TI-99/4A manuals and documentation project

[+arcadeshopper]

On 7/6/2020 at 11:08 AM, ngtwolf said:

Did anyone ever end up scanning this?  Can't find it anywhere and most of the technical repair manuals out there are pretty poor quality.  I saw a few of the recreated schematics, but would be helpful to have this as well.

its scanned and on whtech in the documentation/hardware folder

[+Ksarul]

On 9/2/2021 at 9:52 PM, Ksarul said:

On to the original subject of the thread, here is another redone schematic in A3 format. I finally got around to the P-GRAM/P-GRAM+, as I needed it for an upcoming project. It came out looking good,too as I was able to get the entire thing onto a single page.

A3-P-GRAM-P1.pdf 413.68 kB · 14 downloads

One note on this one: I realized after I posted it that I had CR2 facing the wrong way. I'll be updating it to make the correction sometime this week.

[johnph3]

On 11/29/2019 at 6:52 AM, Ksarul said:

I also have the CorComp RS-232, 32K, TripleTech, and 256K/512K card. I'll get all of them scanned/restored soon, as some of these are in pretty bad shape.

I know this is an old thread but if possible I would like to have a copy of Corcomp RS-232 PEB card. Thanks

OK I just found it all on another post. Thanks

Edited April 27, 2022 by johnph3

[+Lee Stewart]

13 minutes ago, johnph3 said:

I know this is an old thread but if possible I would like to have a copy of Corcomp RS-232 PEB card. Thanks

 

It is on WHTech:

 

Corcomp RS232 PEB Card Manual

 

...lee

[johnph3]

Thanks I have the original manual, not sure it's the right one for my card. They may all be the same. How ever in trying to figure out why my pdm cartridge doesn't work I removed my TI RS 232 and put the CorComp RS 232 and ran the same test. Well the corcomp PDM still doesn't work However the disk program that runs RS232 tests. Reports back that I have a bad rom in my Corcomp RS 232 card. That is on the test for RS232 1 out to 2 in. The standard loop test works just fine. Confused! BTW I found a schematic in another post. The schematic is not in the manual.

[+Ksarul]

1 hour ago, johnph3 said:

Thanks I have the original manual, not sure it's the right one for my card. They may all be the same. How ever in trying to figure out why my pdm cartridge doesn't work I removed my TI RS 232 and put the CorComp RS 232 and ran the same test. Well the corcomp PDM still doesn't work However the disk program that runs RS232 tests. Reports back that I have a bad rom in my Corcomp RS 232 card. That is on the test for RS232 1 out to 2 in. The standard loop test works just fine. Confused! BTW I found a schematic in another post. The schematic is not in the manual.

The schematics were a lucky find a few years ago. A long-time TI user in the Netherlands obtained a set of CorComp schematics from the European distributor for CorComp products sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The schematics were sold by his son on eBay as part of a folder full of random schematics after he passed away. I bought the lot and found the somewhat large group of previously unknown CorComp schematics in the folder along with quite a few known schematics from TI and other sources. I scanned the CorComp stuff and put it online to ensure its preservation.

 

On the manuals for the various CorComp cards, the contents applied to all variants of any given card.

[+Ksarul]

Here's another useful schematic set for Geneve users: the MEMEX board. I will soon make a few test boards using the layout I made to verify it and return the board to general availability if everything works.

A3-MEMEX-P1.pdf A3-MEMEX-P2.pdf

[+mizapf]

"Zero Wait Off" made me have a second look. ? It's not ambiguous, but I had to do one more mental iteration.

[matthew180]

On 7/6/2020 at 2:08 PM, ngtwolf said:

Did anyone ever end up scanning this?  Can't find it anywhere and most of the technical repair manuals out there are pretty poor quality.  I saw a few of the recreated schematics, but would be helpful to have this as well.

Yes.

 

 

 

[+Ksarul]

I finally got a chance to finish the schematic for the SID Master board, so here it is.

A3-SID-Master-P1.pdf

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, Ksarul said:

I finally got a chance to finish the schematic for the SID Master board, so here it is.

How is the LED driven in that arrangement (CRU bit, address space selection, or _CS?)  Also, I believe the 8580 and 6581 should use different filter capacitor values.

 

(Ah, this is documenting the design, not a new design.  Nevermind.)

[Alessio Iodice]

On 12/22/2016 at 8:51 PM, Ksarul said:

I've been having fun playing with Visio lately, making A3 sized versions of several TI schematics. I'm attaching the ones I've done over the last couple of months here as PDF files. If you print them out, you have the option of retaining the original size (relatively large, so they would print on several pages that you have to tape together) or printing them in landscape format on Legal-sized paper. They print clearly in the smaller format (tiny print), but the larger format allows you to really see details clearly, especially if your eyesight is a bit challenged (like it is for a lot of us now). I still have to add the LED circuitry to the R4 and R5 SAMS diagrams, but they should otherwise be useful for those with the SW99ER's version of the card and the first release of my updated card. One note on the R5 diagram: if you understand what you are looking at, it shows exactly what changes are needed to update the cards I released earlier this year to make them work as 4MB cards. No traces would need to be cut, but a couple of chips would need to be stacked (to obtain power), a number of pins would have to be raised out of sockets to provide solder points for a bunch of flying wires, and a couple of additional flying wires would have to be connected at other points on the board. No traces would need to be cut for this. . .one note of caution, however: I still have to test this on one of my boards. Electrically, it is correct, but there is no software to test it yet. The PEB Speech adapter is based on one from the Willforth Proroboard manual. R1 matches that one, R2 matches what I'll be doing a layout for in the near future. R2 is set up to decode AMA, AMB, and AMC, so it should work with the Geneve as well. The IEEE-488 schematics reflect both variants of the board (the primary differences are the memory chip used and the number of configurable links).

 

Lastly, I am attaching the beginning of what will be a long-term SAMS upgrade. It is the majority of what will be on page 1 of the schematic--but there will be a lot of changes as I configure the page to link to the second page (which is in process, but not done yet). The final board will still be usable with 512K or 2048K chips, making it either 4096K or 16M, based on the chip configurations. Thierry's ruminations on ways to expand the SAMS board really provided a lot of food for thought when trying to configure the 74LS612. My final circuit here is designed to maintain compatibility with earlier versions at the same time it lets me switch between two possible chip sizes (eight of the 2048K chips cost just a bit over $200 all by themselves, so the large board won't be cheap--which is also why I included the option for the 512K chips, as eight of them are around $60-$70 when purchased in bulk).

A3-SAMS-P1(R2).pdf 146.17 kB · 221 downloads

A3-SAMS-P1(R4).pdf 143.12 kB · 213 downloads

A3-SAMS-P1(R5).pdf 151.39 kB · 145 downloads

A3-PEB-Speech-P1(R1).pdf 86.53 kB · 214 downloads

A3-PEB-Speech-P1(R2).pdf 97.83 kB · 110 downloads

A3-IEEE-488-P1.pdf 167.44 kB · 117 downloads

A3-IEEE-488-P2.pdf 171.18 kB · 201 downloads

A3-128K SuperRAM-P1.pdf 142.45 kB · 203 downloads

A3-128K SuperRAM-P2.pdf 114.96 kB · 240 downloads

A3-SAMS-P1(R6).pdf 194.39 kB · 241 downloads

Hi sarul,

Which memory chip you use for 512k and for 2048k versions?

[+Ksarul]

3 hours ago, Alessio Iodice said:

Hi sarul,

Which memory chip you use for 512k and for 2048k versions?

I have abandoned efforts to try and get the 2048K zero power chips working with the SAMS boards, as there are just too many problems with the ones available. The majority of available chips are seriously fiddly when it comes to establishing good pin connections, the internal batteries are generally no longer good (not a problem by itself, as the board doesn't need the battery to work) which often causes memory instabilities if the battery corrodes something in the chip, and the cost of new ones (one manufacturer still makes them) is stratospheric ($about $130-$150 per chip). That makes it uneconomical. On the 512K side, things are a little bit less of a problem. Pretty much any of the low power 512K Static Ram chips work fine. I've mostly used Alliance, Hitachi, or Samsung chips, with Alliance as my go to chip.

[RickyDean]

51 minutes ago, Ksarul said:

I have abandoned efforts to try and get the 2048K zero power chips working with the SAMS boards, as there are just too many problems with the ones available. The majority of available chips are seriously fiddly when it comes to establishing good pin connections, the internal batteries are generally no longer good (not a problem by itself, as the board doesn't need the battery to work) which often causes memory instabilities if the battery corrodes something in the chip, and the cost of new ones (one manufacturer still makes them) is stratospheric ($about $130-$150 per chip). That makes it uneconomical. On the 512K side, things are a little bit less of a problem. Pretty much any of the low power 512K Static Ram chips work fine. I've mostly used Alliance, Hitachi, or Samsung chips, with Alliance as my go to chip.

Also the Dallas DS1251Y and the BQ4015 512k RTC clock chips work as Sram on the SAMS. Tested by me.