I had crossed paths with 40 years ago... For what it's worth - I feel I missed out on meeting all the incredible people in this forum much earlier.
  20. I'd say I used 5.25 and Hard Disk together - most of the time. However, since TiPI - it's SD card - and for primary floppy drives it's a Lotharek Floppy-SD device.
  21. Love this! A number of years ago I had published a bunch of new labels for PEB cards - should be floating around here somewhere...
  22. I remember feeling a bit ripped off when I bought the thing... especially given that I had access to some fast modems (for the day). The improved speech was interesting but not so useful - it seemed like a cart searching for an identity.
  23. Wow this is going to be tough to love...
  24. Hi All, tinkering with MAME - and can't seem to get it to make a quote ('"') on my laptop keyboard running mame under Linux. Anyone know where I can find a keyboard map?
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