iKarith

Mark, what're you using for a protocol? Just two machines over serial, or are you planning a client/server setup of some kind over AppleTalk for //e and IIgs systems? (Can that be done for the //e? Dunno, I have yet to get my //e card connected to something to start looking at what it can do...)

Probably the Echo+. Never really did know enough to use the music functions, but it was the echo in the first computer that was basically assigned to me in school, so it has some special significance. I've got a normal echo with the triangular speaker, but the Echo+ was the one I used first. Didn't have access to a whole lot of expansion cards growing up, just the standard RAM/80col, Disk II, and Super Serial cards.

Tursi, if I every come across a QI machine that happens to have 2.2, would you be up to working with me to cook up a GROM replacement for it? As I said, I'm contemplating the future when we might all need to replace those chips.

Seems legit.

Actually, it may end with speech synthesizers. I have ideas.

Rich, you also have a candidate for some updates over on http://www.99er.net/vidpow.html. I can confirm that your pin numbering for the power jack matches the voltages given. (In my case 18VAC across 1,2 and 8.5VAC across 2,4. Pin 3 as indicated is NC. Apparently as low as 16VAC and 7.5VAC exists and would power the linear regulators on the power supply. I didn't notice if the other end of that connector was socketed. The socket connecting the power board to the motherboard has very different voltages on it.

I found a few problems with ti99sim that may or may not be problems for you. First, I have had trouble with sound. In fact, I have trouble with ALL SDL sound using programs, so the problem may be something else on my end. No idea there, nobody seems to be able to tell me anything to even begin checking for. Second, I found that I had to install everything and then make sure that ti99sim was run from the directory everything was installed into (/opt/ti99sim in my case) or it didn't come up. The second one probably affects you. The first may not.

Well, I've kinda decided that at some point I would like a QI model for the purposes of "fixing" it with lots of pictures. I suppose it's easy enough to find a machine whose power supply or keyboard or something has gone kaput that I could snag its GROM without too much guilt, though since I am reminded every so often that within the next decade or so all those Atari VCS carts are going to fail en masse, the idea of adapting Tursi's work for replacing system GROM is definitely something to think about. In fact that could make the QI motherboard at least a bit more desirable for folks, if they didn't have to worry about what came in the GROM socket and we document an easy CRU fix. Looks like we'd need just two jumper wires--and there's probably a couple of places to pull the signals from.

Apparently I have most of the bits needed to get my TI online now. I just need to power up the UDS-10 and find the right serial cable.

I was given a nice cassette cable at FestWest (thanks again!) but am of the opinion that for the PC, a stereo cassette cable is warranted for cheap USB audio interface usage. Particularly since cheap USB audio interface usage is probably the right way to do it--isolates from the noise inside the computer, and you won't have random PC sounds messing up your data transfer.

At one point I had an Epson PX-8. If I could find another one of those, I'd get it. I didn't actually own an Apple // until late 1992(!), but I grew up like most blind folks my age with one always nearby at school. Which was good because when the Epson died, for awhile, I had nothing. Afterward (my IIgs died in November 1994!), I had nothing again until March 1995. As a graduation gift, my grandmother bought me a 486 DX2/66.

The "including shipping" was because of shipping abuse. 99 cents plus $50 shipping!! Here eBay, here's your dime!

That sounds like (intentionally) too much work. This prompts the question: How does one create new GROMs? That's a more advanced question, and I don't need the answer to that except purely for the sake of curiosity. I haven't got a QI console, though at some point I'd like to take pictures of one before, during, and after GROM "downgrade" and CRU signal adding for documentation purposes. Could be a fun project besides. Are the QI models considered "collectable" compared to the others because they're less common, or are they considered undesirable because they're annoying? Or something else?

I can answer regarding the power connector at the end of your PDF that the pin numbers appear to be correct. The pin designated as pin 1 is NC. Also, the two voltages listed are not isolated. My transformer measured about 20VAC on pins 2 and 3, and about 9VAC on pins 3 and 4, which means it measured about 24VAC across pins 2 and 4 as you'd expect. Of course AC voltages out of a transformer will vary somewhat. The transformer is rated as 110VAC input, and like as not I'd read 120VAC if I shoved probes into a socket. I don't do that as a general rule. It's rated for a couple of volts lower, and I would be shocked if the TI's power supply circuit weren't rated 15-22VAC and 7-9VAC respectively. The two-pin QI model would do switching regulator magic to generate all three voltages from the single approximately 18VAC input.

Am I to understand that these are two different problems? Lines missing on the cartridge port sounds like something you fix with a bit of wire and some solder on the underside of the board to connect the missing signals to the necessary pins. But the other issue sounds like a ROM problem. As I understand it, the TI's ROMs are GROMs, which are a thing that don't really exist anymore. You'd need a conventional EEPROM and some glue logic including a counter on a carrier board to replace that. Or you I guess you just use a microcontroller as a GROM emulator or something? Maybe not easily since the TI's clock speed is a little strange. I suspect this problem has been solved in my XB 2.7 cart, but I dunno if it's been solved in the console to replace the system ROM?

The QI will often have a two-pin power connector instead of four pin. It works with the same transformer, but has fewer pins. Older consoles could possibly have this power supply because of a repair, and I'm not sure all QIs have it, but I'm basically asking if anything was done to actually improve quality of the QI version, aside from locking out Atari games and using fewer chips. Like, were bugs fixed or anything, or was it purely hardware? And (especially if the answer is that the only software change is the lockout), what does one do about the Atari games?

I understand the QI console contains a few "improvements" in terms of not playing AtariSoft carts. I also know the power supply connector on the back is different (but still compatible with the old transformer.) Were there other actual changes from over the non-QI beige console? Were any of them actually improvements? And can one of these consoles be "fixed" to be compatible with the full range of software?

That's cool. And that copy #1 is going to net a fairly nice little bonus for the author as well. I'm also glad to see new software being made for the Apple //!

ElectricLab was able to make it to the meeting, and there wasn't much of interest to TI folks here. But it was a great meeting for iKarith the Commodore 64 n00b, even if not so much for iKarith the TI n00b. ...someone brought a pile of stuff to sell or gift to anyone who wanted to take it. I got a ZoomFloppy, a C128 that needs a new F5 key and keystem, and a pile of C64 software and a few books. I paid $20 for the ZoomFloppy. I also got a SID socketed and a 1541 recapped My TI made an appearance. I showed off a few things I knew about, but that leaves all the stuff I don't yet. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to show off much more cool stuff.

Wonder what it'll take to make a version that can handle the stuff the current FR99 cannot...

I find the most effective shell I've ever run on Windows 7 is bash.

I've gotten nowhere near that yet (and I don't know how to do it even when I do get there, but these are the kinds of things I want to have documented in my TI-99 Documentation Project. Granted this project is only a couple of days old, and I have only pushed out the info on the power supply because some of the info I read sounded wrong and I was hoping for correction/clarification. I'm going to see if I can do a little more with the hardware docs tonight and then I'd like to start on software--but admittedly I don't know much about the software stuff yet. Anyone who feels like contributing to the effort, feel free--if you know how to use Github, Prs are welcome. If you don't, the .md files are just text in Markdown format. I can take text NOT in Markdown format just fine.

That's quite true actually, even using faster RAM chips isn't going to help you because it's only going to read it as fast as the clock will let it.

Yes, mainly because there's not really a major difference. A //c is a //c. The original model (you probably won't get one of those) had a flaw in the serial port that would likely get repaired, making it functionally equivalent to a slightly newer ROM 255. A minor mod to the board (which is already "there", you just need to enable it) will let you swap the ROM out for a ROM 0 to get SmartPort. The later ROM 3 has some known bugs, but can be updated to ROM 4 pretty easily as well. The later versions have a RAM expansion connector, which is good for AppleWorks mostly if you have the board, but if you don't, it's possible to get a board that sockets in under the CPU anyway and does the same thing. One //c is basically the same as any other, more or less. The //c+ has the advantage of a built-in Zip chip and IIgs/Mac style serial ports (they're still 6551-based, however, so no fancy AppleTalk). It's got an 800k drive, but again for the average things an 8 bit Apple gets used for, a 140k would've been better anyway. Nonetheless the //c+ is regarded by eBait to be mo bettah so it often lists for about $400 more, mostly thanks to good ol' Dr. Ken's listings at that price, causing people to assume that's what the going rate is. A few sell for that price. More than a few probably won't on account of ... why would you pay that for a //c that isn't that great of a //c and was mostly made and sold as an Appleworks machine for PROFESSIONALS who haven't moved on to the Mac or PC yet but who are totally not into playing games, for which the //c+ is kinda not well suited as sold? ***RARE*** [email protected]@K !!!!STEVE JOBS!!!! Except Steve wasn't there when it was designed, would've called the person who designed it a bozo, and wanted the Apple // to die long before the thing was ever conceived. The //c+ is somewhat less common because although it's the "fastest Apple //", there wasn't a whole lot of market for the thing when it was introduced. What the RAM connector on the ROM 3, 4, and //c+ is useful for is development of new //c hardware prototypes. I plan to put an Echo in one, and I've got thoughts about the future and network connectivity.

Glad you got what you're looking for!