PEB Help Needed

[Ed in SoDak]

On the TI cassette recorder, try realigning the head after cleaning it. The music tapes would suffice, especially if commercially recorded and not "home made." Just play one and slowly diddle the screw with the spring on one side of the tape head. Sometimes you get lucky and that screw will have an access hole in the recorder's top enclosure. It appears TI's recorder does have the proper azimuth access hole.

 

Other times you may have to remove the cassette, press play to advance the head to get at the screw, adjust it blind in very small increments then try playing the tape again. Better to remove the top cover for full access or drill a hole through it to adjust while in use. The hole goes through the cover where the screw will be when in play position. Just go for best highs and volume.

 

It's possible those TI tapes were made on a recorder that was out of alignment itself. In that case use one of those tapes to make the TI recorder match the bad alignment, but don't record/create any new tapes till you move the head back to where it should be.

 

Tone is always set at max, volume quite high at 3/4 or above for undistorted sound.

 

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by Ed in SoDak

[A Black Falcon]

Lots of good advice, yet again!  Thanks.  It is appreciated.

On 6/19/2022 at 11:24 PM, Ksarul said:

On the Newtronics D509V, as noted by you already, it is a 1.2M drive. The TI really chokes when trying to use any 1.2M drive. It is expecting the drive to rotate at 300 RPM (normal for DD drives), not 360 RPM (normal for 1.2M drives). That introduces all kinds of uncertainty, even without the difference in track width, the fact that you would have to double-step the heads to get an appropriate track geometry, and differences in the coercivity of the media.

 

On older drives, the original single-sided TI drives will also work as DD drives with an appropriate DD controller. Using them that way increases their formatted capacity from 90K (SSSD) to 180K (SSDD). As you have already discovered, the DSDD 360K drive will format nicely as a 180K DSSD drive. DD controllers are a bit HTF, but they do turn up somewhat regularly.

 

Not sure what to say on the cassette deck. I've never had one do that. You could try cleaning the heads though, as it is possible the head is gummed up enough that it isn't passing enough of a signal to the TI.

 

Okay, thanks for the info.  It is interesting then that someone had that 1.2MB drive with their TI stuff if it can't work on this machine, but I guess that's what happened.  At least one of the drives works, and I'll probably get another 360K drive have two as you really need.

 

On 6/20/2022 at 1:48 AM, AwkwardPotato said:

 

Rube Goldberg Approach for TI File Transfer in a Pinch (STEPS 1-5 ONLY NECESSARY THE FIRST TIME):

(requires XB, RS-232 card, a "straight-through" serial cable, cassette cable, and possibly a USB-to-RS232 adapter)

1. Download MagicFM, a file transfer program written in XB, available on WHTech and elsewhere (Note 1, see below)
2. Use Fred Kaal's Ti99Dir to extract the LOAD and MAGICFM files from the above disk image to a directory on your PC (Note 2)
3. Use CS1er to convert the extracted LOAD and MAGICFM files (they're in FIAD format by default) to .WAV format
4. Connect the TI to a PC/smartphone with the cassette cable. Start the TI in XB
5. Play back both of your converted .WAV files, one at a time, load them on the TI, then save them to a blank disk, once again as LOAD and MAGICFM. You now have an auto-booting MagicFM disk.
6. Connect the TI to your PC via a straight-through serial cable (a null modem cable will NOT work), using the USB-to-RS232 adapter if necessary
7. Reset the TI with the XB cartridge & MagicFM disk still in
8. Transfer files (in TIFILES format) as needed with XMODEM mode in your PC terminal emulator of choice

NOTE 1: Arcadeshopper already has a MagicFM disk in stock, which saves an incredible amount of hassle

NOTE 2: Several members have reported success transferring MagicFM from an emulated TI (MAME) to a real TI over RS232, rather than using a cassette cable. I was never able to get this to work, however.

NOTE 3: Getting an HDX or TIPI will save you an even greater amount of hair-pulling. The most difficult part of the above method is finding the right terminal settings to use on the PC side by trial-and-error. If you're doing this on a semi-modern Mac, be prepared for a USB-to-RS232 driver nightmare.

 

The above mess is how I prepped my TI for file transfer when I first got my PEB. I'm drawing this from several-year-old notes, and posting it here mainly in case future passerby already have most of the above hardware and want to transfer files with the least additional expense possible.

 

 

  I hadn't heard of HDX before, interesting.  For where I have my TI a TIPI would be a better choice since it's nowhere near my PC (unlike my Apple IIGS which is right next to the PC, so a pc-to-apple cable works great), but I do have a CorComp RS232 card, so... hm. I see that Arcade Shopper sells this: https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/HDXS-kit-both-rs232-cable-and-USB-RS232-adapter-for-PC-and-HDXS-on-diskette/p/130719201/category=16275022 but would I be able to use it at all without one of the specially modified RS232 cards the HDS site mentions?  I see mention of a regular RS232 card to serial port program on the HDX site, but that would not be of any use, I'd need USB.  Even my older PC only has a parallel port and not serial.

 

As for MagicFM, I'd assume that adapter there would at least work with MagicFM, presuming that I could figure out how to get the terminal connected, I've never done anything like that before...

 

It's good to know that these options exist, though, I didn't know about them.  I might try it.

 

On 6/20/2022 at 4:00 PM, Ed in SoDak said:

On the TI cassette recorder, try realigning the head after cleaning it. The music tapes would suffice, especially if commercially recorded and not "home made." Just play one and slowly diddle the screw with the spring on one side of the tape head. Sometimes you get lucky and that screw will have an access hole in the recorder's top enclosure. It appears TI's recorder does have the proper azimuth access hole.

 

Other times you may have to remove the cassette, press play to advance the head to get at the screw, adjust it blind in very small increments then try playing the tape again. Better to remove the top cover for full access or drill a hole through it to adjust while in use. The hole goes through the cover where the screw will be when in play position. Just go for best highs and volume.

 

It's possible those TI tapes were made on a recorder that was out of alignment itself. In that case use one of those tapes to make the TI recorder match the bad alignment, but don't record/create any new tapes till you move the head back to where it should be.

 

Tone is always set at max, volume quite high at 3/4 or above for undistorted sound.

 

 

 

For an update on the cassette player, I haven't tried adjusting the head because if it's set wrong I would have no idea what right is, but I can say this: I got it to load something.  Once.  Specifically, I got an official TI Scott Adams Adventure module tape to work.  I loaded and played Golden Voyage a bit.   However, this got me to try other tapes and... no.   None of the other (non-TI) tapes I have work on the TI player, and I know that most of them work because I have used them on the other cassette player and loaded stuff.  Also I can hear the data playing over the speakers while the TI player tries to load tapes, it's just that it always fails midway or gets to the end of the data, doesn't recognize it, and keeps playing the tape until eventually erroring out with a "no data detected" error in Basic or Tunnels of Doom (depending on what I'm trying to load).

 

Trying it again now I have no idea why it worked that one time because I can't even get the Golden Voyage tape to load again, I tried twice and it errors out.  I only have so much patience when every single attempt requires a three-plus-minute load...

 

I know what I should do is just get this stuff on floppy disks (or TIPI) and load it from there, it'd take less loading time and be more reliable.  But it'd be nice if tapes were an option, you know?

 

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

34 minutes ago, A Black Falcon said:

Lots of good advice, yet again!  Thanks.  It is appreciated.

 

Okay, thanks for the info.  It is interesting then that someone had that 1.2MB drive with their TI stuff if it can't work on this machine, but I guess that's what happened.  At least one of the drives works, and I'll probably get another 360K drive have two as you really need.

 

 

  I hadn't heard of HDX before, interesting.  For where I have my TI a TIPI would be a better choice since it's nowhere near my PC (unlike my Apple IIGS which is right next to the PC, so a pc-to-apple cable works great), but I do have a CorComp RS232 card, so... hm. I see that Arcade Shopper sells this: https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/store/#!/HDXS-kit-both-rs232-cable-and-USB-RS232-adapter-for-PC-and-HDXS-on-diskette/p/130719201/category=16275022 but would I be able to use it at all without one of the specially modified RS232 cards the HDS site mentions?  I see mention of a regular RS232 card to serial port program on the HDX site, but that would not be of any use, I'd need USB.  Even my older PC only has a parallel port and not serial.

 

As for MagicFM, I'd assume that adapter there would at least work with MagicFM, presuming that I could figure out how to get the terminal connected, I've never done anything like that before...

 

It's good to know that these options exist, though, I didn't know about them.  I might try it.

 

 

For an update on the cassette player, I haven't tried adjusting the head because if it's set wrong I would have no idea what right is, but I can say this: I got it to load something.  Once.  Specifically, I got an official TI Scott Adams Adventure module tape to work.  I loaded and played Golden Voyage a bit.   However, this got me to try other tapes and... no.   None of the other (non-TI) tapes I have work on the TI player, and I know that most of them work because I have used them on the other cassette player and loaded stuff.  Also I can hear the data playing over the speakers while the TI player tries to load tapes, it's just that it always fails midway or gets to the end of the data, doesn't recognize it, and keeps playing the tape until eventually erroring out with a "no data detected" error in Basic or Tunnels of Doom (depending on what I'm trying to load).

 

Trying it again now I have no idea why it worked that one time because I can't even get the Golden Voyage tape to load again, I tried twice and it errors out.  I only have so much patience when every single attempt requires a three-plus-minute load...

 

I know what I should do is just get this stuff on floppy disks (or TIPI) and load it from there, it'd take less loading time and be more reliable.  But it'd be nice if tapes were an option, you know?

 

 

 

https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/ti-99-4a-faq-pc-to-ti-transfers-with-stock-rs232-nanopeb-and-hdx-server/

 

https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/ti-99-4a-faq-transfer-files-to-my-ti-from-my-pc/

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by arcadeshopper