Modify QI console for finalgrom99 use

[Calab]

1 hour ago, Airshack said:

The non-QI 99/4A units are still really cheap here:  http://www.shopgoodwill.com

I'd be all over that website if they shipped to Canada.

[evietron]

It would be possible to remap games that don't use GROM from >6000 to >4000 to make them run from the sideport. I wonder if anyone tried to recreate the style of carts like Miner 2049er or Espial but also expand them to other games.

[+arcadeshopper]

It would be possible to remap games that don't use GROM from >6000 to >4000 to make them run from the sideport. I wonder if anyone tried to recreate the style of carts like Miner 2049er or Espial but also expand them to other games.

You can connect a cart to the side port it just needs an adapter. Like the navarone grom buster

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[Jeff White]

On 9/17/2021 at 10:56 AM, mizapf said:

 

Which reminds me that I actually hope for a READY trace of the Geneve when doing video accesses. This is where the emulation is still a bit away from reality, but mainly because I don't understand why the real system behaves the way it does.

Off topic:

 

Unlike the V9958, the V9938 does not have a Ready signal.  The stock Geneve gets around this with the PAL, which will add 16 wait states or none depending on the setting of a CRU bit.  The WHT Turbo video PAL changed this to 8 wait states or none.

[Jeff White]

On 12/25/2021 at 9:32 PM, AwkwardPotato said:

Another possible solution: using a 74LS04, and putting either 2 or 4 inverters in series between GS# line from the QI TAL and GS# line of the cartridge port. Delay time per inverter would be consistent between different TI units so long as wires are kept short, eliminating RC component tolerances as a potential issue, and it might be possible to mount the LS04 on the back of the cartridge slot riser.

Slightly off topic:

 

The non-QI 99/4A motherboard has a spot for a 74(LS)04 between the 9900 and 9918(A) that is not populated.  Putting one there does not seem to affect normal functions.

[Airshack]

On 12/28/2021 at 9:55 PM, Calab said:

I'd be all over that website if they shipped to Canada.

I suppose our friends to the North or elsewhere could just find someone trustworthy in the USA receive your shipments. Then have that fellow periodically box items up and re-ship them to Canada, or wherever? Seems like a possible revenue stream for someone with room to store equipment.

@arcadeshopper.   #arcadeshipper

[+arcadeshopper]

I suppose our friends to the North or elsewhere could just find someone trustworthy in the USA receive your shipments. Then have that fellow periodically box items up and re-ship them to Canada, or wherever? Seems like a possible revenue stream for someone with room to store equipment.
[mention=25598]arcadeshopper[/mention].   #arcadeshipper

Yep I can do that for a reasonable amount pm me

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[Calab]

5 hours ago, Airshack said:

I suppose our friends to the North or elsewhere could just find someone trustworthy in the USA receive your shipments. Then have that fellow periodically box items up and re-ship them to Canada, or wherever? Seems like a possible revenue stream for someone with room to store equipment.

@arcadeshopper.   #arcadeshipper

I actually do have a receiver in the US where I can have items shipped, but with Covid, getting across the border is basically impossible without spending a whole lot of time and cash.

[AwkwardPotato]

7 hours ago, Jeff White said:

Slightly off topic:

 

The non-QI 99/4A motherboard has a spot for a 74(LS)04 between the 9900 and 9918(A) that is not populated.  Putting one there does not seem to affect normal functions.

The 1979 99/4 actually has this IC populated, unlike the 4A and QI. Bypassing it causes the black screen + cacophony fault, even if the original 9918 is swapped for a 9918A. I assume they had issues with tolerances on early units and something about the 4A's board layout solved them without the need for the LS04.

[evietron]

22 hours ago, arcadeshopper said:

You can connect a cart to the side port it just needs an adapter. Like the navarone grom buster

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From the pictures I can see, the GROM buster is just a PEB, no slot for a cartridge.

 

Requests from >6000 to >7fff (for game ROMs) as well as >980x (for GROMs) cannot be supplied from the side port as the bus transceiver drives the data bus when ~GBEN (GROM bus enable) is active even if nothing is using it.

 

[+arcadeshopper]

Nope..

Also the next gen of the final Grom 99 will be side port



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[Stuart]

55 minutes ago, evietron said:

Requests from >6000 to >7fff (for game ROMs) as well as >980x (for GROMs) cannot be supplied from the side port as the bus transceiver drives the data bus when ~GBEN (GROM bus enable) is active even if nothing is using it.

Yes for the QI console, which has an extra bus transceiver interfacing the GROM port that drives the data bus. So does that mean that the next gen FinalGROM99 won't work with a QI console? If it is on the side port, it looks like it will be battling to drive the data bus against an on-board bus transceiver ...

Edited January 1, 2022 by Stuart

[+Ksarul]

On 12/31/2021 at 4:05 PM, arcadeshopper said:

You can connect a cart to the side port it just needs an adapter. Like the navarone grom buster

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Not quite true. The function of the GROM Buster is to hijack the console startup routine when it checks the >4000 space. It then executes a routine that scans the cartridge port and puts the appropriate entry for the ROM cartridge into the selection menu. The cartridge must be in the cartridge port, as usual. The GROM Buster does pass the bus on through to additional peripherals, so it doesn't act as a bus terminator like the TigerVision, Exceltek, CorComp, or DataBioTics sideport cartridges. One would have to design another device to do what is being asked for here--and it would need to pull any missing signals out using wire connections to bypass the sideport. Even then, it would likely still need the necessary delay circuitry to eliminate the known timing difference of the QI consoles.

[Calab]

Well, I modded the slot extender card in my QI TI with the 100ohm resistor and 680pf capacitor. It allows the FinalGROM99 to be see and used by the TI-99, but you need to reset the TI-99 after each menu selection to eventually get to what you want.

My TI cartridges still seem to work fine. My only non-TI cartridge is a Mechatronic Extended BASIC II Plus, which does not work after this mod. I also noticed that if I have my speech synth or my PEB controller connected that the FG99 does not come up in the menu.

So this hack is "iffy" at best. I guess we wait for a more official fix, if one is possible at all.

[Calab]

I botched the mod above. Capacitor is connected to the wrong end of the resistor.

 

The FG99 now works with the PEB and Speech Synthesizer attached. Still no joy for the Mechatronics cartridge though.

It should look like this:

 

Edited January 2, 2022 by Calab

[+Ksarul]

18 minutes ago, Calab said:

I botched the mod above. Capacitor is connected to the wrong end of the resistor. It should look like this:

 

Did this change the symptoms for the items that didn't work after the original mod?

[Calab]

3 minutes ago, Ksarul said:

Did this change the symptoms for the items that didn't work after the original mod?

The FG99 now works with the PEB and Speech Synthesizer attached. Still no joy for the Mechatronics cartridge though.

[+Ksarul]

1 minute ago, Calab said:

The FG99 now works with the PEB and Speech Synthesizer attached. Still no joy for the Mechatronics cartridge though.

That being the case, you might also have issues with a Triton Super Extended BASIC cartridge. It likely won't affect the MicroPal or Exceltek versions of Extended BASIC, as they both use pretty much the same circuitry TI did.

[AwkwardPotato]

4 hours ago, Calab said:

Still no joy for the Mechatronics cartridge though.

Worth noting that an RC circuit like this will distort the input signal from the QI mainboard, being that the RC acts as a low-pass filter. With the high-frequency edges of the digital signal filtered out, the rise and fall times will be far longer, with which third-party cartridges' tolerance is anyone's best guess.

[wierd_w]

This is kinda dumb, but.. would a ferrite inductor not also work here?

 

If the aim is just to prolong the high signal a small amount of time, a tank circuit should also work?

[JJB]

Happy 2022!

 

Would anybody be willing to try the attached updated FG99 CPLD update (JB_UPDATE.PLD) on both classic and QI?

 

I have rewritten part of the VHDL code to introduce a GS* delay by syncing it to the GROM clock and I am getting the same result as with the RC hack. It also seems to run fine on the classic; would be great to end up having one version for both consoles ? 

 

See attached instructions from Ralph's site. For the updated CPLD firmware rename JB_UPDATE.PLD to UPDATE.PLD; to revert back to the latest official version (1.3) rename ORG13_UPDATE.PLD to UPDATE.PLD.

 

Please also try something with speech such as Alpiner, Parsec etc.

 

Cheers

JB_UPDATE.PLD ORG13_UPDATE.PLD

[+arcadeshopper]

Happy 2022!
 
Would anybody be willing to try the attached updated FG99 CPLD update (JB_UPDATE.PLD) on both classic and QI?
 
I have rewritten part of the VHDL code to introduce a GS* delay by syncing it to the GROM clock and I am getting the same result as with the RC hack. It also seems to run fine on the classic; would be great to end up having one version for both consoles [emoji846] 
 
See attached instructions from Ralph's site. For the updated CPLD firmware rename JB_UPDATE.PLD to UPDATE.PLD; to revert back to the latest official version (1.3) rename ORG13_UPDATE.PLD to UPDATE.PLD.
 
Please also try something with speech such as Alpiner, Parsec etc.
 
Cheers

JB_UPDATE.PLD ORG13_UPDATE.PLD

I can try it tomorrow

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[+OLD CS1]

28 minutes ago, JJB said:

Would anybody be willing to try the attached updated FG99 CPLD update (JB_UPDATE.PLD) on both classic and QI?

Gonna be a few days, but I will give it a try.  I had to swap out the mobo in my beige console to accommodate my FG99, and I would love to put it back together.

[Calab]

4 hours ago, JJB said:

Happy 2022!

 

Would anybody be willing to try the attached updated FG99 CPLD update (JB_UPDATE.PLD) on both classic and QI?

I have removed the hack from my QI TI and updated the PLD on my FG99. My TI-99 is a QI mainboard with the old GROMs.

Parsec does run from the FG99, but speech is garbled and the display is slightly corrupted.  If I try the Parsec cartridge that I have, it seems to work perfectly on the same TI-99.

 

I also tried Alpiner from the FG99. Again the speech is garbled and the game crashes with a scrambled display.

 

Of course I have the same issue as you with having to reset the TI after each menu selection.

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Calab

[JJB]

12 hours ago, Calab said:

Parsec does run from the FG99, but speech is garbled and the display is slightly corrupted.  If I try the Parsec cartridge that I have, it seems to work perfectly on the same TI-99.

 

I also tried Alpiner from the FG99. Again the speech is garbled and the game crashes with a scrambled display.

Did you try any other (non-speech) cartridges and if yes what was the result?