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Showing results for tags 'F18A'.
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OK, so I just installed an f18a on my ADAM a couple of days ago and it worked great...until I put my ADAM back together today and now when I turn it on I get this screen. Any ideas? I'm not looking forward to tearing the thing apart again!!!
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I got my F18A a little while ago and I've been waiting for some free time to get it installed and try it out, but I figured I'd ask the forum if anyone has any particular tips or best practices for mounting and installation. Any particular VGA bracket mounting location better than others, best way to modify the case, etc?
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I am looking to put together a motherboard replacement and wanted to get some opinions on a few things. In order to keep costs low and reduce board size, the controller ports would be moved to the expansion port area. Ideally the SGM features could be impletemented, but if not an expansion port could be done internally and a SGM could be installed inside the system. This board would only be F18a compatible so only VGA output would be available (although an off the shelf converter would fit inside with the extra room to convert to HDMI). The board would include new power reset switch functionality. The attached picture shows a rough first pass at the PCB, Some stock images from the motherboard have been superimposed to give a general idea of where components would go. Is not Having the expansion port in the front a deal breaker for most or does this seem like it could be a solution for those looking for a replacement. All feedback is welcome. Thanks
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From the album: ColecoVision
Colecovision F18a tall pins, caps folded over for clearance.© TJW 2016
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Hi I setup a new online store to help make ordering easier for the modded systems I sell like the HDMI output version. Preorders can also be ordered through the site if they are out of stock. I also have expansion modules, accessories, and games on the store as well. Here is the direct link: https://colecovisionupgradesandsales.ecwid.com/ This can also be accessed through facebook on my page: https://www.facebook.com/ColecoVisionUpgradeAndSales/ by clicking on the store tab. Any feedback is welcome. Thanks- 20 replies
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Finally installed my F18a and I took a different approach. I used the dremel tool and just dug down maybe 1mm into the bottom part of the case. It was a breeze and looks great. It makes it's own strain relief. See photo
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What is the username of the guy that came up with and made these cool video boards?
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Fitting the F18A and an amplifier into the 4A console II
Willsy posted a topic in TI-99/4A Computers
Thought I'd post a few pictures to show that the F18A can indeed be fitted neatly into the console: This first pic shows the F18A VGA connector fitted into the case of the console. It is necessary to remove the steel support from the VGA connector that is supplied with the F18A, and also the black plastic shroud around the VGA connector pins. Use a sharp knife to cut away the plastic to make a snug fit, then drill two holes for the VGA connector screws to hold the connector in place on the case. De-solder the original analogue video out connector from the mother board. You can also see the cartridge cover has been removed to expose the grille in the top of the console. A 45mm Mylar speaker fits just great. Use two little spots of Uhu glue to glue it in place: This picture shows the VGA connector in-situ. Note that the UPPER case is cut and drilled, not lower case! Make sure to use washers and a split washer to hold the nut tight; it's a pain in the ass when they come loose and you have to open the console up to tighten them again: Cartridge cover back in place. Solder the cables to the speaker before you put the cover back on! I took the power supply for the internal amplifier (a kit from Velleman) from the mother board. As can be seen, I've tapped into the +12V supply: Here's the F18A taking pride of place. Obviously the 9929 has been removed! Take care to fold the video cable so that it exits towards the back of the circuit board. Re-assembling the motherboard case. The F18A fits inside the steel case just fine. You can see the amplifier, which as yet to be stuck down. It's very small, measuring about 35mm by 45mm. The amplifier is stuck to the 'roof' of the console, just to the side of the joystick port. It fits in there just perfect, the steel case on the mother board doesn't foul it! All re-assembled - all fits together just fine! The VGA connector looks quite neat and is the only clue that something different lurks within! Oh, and the speaker! If you have some thin black plastic anti-static gauze (the type that is supplied with ICs sometimes) then you put that between the grille and the speaker to cover the speaker up. The final test: Beautiful crisp display on my 1024x768 LCD VGA monitor: The amplifier works fine too, and is as loud as hell! It's rather noisy though; there is an awful lot of noise picked up - you can 'hear' the 9900 processing. Of course, speech also comes from the internal speaker now, too. I'm going to add a rotary volume control to the side of the console next. I took the audio output from the original audio out at the video connector. I understand that at this point, the audio signal has already been amplified a little for sending on to the UHF modulator. I'm open to suggestions as to alternative locations that I could pick up the audio signal from (somewhere less "noisy" I hope). Maybe I can just connect directly to the audio out pin on the sound chip? My next little project is to add a two-stage flip-flop to the clock input on the sound chip to drop the sound by two octaves to give proper bass notes, giving a much more usable audio range. Mark
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today my vga to hdmi converter arrived i ordered from ebay so i decided to plug everything together and do some games playing i had already installed the f18a the other week and know that it works fine because i have played games using it briefly to test it the games i attempted tonight that a[[eared to cause issues are the following: pong from the pong / computer space box set, this game does nothing at all. i know the game works because it works fine on the same machine using the vdp chip and still works on my French board the re release of moon patrol, this game works however it crashes in about 2 seconds once the game has started (in my case beginner mode) the issue occurs if the vga to hdmi box is connected or not can anyone confirm this or know what could be the issue? could changing the f18a jumpers offer a fix? anyone have any ideas?
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So, a fresh batch of F18As went out recently. I managed to grab 2. I've upgraded my working console with one, and then this next weekend, I'm hoping the second will just fix what looks like bad VDP ram in my second console. The first thing that struck me, is that now all the emulators look more like real iron But my favorite new software feature is 80 column editor in fbForth. My next favorite new thing is how it makes this old TI look like college era Sega when you run the ALEX KIDD cartridge demo. What is your favorite app/feature/aspect that changes regular real iron usage of your TI?
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I’m about to buy two F18A’s, one for my “new” TI-99/4A, and one for my 65816 based homebrew computer MARC-2. As I said before, my intention is to write a few little machine language games for both systems simultaneously. So both having the same VDP, surely is a huge advantage. Even more because the F18A is becoming almost a standard in the TI community. Of course I’ve looked on Matthew’s site and on this forum, but I probably overlooked one or two things. MARC-2 has a 3.3V data bus on the CPU side, and a 5V data bus on the RAM side. In between, there is a 3.3V but 5V tolerant CPLD. (XC95288XL) My question is, can I connect the F18A to the 3.3V side? And just out of curiosity, who of you uses the F18A with another computer than the TI-99/4A? *------ Although MARC-2 is 3.3V, it’s not the definitive destination for the F18A. I’m designing a new computer, MARC-3 (My Adorable Retro Computer version 3). It’s practically almost ready, except for the actual build. The main difference is that it will be modular, that is, I’ll use a ground plane, similar to the S-100 bus, and carts for the different parts of the computer system. The second difference will be that it’s running solely on 5V.
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There is a new firmware available for the F18A, V1.6. It fixes a subtle bug related to sprites and includes many new features that I hope will be utilized. If you have an F18A in your 99/4A there is a in-system software update available (requires a CF7/nanoPEB or disk system that can handle about 250K of files). I posted the full details in the F18A Resource thread here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/207586-f18a-programming-info-and-resources/page-12?do=findComment&comment=3226312
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I know some of you have been waiting for this moment, so I thought I'd do the neighborly thing let you all know... There a couple of F18A's available! >> AT THIS LINK << as of the time this post. I have no financial interest or affiliation with the seller; I just thought it would be nice to inform those who may be interested.
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Does anyone have any Monthly Budget Projection or Home Finance templates for TI-Multiplan? Or any templates at all that they could share? I've just spent over an hour making a lame little template, that's not even done yet, and I've come to the conclusion that in 30 years SOMEONE has had to have made a great one. Why re-invent the wheel? Now that this little bugger runs in 80 columns, it's worth using! Thanks!
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Had to say this; just installed the F18a and WOW. it was so easy to install and the picture is great! The only hard part is cutting the hole for the plug. The only program I, so far, have problems with is 'The missing link'. keep getting, 'out of memory' and Stack memory goes to 0. Since I don't use it much, don't care. on the other hand It might be my imagination but the graphics seem faster. can't wait to delve into some of the extended features.
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From the album: Slinkeey's TI-99/4A
TI-99/4A With VGA Port Using F18A Board #1 -
From the album: Slinkeey's TI-99/4A
TI-99/4A With VGA Port Using F18A Board #2 -
F18A - Mission Impossible Okay, I’ve come up with a challenge for all you Uber Programmers of the TI! I’m wondering if anyone has the skill set to design and implement a GUI loader for the TI. If a program such as this could reside in a SuperCart “, it would be ready at a split seconds notice. Now with the ‘extended graphical features of the F18A, it might finally be possible to make a really nice graphical user interface. The closest thing I remember to this was in TI-Artist, something like that could be updated, modified, and F18Aified. If I remember right it accepted arrow keys, letters or joystick input. So, what do you think? Are you up to it?
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I recently installed an F18A into my TI, and now I want to play, but I have a couple of small problems. 1) I do not have a ton of time to hunt for the 'BEST' program available. 2) I have no clue where the BEST old graphics can be found. So, since this forum has the largest gathering of TI-Gods and experts of every shape and form, I figured, why not just ask you guys and save a boat load of time! I have MacFlix - and no longer have any old graphics for it. (I'll probably junk it). I have MaxRLE - but I only have 3 B&W graphics. (I'll probably junk it too). What I want to do is be able to display the enhanced color graphics ON THE TI that Tursi's TMS9918 converter can output. Does anyone have a link to the program I'm looking for? Thanks!
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With all the stuff I've lately, it got me thinking. It seems to me that a lot of things are available in the TI environment, that if brought together could really change the paradigm and set a new standard for our little ‘orphan’. The GROMS in the console for example, like Tursi showed us, with the 99/8 code floating around, we could ‘borrow’ the lower case code and replace what is already in the TI. If there are any new commands that can be ‘lifted and used’, all the better. We could possibly even change the default CYAN/BLACK screen to something a little bit more reasonable, possibly DARK BLUE/WHITE. Any of you have any ideas of something you would like to see changed or added to the basic console? It appears this may now be a possibility. Also, if there is a way to cram some extra stuff into the chips, and if the parts are available, possibly even a utility or two. (If you have not already done so, check out Tursi’s video, you’ll start drooling when you think of the possibilities he presents). Now there is that 512K UBER CART that will emulate GROM as well. Can you imagine a hacked version of Extended BASIC, or an Extended version of say RXB that had built-in routines to use and exploit the extended graphics modes of the F18A, while also staying backward compatible. Sweet!
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This weekend I finally got of my butt and installed the F18A in one of my many TI-99/4A consoles. While I was at it I also replaced the keyboard. Basically scrapping the keyboard from a non-working console. Now you have to know that I'm a total hardware noob, so the project took much longer as I intended. Basically I worked Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to get the thing working. Actually it was the first time in my life I cracked open a TI-99/4A and I was very impressed with the size of the TMS9900 processor That is actually quite a beast! Putting the F18A in was easy, but drilling the matching holes in the case was a bit of challenge, but managed after all. Also case assembly was a bit more complicated as I expected (had to redo that a second time, because the sideport was a bit off and it prevented insertion of CF7+ and firehose cable). For disassembly and assembly I followed the excellent instructions on Mainbyte's site: http://www.mainbyte....onsole_dis.html Anyway, you can't believe the smile on my face when I saw the TI title screen appear I have the 1st jumper on the F18A off as I want the "4 sprites in a row"-limit, because I want the original games to run as usual. Also might do some stuff that runs on systems without the F18A so I like thing to be the same. I tried some games (Donkey Kong, Munchman and Warzone II) and the picture quality is just awesome!! Never played Warzone II in an emulator and it's just incredibly, seeing on a TI-99/4A that the fighter plane is made of multiple sprites. Don't have sound yet, most likely I'll get a small active PC-speaker that I'll mount on the rearside of the monitor. What did you guys do for getting sound. (Pictures please ) Thanks Matthew! It's an incredible piece of hardware you created. Something you can be very proud of! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Here are some pictures:
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Hello, I am happy to annouce this new release of MLC that was harder to develop as there is no F18A emulator... So I had to run between the living room and the old-compurter room with my CF card to test the software. Thanks a lot to Matthew for his patience and fast replies. Now MLC gives access to the GPU (TMS990 coprocessor) with intructions: $GPU section to define the assembly code GPURUN adr GPUWAKE GPUSLEEP GPUSTATE Access to the BitMap layer with instructions: BMLSET m adr BMLPLOT x y c BMLDRAWTO x y c BMLFILLRECT w h Access to the timer with instruction TIMER options options can be: CLEAR, READ, SUM, TOFLOAT RESET, RUN, LOAD, INC MLC with DSK images and full PDF english manual, (some videos too) can be downloaded here: (english) http://gtello.pagesp...ge.fr/mlc_e.htm (français) http://gtello.pagesp...ge.fr/mlc_f.htm Some pictures for the F18A installation here: (english) http://gtello.pagesp...e.fr/ti99_e.htm (français) http://gtello.pagesp...e.fr/ti99_f.htm Guillaume. :
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