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Well I finally got myself a PEB, but......


Dripfree

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The way the TI FDC is designed, DSK3's connection is outside the box, so that is where the original SSSD 40 track drive will have to be hooked up... after I find and locate an aesthetically pleasing disk drive enclosure. The way the connections are handled on DSK1 & DSK2 (as shown in the photo below) it would be a real kludge, not to mention a mess to screw with it as I also have the 80 track modification installed which prevents me from using a legacy 40 track 5.25 as DSK1 or DSK2.

 

 

 

I have (lots) of Tandy Color Computer drive setups, and all they are, are 180K single sided or 360K double sided 5.25 drives in cases with a power supply and the ribbon cable hanging out of the back. So if I took a single drive case set the drive jumper to DS3 I should be able to plug it into the outside connection on the TI and use the drive as DSK3?

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Yes, except I think you'd set it to DS2 since it starts numbering from DS0. And the cable has the proper lines for DSK3. Some cables might have certain terminals removed in the connector.

Yes, DS2..I tried it today but had no luck. I suspect the drive in my peb has a termination jumper set and I didn't feel like taking the peb apart to get at the drive.

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I'm glad this got so much chatter I've learned a ton. I'm definitely going to put in the work to get this guy up and running and I've put together a game plan to do so.

 

1) I figure the first thing I got to do is figure out if anything in this thing works. So I'm going to start checking ebay to get my hands on a extended basic and disk management cart. Then I can try to perform some basic format and save functions. I would actually prefer to keep it as original as possible. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will work perfectly..... But probably not.

 

2) Even if the drive works I'll need a way to get files from the internet to my PEB. I would install a 3.5 drive externally on my PEB. I'm pretty sure I got most of the parts I need to set up an old pc that I could set up to write TI files to a 3.5 disk. From there I should be pretty well set.

 

3) If the the drive doesn't work I have a spare half height 5.25 floppy drive I will install alongside a 3.5 drive in the PEB. I would once again use an old pc to create 3.5 disks.

 

4) Once I get the stuff I need to start playing with this thing hopefully I can also trouble shoot any problems the PEB may have. I feel like it looks pretty clean inside and out, but are there any common problems with anything other than the disk drive I should look out for?

 

Anyway thanks for all the help. I have already done something that was somewhat similar to this with regards to getting disk files onto my Atari 800xl. The TI community has proven to be just as helpful as the Atari community I can't wait, this is really going to open up my little TI.

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If you have an RS-232 card in your PEB, look for the TI Starter disk drom !dano! on eBay. Here's a link to his last listing for one.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201079176909?

 

If you ask, he'll probably put another one up for you. He's also here on AtariAge.

 

Some notes on disk drives: your TI controller is for Single-Sided, Single Density disks (it also works with double-sided drives to double capacity). These are 40-track disks, but there is a modification to allow it to use 80-track drives, doubling capacity again. The only way to use 3.5-inch disks is with the 80-track modification (or use a Myarc disk controller, which is a bit expensive when it does come up for sale--and it also does double-density, which doubles capacity again, giving up to 720K on an 80-track disk).

 

Making disks on the PC--make sure you use a 360K drive, not a 1.2M drive, as the TI won't be able to read/write to the 1.2M disks, even if they are formatted at the lower density. You can use any 3.5-inch drive you want--as long as the disks are formatted to the right density for your controller (single density for the TI controller, double density for Myarc). Not all PCs can format single density, so that one can be a crapshoot. . .

 

PM me if you need an Extended BASIC cartridge--I have a LOT of them, and my price is reasonable (If you want the manual too, they cost more, mainly due to the increased shipping cost).

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So I came across a PEB yesterday. It was sold as is untested for $50 I figured thats less then shipping alone would be if I was even able to get a deal on ebay.

6E50E09E-8E43-4B45-ABEE-EB60C609D45E.jpg

 

There is one on eBay right now that looks exactly like yours, complete down to the same old-style drive!

(It's missing the scratches on top though...)

$_57.JPG

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Is there any different between the 99/4 and 99/4A versions?

I have the older 99/4 version with the push button power switch.

Any different from the other version with the flip power switch?

 

On the newer ones, the height of the card holder is lower to prevent card damage.

400px-Pbox_open.jpgNewer Box

 

 

$_57.JPG

Older Box

 

Most of the older boxes also have an easy to get to fuse holder on the back, the newer ones, well... let's just say it's a fusable link embedded in the transformer, a totally sucky design that was implemented to save money, as TI was losing money hand over fist and they were cutting corners everywhere they could.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well good news my PEB seems to be fully functional. Thanks to Ksarul for sending me the extended basic cart and manual. I also bought a disk manager disk off Ebay. The extended basic cart loaded the disk manager 1000 flawlessly the first try! I was also able to perform some basic disk functions. So it seems there was never anything wrong with this PEB, I just needed the tools to use it. Now I just have to get myself set up start making some disks of my own. I have also been watching For RS232 cards for the PEB. A week or so ago 2 went for about $25. Now there is just a buy it now for $40 plus shipping. If I see one going for about $25 again I'm going to bite. These are not extremely uncommon correct?

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RS-232 cards are very common (TI and third party), as are 32K cards (again, TI and third party), TI disk controller cards, and Horizon RAMdisks. The common cards pretty much end there and we move down to uncommon--TI P-Code card, DSDD disk controllers, 128K and larger memory cards, hard disk controllers (SASI, MFM, SCSI, and IDE), and the various boards that let you put the Speec Synthesizer in the PEB. Most everything else is rare. . .often extremely so. The common and uncommon items turn up often enough that most users have everything they want though. . .and that is a good thing.

Edited by Ksarul
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RS-232 cards are very common (TI and third party), as are 32K cards (again, TI and third party), TI disk controller cards, and Horizon RAMdisks. The common cards pretty much end there and we move down to uncommon--TI P-Code card, DSDD disk controllers, 128K and larger memory cards, hard disk controllers (SASI, MFM, SCSI, and IDE), and the various boards that let you put the Speec Synthesizer in the PEB. Most everything else is rare. . .often extremely so. The common and uncommon items turn up often enough that most users have everything they want though. . .and that is a good thing.

 

Do you mind if I offer a little unsolicited advice? Since you are going to purchase an RS-232 card for your TI, I would recommend purchasing ONLY the TI version. The reason? It will keep your future options open in case you want to add an HDX board later on. The TI cards are pretty well built, and since there are more of them around, the price seems to be lower.

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