Wasting time on the TI when I *SHOULD* be productive...

[Omega-TI]

Okay,

I admit it, I'm not the biggest game player in the known universe, but that last Atarisoft Compilation

Rasmus made has ended up filling the gaps in what *SHOULD* have been more productive time

 

The past couple of days THIS GAME (which I currently suck at) is sapping my time.

 

So this all begs the question, "What TI pursuit takes more of your time than planned for?"

 

ThanX Rasmus!

[Vorticon]

Hardware interfacing projects with little practical value but huge fun potential. I'm a big sucker for those http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237526-ti-994a-interfacing/page-5?hl=%2Bti+%2Binterfacing&do=findComment&comment=3390345

[+Lee Stewart]

Your comments above the screenshot make perfect sense to me. I see no logical fallacy therein.

 

...lee

[Rossman]

I'm pretty sure it was the sage 23rd century philosopher Dr. Leonard McCoy who observed, "the more complex the mind, the more the need for play." In that context, it is a productive use of your grey matter.

[Omega-TI]

Your comments above the screenshot make perfect sense to me. I see no logical fallacy therein.

 

OUCH!

 

I'm pretty sure it was the sage 23rd century philosopher Dr. Leonard McCoy who observed, "the more complex the mind, the more the need for play." In that context, it is a productive use of your grey matter.

 

Hey, that works for me! I still suck at it though...

[nanochess]

It's not a waste of time, it's quality time with your TI

[Omega-TI]

It's not a waste of time, it's quality time with your TI

 

Now about quality time... I think people who do NOT have UDS-10's already might want to consider getting one sooner than later, because the usefulness of that little gadget is about to EXPLODE...

[Willsy]

Love that game!

[sometimes99er]

My so called TI quality time should be called retro quality time. Too often I drift or detour into other relevant and inspirational stuff. Too many projects, too many ideas and too little time.

 

I try and focus on what to do, but I'm also open for new territories, with which I carefully have to choose, as it will otherwise explode overnight.

 

I rarely play TI games, but do try out a lot for a very few minutes until I get an overall impression. Have of course been testing my own TI games for hours.

 

[Omega-TI]

Hardware interfacing projects with little practical value but huge fun potential. I'm a big sucker for those http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237526-ti-994a-interfacing/page-5?hl=%2Bti+%2Binterfacing&do=findComment&comment=3390345

 

Well, this idea may interest you... and it does have a little practical value.

 

1) You would have to write an E/A 5 program to decode the data received from the RS-232 port

(with user configurable adjustments) and to display it on screen.

 

2) Adjust the design/idea for use on the TI.

 

But once you got past the simple temperature sensor, you would probably consider wind speed, direction and other inputs as well.

Can you imagine a program that sends the local data out over a UDS-10 to myti99.com for a mini TI WeatherNet?

 

That should keep you going for a while! Below are some starter ideas....

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/Temperature-sensor--weatherstation/

http://facility.unavco.org/kb/questions/743/How+To%3A+build+a+simple+digital+temperature+sensor+with+RS232+serial+interface+

http://www.eeweb.com/blog/circuit_projects/digital-thermometer-with-rs232-interface

 

You get the idea... (HAVE FUN)

 

You do know of course, that if you ran with this idea and got it perfected, there will be more than just one or two of us who will want to turn our TI's into weather stations too.

[Vorticon]

Please don't encourage me! I already have several interfacing projects floating and now you have just added another one. I must say interfacing weather sensors to the TI should not be too difficult with the support of an Arduino for example for its A/D capabilities, although I would likely use the parallel port rather than the serial one for ease of programming.

Really terrific idea and I will have to explore it further

[Omega-TI]

You know as I sit here waiting to get my oil changed it occurs to me that the parallel port is a great idea. Many people with only one RS-232 port would greatly benefit from that arrangement. Even people wih with two ports with an HDX, UDS-10, and a modem could use such a device and still have room for a future mouse.

 

Is the PIO connector still available? Sorry for giving you yet another project to consider.

[Vorticon]

The PIO connector is part of the standard RS232 card if that's what your question is.

[Omega-TI]

The PIO connector is part of the standard RS232 card if that's what your question is.

 

Actually I was referring to the connector that goes into the card.

(As pictured below)

 

[Vorticon]

Ah ok. I got a couple new from one of the Chicago Faires a few years ago which I use for experimentation. I don't see them much on Ebay and it should not be too hard to make one if needed (I think).

[+Ksarul]

You do know that there is an A/D header on the UberGROM boards, right?

[Vorticon]

You do know that there is an A/D header on the UberGROM boards, right?

Actually no I didn't... How would one use it with these boards?

[+Ksarul]

Tursi would be the best person to answer that question, as it deals with programming the AVR, which is much more in his swim lane than mine.

[Stuart]

There's also this little device [http://www.netburner.com/products/serial-to-ethernet/sbl2e] which, as well as being an Ethernet to Serial converter like the UDS-10, also has some general purpose I/O pins and 4 A/D converters. These can be configured, read and written from either the Ethernet or Serial side. It needs a little bit of extra circuitry to level-shift the signals to TTL, but I've got it to fit nicely in a little project box. Supports the AT modem command set so would probably work with the BBS software, but my Internet Browser would need some tweaks to work with it.

 

Stuart.

[Tursi]

Actually no I didn't... How would one use it with these boards?

Map the ADC driver into one of the available slots - that gives you a GROM address to access it at.

 

 

There are 4 ADC pins on the board... each is a separate mapping, that's why there is a 0-3 option there.

 

The first 32 bytes of the space are unused (for instance, if you map it to >6000, then addresses >6000 to >601F are blank.) I did this with all the hardware devices so that mapping them wouldn't cause the console multiple GROM base scan to trigger them.

 

The rest of the addresses in that slot will read the ADC (so any address from >6020 to >7FFF in this example). Each time you read, an ADC conversion will be performed in real time, which takes about 100 microseconds on top of the normal GROM access time. The voltage input range is 0 to 5v, and the returned value is 0 to 255.

 

The reason for the large address range is to allow you to read a series of samples without needing to reset the GROM address. You do need to reset it before >7FFF, of course, since address wrap-around won't give you the result you expect (32 bytes of null data).

 

If you plan to use more than one ADC, my recommendation for better performance is to map each one to a separate GROM base but in the same address range. (for example, all at >6000 but at different bases). This will let you sample each ADC without having to change the GROM address in-between, just change the CPU base address that you read from.

 

Attached the UG manual below, although it doesn't say much more than this on the ADC.

UberGROM.pdf

[Vorticon]

Nice! I'm going to order an Ubergrom and start experimenting. See what you got me into Omega???

[+Ksarul]

I'll build you one special with pins on that header, Vorticon (unless you prefer to solder wires to them, which may be preferable, as then you can extend them outside the cartridge case).

[Omega-TI]

Nice! I'm going to order an Ubergrom and start experimenting. See what you got me into Omega???

 

My pleasure!

Actually I'd love to be kept up-to-date on whatever you come up with. I can imagine the Ubercart as a great little platform for quite a few different DIY projects. Even for people with just a basic console that board shows great promise.

[Vorticon]

I'll build you one special with pins on that header, Vorticon (unless you prefer to solder wires to them, which may be preferable, as then you can extend them outside the cartridge case).

 

That would be awesome! Thank you! Just PM me with payment details.

[Vorticon]

 

My pleasure!

Actually I'd love to be kept up-to-date on whatever you come up with. I can imagine the Ubercart as a great little platform for quite a few different DIY projects. Even for people with just a basic console that board shows great promise.

 

I have a special project in mind for the next Chicago Faire that will be perfect for this. I was planning on using an Arduino or Picaxe for it, but it would be far cooler to use the Ubercart instead.