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My Dream 4A...


Willsy

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I would imagine that HDX might run in Wine.

 

I would like to build a single small machine to run a disk server for several platforms: TI, Amiga, Commodore,Atari (8-bit and ST,) or whatever. The nice thing about Amiga is that since it can be networked I do not need special software, just smb-handler for Windows/Samba shares. I believe I could do that with the ST, as well, but I am not as into the platform, yet.

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Thierry has a USB card designed, but like you say it needs a stack and there is no DSR written (so far as I recall, or at least not a fully classed one.) I certainly do not see 64GB USB3 attached to a TI -- the practicality simply is not there.

 

 

 

 

As someone with a SCSI card and hard drive in his PBox, I find it kind-of "meh." While a flash device would be faster (and smaller,) again I do not see the performance difference on the TI. Since the WHT SCSI card DSR never implemented DSKx emulation I cannot test it against the CF7+. I fought like hell to get one in my box (old SCSI drives are stupidly expensive) and now I cannot realistically see a great purpose for it. I do not use anything which would benefit and, in fact, have considered either replacing the hard drive with a SCSI Zip drive or putting the second floppy back in. If I had a Geneve (one of which got picked up for a steal at the Faire this year) I could see more of a use.

 

I have wondered if I can use a hard drive for assembling with E/A or other utility.

 

After having a hard drive with my TI for 25 years now, I can't imagine trying to struggle by without one. I have no use for floppies anymore as my 'hard drive' in both my TI & Geneve systems is a CF card. If I want to transfer files to or from my PC to TI or Geneve I just plug the CF card into the PC and read or write as necessary.

 

Purpose?

Run any program or cartridge whenever one wants from a menu without having to swap around floppies, ever.

 

Assembling?

Wouldn't want to do it without a hard drive.

 

 

Gazoo

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The Tandy CoCo has a tool similar to HDX called Drivewire.
Someone recently ported the Drivewire software to Linux to run on the RaspberryPi.
It makes for a pretty cost effective host.
There's no reason the same couldn't be done with HDX.

The HDX protocol is pretty well documented, even without source code a Linux server could certainly be implemented.
http://home.vodafonethuis.nl/fgkaal/Text/Ti99hdx.txt

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Hi Robert,

As far as I know only the original Texas Instruments RS-232 can be modified with the little HDX device. It is set to use RS-232/2. If you plan to use another device such as a mouse, modem or serial printer you would also need a Y-Adapter.

I have no RS-232 on my laptop, so I'm using a "Serial-To-USB" adapter (pictured below)...

med_gallery_35324_1064_93873.jpg

With the device I'm using a cable with a 25pin RS-232 connector on the back of the TI to a 9pin connector for the converter. The converter then has a USB connector that plugs into my computer (pictured below)...

med_gallery_35324_1064_235661.jpg

Once it goes into the PC the computer assigns it as COM5. So, no issues there.

 

Now it your case, I do not believe there is a Linux version. As far as I know Fred Kaal only did this for the Windoze environment.

 

You can find out more information on the HDX BOARD <<< HERE >>>

 

Have FUN!!!

Thanks for the tips bud! That sure is a nice setup you have going on - I know I was excited when I got my PEB ;).

 

Unfortunately I have a CorComp RS232, so I don't think I'd be able to get it working with the equipment I have. But, having an HDX seems like a really good way to go, using the PC as a file server of sorts - pretty clever.

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Thanks for the tips bud! That sure is a nice setup you have going on - I know I was excited when I got my PEB ;).

 

Unfortunately I have a CorComp RS232, so I don't think I'd be able to get it working with the equipment I have. But, having an HDX seems like a really good way to go, using the PC as a file server of sorts - pretty clever.

 

Hey Robert,

You might want to keep an eye out on Ebay for one. They come available every once in a while.. and sometimes right after someone posts a message saying they need one. :) If you win, you can get it modified, then swap it out and sell the CorComp card.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So what's with that HDX? And, is there any way to make any RS232 do that? :) I wonder if there's some sort of Linux replacement for the PC utility though - I could see the 'COM#' being problematic.

 

You can use the software based solution with TI and Corcomp controllers, I haven't got a myarc to test with.. cfhdxs1 for serial and cfhdxp1 for parallel (I haven't gotten parallel working) also works with the nanopeb serial ports (both versions).

Note that this will only work for copying files back and forth, not for executing or loading files in any other program. You need the HDX DSR daughter board and A TI rs232 card to do that..

 

I did a run of the daughter boards and assembled them for people and could be convinced to order more if there is demand.

 

Greg

Edited by arcadeshopper
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I would imagine that HDX might run in Wine.

 

I would like to build a single small machine to run a disk server for several platforms: TI, Amiga, Commodore,Atari (8-bit and ST,) or whatever. The nice thing about Amiga is that since it can be networked I do not need special software, just smb-handler for Windows/Samba shares. I believe I could do that with the ST, as well, but I am not as into the platform, yet.

 

Tried, serial communications I believe aren't using windows API's but I didn't spent a lot of time on it. WINE's implementation of the tapi system and rs232 is very rudimentary..

 

Greg

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I did a run of the daughter boards and assembled them for people and could be convinced to order more if there is demand.

 

Greg

 

Get ready for a flood of orders....

3368262207_4e15a8bac5_o.gif

 

I'm thinking you are going to be quite busy! The HDX unit (IMHO) takes a standard TI way up to another level.

I believe it's actually BETTER than a hard drive because...

 

1) After downloading stuff from the Internet, you can stick it in the HDX directory and run it DIRECTLY from the PC like a hard drive.

2) If you do not have an old dot matrix printer, you can use TI-99 Print with the HDX program and print directly to the PC's printer.

3) Stuff loads FASTER (yes faster) from the HDX than from the old disk drives.

4) Disk space is not an issue, let alone a thought anymore.

5) It's probably the least expensive solution.

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You can use the software based solution with TI and Corcomp controllers, I haven't got a myarc to test with.. cfhdxs1 for serial and cfhdxp1 for parallel (I haven't gotten parallel working) also works with the nanopeb serial ports (both versions).

Note that this will only work for copying files back and forth, not for executing or loading files in any other program. You need the HDX DSR daughter board and A TI rs232 card to do that..

What about a CorComp RS232 card with an HDX DSR daughter board?

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Too bad, but $80 for a modified TI RS232 seems pretty reasonable :).

 

You bet it is! Even *if* you could find and old hard drive, and an old interface card to go with it, the price would probably be 'on the high side'. ;)

 

There are other convoluted methods to get a memory card to function, but then you have transfer issues, swapping cards at the very least, or still having to connect the RS-232 anyway, so who NOT go with the HDX? Besides, there is also that printing option which you would NOT have with a basic HD or SSHD.

 

:thumbsup:

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Living in the UK as I do(It's not my fault), I have come across a company called Retroclinic that sells some seriously turbo charged BBC micros on ebay, I believe they have a few clips on youtube too. it would be nice to see a TI99/4a given the kind of professional update that these guys do. Amongst some of the changes they have made are-a switch for toggling between operating systems, internal sd card, USB interfaces etc.

I would certainly purchase a 4a that had been given the same kind of treatment.

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  • 1 month later...

System ready to go. Raspberry Pi inside. TI-99/4A showoff aluminum case or hideaway mount case. Wireless keyboard of your choice (Logitech K400 with touchpad shown). USD 200 including 32GB SD with image and boot manager, power supply, HDMI cable, Wi-Fi and USB Hub.

 

rasp1case.jpg

 

That's some cool stuff there! It's not April 1st, so I'm assuming this is legit. I have a couple of questions.....

1) Is there a You Tube video showing it's operation?

2) How long does it take to boot up or reset?

3) Is there any discernible lag or choppiness in emulation?

4) Does it emulate RS-232 functions?

 

I don't know which one I like best, the really cool designer-type "mini-micro-tower" or the nifty way the other one saves space by hooking to the back of the TV/Monitor using the mounting bracket... which I also like.

 

GOOD JOB!

 

 

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As topic says, my dream 4A, = I don't have it.

1)

Raspberry Pi, Raspbian (Linux) with MESS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8vS9a5nwWU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73eBi738jT4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Dj7R8bu4k

2)
This is only from what I gather from YouTube etc. After installation of course.
From a complete power off state, OS in a few seconds, MESS in a few seconds, READY-PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN ...
From a standby state, one or two seconds, READY-PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN ...

3)
It's a 700Mhz CPU with 24 GFLOPS GPU. Choppiness ? Yes, I would expect so when things get tough. Older less demanding MESS versions may help. Not sure that a more dedicated Raspberry PiTi emulator would do much better. Certain bottlenecks could perhaps be rewritten in assembler.

;)

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If you want to play around with a RPi you can borrow mine. I have never really had time to use it. :)

Thanks, but no thanks. ;)

 

I think it was about 10 years ago I had this idea about having a real TI-99/4A slightly modified to go into a relative modern expansion slot, with input coming from PC keyboard and output from 9918A as video in a window. Like everything in a box but not emulation. Keyboard input, warm and cold reset would however be a bit of emulation since you couldn't guarantee 100% compatibility. Like a CF7+ is emulation (not original hardware) too. - I'd better stick with the soft software side of things.

 

:-D

 

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My dream 4A machine would be TI99/4a in FPGA form. In this case it could emulate everything. All software and modules could be on SD card. You could put it in orginal TI case with orginal keyboard or use PC keyboard and use some other case. Atari, Amiga, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, Atari 2600 have core for FPGA board. Look at Lotharek's Mist board! Look at link http://lotharek.pl/product.php?pid=96

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  • 1 year later...

A long long time ago, in a message thread...

 

My dream 4A would consist of a silver console (for that retro, beloved feel) with the following modifications:

  • An 80 column version of Editor Assembler built into the console (using Tursi Technology [TM])
  • An 80 column disk manager built into the console (using Tursi Technology [TM

 

Well... a lot of us have F18A's in our consoles and XB2.7s cartridges now, so having an 80 column version of the Editor Assembler and an 80 column disk manager in a upgraded XB.27S cartridge seems 'close' to integrated and doable.

 

Honestly, I'm rather amazed that the 80 column Editor/Assembler has not become an option yet as Tursi proved it's doable with BA-Writer. Having that integrated into the cartridge would mean one less program taking up space on disk and quicker load times.

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Honestly, I'm rather amazed that the 80 column Editor/Assembler has not become an option yet as Tursi proved it's doable with BA-Writer. Having that integrated into the cartridge would mean one less program taking up space on disk and quicker load times.

 

Tursi put the TI editor and assembler into a cartridge a few years back - instant loading times. I think the main reason it hasn't got that much traction is because actual development on real-iron is the exception, rather than the norm these days. I haven't powered up my 4A or my SGCPU system in about 4 years!

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Tursi put the TI editor and assembler into a cartridge a few years back - instant loading times. I think the main reason it hasn't got that much traction is because actual development on real-iron is the exception, rather than the norm these days. I haven't powered up my 4A or my SGCPU system in about 4 years!

 

Putting the editor and assembler into cartridge form for instant loading has certainly been around for more than a few years. I did it 23 years ago. :)

 

Gazoo

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As topic says, my dream 4A, = I don't have it.

 

1)

Raspberry Pi, Raspbian (Linux) with MESS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8vS9a5nwWU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73eBi738jT4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Dj7R8bu4k

 

2)

This is only from what I gather from YouTube etc. After installation of course.

From a complete power off state, OS in a few seconds, MESS in a few seconds, READY-PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN ...

From a standby state, one or two seconds, READY-PRESS ANY KEY TO BEGIN ...

 

3)

It's a 700Mhz CPU with 24 GFLOPS GPU. Choppiness ? Yes, I would expect so when things get tough. Older less demanding MESS versions may help. Not sure that a more dedicated Raspberry PiTi emulator would do much better. Certain bottlenecks could perhaps be rewritten in assembler.

 

;)

I wonder if the Java version of V9T9 from Ed Swartz would run okay on a RPi? It might be a nice alternative.

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