Mechatronic 80 Column Card (Side Card)

fabrice montupet · December 5, 2019

A last picture, dedicated to... Tursi 🙂

fabrice montupet · December 5, 2019

For those interested, the image disk that contains all the GIF pictures I made is available here:

http://www.ti99.com/ti/data/images/gifs.dsk

Tursi · December 5, 2019

1 hour ago, fabrice montupet said:

A last picture, dedicated to... Tursi 🙂

Haha, someone's been following me around the Internet. She came out pretty well!

mizapf · December 6, 2019

Here is a disk with all your pictures converted to MyArt format (using Picture Transfer).

Know what? Back in those days, I was impressed by the Amiga graphics. I did not know that I already had a machine on my desk that could deliver equally nice pictures ... my Geneve.

That's the stuff that I want to see.

Merci beaucoup!

myartgif.dsk

Nick99 · December 6, 2019

Where can I find Picture Transfer? Is it on WHT?

Thanks!

+9640News · December 6, 2019

I know it's on a MAME hard disk BOOTDISK1.hd image, but I do not see the file on whtech.

I just copied the file to a DSK image and it is attached here. Perhaps someone will put it up on whtech.

Type HELP at the menu and it will give you a list of commands.

PictureTransfer.dsk

Nick99 · December 6, 2019

Thanks Beery! 😃👍

mizapf · December 6, 2019

Does anybody know how to define a V9938 palette in GIMP? I could use this to convert further pictures. Alternatively, I saw I could also import a palette from a given image. Fabrice, maybe you could send me one of your pictures as a GIF file? (I tried to save one of the GIF pictures as a binary file to load in the PC, but this was not very successful; it did not recognize the file.)

fabrice montupet · December 6, 2019

Happy to see that the pictures are appreciated 🙂

I don't use Gimp but I will see how to generate a V9938 palette using it.

Other thing. Reading English version the Mechatronic 80col manual, I was surprised to read that the power supply required is 5 volts DC. It's wrong. The interface needs 7 or 8 volts because the power regulator LM7805 that feeds the IC components of the expansion needs at least 7V to function. It is impossible for a LM regulator that the input voltage be equal to the output voltage because of the LM circuit consummation. If some people have problem with their Mechatronic 80col, they should verify their power supply. Maybe it's the non-working or erratic working explanation.

+Schmitzi · December 6, 2019

wow, great info @fabrice montupet , thanks ! So what would you prefer, 7 or 8 Volts ?

And how many mA ? The original one ("Type 9597") has 220V AC / 6 Volt DC and is 600 mA

(As you know, I have nothing to loose here )

fabrice montupet · December 7, 2019

I don't understand why Mechatronic has chosen a such poor power supply... And the same bad choice was made for their 128K-RAM expansion.

Another strange choice: Their expansions are all slim, it gives the illusion to save space, but when the Mechatronic 80 col and the 128K-RAM are installed, the computer takes a lot of place on the deskop... Why they haven't decide to put them vertically, plugged on a little 2 or 3-slot backplane? This would have been great.

The range of the input voltage of the LM7805 is typically between 7 and 20 volts, so 7 or 8 are both good. As the expansion has a little size heatsink, I recommend not to exceed 9 volts.