towmater

A recapping nightmare, with perhaps three dozen surface mounted barrel caps, some having only a millimeter or two clearance, i resorted to adding about three millimeters to each boss, so that the lowest circuit board could breathe a little. I need to source a better screen, as the oem one has gone the way of the washed-out nineties screens, since there is already a composite output i can probably find a back-up camera screen. Any link to a CDi burning guide would be appreciated. I tried making a Hotel Mario disc, but although it is recognized and starts, it quits to a “dirty disk” message soon after.

I've been told that I can use our corporate shipping rate, so maybe it won't be too bad, at least to someone in the Southwestern US.

Would this be considered a monolithic architecture?

Not on eBay yet... I think I need to sell my PEB, as it has seen little use of late. But it is heavier than an IBM 5150 or a small yacht anchor. Is it even worth selling if it cannot be shipped with reasonable assurance of survival?

I should get around to offering up some trades. I have an Atari 1200XL that needs a new home, etc. I'm just finding out that the Indus itself may be capable of running CP/M. Not loading it... it runs on the drive's internal Z80 CPU, apparently. (It may only work on the Atari version, I'm not certain.)

I've been watching auctions. For $75-ish I can buy a questionable drive, for $125-ish a tested drive.

I guess BOOT D0,U9. This almost worked, but halfway through decided it wanted to use the Indus and offered up a "READ ERROR". I'll play with giving it a blank floppy in unit 8.

http://www.mobilefx.de/html/dracopy.html This worked, where d64it failed (me, or I failed it.)

I can't help but let anyone within earshot know that a 1581 is on ShopGoodwill at this moment.

Well it was a valiant effort, nevertheless it was merely an effort.

Many thanks. We Retroists seem to forget that Google stopped working as an easy search tool a decade or more ago. Eating my words, Google led to this: https://sites.google.com/site/h2obsession/CBM/C128/cp-m And the same search engine confirms that SD2IEC will read a D71 format. There, now was that so hard? I think perhaps Google has cataloged more info on the Commodore machines than some other devices for which I've searched lately. "XTIDE in an AMSTRAD PPC640" anyone?

Thanks for this. Is there an REU clone design? I should also mention that I have an IEC2SD device, and wonder if D128IT or D64IT can be used to transfer the necessary CP/M data to a floppy. (Or could I boot CP/M from the SD?) I'm not sure how one would use the CP/M format command without booting... unless this can be done on another machine such as a PC first.

you'll need the long-lost instructions https://web.archive.org/web/20030710103523/http://www.8bitdesigns.com/howto/d64it/d64it.html

I read somewhere that a 1571 can boot CP/M on the Commodore 128, bit not a 1541? So I wonder if anyone has experience booting CP/M from this new Indus drive? Also any hints as to how to make a boot disk for CP/M, (assuming it the Indus GT can start it?)

The word is spoken... The NOS keys sold as Archer are labeled (on the back) as 99/4, but they are really 4A's. This might be good news, if you have a 4A with keyboard issues (or just missing keys) there is often one of these replacements on eBay.

Probably they used the same tooling. Most beige 99/4a keyboards had computers attached, from what I understand, the inventory of 99/4 keyboards were purchased by a Texas-based computer retailer and resold as "experimenter's Special Purchase", thus the New Old Stock status. I guess a key identifier would be whether the beige 99/4a's used the mylar method.

And so, the answer is, yes, the two are fully compatible, electrically. The compression trick works.

That's the point of failure for most mylar keyboards. My fix is to build a mound of solder onto the PC board, then use a piece of poycarbonate (shown here temporarily clamped to the board until I can melt screw holes into it) to put many times more pressure on the connections compared to the original.

For posterity...TI-99/4 keyboard and mylar:

I recently installed a NOS keyboard on a 1200XL, which had keys that would finally respond with repeated hard presses, but in this case the unresponsive keys are completely... unresponsive. I guess I am going back in, although I'm not looking forward to removing the 25 small screws on the back of the keyboard.

Some keys work. I was hoping for an easy answer, as it took me about ten minutes to open the case, figure out what was catching (right-angle cartridge header), determine whether to unhook the PSU harness or unscrew the assy. (one can't easily reach the PSU connector release tab,) work out how to close the case with the new longer, stiffer (don't) keyboard cable, close the case, reopen the case to find out what was rattling (sliding port door snuck away), reopen the case to reposition the power jack, reopen the case to figure out why the power-switch would no longer slide to the on-position... I know I will need to go back in there at some point, the question is do I do that after refurbing the black keyboard, or do I waste time trouble-shooting something when someone here like a Tursi will know the answer. And yes, writing all of this was still easier than opening and closing a 4A.

I thought I'd save the trouble trying to fix my keyboard, and just swap in a TI-99 NOS keyboard. The "A", "Q", "ENTER" and a few other keys don't work. This can't be right, right? They would not have changed the wiring scheme from the /4 to the /4A? should I waste time trying to find a fault or is this hopeless?

YouTube link

OOPS! I've been using a 5V adapter on mine for, I guess decades... and it still works fine, (battery still works as well, I wonder if the undervolt condition helped preserve the battery?)