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JB

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Posts posted by JB

  7. Posted

    2 hours ago, jrhodes said:

    Back when i first got my FG99, i tried running super fly, soundtrack trolley, and terry turtle.

    Neither super fly or terry turtle worked, but soundtrack trolley works great.

    Super fly & terry turtle hung at a blue screen. I suppose they are looking for a MBX and not finding it.

    No idea why soundtrack trolley loads, but i'm glad it does. Pretty nifty little game. :)

    Superfly will work with a bare 4a. I have the cart, but no MBX, and it works fine.

  10. Posted

    On 12/11/2019 at 3:28 PM, Mehridian Sanders said:

    Or ( since we cant "Honey I shrunk the TI") have this usable to code with. I was thinking a RPI that could update code to a TIPI or somesuch. Open to all :)

    Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
     

    Got the serial cable? You could type programs on the PDA, import them to a PC using the serial cable, and then paste them into the TIPI.

    • Like 2

  11. Posted

    I can't imagine a situation where the VDP is dumping more heat into the RF shield than it can radiate away. Really, the RF shield is overkill for cooling just the VDP. (see: tiny clip-on sinks for the late systems)

     

    That most 4a consoles haven't cooked themselves to death over the decades is in and of itself proof of the viability of RF shield heatsinking.

    Devices that didn't properly heatsink the 9918 were unreliable, and failed rapidly once put into service(I know of at least one such product, an X10 controller called "Homeminder")

    • Like 3

  16. Posted

    Oh, that's a DS12887? Good. That's a common package, and it is one with the extra SRAM too, so there's basically no compatibility worries. I believe my "random example" link is actually a direct one-to-one replacement.

     

    And that's a DEC board? Awesome. Only DEC product I own is a generic 101-key PS/2 keyboard. I'd really like to add a DEC machine to my collection of obsolete hardware(though preferably one that is actually a DEC architecture)

  17. Posted

    That Dallas package is almost guaranteed to be a clock, SRAM, and battery all in one. Though I can't read the part number on that picture, I recognize that big ugly brick. Dallas sold them as real-time clocks, but then went and included enough extra SRAM that they could be used for configuration storage too. They will totally cause errors on boot(I think my IBM-compatibles with bad batteries have said "CMOS error - defaults loaded"). But at least in an IBM-compatible things aren't too bad. Swap the battery(or RTC module), enter the BIOS config, reset things, and you're a happy camper for the next decade or so.

     

    If you've acquired an old Sun workstation, where the system config, serial number, and ethernet MAC address are all stored in the RTC block... ugh. When the battery dies, the system is rendered unbootable. You can poke enough data back into a new one from the openboot interface to make it work again, but it is a royal pain(but still better than an arcade game's copy-protect battery, because it CAN be reprogrammed in place).  

     

     

     

    There are replacements available for most of the Dallas RTC blocks. Random example here.

    If I recall, there's one or two uncommon models where no pin-compatible clones exist, but most of the Dallas RTC line has drop-in replacements. Some systems don't like the replacements because they have more SRAM than the original part, but most don't care.

    I hope that one is socketed, otherwise you might take a serious look at the "dremel the end of the block off and solder a battery holder onto it" school of repair.  (A search for "dallas RTC repair" will get you a number of tutorials on that technique in short order)

     

     

  18. Posted

    29 minutes ago, --- Ω --- said:

    I've opened up quite a few TI's in years past and have never seen one quite that bad.

    That's why I put quote marks around "right". It isn't PROPER, but it isn't a problem or evidence of rework. It's just... a lot of excess goo.

     

    (I was pretty surprised the first time I opened a 4a up and there was this big wad of rubbery snot hanging off the VDP. I THINK it was that bad, but can't swear to it. Best hypothesis we came up with is that they were near the end of the pot of goo and just decided to slather the whole glob on so they could get a new pot.)

  20. Posted

    47 minutes ago, --- Ω --- said:

    Good!  I'm going to get me one of these when the F18A Mk2 comes out.  Hopefully that new power supply board is available then, because I want all three installed at the same time.

    Understandably. Our little machine is many things, but it isn't the easiest in the world to open up.

  21. Posted

    On 12/2/2019 at 9:30 PM, jwild said:

    HP-41.

    Best calculator ever.

    Burn the heretic!

     

     

     

    By the time I was old enough to do anything of note, I was pretty familiar with the 4a. I skipped the calculator era entirely, I'm afraid.

     

    16 hours ago, digdugnate said:

    my dad had a TI-59- i started on the 99/4.  :)

    Ditto, except 4a. Dad said he had a 4, but it left when he upgraded to the a.

    • Like 3

  23. Posted

    46 minutes ago, senior_falcon said:

    So the chances of this array of computers having ever produced a zero for a random number is about 3.27E-109

     I think we can confidently say that RND has never produced a zero.

    It will generate a zero five minutes after code that assumes it can't do so is run.

    • Haha 1
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