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TI-99/4A manuals and documentation project


iKarith

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You have just given me my next drawing project. . .I'll transfer this into Visio and build a nice crisp schematic from it. :) It is also good that I have a Percom box to validate against. :)

 

I can do the same with the FLUG diagram--and it may have been a variant of the TI DSDD card that used the NEC 765. I'd have to dive into the schematics and compare them to be sure. . .

Edited by Ksarul
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You have just given me my next drawing project. . .I'll transfer this into Visio and build a nice crisp schematic from it. :) It is also good that I have a Percom box to validate against. :)

 

I can do the same with the FLUG diagram--and it may have been a variant of the TI DSDD card that used the NEC 765. I'd have to dive into the schematics and compare them to be sure. . .

I will scan the FLUG schematics tonight and upload them in the morning then. Glad to help promote our machine :-D

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Also, if you could include a bitmap of the rest of the Percom card before the initial enhancement work, that would be useful as well. The bitmap you included helps eliminate some ambiguities that show up as enhancement artifacts, as some of the component numbers go from being barely comprehensible to total head scratchers. Others aren't readable on either--but I've been able to suss out enough that I'm sure I can build a good one from this. :) One oddity that I will have to compare to my card though--it looks like they weren't using 74LS244s to buffer the address lines per the diagram, but I thought they did on the board. More nice things to look at. :)

 

Thanks for scanning the other diagrams as well. My eventual goal is to have nice diagrams for every card out there, but that is a long-term project, as I've only completed about 25 pages of schematics in the last year.

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Also, if you could include a bitmap of the rest of the Percom card before the initial enhancement work, that would be useful as well. The bitmap you included helps eliminate some ambiguities that show up as enhancement artifacts, as some of the component numbers go from being barely comprehensible to total head scratchers. Others aren't readable on either--but I've been able to suss out enough that I'm sure I can build a good one from this. :) One oddity that I will have to compare to my card though--it looks like they weren't using 74LS244s to buffer the address lines per the diagram, but I thought they did on the board. More nice things to look at. :)

 

Thanks for scanning the other diagrams as well. My eventual goal is to have nice diagrams for every card out there, but that is a long-term project, as I've only completed about 25 pages of schematics in the last year.

Well I did have 4 pages of the same schematic, scanned all of them a half page at a time due to the fact that they were about 17 x 11 inch drawings. They were identical, except one that had a hand written correction on it. When I save them all as jpg's, I will upload them the same as these.

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Here are the scanned pdf schematics of 3 controllers. The first 'Percom' scans are basically the same, except there are different levels of detail in each, due to age and deterioration. The one labeled Percom 4 has a pinned in mod added.

The TI pdf could be a planned DSDD controller, or maybe the existing one, I don't know for sure, haven't studied it yet.

The FLUG pdf was scanned from a set of schematics that had looked like bad copies from another, but they are fairly readable and something could be created from them, seems to be based on a pd765 controller chip?

Percom1a.pdf

Percom1b.pdf

Percom2a.pdf

Percom2b.pdf

Percom3a.pdf

Percom3b.pdf

Percom4a.pdf

Percom4b.pdf

TIDC-prod 360 1a.pdf

TIDC-prod 360 1b.pdf

TIDC-prod 360 2a.pdf

TIDC-prod 360 2b.pdf

FLUG DSDD.pdf

Edited by RickyDean
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These will help a lot. The Product 360 Disk Controller is the standard PEB DSSD card. You can compare it to the ones on Mainbyte to verify any possible differences, but that looks like the ones I know for that card. The FLUG DSDD schematics are the schematics for the TI DSDD card. I put the manual for it up on WHT a few years ago--but I didn't have a standard schematic set to go with it. I have some hand-drawn stuff on it though, along with one of the original cards, so I should be able to restore it. Many thanks for taking the time to scan these, as it gives me more fun things to work on (I've already started on the Percom schematics).

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Here's the next bit of schematic fun. I went through the FLUG DSDD controller schematics to turn the somewhat sketchy, late-generation-photocopy diagrams of the TI DSDD controller shown there into a clear set of schematics. That was a lot of head-scratching fun at several points in the process. I had several points where neither the old schematic nor the specifications for the TI DSDD controller could bring clarity. I will need to pull out one of my TI DSDD controller boards and do some careful trace comparisons to eliminate the final ambiguities, but for now, here is the much-improved TI DSDD controller schematic set. Each remaining ambiguity is identified with a note (there are three of them between the two pages of the schematic). I was able to condense it from three pages to two, and based on the part number in the specification, I also changed the schematic number to match the one listed in the specification, as that way people looking at both documents will be sure that they belong together.

A3-TI DSDD-FDC-P1.pdf

A3-TI DSDD-FDC-P2.pdf

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Here's the next bit of schematic fun. I went through the FLUG DSDD controller schematics to turn the somewhat sketchy, late-generation-photocopy diagrams of the TI DSDD controller shown there into a clear set of schematics. That was a lot of head-scratching fun at several points in the process. I had several points where neither the old schematic nor the specifications for the TI DSDD controller could bring clarity. I will need to pull out one of my TI DSDD controller boards and do some careful trace comparisons to eliminate the final ambiguities, but for now, here is the much-improved TI DSDD controller schematic set. Each remaining ambiguity is identified with a note (there are three of them between the two pages of the schematic). I was able to condense it from three pages to two, and based on the part number in the specification, I also changed the schematic number to match the one listed in the specification, as that way people looking at both documents will be sure that they belong together.

Oh yes, much improvement, thanks for your hard work and dedication, put into bringing these back to life.

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Also, I have a general question: A lot of the original TI schematics had a first page that identified the pin out for each of the PALs used on the board, along with the combinatorial logic necessary to recreate the PAL JEDEC files. Would it make sense for me to add a page with this data to the schematics that didn't have it (where available)? I have the formulae for most of the TI produced cards (as well as the data for a couple of third-party cards).

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Also, I have a general question: A lot of the original TI schematics had a first page that identified the pin out for each of the PALs used on the board, along with the combinatorial logic necessary to recreate the PAL JEDEC files. Would it make sense for me to add a page with this data to the schematics that didn't have it (where available)? I have the formulae for most of the TI produced cards (as well as the data for a couple of third-party cards).

I believe the more information the better, it would be possible to recreate the logic, if needed. I know it's hard for a PAL to die, but if it does, it would be nice to be able to replace it.

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Would it make sense for me to add a page with this data to the schematics that didn't have it (where available)?

Yes, of course, it makes definitely sense to add all kind of information that are available. I agree with RickyDean that only complete documentations will help us and it will revaluate your works.

 

I think you don't refurbish the schematics for us so we can make wallpapers form it for our next Man Cave improvement? ;-)

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Is this one worth scanning for The Collection or just noise being third party and all?

SAMS Computer Facts, Computer: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Model PHC004A, April 1984

 

I picked it up pristine/sealed off of eBay - several 11"x17" photos of component locations with list by value/tolerance, troubleshooting, etcetera.

post-48993-0-82350100-1519672681_thumb.jpg

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Is this one worth scanning for The Collection or just noise being third party and all?

SAMS Computer Facts, Computer: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Model PHC004A, April 1984

 

I picked it up pristine/sealed off of eBay - several 11"x17" photos of component locations with list by value/tolerance, troubleshooting, etcetera.

YES, I think so!!! :thumbsup:

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Is this one worth scanning for The Collection or just noise being third party and all?

SAMS Computer Facts, Computer: Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Model PHC004A, April 1984

 

I picked it up pristine/sealed off of eBay - several 11"x17" photos of component locations with list by value/tolerance, troubleshooting, etcetera.

Just check to see if it’s on http://www.hexbus.com/tibooks in case it was already done :)

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