Swim

This board has been taken. Stand by as I'll have a few more of these available as time allows. Haven't setup a P-Box yet to start testing what shape the Geneves are in.

Have been trying to organize the TI/Geneve stuff I still have here and came across some MYARC FDC and Geneve boards. Of course as far as I can tell so far these boards are not working boards. I did spend some time today with what looked to be an FDC just like it came from MYARC. After playing with it for a while I found the 74LS245 was fried and replaced it with a new one. This got me to the system being locked up with a cyan screen when I powered up the TI. After about 4 hours and a new PAL and EPROM updated to version 1.5 and a new 70 nano second RAM chip just for heck of it the card is as you see it in the image and working very nicely with 5.25 disks and I'm guessing will work just as well with 3.5 disks but I don't have 3.5 drives hooked up to my TI repair system. Now that the card is working I'm thinking it should have both original electrolytic capacitors replaced. If anyone is interested in this FDC I'm asking $150.00 + shipping. Contact me here privately if interested.

Hi Everyone, I finally got the chance to get the Hidden Reef hardware running again and the system seems to be working as it should. Still working dawn to dark on the real job but hopefully I will complete the TIPI installation soon as well. Enjoy! The Hidden Reef BBS 718-448-9402

Thanks acadiel, I'll contact you once I'm certain exactly what is broken as it could be the AC pwr supply but I haven't checked anything with my meter yet.

Hi All, just wanted to let Hidden Reef callers know that thanks to my power company, Consolidated Edison, browning me out again this summer I seem to have lost another console power supply. Of course I'm now leaving for work 4:30am and getting home after dark so it may be Sunday before I get a chance to get the Hidden Reef hardware back up and running again. I will reply here when the system is up ready for log-ins.

Hi All, finally just about ready to add the TIPI card to the Hidden Reef BBS P-Box for mass storage of the Up/Down load section. During the process of getting this change going I came across a handy little reference board for the 40 pin connector of the Raspberry PI 3B+ at >adafruit.com<. Might be a neat little item to have laying on the bench for those that do much playing around with the Rasberry.

The joys of being a SYSOP. I found the Hidden Reef, a BBS that never crashes, unresponsive today due to flaky IDE operation. So now the up/down load section is not available until I get the parts together and install SCSI to run the up/down loads available again. SYSOPs have all the fun. :)

Rave 99 was one of the companies I got the rights to when I bought out Cecure. I have one of the Rave 99 P-Boxes that actually works. I might have an owners manual but I'm not sure why anyone would want one since any boards used with it needed their power supplies removed from them. This caused much confusion in the community and countless MYARC, CorComp and TI boards were ruined when those boards were removed from the Rave 99 P-Box and installed into TI P-Boxes. As far as I know there are no existing drawings and/or manuals available for the Rave 99 P-Box.

I seem to recall being told by someone who knew way more about ttl logic than I that the TMS9901 is a chip that actually "wears out" over time. Hard for me to understand how something with no "moving parts" can wear out but when I think about cards that use the TMS9901, the CorComp RS232 for instance, I believe it.

Ditto what atrax27407 typed.

I remember the last time I was typing with him when he got a Geneve setup from me he was typing about the "RoHS" standard and how much reflow work he was doing for Atari/Nintendo.

All EPROM versions prior to 1.6 may or may not work but are more likely to work using the Geneve than the 99/4a. The 1.6 EPROM should not be used without the complete upgrade which requires different hardware modding for each card in the series.

I think I explained the WHT SCSI controller history here on AA in an SCSI thread a while back so a search for the long version of the history can be found if needed. Here's the short version on the WHT SCSI controller series history. I was the authorized WHT repair/upgrade station here in the USA until Competition Computer bought the rights for the WHT SCSI series "E", "F" and "G" boards. At that point Don requested I ship all remaining boards/chips I had to him and he shipped that inventory to Competition Computer as part of the sale. At this point any upgrades/runs of boards will need the permission of Competition Computer. Although many of the original "E", "F" and "G" cards did function on the Geneve most did not on the 99/4a. The 1.6 upgrade gave all three card verisons very stable operation characteristics with all available popular hard drives including ZIP and Syquest EZ-135 units. Hope this helps.

Done.

Just for giggles shift338 do you have the correct orientation with the three resistor packs at location R1, R2 and R3?

With the renewed interest in BBS exploration using old school hardware and a landline @110 baud through 56K connection speed the Hidden Reef BBS is found at 718-448-9402 running on real TI hardware 24/7. The Hidden Reef has a large download area for TI Geneve users to download directly to their 99/4a or Geneve. Once on the user's machine all that is necessary is to unarchive the file and run it the same as users would normally do with any native 99/4a/Geneve file. The Hidden Reef BBS is dedicated to the TI, CC40 and Geneve family of computers but all retro machine users are welcome. Enjoy your BBS travels, Richard Bell, SYSOP

The latest version of Fred's DSR V12 is available for download on the Hidden Reef BBS 718-448-9402 24/7 for those that still have an old school 110 baud to 56k modem and land line hooked up to there 99/4a.

Good point Mizapf. There are a few bug fixes after DSR V07 and everyone should be using DSR V12 now.

The joys of being SYSOP.

How far are you from a decision? Weeks? Months? Is the "bare board only" still an option? I know you have the Genie 2.0 project going too so it's a time jam I'm sure.

There are a few design problems with this controller card like many designs problems don't exist until the design makes it out into actual use. The 10K resistor location next to the heat sink at the bottom right corner needs to be placed away from the back edge of the card as it often gets knocked off when the card is inserted into the P-Box. I can't tell you how many of those I replaced for TIers that often swap cards in and out.

This is a pic of the IDE controller with compact flash that has been running 24/7 for almost a decade in the Hidden Reef BBS P-Box and holds the up/down load files.

Check with Ksarul on this as I recall he started a thru hole project for this IDE controller a year or two ago.

Hi matthew180, the BQ4852YMC-85 carries the 512k SRAM on board so there is no need for a 512k SRAM at location IC23.

Hi Fred, there is supply of BQ4852YMC-85 but Rochester electronics instead of no longer available Texas Instruments. https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/rochester-electronics-llc/BQ4852YMC-85/2156-BQ4852YMC-85-TI-ND/11538020