CF7+ and Pebox ?

[rocky007]

Stupid question : is it possible to connect CF7+ AND Pebox ?

 

check the picture :

 

I'm have CF7+ connected to Speech synthetiser and pebox.

 

In Pebox, i have 1 drive and Hxc Floppy emulator.

 

Without CF7+, everything working good together. With CF7+, i don't have access to pebox or CF7+ ( no Cf7+ logo on title screen).

Of course, i tryed just CF7+ and Pebox without Hxc, but same result.

 

The problem is i want to transfert my TI99 disks to files for emulator and share some programs.

Hxc don't emulate disk writing for now, and CF7+ doesn't look to work with Pebox, so..only way is by serial ?

 

;-(

Edited July 26, 2010 by rocky007

[Gary from OPA]

Stupid question : is it possible to connect CF7+ AND Pebox ?

 

I'm have CF7+ connected to Speech synthetiser and pebox.

 

In Pebox, i have 1 drive and Hxc Floppy emulator.

 

Well, the first problem is CRU, the CF7+ uses the same CRU address as DISK and RS232, (>1100 & >1300)

so you would need NOT to have those cards in your PEBOX, along of course without the 32K card either.

 

Plus their is reports the CF7+ does not like any other device besides SPEECH, even when

not crashing the same CRU, the CF7+ does something very wrong with the bus not sure what.

 

I need to do some tests myself, and see were the main fault in the hardware part of the CF7+ is.

 

Richard tried various third-party "sidecars", along with the CF7+ and they didn't work also.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Gary from OPA

[Opry99er]

Gary pretty much summed it up. Serial would be pretty easy--- with your current setup, serial would be the way to go. Or install a 5.25 on your PC and use the TI99-PC program. Another way would be to save your disk programs to tape if at all possible. Then attach your CF7, load the program from tape--- save to CF7. I've done this a few times for XB games and demos I had on diskette.

[rocky007]

thanks for your answers... i didnt knew that Pc can read the TI disks throught a special program, it's the most easy way for what i want to do.

i have a old 386 PC with 5.25, i'll try this.

[Gary from OPA]

thanks for your answers... i didnt knew that Pc can read the TI disks throught a special program, it's the most easy way for what i want to do.

i have a old 386 PC with 5.25, i'll try this.

 

You are lucky. All my pc's have been sadly updated, and even tho one of my PC does have 5.25" drive in it, that great program PC-TI99 does not like to write them, it does to my 3.5" but then my TI99 even tho it has 3.5" does not read them.

 

I got alot of archived TI stuff on my PC, and one of the reasons why I bought the CF7+ it was a great way to get the "archived" stuff on my PC back out and use it on a TI, since I am in the other boat, I really don't have any REAL TI99 floppies to READ, I want to WRITE them.

 

But now I got my files on my CF, but I am same like you, I want to transfer for them over to a full-fledged TI99 with pebox on floppy, etc.

 

So I been thinking, there really needs to be a better way to transfer on the CF7, I going to think of various ways, I know serial would be easy way, but damm like Richard has figured out and me, the CF7 does not like other devices for some reason, and I know Jamie is working on a new CF7 with a serial port instead, but why buy our CF7's all over again, just so we can transfer?

 

I going to install a few more gears into my brain, and grab some coffee and think about this some more, I want to come up with a simple transfer program, which can be easy (worse case, if no other way, since we are talking Virgin Transfer here, no floppy, etc.) to be typed into both of your TI99 consoles, one with CF7 and one with PEBOX to start the transfer system.

 

Hmm...

[rocky007]

thanks for your answers... i didnt knew that Pc can read the TI disks throught a special program, it's the most easy way for what i want to do.

i have a old 386 PC with 5.25, i'll try this.

 

You are lucky. All my pc's have been sadly updated, and even tho one of my PC does have 5.25" drive in it, that great program PC-TI99 does not like to write them, it does to my 3.5" but then my TI99 even tho it has 3.5" does not read them.

 

I got alot of archived TI stuff on my PC, and one of the reasons why I bought the CF7+ it was a great way to get the "archived" stuff on my PC back out and use it on a TI, since I am in the other boat, I really don't have any REAL TI99 floppies to READ, I want to WRITE them.

 

But now I got my files on my CF, but I am same like you, I want to transfer for them over to a full-fledged TI99 with pebox on floppy, etc.

 

So I been thinking, there really needs to be a better way to transfer on the CF7, I going to think of various ways, I know serial would be easy way, but damm like Richard has figured out and me, the CF7 does not like other devices for some reason, and I know Jamie is working on a new CF7 with a serial port instead, but why buy our CF7's all over again, just so we can transfer?

 

I going to install a few more gears into my brain, and grab some coffee and think about this some more, I want to come up with a simple transfer program, which can be easy (worse case, if no other way, since we are talking Virgin Transfer here, no floppy, etc.) to be typed into both of your TI99 consoles, one with CF7 and one with PEBOX to start the transfer system.

 

Hmm...

 

Maybe CF7+ could be software upgraded using different adress or taking care of signal incoming from Pebox...

 

The Hxc interface is also interesting, if not more than the CF7+. i like to manage as many disks images just in pressing a button on the interface... it's really pitty that it can't write on image for now, but the manufacturer promised an upgrade soon it's maybe more expansive than CF7+, but in my case it's really interested as i can use it also on my Atari St, Amiga.

 

so tonight, i will try TI99 - PC and my old 5 1/4 floppy...i just hope it still working

[Gary from OPA]

Maybe CF7+ could be software upgraded using different adress or taking care of signal incoming from Pebox...

 

The Hxc interface is also interesting, if not more than the CF7+. i like to manage as many disks images just in pressing a button on the interface... it's really pitty that it can't write on image for now, but the manufacturer promised an upgrade soon it's maybe more expansive than CF7+, but in my case it's really interested as i can use it also on my Atari St, Amiga.

 

The CF7+ can't change the CRU address without having a new Xilink chip programmed by Jamie for the new address you want,

I spoke with Jamie about that once, and since it is in a socket, he was willing to ship a custom Xilink chip with the

address I wish to use, as long as I cover the cost of the chip itself and shipping of course.

 

It is shame it does not have little switchs like other third-party cards installed in a pe-box, were you can select your own CRU address.

 

But even with the new Xilink chip with different address, something else is wrong as it still does not seem to allow another devices to

work, this most likely might be a fixable part in the CF7+ software dsr, I need to study it and see if it comfirms to all the official specs.

 

I don't have a Hxc interface, but I got one of those SVD006 (simple-virtual-disk), were it converts TIfloppy cable to PC serial, and it should

do writing, but I think it does only SSSD format (360 sectors), plus you need to run a cable to your PC and it is much slower then the Hxc box.

[marc.hull]

snip---> You are lucky. All my pc's have been sadly updated, and even tho one of my PC does have 5.25" drive in it, that great program PC-TI99 does not like to write them, it does to my 3.5" but then my TI99 even tho it has 3.5" does not read them.

 

Gary... I have the same problem (I think.) I have a windoze 98 machine that refuses to write to 5.25" floppies. It will write to 3.5" disks but the TI won't read them.... unless they are DD disks and not HD (found this out by accident.) My TI 3.5" drives are modded to use HD disks (as well as the PC drive.) The TI drives work flawlessly on TI to TI transfers with HD disks but they bomb on PC to TI transfer using TI99-PC (unless I use a DD disk.) I don't know why as the BIOS is correct and the HD detect switch is glued down (my big mod Anyway if you have not tried DD then give that a shot.

 

Sorry for stepping on your thread men....

 

 

Marc

[Gary from OPA]

Anyway if you have not tried DD then give that a shot.

 

I tried DD disks, (no extra hole).

 

The problem I find, is their is no option in Paulbo's (sp?) TI99-PC program to convert the disk image format, if it is SSSD image (360 sectors), it reformats the 3.5" to 360(40track) and I think that is my problem, as my old TI99 with official TI99 controller, does not like using 80track 3.5" to read a 360disk, shows the first few sectors, then bang.

 

Then on my other TI99 system with Myarc 80track, I can read a transfered 3.5" DSDD or SDDD if it has 80track, but if the darn image is only 40track like SSSD or DSSD it does not read after the transfer is done.

 

It would be nice if the TI99-PC program would allow to "upconvert" an archived image from SSSD format to write it out on a full high-density 2880 format.

 

I loved the old commerical program I had that could read real IBM-PC formatted disks directly on my TI99 system when using a Myarc or Corcomp controller, but sadly that is one program I lost over the years. -- Need to find it again. -- It made transfering stuff alot easier.

 

[END Thread Hijack] - Back to CF7 transfer ways, or making it work with pe-box.

[Opry99er]

This is a public service announcement:

 

Jaime is now selling CF7s with serial rs232 outs instead of parallel.... Sold out of his first batch in an hour. Keep your eyes out for them on eBay!!

[sometimes99er]

I'm not into hardware as such, so I'm not up to date on how, why and not, but I might consider a TI-99/4A with a CF7. Does this parallel and/or rs232 allow for connection to (and up- and download from) PC ? Is it possible to take the CF card (out of the CF7) and stick it into a PC card reader and make transfers this way ?

 

[Opry99er]

Well--- yes and yes.

 

It was originally designed to be used to transfer via the card on the card reader. TI99Dir can format the DSK for you, you just load it up with everything you want and BOOM...

 

It works as a DSK1,2, and 3 floppy emulator, each DSK can have something like 20 MB of data on each!! The CF7 has 32k expansion, a serial port for direct TI-TI (PEB to CF7 or vice versa) transfers, and emulates the 3 disk drives. With a 512 MB CF card, you can have every possible piece of TI software available. It also adds a couple commands to BASIC to make TI-side formatting easier. Any TI-side disk manager works fine on this device.

 

So you can use a CF reader on your PC, you can do serial transfers with a PC or a TI--- it's quite marvellous, actually.

[+retroclouds]

I'm not into hardware as such, so I'm not up to date on how, why and not, but I might consider a TI-99/4A with a CF7. Does this parallel and/or rs232 allow for connection to (and up- and download from) PC ? Is it possible to take the CF card (out of the CF7) and stick it into a PC card reader and make transfers this way ?

 

 

I can highly recommend the CF7+, combined with an editor/assembler module -or if you are into 8K ROM images, an 8K supercart- it's all you'll need to get rolling

 

There's nothing like the real deal for doing the final tests on new software

[Opry99er]

Agreed. When I was developing Honeycomb Rapture for the RGPC, I had no operational CF7, so I had to set up my serial connection, troubleshoot, problem solve, and finally transfer. Now that my CF7 machine is operational, I pretty much have a totally portable TI setup. But I couldn't ever imagine releasing any software for the TI without testing it on hardware first.... It was very cool to see the game and hear the music Matthew helped me embed into the XB code. I am so glad to have my CF7. It makes everything so much easier!

[Opry99er]

Thought I'd post a pic of my setup here.. This is my CF7 unit (set up in front of my PEB) with my recently re-acquired GRAM Kracker. Since I'm going mostly with a CF7 device more and more as I progress, I no longer have my HRD--- but the GK/CF7 setup is just about flawless. I don't even need cartridges anymore... Load XB and EA into the GROM space in the GK straight from my CF7, boom. 100% portable TI, no carts needed.

 

Edited November 29, 2010 by Opry99er

[+OLD CS1]

Thought I'd post a pic of my setup here.. This is my CF7 unit (set up in front of my PEB) with my recently re-acquired GRAM Kracker. Since I'm going mostly with a CF7 device more and more as I progress, I no longer have my HRD--- but the GK/CF7 setup is just about flawless. I don't even need cartridges anymore... Load XB and EA into the GROM space in the GK straight from my CF7, boom. 100% portable TI, no carts needed.

 

That picture proves what a sick-sick man you are.

 

Personally, I would rather have a parallel port so I can print. I was pleased to find that I could hook up one of my old HP printers to my TI's parallel port and print to it. The only problem is the lack of something like "EOF" to the printer (apparently,) so the printer will time out and give me an error on the last page. Not a big deal.

 

Although, sometimes during a reboot the printer will spit out a blank page. Weird but, again, not a big deal.

[Opry99er]

This one has the parallel port... I actually want one with serial--- but this one was a gift from a friend, so I am not going to be moving it in favor of a nano-PEB.

 

And what do you mean by "sick-sick man"?

[Opry99er]

<<Double post deleted>>

Edited November 29, 2010 by Opry99er

[Opry99er]

BTW--- you say you hooked up an old HP printer... Is it dot matrix? My printer is dot matrix and the tractors are unforgiving tight sons of b*tches...

[+OLD CS1]

BTW--- you say you hooked up an old HP printer... Is it dot matrix? My printer is dot matrix and the tractors are unforgiving tight sons of b*tches...

 

Nope. An HP DeskJet 820C ink jet I happen to have laying around since I retired it. Way back when, I used a DeskJet 500 on my Amiga. My guess is just about any parallel port printer should work. Just about, anyway. I am getting curious about this idea and may hook the TI up to my LaserJet 4050's parallel port just to see.