ngtwolf
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Posts posted by ngtwolf
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Question for anyone who has anyone made one of these themselves? I had a pcb from a few years time back that I had started to build out but got sidetracked on other projects (plus I already own a flashrom99 anyway). I thought I would revisit building this board, and I had all the parts except the Cypress SRAM (CY62158ELL-45ZSXI) which is apparently hard to find and seems outrageously expensive for what it is. Anyone know if theres an alternative sram that would work?
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On 2/26/2018 at 11:18 AM, helocast said:Is this one worth scanning for The Collection or just noise being third party and all?
SAMS Computer Facts, Computer: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Model PHC004A, April 1984
I picked it up pristine/sealed off of eBay - several 11"x17" photos of component locations with list by value/tolerance, troubleshooting, etcetera.
Did anyone ever end up scanning this? Can't find it anywhere and most of the technical repair manuals out there are pretty poor quality. I saw a few of the recreated schematics, but would be helpful to have this as well.
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Hi all,
Just thought I'd post this for those that might not see it. It's an alternative cheap PLA replacement you can make yourself. I've actually made a few of these myself and they've worked on every C64 I've tried (as well as my C64... if you have a programmer, you can make these super cheap.
https://www.freepascal.org/~daniel/c64pla/
https://youtu.be/GKyoh_gGTYM-
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BTW, can you link to where you found that image of that card? Maybe theres something I can research there to figure out what the card type is (and maybe the pinout). The photo of the matching card, not that scan, I mean.
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Awesome, that definitely looks like it. I'll have to figure out the pinout to see if I can make an adapter for it though. If so, I'd like to move it over to my IIe since I don't really use the II+.
Thanks so much for your help!
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3 hours ago, Aunty Entity said:If that DB9 socket peeking out from under the lid isn't a joystick port for some reason, it could well be RGB... it'd be about the age of EGA RGB Monitors which are DB9's....
Looks like Polymorph was right about the Videx clone... I'm still leaning towards the unknown being RGB but that's all I have... other suggestions I've had along the way were maybe something like a light pen...
No DB9's there except the one that is part of the Videx function strip stuck on the lid, which would connect to a videx keyboard enhancer that gets attached to the keyboard (I believe it replaces the normal keyboard card). I've since removed that whole piece since its kinda useless without the card (and generally useless anyway).
3 hours ago, hoserama99 said:I assume there are no ROM chips on the mystery card? I can't quite make it out.
The only suggestion I have would be to plug mystery card into, say, slot 1, boot up the II+ and check $C100 through $C1FF to see if code is mapped in from a ROM on the card.
Nope, no ram there. Attached is a better photo. The only connections on this card are two areas for ribbon cables, one for a 16 pin ribbon cable and one for a 14 pin ribbon cable. The picture that is of the chips replaced on the motherboard with it's connector is a 16 pin connector and looks like it connects to the end of this card, but can't be sure.
I tried the software i had that identifies cards, but it didn't identify this one. Worst case, as mentioned, there are lots of removable logic chips on this board so I can always use it for those, just didn't want to do so in case it was some special rare card which while it might be rare, it doesn't seem like it's special.
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Thanks folks for the replies so far. Heres some more info, and i'll attach other photos i took when i first got the system.
The Apple II+ came with four cards in it, but none of them were really hooked up to things inside, most of the stuff inside was unplugged. I think there was something going on at one point which i'll get into in a minute.
One card was the disk controller, another was a memory expansion card (attaching to a ram chip spot on the board), another I believe is an 80 column card but it's not really hooked up to anything so i'm not sure that was ever working as such (I recall it works different on the II+ and you have to have some kind of manual switch or something), and then that weird card. As others have pointed out, it doesn't look like a commercial card but it also looks too good to be a home brew. Maybe it was made by some small local shop somewhere. If it's RGB, then I don't know how that would have worked. It has two connectors, and one of the connectors looks like it connects to whatever is going on in the main board. Also, it's all logic chips (or at least mostly logic chips and -no- ram) and since there was an 80 column card and a memory card, its unlikely to have been either of those. As a final note, there was a Videx keyboard enhancement on the lid, but it wasn't connected to anything and I believe that also needs a card attached to the keyboard which wasn't on this computer, so that was a bit odd also. Either it was removed (since stuff was unplugged inside), or this lid came from another computer. The part that leads me to believe there was another system is this computer also came with one of those Silentype thermal printers but there was no card for that printer in this computer either.
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Hi All,
About 6 months back I picked up an Apple II+ that had some modifications and a card I can't identify. Anyone know what this is?
Thanks!
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There is table with columns: MinRAM, T1.04,T2.06,MSTE - does it look like TOS versions for Falcon, TT ? Min RAM is 1MB in most cases, so yes, it works on 1040STFM .
Considering used systems - there is something similar to WHDload by Amiga, but other systems are used too - like direct hard disk access with own code.
Thanks, I must have misread the page, it was late here when I looked at that. Sadly both my ICD FAST and Megafile 30, as well as my memory upgrade for my 520STFM went bad in the 25 years in storage, so I'll need to tackle upgrading all that before I can give this a shot. (oh, and burn some new TOS images since that clearly went bad as well...sigh).
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Truth is that we don't know with what it will work, simply because that YT video is for product what can not buy anymore. Other versions, with similar look and price may act not 100% same as this Teardown. So, as in many other cases, 7 min video, where only some 20 secs are interesting - at the end. YT will be soon worse than commercial TV channels with advertisements.
Well, I agree in that we don't know if it'll work on the STF or not. To be honest, I only have a 520STFM and a 520ST, and it didn't work on the 520 ST I have so my data pool is pretty small. Someone mentioned another non modulated one in the comments that didn't work as well, so my assumption was the modulator but I have nothing to back that up. My assumption is only based on the fact that the composite cables also don't work on ST's without the modulator as well. Obviously you can open these things up and with some soldering and/or parts make this work, but I'm only referencing out of the box solutions.
As an aside, you can still get the box. I actually didn't get the exact link on the video either, the key is you have to get the same box because this specific box has a TV tuner in it, where-as many of the other boxes out there do not. Here is another link for the product, but just doing an ebay search for hdmi scart converter and finding the ones that look exactly like this are all the same chinese box.
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Since everyone else is kinda circumventing the original request (of a technical solution you can build yourself) and offering other options, i guess I will do so as well. What I currently use is the ST to Scart cable you can buy from a place like coolnovelties for under $20 US dollars and a specific SCART to HDMI Converter (Supports PAL and NTSC) which is usually about $25 US Dollars on ebay (just make sure you use the exact one). So that's under $50. Plus, if you have other retro computers, this Scart to HDMI Converter comes up pretty handy quite a bit. The caveat is that this doesn't appear to work with the base ST line of computers without the Modulator. In theory that shouldn't matter, because the cable i got is definitely RGB and not Composite, but for some reason it didn't work on my 520ST but worked find on my 520STFM (and comments on the video below are similar experience). BTW, don't use the cheap scart cables you find on ebay as those are composite and not RGB and you'll get a pretty lousy picture.
Basically, theres a video:
Obviously if you live in a country with SCART built into your TV and monitors, you can do that directly and circumvent the hdmi converter, but if you're in the US, that isn't an option.
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Made YT demonstration with US TOS 1.62i
This looks good. I'm in the process of burning new 1.04 roms to my 520STFM since a couple of the TOS chips went bad (leave your childhood ST in storage for 25+ years and everything goes to hell..haha). Would be good if you eventually offer an option to burn our own chips since I don't really need to buy rom chips or shipping across the world.
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But most will not work from hard disk, mass storage, UltraSatan.
Instead wasting time, get games adapted for hard disk usage. Surely you will find here many of those you made floppy images:
Thanks for that link, I actually didn't know that was possible on the ST (i guess like whdload on the amiga?). From my brief search though, the site seems to imply they only work on Falcon and TT (I'm assuming because of ram requirements?). The OP has listed a 1040STFM, does it work on that?
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If you want noise, may keep there old drive with power attached only
So i've kept a few old drives in my systems to just have them with the system (better to take up space inside a computer than in a box), but I'll be honest, I don't plug them in. The 'Hard Drive Noise' is the one thing I definitely don't miss... and my god, those old RLL drives in the megafiles were like rockets taking off.
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LOL, that is way too costly they need to make a basics version of this device with just the MFM/RLL hard drive emulator.
Technically this could be done with a Pi via a custom adapter and software (think Pi1541), but sadly there just isn't interest much interest in doing this for MFM/RLL. Original PC's have the XT2IDE adapter to avoid using MFM/RLL at all, so that really just leaves us with computers like the Atari ST who just happened to have old Megafile's sitting around. If this was a C64, there would probably be lots of low cost options, but alas the Atari doesn't fall into the mass market or people trying to save a buck.
Personally I looked at the DREM and the $270 was crazy so I looked at lower cost options, like the Ultrasatan. Ultimately the price on that was still too high considering the most expensive retro hard drive i've purchased was $60+shipping for the SCSI2SD adapter for my Amiga 3000. For now, I just put a Gotek into my 520STFM drive bay and called it a day.
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good to know, i asked because the STE I bought has a Gotek and no floppy. But I do have some floppies if that makes any sense. I figure it's easier to primarily use the Gotek and just pull the floppy drive out of the drawer if needed.
Yeah, I wanted to keep my ST stock which is why I wanted to keep the drive inside the machine, but honestly, almost none of my disks work anymore (3 1/2" floppies were such crap.. i have older systems with 5 1/4 disks that have a much higher reliability percentage) so I decided it just wasn't worth it.. I was also lazy to print the mount, but in the end that would have been so much faster than all the time I wasted trying to get the external gotek working. I have the switch if I ever want to use the external floppy drive, but because of the media issues, that'll be less and less common going forward.
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don't want to start a new topic if unnecessary has anyone gone the other way and made the floppy the external and kept the GOTEK internal. It's a 1040STE if that makes any difference.
I actually have it set that way now. I did the switch and since I couldn't get the gotek to work as external for me, I just 3d printed the mount and put the gotek inside and using a floppy as external. It's pretty much the same process no matter which one you have as external, its just for me the hxc software was a lot more finicky then the disk drive is.
Oh, this is assuming you have an external floppy drive already (since you need the power and the cable), which i did.
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Updating my own post.. broke down and paid for the hxc software and went that route. Also used a different gotek. Still get's the same error, so i'm at a loss. At least I know now the hxc software isn't any better.
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Hi All,
I hate to bring this topic up since I see it's generally been talked about to death, but I don't see my particular problem so I figured i'd ask.
Currently set up the Gotek in an external drive case and have my regular internal floppy drive. I've done the switch mod as detailed just about everywhere, the one where you snip the pins on the yamaha chip and connect the switch. With it switch the one way, internal is A and external gotek is B.. everything works fine. Switched the other way, it knows that the gotek is A and the internal drive is B, and HXC program boots up. However, upon bootup, I get the infamous 'LBA CHANGE TEST FAILED! Write Issue?' message. If I physically put the Gotek internally it's all good and I can program some slots. As well, after programming those slots and moving the gotek back as the external drive, if I switch to those they boot up and run fine. Obviously I can just do this in indexed mode and not deal with all this, but I'd like to do the autoboot method.
Anyway, reading the forums, it appears like lots of people have this set up and working this way, so not sure what my issue might be. The only thing I have done differently is that I'm using the flashfloppy software to image it instead of the hxc software. Has anyone else used that and have it configured this way (as external drive)?
If any of this helps, i'm using the autoboot.hfe from 4/28/2018 and the hxcsdfe.cfg from 12/8/2016. My Flashfloppy firmware is 0.9.29a and the emulator file selector software is 1.66a. (update, also used the flashfloppy hxcsdfe.cfg from 9/30/18 and autoboot.hfe (version 1.72-ff) from 9/30/2018 - same results).
If theres a thread that i missed that addresses this particular issue, pointing me there would be great too... most every one I found is usually because they didn't have the switch or it wasn't working in some other way, where-as this appears to be just the hxc autoboot software that isn't working for me, every other aspect works fine.
Thanks!
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So got this on my youtube feed from a friend of mine. Super crazy that this thing still works after being in a barn and covered in ants and my perfectly good C64 I can't manage to figure out what's wrong.
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Great, thanks so much... Crazy how every version I find appears to be different, but most of those didn't have a picture I could use. Looks like they were building these things by hand and just changing the specs on the fly. Mine seems to have 3 wires vs the 4 on yours, with two 'real' type like your four, and that one green one which appears to have been a total afterthought. (although, technically these are all afterthoughts or they would have just used a larger ribbon cable)
I'll look at this on the weekend, I had to put my ST away while I worked on a different project. I've been trying to keep my mess down to a minimum lately after it got super unmanageable for a while there.
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My 8 year old son can grab a modern laptop and android phone and be all set. He's just started learning how to program his robot in scratch and leaning a few very simple bash/python scripting tricks but he's not able to recompile the applications or kernel for his robot but he'll learn in due time. I had him sit in front of my C64 the other day and he was very frustrated at the keyboard... ie "what is that crazy load something thingy on the keyboard to see the list of games" ?
I think your 8 year old needs to teach my 18 year old..
Congrats! -
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I totally agree. My 80+ year old father-in-law wanted to check stocks online and it was really hard for him to navigate the mouse and yahoo website. If it were Compuserver or something I could have said "when this comes up, press '1' for stocks" then type the symbol and hit ENTER." In a lot of ways it was easier. I also find it amusing that these days on my PC I just go to the start menu and type the name of the program I want to run. I very rarely click icons, unless it's one of the handful of things pinned to the bar. It's kind of come full circle.
Oh, its sad but true. I've been building a Win-98 PC to do some disk stuff for my retro PC's and I couldn't remember where anything was.. Heck, there wasn't even a windows key (obviously CTRL-ESC works, but still). I had to google to remember where the heck the device manager was.
On my modern pc, I just hit Windows key, type part of what i want, and hit enter.. -
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It was actually easier to train some users to use DOS-like interfaces than GUIs. I encountered lots of people back in those days that had to use a computer for work, but were kind of tech-phobic. They demanded exact step-by-step instructions to perform any given task. It was easier to give such users such instructions when the key presses reliably worked. With a GUI, the windows/icons could be in different locations than they expected and that would get them flustered. Worse it was nearly impossible to talk them through it over the phone because you couldn't see their screen.
Today, people are much more tech-savvy, and I rarely encounter people like this anymore. But back then, I encountered quite a lot of them.
Yup, that makes sense. Just ask if they see the c> prompt and go from there.
That said, I'm not 100% sure that people these days are more 'tech savvy' but rather tech terminology knowledgeable. Telling them words like icons and mice and stuff they all understand now, but in a lot of cases I feel like the world has been dumbed down as far as how computers work, and most of that is due to the simplicity of pc's and mobile operating systems. Must be the same way auto people started feeling 30 years ago. It's funny, I saw a clip of that Bits and Bytes show where they have the "old guy" trying to use a Pet and TRS-80 and how 'young me' would laugh at that.. but the funny thing is, if you put a kid in front of one of those computers now (and I have), that same ignorance about how those PC's work would still exist. I can only imagine the WTF eye-rolls I'd get trying to explain Load "$", 8 and OPEN 4,4:CMD 4.
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The FinalGROM 99
in TI-99/4A Development
Posted
Cool, thanks for the responses guys, i'll check these out.