Jump to content
IGNORED

IDE card.....


marc.hull

Recommended Posts

Tossing around some ideas here and looking for some input, provided there is any interest.

 

The IDE card design has a real time clock integrated into the design. It's used mostly for time stamping of files and BBS programs. Other than that it is more or less window dressing for the computer. It can be included as an option but I don't know if there is any real desire for the clock function. The SRAM can be easily be backed up by a coin cell. Thoughts ?

 

As far as storage goes..... It is capable of using either real ATA drives or CF cards. The drives are a bit faster but the cards are a bit more secure as far as not relying on an older physical device. It would be perfectly doable to have both a 44 pin header and a CF adapter but a a bit greater cost. I know of one who said that drives would be ideal but is there any other interest in that ?

 

As far as a side car device is concerned, I doubt that will happen. The poll result indicated a majority of PEB owners and a side car device would end up costing a bit more and be exposed unless a case were made (which would be a dramatic cost increase.)

 

There is some interest on the new Yahoo group but minimal here. If no one else here is keen on the idea (which is cool) I'll post info there in order to avoid noise here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The IDE card design has a real time clock integrated into the design. It's used mostly for time stamping of files and BBS programs. Other than that it is more or less window dressing for the computer. It can be included as an option but I don't know if there is any real desire for the clock function. The SRAM can be easily be backed up by a coin cell. Thoughts ?

 

I thought the file system supported time-stamping? That being the case, I would very much like to have the clock. Otherwise, as you said, it is sundry and a simple convenience for programs which do need time keeping.

 

As far as storage goes..... It is capable of using either real ATA drives or CF cards. The drives are a bit faster but the cards are a bit more secure as far as not relying on an older physical device. It would be perfectly doable to have both a 44 pin header and a CF adapter but a a bit greater cost. I know of one who said that drives would be ideal but is there any other interest in that ?

 

I am game for whatever works. My idea of the 44-pin header is ultimately more geared at those Transcend flash module I pointed out mounted directly to the board: set it and forget it. Having the ability to connect a real hard drive to the unit gives it more flexibility, even if we are having to rely upon very old drives. But, again, this ability is an option.

 

As far as a side car device is concerned, I doubt that will happen. The poll result indicated a majority of PEB owners and a side car device would end up costing a bit more and be exposed unless a case were made (which would be a dramatic cost increase.)

 

I am a PEB guy, myself. I would love a card which I can enclose in the PEB. The side-car option, again, gives more flexibility geared towards those without PEBs, but I would say only if the extra cost is minimal. As well, a side-car box does not seem necessary, IMO, vis a vis the nanoPEB/CF7+. That said, what about fitting the unit into a Speech Synthesizer case; I suspect there are more than a few dead, or PEB-installed or console-hacked, units which no longer need their case.

 

There is some interest on the new Yahoo group but minimal here. If no one else here is keen on the idea (which is cool) I'll post info there in order to avoid noise here.

 

I am not a member of the Yahoo! group, though I believe I have attempted to subscribe. Even so, I rarely, if ever, touch the list mailbox to which the emails go. In any case, I do not perceive posting here as "noise."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not a member of the Yahoo! group, though I believe I have attempted to subscribe. Even so, I rarely, if ever, touch the list mailbox to which the emails go. In any case, I do not perceive posting here as "noise."

 

Neither do I. Those of us who aren't interested have already been told to keep our mouths shut, so feel free to post everywhere. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not a member of the Yahoo! group, though I believe I have attempted to subscribe. Even so, I rarely, if ever, touch the list mailbox to which the emails go. In any case, I do not perceive posting here as "noise."

 

Neither do I. Those of us who aren't interested have already been told to keep our mouths shut, so feel free to post everywhere. ;)

 

Hmmmm.. While I am ordering you around. You need to be in bed at 4:20 AM Mike ;-).

 

I didn't mean it to sound like that. Things were seeming a little tense last week so I opted to preempt any negativity and the inevitable wordy arguments.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really don't understand the vehement opposition to the idea. I am chalking it up to a base misunderstanding as to the cards capabilities and what is actually doable. Some of the negativity offered was based on assumption and not fact. I would invite anyone to inquire as to the cards pro's and con's and I will answer frankly and honestly.

 

Although this is still in an exploratory phase I do plan to go forward with this when possible (I have about 3 grand in SID cards to dispose of before I can tackle another project.)

 

Theirry has granted his blessing. Fred appears to be on board. Jim Fetzner has all ready toyed with the idea of re drawing the board so I suspect he is a probable. As far as further discussion I would appreciate any idea contributions or feature requests, bearing in mind that the original overall circuit design needs to stay the same for DSR comparability. I think we are past why this is a bad idea or should not be done so if your in a anti-IDE mood then please restrain your comments.

 

At any rate the plan for now (provided the players fall in place) is to go ahead with design and prototype and if all plays out as hoped then do a run of cards and offer them for cost both here and on the other groups. You do not need to commit now or at any time. I don't think there can be a complaint to that.

Marc, put me down for a card if you ever end up producing a batch. I already have one but it's flaky and I would like to have a backup. A card will never be everything for everybody, and that's OK as long as there are enough takers. I personally loved my IDE card and it made my life a lot easier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently acquired a USB 2.0 card for my Amiga 4000D. I am going to move my SCSI Zip drive over to the TI, which will put my SCSI card to more use. After experiencing functional USB on my old Miggy, I am seriously on-board with the idea for USB for the TI.

 

On my Amiga system, the one USB card will allow me to replace the slot-based network card, as well as give me modern sound output which, thanks to retargettable sound via AHI, will work with ANY AHI-compliant software, including several sound editors and trackers. I believe even USB video is a possibility.

 

So, back to the TI, a USB interface with a well-designed DSR would have the potential to supplant IDE and SCSI altogether, while surpassing the limitations inherent in each. And I believe there are a number of very light-weight USB stacks available which could be looked at for adaption as a DSR.

 

I am still on-board with the IDE project idea, and will likely sell my SCSI card in lieu of the unfulfilled promises of various functions -- unimplemented ALIAS and FORMAT, to name a couple. However, after tasting USB on another classic/retro/obsolete system, I would definitely drop IDE for USB in a heart beat if it was a viable option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

Rise dead thread....... Rise I command you.....

 

So since there was some renewed interest in the "TN IDE card redraw for through hole comopents on another thread" I thought I'd pluck this thing out of the past. FYI I Communicated with James Monday and he relayed that he has been slowly progressing. Understandably his progress is directly related to his interest. I will start another thread for people to indicate interest and guage potential buyers of the card. If you have this interest please visit that topic.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

(i think icon_winking.gif... Seriously is there 1 GB of unique TI stuff out there ?

HA HA, VERY good point!

 

It's really too bad the market is not larger. If it were larger, programs like a first-person shooter, or that Castle Wolfenstein idea, might come to fruition. All that space would make great page memory for storing and swapping in and out screen images for those types of programs. /FANTASY MODE OFF

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello friends, sorry but i lost the point.. my question... ide card work in a peb ok.. now the ti99 and geneve how read cf card or real ide hd? have a dos system? i know that geneve have a dos system.. but normally ti99? maxi size of real ide hd how is? 1gb? 2gb ? only geneve can read big hd partition? this project is more usefully because original hdfc controller fot ti99 is more rare. yes usb system is a great option but at now is no working or i wrong?

if this card can at ti99 or geneve an use like old 486 ibm computer with msdos 6.22 and emulate a disk system i ready at purchase it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello friends, sorry but i lost the point.. my question... ide card work in a peb ok.. now the ti99 and geneve how read cf card or real ide hd? have a dos system? i know that geneve have a dos system.. but normally ti99? maxi size of real ide hd how is? 1gb? 2gb ? only geneve can read big hd partition? this project is more usefully because original hdfc controller fot ti99 is more rare. yes usb system is a great option but at now is no working or i wrong?

if this card can at ti99 or geneve an use like old 486 ibm computer with msdos 6.22 and emulate a disk system i ready at purchase it

If I'm not mistaken, many of the 'newer' disk managers are capable of managing hard disks. However, I don't think with an IDE card that the TI would be anything like a 486 machine - they are vastly different architectures, but I imagine the Geneve DOS system could be ported to the TI if such a thing proved popular enough of an idea ;). In the end, as I understand it, with the firmware on the card, any application should be able to access the HD, so it's definitely a worth-while project :).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I helped put the first IDE group buy when the card was first manufactured. The component at that time was easy to find. From my reasearch today, one of the hardest components to find is the clock chip it was designed for.

 

Before any group buy happens i would hope the person ordering the components would make sure all the components are available.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I helped put the first IDE group buy when the card was first manufactured. The component at that time was easy to find. From my reasearch today, one of the hardest components to find is the clock chip it was designed for.

 

Before any group buy happens i would hope the person ordering the components would make sure all the components are available.

 

Yea me too..... ;-).

Mouser has 1350 of the clock chips tight now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just saw the thread asking for an interest check. I'd have to pass in its current state. Doesn't seem to have .DSK support. Requires extra stuff (don't know what a PEB is). Like the Coleco ADAM hard drive products I'd suspect not every software package is compatible with it. The deal breaker is you must assemble it yourself or rely on someone to do it for you. When I buy something I expect it to be ready to go.

 

This is not a criticism of the project. This is just me and my needs.

 

I wish Tursi had the time to continue his project where you use a cable to slave your PC to the TI.

 

UPDATE: To be extra clear I am not a power user - this is clearly power user stuff. My impressions may be totally off base.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just saw the thread asking for an interest check. I'd have to pass in its current state. Doesn't seem to have .DSK support. Requires extra stuff (don't know what a PEB is). Like the Coleco ADAM hard drive products I'd suspect not every software package is compatible with it. The deal breaker is you must assemble it yourself or rely on someone to do it for you. When I buy something I expect it to be ready to go.

 

This is not a criticism of the project. This is just me and my needs.

 

I wish Tursi had the time to continue his project where you use a cable to slave your PC to the TI.

 

UPDATE: To be extra clear I am not a power user - this is clearly power user stuff. My impressions may be totally off base.

 

With Fred's DSR the card has DSK1 emulation which pretty much means .DSK support.

 

Really....you don't know what a PEB is ? I don't know if there is any software with incompatibilities with the IDE card. Have had one for a couple of years and have not seen any. FYI PEB means the big silver box at the end of the cable.

 

People have all ready volunteered to to be builders (read the other thread.) Still actually takes a bit of work though in plugging the card in and loading the software. We don't have volunteers to do that yet ;-)...

 

As far as using your PC as a hard drive for the PC, that has been done and is available as the HDX. Slaves your PC to your TI as it were. Been out for a couple of years actually. Of course this requires the PEB (see above.) AFAIK there are builders for it as well.

 

This really isn't "power user" stuff so feel free to join in...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With Fred's DSR the card has DSK1 emulation which pretty much means .DSK support.

 

Really....you don't know what a PEB is ? I don't know if there is any software with incompatibilities with the IDE card. Have had one for a couple of years and have not seen any. FYI PEB means the big silver box at the end of the cable.

 

People have all ready volunteered to to be builders (read the other thread.) Still actually takes a bit of work though in plugging the card in and loading the software. We don't have volunteers to do that yet ;-)...

 

As far as using your PC as a hard drive for the PC, that has been done and is available as the HDX. Slaves your PC to your TI as it were. Been out for a couple of years actually. Of course this requires the PEB (see above.) AFAIK there are builders for it as well.

 

This really isn't "power user" stuff so feel free to join in...

 

Thanks for the info. I actually added in the "power user" comment just to better differentiate my opinion from a criticism.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a new TI user here. *shrugs*

 

Have no fears, we have a few old-hats around here who will help set you straight with any questions or misconceptions. Some of the rest may give you a friendly ribbing for not knowing stuff. The rest will just continue lurking. heheheh All in all, though, you are in good company.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Marc, do you think you're going to go ahead with this project?

 

Depends on the interest. The tentative count stands at 18 as of now. 30-35 is a number James is comfortable with and since he is really the one putting most the effort into this whole thing I'd say that needs to be the range to hit. If you or anyone else is a good promoter then please get behind it and feel free to go fishing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just in case you didn't get it elsewhere or figure it out yourself, PEB stands for Peripheral Expansion Box.

 

...lee

 

If you watch Craigslist or eBay, PEBs show up every so often for reasonable prices and most of the time shipping to me in Tallahasse is around $25. If I get time, I want to work on my replacement PEB power supply again and see if I can make PEBs less expensive to ship. That will not happen until the end of the year, I figure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...