FarmerPotato

I have a MBX with 10 cartridges. It is a little flaky. When you press the membrane keyboard, sometimes it power cycles. Midwest Gaming Classic has it in their storage space so I only play with it once per year. I'm Hiding and Terry Turtle's Adventure are classics, just for the speech.

I left all my winter gear in Wisconsin when I moved back to Texas. Looks like I will be getting my winter coat out of the garage. I am not getting a rental car, so rides in a warm SUV will be much appreciated.

Hey, I will be bringing your SID Master back. I'm sorry I didn't mention that I still had it. Can you bring some more MATIUG floppies! I can bring the Kryoflux and folks can plug away at floppy scanning. It needs an external drive too. (I used my Corcomp drive enclosure, but any DSSD drive enclosure would work.)

I am bringing a 4A with F18A, NanoPEB, FlashROM99, 32k + TIPI, and FORTI-2. I think I will bring a cheap VGA monitor in my suitcase. Non-TI equipment: MacBookPro (Mac OS X, maybe maybe Win10), VB-8012 scope and logic analyzer. Kroflux floppy controller I can provide wireless via my phone HotSpot. I will use a loaner Windows laptop for Classic99 and the VB-8012 software. My Classic99 environment will travel on a USB stick unless I go nuts and install a Windows VM. Not bringing any soldering equipment or eprom programmer. Things I would like help with: setting up TIPI for the first time, getting my fbForth 32k cartridge to have a working eprom (It's got Kippy's Nightmare in it currently.) moving all my stuff from TI FORTH to fbForth

My spare time continues to be for FORTH and music programming. I got all the bugs out of code/hardware that I started 4 winters ago. I'll let the cat out of the bag at CHI Friday.

this probably belongs on a separate thread... I don't remember split2! split was fascinating and caused me to ponder all the ways bitmap mode could be exploited. I put a lot of effort into implementing a split mode with 18 rows of graphics and 6 rows of proportionally spaced bitmapped text (A/L library, not FORTH.) It squeezed about 42 characters on each line. It computed a width table for patterns after loading CHARA1. It kept a 2 char (16 byte) working pattern buffer in ram, and each character to emit would be bit shifted and ORed with the buffer, which would be then be sent to VDP. When the right bytes were touched, the buffer would move the right char into the left and refresh. It will be in my bag o stuff to show at CHI Friday.

I used TI-Writer, Funlweb, and MyWord into the 90s to do programming, schoolwork and writing. I used Clint Pulley's QDE the most at the end for coding under MDOS.

If they are taking out an HDMI license, would it be possible to have Collectorvision manufacture some Mk2s for you?

Matthew, if the Collectorvision project funds, will that open up possibilities for the F18A MK2? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1408938247/collectorvision-phoenix-an-fpga-colecovision-conso I'm a backer. -Erik

It looks like the uint8 are not being promoted to int before multiplication, as they should, or conversion back to uint8 is not correct. Can you find the assembly source for this case?

I wonder if the uint8 is not promoted to int before being placed on the stack? Try cprintf("%c * %c = %c\n\n", ('0'+a), ('0'+b), ('0'+result));

Yes, speech was in there. The TE2 protocol manual http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262121-te2-manual/ http://www.whtech.com/ftp/datasheets%20and%20manuals/TE_protocol_manual.pdf The command opcodes for speech: >26 Speak and display text >27 Speak text without display >28 Speak Allophones (refer to TE2 manual) >29 Look up words (and associate with a number) >2A Speak words associated with numbers Text must be from the Speech ROM, or an allophone string (not sure if this means plain text, or preprocessed into allophone numbers by Text-to-Speech utility). I don't think there is a routine to play back LPC data (like from SPGET.)

For a time in high school, I lugged my PBox and Geneve on the school bus (which stopped one block from my house). There was a composite color monitor I could plug into in my math classroom, thankfully. I would not lug a PBox again.

Awesome! Hacking a 35 year old binary to make it fully compatible with its host OS!

I didn't understand how this DSRLNK from MG Smart Programmer works either, the things it does! For starters, DSRWS = DLINK1. That's seriously weird. However, it ends up saving a chunk of memory. DSRLNK DATA DSRWS,DLINK1 Registers overlap with the code! There are DATA 0 statements overlapping R12-R15; R12 is the only free register here (R13-R15 store the caller's context.) R3 overlaps the argument to the LWPI GPLWS instruction. I smell self-modifying code! Indeed, later on MOV @NAMLEN,R3 modifies the argument of LWPI GPLWS. However, that instruction is never executed again. It's a good thing, because the argument is set not to a CPU address, but the VDP address of the PAB opcode. That would be meaningless in a LWPI instruction. I found a commented version here, on page 290: http://ti99ers.org/downloads.php?cat_id=13&file_id=19 *<<------------------------------------------------------>>* * This section of code is only executed once to find the * * GROM address for the GPL DSRNK, which is placed at DSRADD* * and R12 is set to >2000 to indicate that the address is * * found and to be used as a mask for EQ & CND * *----------------------------------------------------------* LWPI GPLWS R2,R3 else load GPL workspace So, instead of allocating 32 bytes of workspace with DSRWS BSS 32 it fills 24 bytes with code for DSRLNK leaving 8 bytes for register storage (R12-R15). R3 clobbers part of the DLINK1 code that is only executed once.. actually all of the registers are available at DLINK3, after DLINK1 has run once, but only one is really needed. Very smart, Smart Programmer.

Hey, I am clear to send in the Geneve. I'm going to send my 2nd one that can't find the boot disk. I am told not to expect much on the gate array - 2 micron features (my guess) won't present enough contrast.

How about a group order for factory assembly? The final step would then be Xilinx programming and EPROM. I made a quick estimate for tipi (sidecar) on https://www.smart-prototyping.com/PCB-Assembling.html An order of 25 to 100 units assembled comes in at each $40 plus component cost. Matt, what do you think? If somebody else did all the busy work, would you do the final steps to program them? I would be willing to put in money.

I have dozens of replacement keyboards, as the result of taking on people's collections. PM me, I will share one, no cost. If you just want the M key, thats ok too. Now, those mods are pretty interesting. It looks like they brought out the video signals - my guess is composite on the BNC connector, and audio mini-phono plug. The 25-pin D-sub connector might be a "Joy-Print" interface, a mod that allowed printing (originally out the 9-pin, D-sub, joystick side port). Others will know that better (I never used one.) http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/joytalk/joytalk.html Hint: the 1983 author of Joy-Print is Urbite on this forum. Bit of TI-99/4A lore there. The red button... you must push it and tell us what it does. Two guesses: RESET button, or LOAD interrupt. The LOAD interrupt had many uses. One was to run software to print a screen dump. Requires 32k expansion to use because address $FFFC. To figure out what you have, you'll need some schematics. First, see the FAQ http://atariage.com/forums/topic/267055-new-to-the-group-ti-994a-faq-hardware-and-software-resources-read-first/ I like Thierry Nouspikel's TI Tech Pages http://www.unige.ch/medecine/nouspikel/ti99/titechpages.htm And the original TI provided schematics are in this document: http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/man/ti99_tech.pdf Other upgrades on that MainByte page: http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/upgrades.asp Have fun!

Aw. I was looking forward to meeting you.

Thank you. I ordered 10 for my own use. Saddle types, $64.06 for 10 today, non-stocked, delivery in 3 weeks.

Could you give the part number for Mouser and Jameco? I have searched for those darn things quite often and I'm surely looking in the wrong category. I got the less desirable 44-position card edge connectors from AliExpress, both the the short straight pin kind. and the right angle bendy formy kind (ugh, getting those pins into PCB through holes is tough.) I'm still relying on the 44 position card edge to IDC ribbon cable connector from the CF7+. Really useful thing.

I booked today at the Hilton Garden Inn link. Arriving Thursday, leaving Sunday (I'll actually stay in Chicago Sunday night, visiting UofC.) I would like to give a workshop Friday on FORTI-2, building hardware on the side port, interfacing PMODs to the 4A with low level access in FORTH. We will see all the digital signals back and forth on the side port, on the PMODs, and maybe create something new. I will travel with just enough hardware (4A/F18A, laptop, sidecar FORTI-2 proto, 32k, nanoPEB, logic analyzer). Leaving soldering gear home. A FORTI music demo would be appropriate for the Saturday Faire. -Erik

Hi Beery, your post inspired me to spend all day Saturday trying to bring up a telnet TI-Net BBS. most of that was troubleshooting my Lantronix (an ETS-4P model). My current router, ASUS RT68U, doesn't like it! Wireshark shows that Lantronix convinced ASUS to rename my Roku to ETS-4P-xxxxx (at a completely unrelated DHCP IP!) while pointing out that all the Lantronix DHCP packets have framing errors. I sort of got it working, but I think it will be easier to ditch the Lantronix and just connect NanoPEB to my Centos box and write a tiny server program. Lantronix is nice in that it implements DSR/DTR just like a modem. Next Saturday maybe.

I'm not worried. I am waiting for a reply. They are busy this week. Looking at the numbers, I think that 10 microns is the limit of what I would expect to get back. I think I see 100 pixels per cm on the detector, and single digit to maybe 10x optical magnification. That's an order of magnitude away from what is needed to resolve a grid on a GA from 1987 that is probably 2 micron feature size.

I'm considering whether I can attend. If I make it there, I would like to share my hardware + FORTH project on Friday. I have only been to the Saturday Faire once in 2012 to show Bubble Plane. Also one rainy Friday night at the Legion where I met Berry Harmsen.