A rather odd question for P-Box owners... (NO FDC)

[Omega-TI]

Do you run a P-Box without a standard, or third party floppy drive controller?  If so, what cards are running in your P-Box as a replacement?

Edited December 10, 2019 by --- Ω ---
Clarification of question

[Mehridian Sanders]

I just came into possession of some Teac 5.25" FDD. Do those work with the PEB? If so, I was wondering if anyone needed one. I will be testing them within the next couple of days for functionality.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

[klrw111-78]

TI controller modified to 80-track


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[+FarmerPotato]

I have TI floppy controller and one Myarc HFDC. But all my floppy drives don’t work. Except for a 3.5” DSK3 from Texin Treasures. 
 

I had 2 external DSK1/2 from the CorComp 9900 MPES until 1 died. 2 lived on with Cryoflux , but now refuses to work in the PBOX. It’s jumpered at DSK1.

 

(I/O error 06, device error)

I am in need of floppy drives.

I was given 3 new old stock IBM PC (5150) drives but those are single sided. 

 

[wierd_w]

Shit, I used to have a small collection of PC 1.44 drives. I tossed them out to save closet space... I think.... Let me dig.

 

Nope, just have a single one that I intend to keep.  I *DID* find a hilariously old original TRS80 DOS2.0/BASIC 5.25 diskette of unknown utility though in a disk file storage box.

Edited December 10, 2019 by wierd_w

[+FarmerPotato]

You refer to DSDD or HD? 
our controller supports DSSD for 180K, the DSDD does 360K, those with 80 track upgrades get 720K. 

We can’t use 1.2M drives, for various reasons of not supported. Even in 3.5 were using the older 800K type. 
 

somewhere there is a list of floppy models supported by the controller. For instance some TEAC models work , up to revision F but not R... I was given a pile of R. 

I just found schematics for either  the Lewisville prototype PBOX card,  or Hexbus floppy, with 16 sector tracks from NEC 765 controller. Fun. 

[Omega-TI]

Actually I'm looking for those people who many have eliminated using any legacy disk drive controller and drives altogether, but still use a P-Box for specialty cards like SAMS, Triple Techs, RAM disks, etc.

 

Many people are quite happy getting by with Nano-PEB's and TIPI's, I was curious to see if any P-Box owners were starting to follow suit.

[RXB]

11 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:

Do you run a P-Box without a standard, or third party floppy drive controller?  If so, what cards are running in your P-Box as a replacement?

I run PGRAM, SCSI card with 3 SCSI drives, CorComp Disk Controller with 2 3.5 Teac Floppy drives, TI RS232, and SAMS 1 Meg Memory card.

My Horzion 3000 died. 

 

[Omega-TI]

Again, I'm only looking for people who DO NOT USE disk drives in their P-Box.

[+jedimatt42]

It seems that PEB users are not able to comprehend the question. 

 

I would presumptuously conclude the answer to your question is simply: no. 

 

-M@

[Omega-TI]

You are probably right.

[RXB]

4 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:

Again, I'm only looking for people who DO NOT USE disk drives in their P-Box.

Not using Hard Drives or Floppy Drives with a P-Box is like cutting the wings off your Airplane, pretty much defeats the reason for owning it.

[Opry99er]

The TIPI functions as a hard drive of sorts.  I guess the question is, "Who uses a TIPI and not a disk controller."  I can't think of any other possible configuration which excludes a disk system that would be useful.  

[Omega-TI]

2 hours ago, RXB said:

Not using Hard Drives or Floppy Drives with a P-Box is like cutting the wings off your Airplane, pretty much defeats the reason for owning it.

Not at all.  Floppy drives are slow by nature and sometimes prone to failure due to age and require a lot of space consuming diskettes.  In the message above @Opry99er mentioned the TIPI as one example as it functions like disk drives, only faster, and it also behaves like a large solid state hard drive as well.  In some ways the TIPI can be viewed as the best of both worlds, like a Nano-PEB but with the ability to use many specialized cards, which the Nano cannot.  I might also mention that the TIPI with it's WiFi capabilities makes it much easier to get new programs from the Internet to the TI, which can be difficult with only disk drives.  So using your airplane analogy, a P-Box without disk drives could be like a Gulfstream V Jet compared to a propeller driven Cessna 150. 

[Mehridian Sanders]

Shit, I used to have a small collection of PC 1.44 drives. I tossed them out to save closet space... I think.... Let me dig.
 
Nope, just have a single one that I intend to keep.  I *DID* find a hilariously old original TRS80 DOS2.0/BASIC 5.25 diskette of unknown utility though in a disk file storage box.

If you could please send me the data off that I would be most grateful. I got some z80 chips recently.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[Mehridian Sanders]

I have TI floppy controller and one Myarc HFDC. But all my floppy drives don’t work. Except for a 3.5” DSK3 from Texin Treasures. 
 
I had 2 external DSK1/2 from the CorComp 9900 MPES until 1 died. 2 lived on with Cryoflux , but now refuses to work in the PBOX. It’s jumpered at DSK1.
 
(I/O error 06, device error)

I am in need of floppy drives.

I was given 3 new old stock IBM PC (5150) drives but those are single sided. 
 

I have some Teac's I got recently but haven't tested yet .. I'll jump on that tonight see what I can do.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[wierd_w]

34 minutes ago, Mehridian Sanders said:

If you could please send me the data off that I would be most grateful. I got some z80 chips recently.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

 

Normally I would be happy to, but I have no means of reading it at this time.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

I often run my PEB system with only a SCSI card (no floppy) so, yes, my PEB has no floppy controller.  I use the Ubergrom cart to transfer files via its on-board COM port using Fred's UBER DM2K software and TIMXT. One 3-pin cable makes for a simple configuration.  I also suppose the HDX could also be an option for disk-less PEB save for the fact that its DSR must be periodically loaded from some other device.

 

Is your question also an attempt to discern whether or not any TIPI users have abandoned their floppy controllers?

[Mehridian Sanders]

  Normally I would be happy to, but I have no means of reading it at this time.

 

I would be happy to send you a Teac with the serial cable. What model would you like.... derp Teac is 5.25.... is there a 3.5" drive that would work with your setup

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

[Mehridian Sanders]

I would be happy to send you a Teac with the serial cable. What model would you like.... derp Teac is 5.25.... is there a 3.5" drive that would work with your setupSent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
 
 
 
 

Sorry been working on this windows 95 system for too long, trying to get this Teac to recognize properly. Lol

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[apersson850]

No, I've never used my TI expansion box without any floppy controller. When I bought the box, I got the flex interface, 32 K RAM expansion, RS-232 card, p-code card and TI disk controller from start. Put two Teac FD 55B drives in the PEB from start too.

I've since changed to a CorComp double density controller, added two more IBM DSDD drives, added a real-time clock card and added an IO-card, with digital and analog interface circuits. The last addition is a Horizon RAMdisk. Now the box is full, unless the RAMdisk card is modified to contain the memory expansion as well.

[Omega-TI]

16 hours ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

I often run my PEB system with only a SCSI card (no floppy) so, yes, my PEB has no floppy controller.  I use the Ubergrom cart to transfer files via its on-board COM port using Fred's UBER DM2K software and TIMXT. One 3-pin cable makes for a simple configuration.  I also suppose the HDX could also be an option for disk-less PEB save for the fact that its DSR must be periodically loaded from some other device.

 

Is your question also an attempt to discern whether or not any TIPI users have abandoned their floppy controllers?

 

Not just TIPI, but any others out there.  There are so many potential configurations out there, like yours for example.  It's nice to learn new things, like what is available that I don't know about. 

 

I would really like to see a photo of your UBER DMK2/UberGROM gadget hooked up if you ever have the time.

 

YES!  While I no longer have an HDX myself, I always thought a BIN version of the DSR loader would be welcomed by so many people.

[RXB]

19 hours ago, --- Ω --- said:

Not at all.  Floppy drives are slow by nature and sometimes prone to failure due to age and require a lot of space consuming diskettes.  In the message above @Opry99er mentioned the TIPI as one example as it functions like disk drives, only faster, and it also behaves like a large solid state hard drive as well.  In some ways the TIPI can be viewed as the best of both worlds, like a Nano-PEB but with the ability to use many specialized cards, which the Nano cannot.  I might also mention that the TIPI with it's WiFi capabilities makes it much easier to get new programs from the Internet to the TI, which can be difficult with only disk drives.  So using your airplane analogy, a P-Box without disk drives could be like a Gulfstream V Jet compared to a propeller driven Cessna 150. 

I have a PGRAM, SCSI drives and card and SAMS memory.  Where the hell am I going to plug them in without a P-Box?

Do you have some magic way to make these work without one?

How about a RAMDISK or RS232 card that talks to my IBM PC Windows 95 running PC99?

 

I understand that TIPI is a great invention but I am not fond of sidecars ever.

[Opry99er]

TIPI is produced as a PBox card as well.  I use one in my PBox along with my RAMDisk, TripleTech, etc.

[gpaJeb]

On 12/10/2019 at 2:52 AM, Mehridian Sanders said:

I just came into possession of some Teac 5.25" FDD. Do those work with the PEB? If so, I was wondering if anyone needed one. I will be testing them within the next couple of days for functionality.

 

I'm looking for one! Lost the one in my Box.