RickyDean

Saturday at 10:58 PM

Here's a decent buy on a Navarone cartridge expander on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/296403866750?itmmeta=01HX2X7P8B713SCTV5YDYD2RC2&hash=item45030c147e:g:4psAAOSwu5dmMqft&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwJ%2FulUDGjRzzeH9gul2Q%2FfTYAfUPO51sHdjFo0VAW2C1s51VAcnPjWxLcl0AmAv5VZAIHuvOgdqhgXkgJLl0xbowJNTcv8JWEYvrEQM88xw4l5Ox0s7l%2B8hDxmNIlxi8cIMT%2Bmz90KL4BIVXQUyCcMlnD0TvVTHsaXAg9D%2BelNBg6UPJyezgL%2F%2BLLgjSivbLH7%2Foxlog0ceR6orK7Sell%2BxN6ImPy0BEZsaxXOONX5Yfpzh8uuRvlCAyUVgC9s3HXw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7Dknt3oYw

Saturday at 03:13 PM

12 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

I keep tryin that link but it's 9 number buttons?

You click on the yellowed button. A robot would not know that.

Saturday at 02:41 PM

17 hours ago, Ksarul said:

I was actually surprised that no one noticed that one of the PEBs for sale on eBay this week was the Control Data version. It even had the CD Flex Cable and 32K cards in it. I snagged it, so I now have an almost complete CD system (just missing the CD- branded Disk Controller and RS-232 cards).

Yes, I saw it and almost made the plunge, but I've been sick and dealing with issue about going back to work after 9+ months, so I did'nt hit the button.

Wednesday at 10:35 PM

Yeh, just doing a Call Version brought this up.

April 30

31 minutes ago, RXB said:

You have to hold the SPACE BAR to avoid the Error Report and get a *READY* instead.

Also the REA cart is way better then the EA cart XB3 supports.

Holding the spacebar also works in JS99er.

April 30

@JJB I finally got this UNO to program and function with a usb power supply. Just have to print out the docs and start fiddling.

April 30

4 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said:

Good pictures of the TIM and SOB, I should use them (with your permission of course) to update the bad quality photos on my garyopa.com website.

The Pop-Cart was basically the next step up from the SOB, as it could do a lot more and override the console groms, I just posted about the PLD stuff in the XB3 thread, as basically the first two GAL's on the SOB are the same on the pop-cart with an added 3rd one.

Of course today newer tech can do alot more, but it was not bad for back in the day, I was very good at jamming in all the logic and getting the timing right, all tho the SOB I had to add a resistor as you see in the photos to fix up timing issue on some /4a consoles, that problem was fixed in the pop-cart system.

I have been working slowly on recreating the final logic, I have old printouts but not the jedec files themselves.

Maybe, if you have the tools and still the SOB you could try cracking the write-protect and dumping the logic for both of our sakes, or if you want and willing to part for it for a couple of weeks I could do it and send it back to you. you have to be careful there is UV window underneath those PLD's can be erased by UV light, later on the Pop-cart used a version with that, and again the different between a normal PLD without UV erase and a electrically erasable GAL is different in timing so the code has to be adjusted depending on brand and type of PLD it is.

These days for internal console grom mods, the Grommy from Eric seems to be best idea, but he has not updated that thread in a long time, and I have been looking at various other options as well, besides trying to recreate my original hardware, sadly I lost my own pop-cart, tim, sob in the hurricane matthew in DR, but good thing is my human brain is still working fine and my memory storage is amazing for human at my age, and want to get as much out of my biological sponge before it starts to downhill.

Thanks.

Yes you can use them, if need be I can even take clearer pictures.

April 30

On 5/22/2018 at 7:58 AM, RickyDean said:

Ladies and Gents,

at the request of one of the members here I am posting some photos of the TIM video upgrade that was produced by OPA back in the 'day'.

I have had this in storage since 1999 and used it during the mid-90's. Also find attached a couple of photos of the SOB that was sold to go along with the TIM and if you have PC99 you can play with the included SOB console grom upgrade, in it.

@Gary from OPA do you have the code for this Atmel AT22V10's that you used on the SOB? It seems that you were on the "cusp" of bigger things using the reprogrammable PLD, were you looking at the possibility in the day of upgrading the SOB for instance to do more than just what you originally designed it to do?

April 28

The Arto SAMSIDE, sounds great to me!!

April 28

I'm kinda leaning toward this, do we have a sidecar to go with it :).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/235365721606?itmmeta=01HWJNPD9C1NRTVRWWC21QY1FH&hash=item36cce3e606:g:zE4AAOSwhcNlkDm6&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4BwEQZgcgbkVWJkQr0%2BQdGV4ohYo2brle6xTPmHo871YBK6LegzR1uDfLZX6QBm0HNhhmrKvkkPCYDu%2BjTdHEDGnVVZQVQ8DkCEc2sfFq4WXZwugkP8QGx9kS8nj0h9d0Ft008tLNV66psvSern07FUezVAet2x%2B1McR%2B2KquK%2BsULkhSHeSuzfdMbA8RdRBaQlL72v4vBidR0ullxWXsBhl8X782GhvtNT19gAbkWgeNF6bwEIImnpdW44%2FGFwk21OkRzVzLQ58UPzyyl%2BJrMUGZBOtOGRV2r6pTlqGEFEU|tkp%3ABk9SR4bV2dXkYw

April 28

Here will be the production look of the modified (uson pads added) PPEB.

April 27

17 minutes ago, mizapf said:

Weather is getting better again ... well, April. The rapeseed is out.

That is a beautiful picture, nice and peaceful, Michael

April 27

Some of the employees from there started another electronics business, but it didn't seem to have a lot to offere when I searched it out.

April 26

The biggest things I would suggest, place and solder the edge card connector first, then when you are reaqplace the wires from the edge connector to the pin holes, that you do the odd side pins 1-43 first and then be sure on the even side, that the odd side wires are down low to the board. Then place a length of shrink wrap, cut lengthwise and about 4mm wide, along the top of those wire solder points, then strap it down with 3 or 4 of the even side wires before you set down in earnest on soldering the even side. This will retain the cover over the odd wire solder points, preventing short possibilities and you can get a clean look.. Do this before placing the sockets and risers or anything else.

If you look at mine you see the bottom looks pretty good but on the top it was harder to maneuver my soldering iron, making for a un even soldering experience. Other than that enjoy!!

April 26

49 minutes ago, Artoj said:

Hi All,

The IDE board in the MPEB format has been created, I am leaving some real-estate for possible 32k Sram, RS232 or MIDI, so any suggestions would be appreciated. I would like to think this board with the extra functions would a very usable TI system. Regards Arto.

I'd say your going strong, like to see the SAMS as an option, but it's looking good.

April 26

Cool, just played it a bit in JS99er

April 26

32 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said:

I wonder if anyone ever made a tiny PCboard adapter to convert a uson to sop.

I only seen uson to dip adapters and sop to dip ones.

Yea, I searched a few days ago without finding anything, that is why I am going this route.

April 26

@JasonACT, I figure if I can't fit them on, I can always use the bigger memory, no foul.

April 26

I've been tinkering with @JasonACT's toy. I am adding two uson pads (circled) for APS6404L-3SQR-ZR uson memory ic's as I accidently bought 10 of these on my first try of ordering the BOM for this device instead of APS6404L-3SQR-SN sop. It was a time trying to figure out where to put the first one that corresponds to U2, the one in U7's footprint was much easier. I hope these don't violate design rules to much and are producable. And as @JasonACT states below the 74LVS245 is 74LVC245 now on my drawing. This is just for me to use up my stock of uson memory.

April 24

Not knowing how you installed the russian diodes, you are aware that they need to be placed int their locations with the black band reversed from an American diode correct? Not aware if this could be part of the issue, but maybe worth looking at.

April 24

5 hours ago, JJB said:

Just was going to ask if you have anything selected there; mine has no selection:

But I don't think it will make a difference as long as you use the "Upload" option. From the Arduino Wiki:

The programmer selection is not used when:

Compiling your sketch (for example, when clicking Verify).

Uploading without a programmer, by clicking the Upload button.

But you said "So it is working, it just won't let me upload and program it to the ATMega328P AVR." In other words when you use "Upload" it works but when you use "Upload using programmer" it doesn't? The whole idea behind "Upload" is to use the resident bootloader to act as a programmer and make it simple for anyone to program a device. The bootloader does use space so with an external programmer you can remove the bootloader and have more space for your code but the whole process is a bit more complex for novices.

That may be where I have an issue then. I'm was assuming that I needed to program this sketch into the machine, so I've played around with the programmer, because upload for me wasn't persistent, at least I thought it wasn't, for after the pulling it from the laptop, it wouldn't run from just the Apedsk. I may have overwritten the boatloader. From the sketch menu after I verified and compiled the sketch I saved the compiled part to the sketch, one is called a bootloader and smaller and one called larger which must be the rest of the code. Can I take my TL866 Minipro and burn that bootloader, if so at which address should I start it. Then what address should be the start address to burn the other larger .hex file.

April 24

What would I use here?

April 24

13 minutes ago, NewcomerTI said:

Oh now I went and did it… the MENU for the working 4000B associated numbering on the items is corrupted or something got changed. There is probably an easy fix rather than reload my whole RAM disk (if necessary I’ll wait until I get the other card sorted out first) but the numbers all look scrambled and the text at the bottom doesn’t look quite right. Any thoughts?

IMG_3216.mov 26.91 MB · 1 download

Hopefully this is an easy one to correct. While the thoughts are pouring in here is some TI midi master ‘classic’ tune to enjoy.

IMG_3215.mov 157.73 MB · 1 download

You probably corrupted the menu in the 8k IC on U9, don't know if you've lost the data in the other memory IC's, you can try reloading just the ROS without formatting the card again and see if it will recover. But be prepared to reload the complete ramdisk @InsaneMultitasker and others would have much more knowledge here.

April 24

19 minutes ago, NewcomerTI said:

I’m using the 32K option with both chips installed. I have an internal card that I can throw in and remove the optional chips to see if that might make a difference… I’m running on a TI. Both transistors are flat side toward the bottom. Thank you for the helpful advice and tips on trying before and for the schematic diagrams and manual links. I’m wondering where the six (Russian style) diodes are in the schematic? It is not evident or are they elsewhere and not depicted. Also k did get clarification that the schematic calls out 30uF tantalum and that they are indeed 10uF