iKarith

I like the SAMS card, but the P-box is kind of an unreasonable prerequisite for someone who doesn't have one and literally owns nothing else on your list yet. So it's not even on the horizon for me.

I've never had much success with the things honestly.

Stuart's browser doesn't actually use "proper" HTML for what it supports. That could be fixed I suppose. The issue is that Lynx is not small and a lot of web browsers REQUIRE encryption today the TI is going to have a hard time doing quickly. It could be done I suppose, but you'd want a proxy to handle HTTPS. The question's really going to be ultimately how much do you want to do on the TI and how much off of it?

That's okay, my wallet is very cash-limited, so I'll be using the built-in keyboard and no TIPI for awhile.

I'm pretty interested in gcc programming on the TI, both what it can do and can't, and maybe how it could be extended to do more.

It may not be ideal for TiPi because it's not the greatest solution for using your GPIO header, but I'm a big fan of the FLIRC Raspberry Pi case. Mostly because unless you're overclocking (and even if you are), the case provides sufficient passive cooling to the Pi in most environments. You can cool it more, but you don't need to. Flirc Case

Whatever you do, don't waste time and money on these things… https://www.amazon.com/Jonard-S-340-Insulated-Spring-Extractor/dp/B006C4BCAK Those will bend your pins all to hell. Much better off with a small flat blade screw driver and taking your time. In fact that's my preferred method, given this thing as the alternative I can afford.

What's your mapping Greg? I think it's probably important to have that documented so that people who do their own make something compatible with the ones you're selling. That way people can start safely using them in new games.

I want the portable system. I don't … car. And I don't know how I'd strap a P-Box to my back along with a console and a monitor very well.

That's fair. If someone wants to see something else supported, they ought to send one to you. I actually don't have an A, an A+/B+, or a 2 Rev 1.2 (which is a 3 without BT/WiFi). I have 2s, and if I can dig up an extra you're welcome to it if you'd like to test it. I only need one for a2cloud testing.

It might be possible to connect a Teensy to TiPi and let you use your KVM that way. That's a little fiddly for a couple of different reasons though. For one, you want to be able to use a keyboard on the Pi to control the Pi now and then for debugging and other things. For another, this would add a lot of cable mess. The other thing is you'd need to connect TiPi to the AVR sitting inside your console. This starts to get irritating if you ever want to move the thing. But it should be doable. Unless there is a reason Matt can think of why it wouldn't work? I still don't have a TiPi. I do now have a 32k! I couldn't get both, and I think Matt's still soldering the next batch of TiPis anyway.

The wiring of the 3 button Sega controllers is pretty easy: https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=controls:megadrive_genesis_controller_3 I'd post the image but the board says I'm not allowed to post a link to a png file. (wat?) This explains why they work on the Atari 2600 the way they do. Atari provides power on pin 7, but Sega uses pin 5. However, if you plug a Genesis controller into an Atari, the selector line is held high, which incidentally powers the chip. This allows you to read the D pad on pins 1-4, the B button on pin 6, and the C button on pin 9. If you power pin 5 instead so that you can toggle pin 7, you can read A and Start. If you try to read with pin 7 low, left and right will both be pressed at the same time. If they're not, you're not reading a genesis controller. The six button controllers have a more complex protocol. If you want an easy conversion, NES and SNES controllers are 8 and 16 bit shift registers.

The trip's guaranteed to be at least an hour for me, but that's because they don't let me drive for some reason.

Might want to pull details from FB and post them here. More than a few folks won't use it on principle, and others like me have had issues with Facebook killing their accounts and other shenanigans. And of course, you'll never talk to a human if there's a problem.

Oh I agree, if you have a P-Box it's the way to go. You still have to buy the Pi and a case for it, but if you don't need the 32k (which would've come with the P-Box most likely) and you're ready to add TiPi and go. Great solution, and it's easy to add a SAMS card too. If you DON'T have one, you don't have the choice of the SAMS card at all yet. And while you might at some point, your best bet is to have to replace your 32k to get it. And that's unfortunate because you've bought something that was kind of expensive because it's still hand-soldered and it just doesn't have a purpose once something better comes along. Same with those of us who have FinalROM boards. But if you DON'T have the box already, you'd be nuts to get one as a TiPi enclosure.

Including the USB version of what you have… https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-HP-Black-USB-Wired-Keyboard-434821-002-KU-0316/123096086156

Thing is, depending on your keyboard model, the TI keyboard may suck in terms of keys it has and doesn't have, but that HP keyboard sucks and is a mushy, gummy mess of a keyboard. Of course I still like my Alps salmon switch boards the best, but they don't make them anymore.

Omega, I'm so sorry that I only just learned of your sad news. I am sure your father would have loved to see what's been happening to this old computer in recent years, and I'm sure that he must see now how much you cherish your memories of getting to know him through this quirky little black and silver box. I didn't have the chance to get to know my father, but even at my relatively young age, I know all too personally what it's like to be looking at the end of your life and asking yourself if you have any regrets. Never really knowing your son must surely be such a regret for any man worthy of being called a man, much less a father. I'm sure he cherishes that time together as much as you do, if not more so. May his spirit find easy rest and be always there to watch over you and those you love until you meet again in a better world.

Albino TI? This is relevant to my interests.

I always get in trouble for it, but I don't see the reason for the P-Box. The SAMS card, okay, sure. But that's a really damned big box for a memory card and a TiPi connected to a Pi you're going to have outside the big box anyway so your wifi works. I'd rather see a modern RAM chip interfaced with a small CPLD or something replacing Matt's 32k connected to the existing TiPi.

Also love how arcadeshopper does these products—they're affordable because he didn't feel the need to NIH them. Look at that keyboard cable. It's a commodity part, F/F DuPont connector jumpers. They're cheap, they're easy to get, and they're easy to replace if the cable ever wears out. And although you'll have to do the work to solder the pin connector, you'll only do it once and effectively upgrade your keyboard to be more maintainable in the process. Score.

Not taking the poll since I don't have one yet, but I'll be very curious in the results when I can afford it. Looks like I'm getting a 32k for my birthday. That's the first step. I won't be using it because until I have a TiPi, I'll be better served by the 32k in my nanoPEB. I just can't swing > $100 right now for both. My fiancée told me to buy my own birthday present. W00! But that means I have to be somewhat responsible. Boo…

I can't say I'm interested in a new machine with none of the limitations of the existing TMS machines, mainly just because as Omega said, a new system to cater to this old processor just doesn't have the draw of a nostalgic machine like the TI-99/4A. Where you could go with it that would interest me is a board that that maintained compatibility with the TI-99/4A but made it more portable particularly in the case that you wanted a pretty heavily expanded system you could just pick up—and possibly a way for new people to have a lower cost of entry into a more tricked-out system. Enable a FinalGROM with a switch if there's no other cart plugged in. No need to plug in 32k, and it's fast RAM unless you disable that or turn it off entirely. Want to speed up the console? Easily done. And both card edge for PEB and pin connector for TiPi. Larger RAM upgrade possible too! F18A features standard would also make sense. Probably would be a couple hundred dollars, but that's still less than all of those upgrades would cost, especially the ones that'd require a PEB. How much of this to do in FPGA vs. real hardware … I dunno, I like real hardware but if an actual TMS chip becomes a difficulty in making it affordable, I don't care if the whole thing is FPGA-based honestly. For me the whole point of this would be to make a better all-in-one system, or all-in-one-if-you-wanted-it-to-be. It could run directly of a modern power supply without needing to modify anything, and I could see some of those 60% keyboard designs being popular to complete the system, albeit at a high cost if we're using one of the ones I was just looking at.

I'm poor as usual so I still don't have a TiPi or a finalGROM or a 32k… Or even F18A. I'm working on correcting these oversights as quick as I may.

All versions of the Pi Zero and Pi 1 (A, B, A+, and B+) use a BCM2835. Depending on which pins tipi uses, the cable you are using to connect to the pi may not be fully compatible with the model A and B. The Pi 2 B used the BCM2836 until October 2016. (ARMv7) If you buy a Pi 2 B after that, you're likely to get a v1.2 board which uses a BCM2837. Broadcom stopped making the 2836, so the new v1.2 Pi 2 model B was basically a Pi 3 model B without wifi/bluetooth. Didn't cost any less, but there were some users who needed the version without radios, so RPF kept it around. The Pi 3 B, as mentioned, uses the BCM2837. The BCM2837B0 is a slight mod to the 2837 with the heat spreader allowing it to clock a little higher without quite so much heat generation. That combined with the new support chips on the Pi 3 B+ make it clock faster and have better WiFi and Ethernet. Technically the BCM2837 is a 64-bit ARMv8 device, but … we use them on the Pi as 32-bit ARMv7(s) devices because 1GB RAM sucks for 64 bit twice as much as it does for 32. I wouldn't recommend a Pi 1 A/B, but the A+/B+ should just work for you. And if they work for you, probably the older 2 B+ will work without much modification aside from verifying what speed it wants to operate at. Clear as mud, eh? If you have a Pi Zero without WiFi, you'd probably want either an Ethernet dongle supported by Linux (no, Android support doesn't mean it will work for those USB-OTG models) or a USB WiFi adapter (again, must be Linux supported). But by the time you're doing all of that, really, why don't you just get yourself a Pi Zero W from Greg with the convenient header already installed, or pick up a Pi with the networking option you want built right in? The Pi is the cheapest part of getting TiPi set up and running.