Just connected my PEB for the first time........

[wyerd]

I'm still waiting for the FDD cable, 3.5" FDD and the HxC, but I thought I'd connect everything else to make sure it works. Inside the PEB are the flex cable, 32Kx8 extended memory and floppy disk controllers. The size command gave 24488 bytes free - is that correct? I've installed the 80/80/80 Eproms and was wondering is there's anyway of testing the FDC without any drives connected?

 

How do I add files to my gallery as there isn't an add function on my gallery page?

 

Thanks.

[dendawg]

That sounds about right, considering you're doing this from XB.

[mmartin]

congratulation nice PEB!! like new!

i have a question can tell me were find a 3.5 floppy disk drive? is this a 720k Double sided Double Density drive? can else tell me where find a disk drive cables and post a pictures fro me?

thanks!! excuse me bad english languaje.. sorry

[+Ksarul]

You have 24K available to Extended BASIC. The stack space shown on the page is actually your VDP memory, not the missing 8K from the 32K card. That 8K is the low memory space, and is used for Assembly language programming (and the Assembly support routines for BASIC get loaded there as well).

[kl99]

Size values are fine.

 

Possible tasks:

You can make use of the 32K in Extended Basic or can now run modules requiring 32K expansion attached.

Or you can simply attach the tape recorder and try out things....

You still need a RS232 card!

[wyerd]

Thanks for the responses. I thought the 32K card would be ok, but it's best to check.

 

Is there any way of checking that the FDC is responding?

[wyerd]

congratulation nice PEB!! like new!

i have a question can tell me were find a 3.5 floppy disk drive? is this a 720k Double sided Double Density drive? can else tell me where find a disk drive cables and post a pictures fro me?

thanks!! excuse me bad english languaje.. sorry

It's a 1.44 from here http://www.ebay.com/itm/181481651076?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Cables also from eBay.

[mmartin]

It's a 1.44 from here http://www.ebay.com/itm/181481651076?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Cables also from eBay.

thanks!! ...I thought that with the original interface was not possible to use modern drives foppy 1.44 mb ..but thanks !!

[wyerd]

thanks!! ...I thought that with the original interface was not possible to use modern drives foppy 1.44 mb ..but thanks !!

I've changed the FDC ROMs as described here http://atariage.com/forums/blog/567/entry-11469-80-track-ti-floppy-drive-modification-multiply-storage-capacity-cheaply/

I'll be mainly using the HxC. The 3.5" is just a filler and nostalgic reasons. It still should work as it's backwards compatible.

[Tursi]

To check if the FDC is responding without a floppy drive connected, just do "OLD DSK1.X" from BASIC. It will eventually return an error code.

 

If the error is I/O ERROR 50, the FDC is not working. If it's any other number, then the ROM is working at least. ('5' means you did an OLD command, '0' means device was not found.)

[wyerd]

To check if the FDC is responding without a floppy drive connected, just do "OLD DSK1.X" from BASIC. It will eventually return an error code.

 

If the error is I/O ERROR 50, the FDC is not working. If it's any other number, then the ROM is working at least. ('5' means you did an OLD command, '0' means device was not found.)

Thank you. I get "I/O ERROR OO"

[Tursi]

That means that the device was not found ('0' in the last character.) Make sure you were typing in uppercase and that the PEB was turned on and connected? ("dsk1" is not the same as "DSK1" to the TI.)

[Willsy]

Also, make sure you turn the PEB on first, *then* turn on the 4A. If you're unsure, then simply reset the TI (FCTN and =) or type BYE when in TI BASIC.

[kl99]

Related to this topic of first time connecting the PEB I wonder if anybody knows about the power requirements for the PEB.

Can the American PEB be used with european 220V power or should it only be used in Europe with a 110v transformer?

Specifically asking about the older push-button PEB, if that makes a difference.

 

The label says 115Vac on the American PEB, while the label on the European PEBs says 110/115Vac, 220/240Vac.

 

Anybody has any knowledge on this?

[Tursi]

Some of them have a switch - I don't know if they all do. I would not plug an American PEB into 220V without both finding the switch and setting it correctly.

[+Ksarul]

Some of the Push-Button PEBs have a transformer in them that can be manually set for 220V. It requires that you switch some wires on the backplane of the PEB coming from the transformer. The change just allows you to step down to the right output voltage. The wire settings are identified on one of the PEB schematics and also on the Formorall PeB schematic.

[kl99]

Guys, thank you guys for your help.

I verified with an old thread on yahoo groups which is an interesting read and gave me the step by step howto:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TI99-4A/conversations/topics/26792

 

I have successfully modified the American PEB to an European PEB set to 240V.

 

This photo explains which output from the Transformer gives which kind of voltage.

 

 

The red cable (110V), brown cable (220V) and black cable are terminated/isolated.

 

You simply have to connect to the Push Button the one voltage you use as Power Source in your Country (240V in my case).

As you can see, orange is connected, while the other cables are not connected, the others get terminated.

[Originally the American PEB came with connected red wire, while the orange wire got terminated.]

This is how the PEB with the Push Button looks modified:

 

 

As can be seen, the orange wire (240V) is the one that gets connected to the push button:

 

You only need to connect that cable with the wanted voltage to the push button and terminate the others.

This replacement can be done by disconnecting/reconnecting, no soldering needed.

 

 

This terminator seems unique to Push-Button PEBs.

 

 

I hope this helps others in the future.

 

[+Ksarul]

Nice pictures of the connections--I knew this from having modified one back in the early nineties for my brother-in-law, but I hadn't seen it done since. I found my clue in the Formorall Schematics book. . .one that I've never been able to find an original copy of since (one of the folks in the US TI user's group at Patch Barracks had it back then).