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On a TI, you have up to 7 x 248 (maybe 256) MB drives with the SCSI2SD. On the Geneve in MDOS mode, you have access to 3 drives while if you do Rompage, you can get access to SCS4, SCS5, SCS6, and SCS7. I power mine from a power cable off of the disk drive cable. My SCSI card does not provide the power. If you plug a USB cable into the front of the SCSI2SD, then it will power it at least as far as reading from the drives. Not sure about writing. I think you are better off just using the power from the floppy drive. You need to plug a Windows computer into the front of the drive with the USB port to configure the drives initially and then use DU2K to format the individual drives. There was something said about being able to access files via the USB port, however, I have not been able to, and I can not understand how this would even be possible since it is a TI File system. It would be different if we didn't have to format it. Beery

I've noticed something recently with Microsoft Edge on my Windows 10 computer. I have been leaving this webpage open watching for messages to come through while watching TV and/or working on the Geneve. After a period of time, the webpage locks up. Anyone else notice this? It seems to be only happening here on Atariage.

I've noticed something recently with Microsoft Edge on my Windows 10 computer. I have been leaving this webpage open watching for messages to come through while watching TV and/or working on the Geneve. After a period of time, the webpage locks up. Anyone else notice this? It seems to be only happening here on Atariage.

Is the SCSI card supported in MAME?

I think you are missing one piece of the equation here. That would be the processing necessary to get the data through the TIPI ports, and then the code waiting for the response back, and then transferring the data, that could have been spent processing the floating point operation. Now, I don't know how many memory cycles it would take for straight assembly code, the F18A route, or the TIPI concept, but I would have thought dealing with straight assembly may have had the fewest cycles with all things considered. That's just a guess though. I think a card that just you gave it CPU memory pointers to the data and the instruction to be completed that I think what Matt eluded to earlier would be the direction that would be the fastest. There, I would envision a fast chip would give you the answer back in maybe the fewest clock cycles???? Just guessing. I am sure some of the coding could be streamlined to minimize loops and calls. Beery

No, that wasn't what I was trying to say or imply. I was trying to imply I did not think the overhead of even using the TIPI as a messaging system for such an idea would unlikely lead to an improvement in speed versus some assembly code that already exists and alerting other parties there may be other ways to skin the cat.

Matt, not disagreeing with you here, but does one even think by the time you pass the data back and forth from the TIPI through the messaging system that it would be quicker? I ask because Lee took the floating point routines written in assembly for the Geneve XOP and ported them over into Forth on a TI-99/4A. I would think something similar could be done and a floating point library saved to a SAMS page and likely be as quick. Maybe there are more involved math computations others are thinking about that would take more time, but throwing a different approach out there for others to consider as an option if they have something with a lot of math involved. Beery

What do the graphics look like for the program if you are able to run it?

I've not been checking this thread too often, but had a couple of minutes and saw this statement you made. If the path to your file is TIPI.SUB1.SUB1A.FILENAME, then your length is decimal 24 or hex >18 for your PAB+9 byte as you do have to count each sub folder. A lot of programmers will allocate a blank string of spaces 40 bytes in length to accommodate the maximum path length for a device path and filename, many times with a BSS 40 instruction. Depending upon how you handle filename entry by the user, you may actually want to make it a BSS 42, so that during the filename entry, your buffer is actually the filename. After filename entry depending upon how you have coded things, you would either keep a count of the length as the user enters it, or go back and calculate the length looking for some kind of termination character which is why I added 2 more bytes to land on an even word boundary when you include the termination character. With the TI-99/4A, if you clear in VDP where you are typing the filename, you would count character length reading one character at a time and stop the count at the first space character on the screen. There are a multitude of ways to handle determining the filename length.

Here are some schematics Paolo had of the Myarc FDC as well as some DIS/VAR 80 files on notes he had taken. Schematic #1.PDF Schematic #2.PDF MYARC-FDC1 MYARC-FDC2 MY-FDC-PAL READ_THIS

Came across this document for the Myarc Floppy Disk Controller PAL 12L6 from Paol Bagnaresi from 1990. Wasn't sure if the information is out there or not. Myarc FDC PAL Logic.PDF

Before this week, the only thing I was using for printing was MyWord until I began testing some other programs with the latest MDOS changes. Hard to say how many programs may be at issue. Then, the other issue would be if they did any error detection as I think Matt indicated he may be adding an error on write response if no open first. I think we need that, as if a user only has TI system, it creates a lockup. Haven't tried telnetting into localhost from a PC to see if I could do a sudo reboot now entry to avoid pulling the power on the PI.

I couldn't get a transfer to complete without an error..... This is Windows 10 Edge.

I don't know if any of the Forth programmers have been following some posts in the TIPI development area so want to point out an observation. I found one program, and likely it is two, McCann's The Printer's Apprentice and likely The Geometer's Apprentice that may have an issue should the user decide to print to PI.PIO if they have a TIPI. Just making a note here for others not knowing how the forth definitions are written if a user wanted to print to the PI.PIO device. The TIPI and PI require a PAB for OPEN, WRITE, and then CLOSE to properly render to PDF. I have come across Myart and The Printer's Apprentice that just WRITE without an OPEN an CLOSE. That's fine for the RS232 card, but will lock up the PI and the computer requiring a PI reboot if the OPEN and CLOSE are not implemented. Beery

Just a FYI for others as I was testing some software with the TIPI for printing files to PI.PIO. It appears The Printer's Apprentice, written in MDOS Forth does not do an open, write, and close as well. Suspect The Geometer's Apprentice does the same thing since they are both written in Forth. Anyways, just reporting reporting programs that don't follow the open/write/close process of writing to the printer.

Thanks for the files everyone. Not sure if the file on ftp.whtech.com is actually a zip labeled as a PDF, or really a PDF that is corrupted causing the browser to give a bad file description. I came across my TGA and TPA disks and was trying to figure out some things that weren't obvious. Beery

I'm looking for several things. The Myarc Advanced Basic PDF on ftp.whtech.com under the Geneve folder appears to be corrupted. Can someone please confirm? I've tried loading on 3 different computers without success and hopefully someone has a good scan some place. I've got an original unscanned, but looking for a good scanned version. Second, I am looking for the software manuals for McCann's software The Printer's Apprentice and The Geometer's Apprentice, both for MDOS. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

I know with the Memex Mod, there was an issue with having some chips that were extremely fast that were not necessary with a non-GenMod system. Ron Walters had a very high specification on speed (20 or 30 ns, maybe 70 ns) as I recall versus a cheaper slower version of the same chip. That conversation was almost 30 years ago and I do not remember the precise details. I know at the time, the 504K Memex card did not have the issue. It was only when the GenMod was implemented the issue was seen with intermittent memory read errors. I have no idea what may be involved with the Myarc 512K card modification, but make sure you do not do anything with slower speed chips. Just saying...... Beery

OK, here it is without it being in green. 2021-01-24 21:26:43,838 PioFile : INFO write special? PI.PIO 2021-01-24 21:26:43,862 TipiService : ERROR Unhandled exception in main Traceback (most recent call last): File "./TipiService.py", line 79, in <module> if specialFiles.handle(pab, filename): File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/SpecialFiles.py", line 50, in handle handler.handle(pab, devname) File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/PioFile.py", line 31, in handle self.write(pab, devname) File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/PioFile.py", line 105, in write with open(self.data_filename, "ab") as data_file: TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not NoneType 2021-01-24 21:26:44,384 TipiService : INFO physical mode enabled 2021-01-24 21:26:44,385 TipiService : INFO TIPI Ready

Ooops, made a mistake. I use DU2K for SCSI, not DM2K.

I used DM2K for SCSI. Not sure if DM2K can be used for HFDC or IDE. Suspect they can, but I have not personally confirmed. Beery

Tim, if there is no PI.PIO open and a subsequent close, then I think that explains what was happening. If I understood Matt's comments from last year when he implemented the PI.PIO, it needs the Open and Close to trigger the appropriate responses for the PDF underlying code for the capture, and subsequent page(s) generation. Hopefully those programs that don't follow the proper protocols are few and far between. Beery

About the only thing I am missing in that configuration is the IDE, but hey, at over 128 GB of online storage with the TIPI, why would I need more? <grin>.

I do not think with a PFM-Geneve and IDE, you can successfully load the complete MDOS. The problem being here is that MDOS is greater than the 120K available with the PFM setup you have. Same issue I have. The IDE/SCSI/TIPI MDOS remainder code has not been loaded as part of the separate files and at the moment in the PFM, I know of no way to get around that hurdle. Now, with a 1.0 Eprom which is not an option for the PFM, then you would have SCSI. Not entirely sure if the way the V1.0 eprom was written if it would also pick up the LOAD/SYS from the hard drive to access to the IDE. If there is anyone running with a V1.0 eprom and an IDE controller without SCSI/HFDC, I hope they would chime in and report.

Matt, Trying to chase down an issue with printing from Myart. When I print, it locks the PI up tight requiring a power off/on to recover. The text in orange is print from ABASIC a DIS/FIX 128 file. Things print fine from MyWord as well. Both prints fine. In the green highlighted material, there is an error when I print to PI.PIO from Myart. Is there anything obvious to you in the information in the log file to identify what may be at issue? 2021-01-24 20:43:22,495 TipiService : INFO physical mode enabled 2021-01-24 20:43:22,495 TipiService : INFO TIPI Ready 2021-01-24 21:22:43,524 PioFile : INFO open special? PI.PIO 2021-01-24 21:22:43,524 PioFile : INFO creating new spool: /tmp/print_2021_01_24_T21_22_43.prn 2021-01-24 21:22:43,545 PioFile : INFO write special? PI.PIO 2021-01-24 21:22:43,585 PioFile : INFO close special? PI.PIO 2021-01-24 21:22:43,585 PioFile : INFO converting /tmp/print_2021_01_24_T21_22_43.prn to PDF 2021-01-24 21:22:57,354 PioFile : INFO completed pdf conversion 2021-01-24 21:26:43,838 PioFile : INFO write special? PI.PIO 2021-01-24 21:26:43,862 TipiService : ERROR Unhandled exception in main Traceback (most recent call last): File "./TipiService.py", line 79, in <module> if specialFiles.handle(pab, filename): File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/SpecialFiles.py", line 50, in handle handler.handle(pab, devname) File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/PioFile.py", line 31, in handle self.write(pab, devname) File "/home/tipi/tipi/services/PioFile.py", line 105, in write with open(self.data_filename, "ab") as data_file: TypeError: expected str, bytes or os.PathLike object, not NoneType 2021-01-24 21:26:44,384 TipiService : INFO physical mode enabled 2021-01-24 21:26:44,385 TipiService : INFO TIPI Ready