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TI Related -- Ebay / Heads Up Notice


Omega-TI

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I was looking at the pictures of the card that farmer potato linked on ebay. When viewing the picture of the back, I see that the wires are routed differently than mine, which is a bummer as one of mine was dislodged in storage and I put it back where I reasoned it should go, and it hangs at the boot screen. Was there a design change? Curious if a couple of other folks have the pfm+ and would be willing to show closeups of the back of there units. Maybe in the Myarc repair thread?

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Just now, RickyDean said:

I was looking at the pictures of the card that farmer potato linked on ebay. When viewing the picture of the back, I see that the wires are routed differently than mine, which is a bummer as one of mine was dislodged in storage and I put it back where I reasoned it should go, and it hangs at the boot screen. Was there a design change? Curious if a couple of other folks have the pfm+ and would be willing to show closeups of the back of there units. Maybe in the Myarc repair thread?

There are variants.  The one in the ebay pic is a 256K variety, 2x 128K atmel 29c020.

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4 minutes ago, GDMike said:

I thought that the soldered job was kinda poor too

Yea, if that was one of my early ones (versus someone else)  I was just learning back then. Not to say I'm an expert now by any means but it was before we were doing commercial hand-soldering.  The wires were installed that way on purpose for a few reasons.  There were only two of us that did Myarc work.  And I cannot tell if my date/initials are for the update or for a repair.  No repair records exist from those years.

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52 minutes ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

Yea, if that was one of my early ones (versus someone else)  I was just learning back then. Not to say I'm an expert now by any means but it was before we were doing commercial hand-soldering.  The wires were installed that way on purpose for a few reasons.  There were only two of us that did Myarc work.  And I cannot tell if my date/initials are for the update or for a repair.  No repair records exist from those years.

Hmmm come to think about it, I think my soldering jobs were similar back in the 80s ....yup

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28 minutes ago, Schmitzi said:

 

I see the Geneve on eBay went for 560$... Wasn´t it over 1.000$ last days ?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/124398246519

 

 

Yes, but on bid history you can see that the top two bidders at $1000 and $1025 were cancelled. So it fell to $390, until the last ten seconds.

 

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23 hours ago, FarmerPotato said:

Yes, but on bid history you can see that the top two bidders at $1000 and $1025 were cancelled. So it fell to $390, until the last ten seconds.

 

 

Looking at a quantity of bids - Yahoo Auctions in Japan puts this (this is a direct screen cap from an item I was looking at...)

 

Maybe it's just the translation software, but, wow....

 

bids.png.f23ce051faa6677abe16fc3d129d8509.png

 

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24 minutes ago, BeeryMiller said:

It is serial number 1 if nobody caught that.

Actually, there is no serial number on the case. The only reference to one is on the presentation tag, which is not attached to the case. Based on that tag, the case was also probably presented as a gag. The "No-Lockup Home Computer" makes sense in that context, as it is not possible for the empty case to lock up (and based on the test sheet on the 99/4 in the auction, lockups were common problems).

 

The machine in the auction is NOT a Dimension of any kind. It is a TI-99/4 motherboard in a Dimension case. See the product tag on the bottom (Serial Number 739, which puts it in the same range as the engineering prototype that someone was trying to sell earlier this year). It also includes the test sheet for the machine, which shows it was built in July of 1979 (the year isn't on the sheet, but the chips on the board will confirm the year). I have brought this to the seller's attention. There are a lot of signs to show that it isn't a Dimension. The side port shows resistors behind the copper protective fingers--on a Dimension mother board, thee are no components in this area. The channel selection slide switch (3-4) on the left hand side of the console is completely missing. It has a Joystick connector on the left side--a Dimension expects the handheld units and has no standard Joystick connector. The video connector is a standard five-pin DIN connector, but that is where the Dimension has the video modulator connection. The second video connector opening (for a monitor) is completely blocked by the motherboard shield. The connection point for the IR receiver is blocked by the metal shield. The secondary expansion port a the back of the console is not present (and does not exist on standard 99/4 boards but is present on all Dimension boards). The mother board is a single board in this machine--not a mother board with a processor and component daughter board as would be found in a Dimension. It has a standard TI power plug connection. The internal power supplies on the Dimension prototypes had a cable leading out that hole, connected directly to the external power supply--no connector is present.

 

The IR handset and receiver are nice--but I seriously doubt anyone will buy that lot for anything close to the price he's asking. I made a best offer for approximately the real value of the lot and was rebuffed by the automatic rejection method on eBay. Just because only one of something survives does not make it extremely valuable--the size of the market (and the ability of that market's collectors to pay) determines value, something he hasn't quite internalized yet, based on the price he wants. The complete Dimension 4 I have cost barely more than a tenth of his asking price in open auction earlier this year. The complete board set I have for one cost me the princely sum of $20, again, in open auction. These are the only Dimension 4 items in the wild outside of the items he has here.

 

I wish him luck on his attempted sale, but I am pretty sure he has completely misjudged the ability to pay and the desire of the community for these items. The most expensive TI-99 related prototype item ever sold went for about $3,500, and it was a complete 99/8 with functional p-Code components. That has a lot more community interest, as it can actually be used. The IR set can only be used with a Dimension--and the only Dimension owner out there (me) isn't going to bite at anything near his price. Maybe some collector will want to buy it and disappear it into a collection of things he can't use, but not at that price. . .

 

 

 

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