globeron Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 Today I got the Mechatronic 80 Column Card to work with a self-made RGB to SCART cable. (note: not all TV's, etc. do support RGB on their SCART interface). This was tested on a Philips 42PFL5604H/12 TV with 2x SCART/RGB interfaces: https://www.philips.ae/c-p/42PFL5604H_12/-/specifications 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 18, 2019 Author Share Posted June 18, 2019 (edited) Mechatronic 80 Column Card (9-pin) RGB interface to SCART/RGB plug Pin 1 = Ground to Pin 18 is Composite Input "Ground" / Sync input "Ground" Pin 2 - not used Pin 3 = Red to Pin 15 Pin 4 = Green to Pin 11 Pin 5 = Blue to Pin 7 Pin 6 - not used Pin 7 = +5V ("RGB trigger") to Pin 16 Fast Switching (if you get Black and White / Grey pictures, probably you still use Composite and it is not triggered to use RGB) See: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/trouble-shooting-guide-for-rgb-scart-cables https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART#Blanking_and_switching Pin 8 = Synchronization TTL (Transitor Transitor Logic) to Pin 20 Composite video input / Sync. input Pin 9 - not used Audio - Need to come from the 6-DIN plug (European consoles) or 5-DIN plug (USA consoles) and need to go to 5-DIN Pin 3 Audio to Pin 2 - Audio input Right 5-DIN Pin 3 Audio to Pin 6 - Audio input Left (Combine Pin 3, as the TI-99/4A is mono audio output) https://justinpaulin.com/2014/04/21/testing-a-texas-instruments-ti-994a-without-power-or-video-cables/ Use Pin 2 = Ground to Pin 4 Audio Ground For Audio on a Europen console (DIN-6) 6-DIN Pin 5 Audio to Pin 2 - Audio input Right 6-DIN Pin 5 Audio to Pin 6 - Audio input Left (Combine Pin 3, as the TI-99/4A is mono audio output) Use Pin 6 = Ground to Pin 4 Audio Ground Edited June 18, 2019 by globeron 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 18, 2019 Author Share Posted June 18, 2019 (edited) Documentation and files: Mechatronik-80z.ark.dsk mechatronics 80 column peripheral manual.pdf Mechatronic-80col-DIP-Plugs-42712.pdf Mechatronic-80col-SCART-CABLE-with-DIN6-plug-RMS02.pdf Kommand.txt Commands.txt Command2.txt Edited June 18, 2019 by globeron 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 80 Columns on a TI is a wonderful thing to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 TIPI and CRU? ---------------- To connect the TIPI to the Mechatronic 80 Column Card, the CRU (Communication Register Unit) address had to be changed (it did not work on the TIPI somehow, but I changed DIP Switch 3 last pin (and no clue which CRU address it is now. Default is >1000, and advised not to change it according the Mechatronic manual. (Is TIPI also is using CRU >1000 ? when the jumper is on the bottom two pins, see the video) I tried to move the jumper between pins on the left side pins, without a working result https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki/crubase According this the TIPI CRU base is at address >1100 https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki/tipi-installation Does someone know a program to see all the CRU occupations ? (in an easy to understand format ?) With the TIPI connected, I can save programs to the TIPI (DSK2.80XBTEST) Mechatronic 80 Col. Card - demo of 26 rows (= Max.) and 27 rows (note that row 26 gets refreshed when reaching row 27 and if you do more rows you see it blinking) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqIzsAoGQLA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 Mechatronic 80 Column Card: Loading an 80 Column Text editor program stored at (URI3=) ftp.whtech.com/TIPI called EDIT80 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykjePolTM7k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 The left button is used (pressed) to fixed the screen-mode in case it is locked-up in the graphical mode. Sometimes just enter something like 1 REM (ENTER) and it also switches back to text mode. Sometimes it is locked up, then remove all power of all devices (remove power from the TI-99/4A, Mechatronic 80 Col. card, remove power from the 32K + TIPI, etc.), wait for a few seconds and start-up again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolhess Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 16 hours ago, globeron said: Does someone know a program to see all the CRU occupations ? (in an easy to understand format ?) Hi Ronald, a fine card you have. I'm still waiting for the next F18A/mk2 for two of my TI systems. Attached is a EA5 Program to scan all the CRU adresses in your TI-system. DSRSCAN After loading the program DSRSCAN you see the first used CRU adress and some more informations about the device. with selection 5 you change to the next CRU adress til the last used adress. With the selection 6 you go back to the previous CRU adress. Regards Wolfgang 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 8 hours ago, wolhess said: Hi Ronald, a fine card you have. I'm still waiting for the next F18A/mk2 for two of my TI systems. Attached is a EA5 Program to scan all the CRU adresses in your TI-system. DSRSCAN 2.13 kB · 4 downloads After loading the program DSRSCAN you see the first used CRU adress and some more informations about the device. with selection 5 you change to the next CRU adress til the last used adress. With the selection 6 you go back to the previous CRU adress. Regards Wolfgang Thanks Wolfgang! The TIPI is on CRU >1000 and the Mechatronic 80 Col on CRU >1100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 20, 2019 Author Share Posted June 20, 2019 Thanks Omega for the link. DU2K of Fred Kaal (TI-GG-NL) Disk Utilities with option N on the Extended Basic 2.7 Suite module (or at http://ti99-geek.nl/Projects/du2k/Files/du2k_v21.zip) and http://ti99-geek.nl/Projects/du2k/du2k.html 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted June 21, 2019 Share Posted June 21, 2019 normally 1100 is the floppy controller cru.btw.. Greg 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 21, 2019 Author Share Posted June 21, 2019 Thanks Greg, that was my next step to connect the CPS9900 to the system. See also: https://github.com/jedimatt42/tipi/wiki/crubase I just checked all the Dip Switch 3 pins (as it is not documented) DipSW3 has 4 pins. If all are pushed to the top it is "ON" = 1 (just opposite as the table of jedimatt42) 1111 = >1000 Used by TIPI (on 32K of Jedimatt) / Hard & RAM drives 1110 = >1100 TI / Corcomp / Myarc FDC / Atronic CPS9900 (Floppy Disk Controller) 1101 = >1200 Mechatronic 80 Column Card 1100 = >1300 RS232-1/2 1011 = >1400 128 KByte Speichererweiterung mit Centronicsschnittstelle (128K Memory Expansion with Centronics Interface) 1010 = >1500 RS232-3/4 1001 = >1600 1000 = >1700 Hexbus (for TI-99/8 and CC-40 and similar) 0111 = >1800 0110 = >1900 Myarc 512k Memory 0101 = >1A00 0100 = >1B00 0011 => 1C00 0010 => 1D00 Triple Tech Clock (CorComp) 0001 => 1E00 SAMS (Memory) 0000 => 1F00 P-Code (UCSD Pascal) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jedimatt42 Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 http://ftp.whtech.com/datasheets and manuals/Hardware/Mechatronic/mechatronics 80 column peripheral manual.pdf It is curious that Mechatronics manual says that for 'error free' operation of the card the crubase must be '>1000' There are the special DSRs for manipulating the color palette or printing to the 80 column screen. That manual doesn't say what fails to work correctly if running at a crubase other than '>1000' -M@ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jedimatt42 Posted June 22, 2019 Share Posted June 22, 2019 Oh, one interaction with VDP RAM is in the floppy controllers, ( or TIPI when running at >1100 ) as they adjust the stack pointer in VDP to allocate space for open file buffers. This is done in the controller's power-up routine. Power-up routines are executed in order of crubase. Do we have a rom dump for this card? it would be interesting to look at the DSR header, and see if there is a power-up routine, and read what that power-up routine actually does... It would let us know why the docs say this actually has to be at crubase >1000 for proper functioning. -M@ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 22, 2019 Author Share Posted June 22, 2019 16 hours ago, jedimatt42 said: Oh, one interaction with VDP RAM is in the floppy controllers, ( or TIPI when running at >1100 ) as they adjust the stack pointer in VDP to allocate space for open file buffers. This is done in the controller's power-up routine. Power-up routines are executed in order of crubase. Do we have a rom dump for this card? it would be interesting to look at the DSR header, and see if there is a power-up routine, and read what that power-up routine actually does... It would let us know why the docs say this actually has to be at crubase >1000 for proper functioning. -M@ I also noted it, but it seems to work fine so far on other CRU base As the 80-Col. and console are my fathers' one, I swapped them today (my card has a power switch and Dipswitch 3 are red. Also the startup is a bit different, it does not go through another screen Sync. Cycle and the EEPROM might have different versions as well. Not sure about the ROM-dump or how to do it. (let me know the normal procedure or other ways Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Finally, made the complete cable including audio * video comes from the Mechatronic 80 Column card. to SCART/RGB * Audio from the TI - USA version console 5 DIN-port Pin-3 (Audio) and Pin-2 Ground to the SCART/RGB (pin 2 - Audio In Right channel and Pin 4 Audio Ground) 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Yesterday I swapped the Mechatronic 80 card and TI-99/4A as they are my father ones (and got my own system back, see other upcoming videos as the card has an on/off switch and the DipSwitch 3 has red switches). Here is my father's system in action: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 More videos where I tested combinations with Atronic CPS99 system (32K + Diskdrives + RS2323) Mechatronic 80 Column Card, Mechatronic 128K Ram (32K + 3x 32K banks to store files. DSKR + Centronics "PORT" (PIO)) 1. 2. 3. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 My card with a Power On/Off switch 1. Dip Switch Bank 2, the 2nd switch (Keyboard Interrupt need to be in OFF position to use the left key to correct from graphics mode to normal mode). It is written wrong (opposite) in the manual. The key is needed when going to TI-BASIC for example and you get the graphic (purple) screen lock 2. NTSC mode is sharper on the LCD (compared to PAL), Dip Switch bank 2, Switch 1 in ON position 3. Screen Adjustments can be done using DipSwitch Bank 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Programs for the TI-99/4A with Mechatronic 80 Column Card (and I guess any card with a V9938 Chipset). Funnelweb 4.4 with 80 Columns loading from the TIPI / RPI (the original file on FTP.WHTECH.COM was to large to unpack on the TIPI? I splitted it into two files and then via SSHv2 logged into the RPI and merged them together into 1 directory. Disk images and video below: Funnel81.dskFunnel80.dsk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Extended Basic demo 80 Columns (and LINK library) Disks and video per below: 0127-XB-80Column-GifViewer.dsk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 GIFVIEW for Editor Assembler Disks and video per below: 0127-XB-80Column-GifViewer.dsk 0183-MYART06.dsk 0182-MYART05.dsk 0181-MYART04.dsk 0180-MYART03.dsk 0179-MYART02.dsk 0178-MYART01.dsk 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 X80 demo (Alexander Hulpke, Germany) Note: you need to load the X80 library first. 10 CALL INIT 20 CALL LOAD("DSK1.X80") X80.dsk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globeron Posted June 23, 2019 Author Share Posted June 23, 2019 Other programs for 80 Column, but I did not manage yet to get them to work: 1. Multiplan with disk (disk is based on name and not on number. DSK.TIMP.xxx) 2. TurboForth 80 Column 3. Telco V2.3 (Terminal Emulator) 4. Menu (but is for Myarc Geneva9640 MDOS). However for the F18A there is a 80 Column Menu system (not too sure if it works with the Mechatronic 80 Column Card) If there are any other 80 Column programs let met know (Direct Message me and I will post them here if they work with the Mechatronic 80 Colum) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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