Swim
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Posts posted by Swim
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Have been trying to organize the TI/Geneve stuff I still have here and came across some MYARC FDC and Geneve boards. Of course as far as I can tell so far these boards are not working boards. I did spend some time today with what looked to be an FDC just like it came from MYARC. After playing with it for a while I found the 74LS245 was fried and replaced it with a new one. This got me to the system being locked up with a cyan screen when I powered up the TI. After about 4 hours and a new PAL and EPROM updated to version 1.5 and a new 70 nano second RAM chip just for heck of it the card is as you see it in the image and working very nicely with 5.25 disks and I'm guessing will work just as well with 3.5 disks but I don't have 3.5 drives hooked up to my TI repair system. Now that the card is working I'm thinking it should have both original electrolytic capacitors replaced. If anyone is interested in this FDC I'm asking $150.00 + shipping. Contact me here privately if interested.
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Hi Everyone, I finally got the chance to get the Hidden Reef hardware running again and the system seems to be working as it should. Still working dawn to dark on the real job but hopefully I will complete the TIPI installation soon as well. Enjoy!
The Hidden Reef BBS 718-448-9402
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8 minutes ago, acadiel said:
I have spares. Let me know if you need one. NOS Radio Shack ones - might just need new caps, but should work out of the package.
Thanks acadiel, I'll contact you once I'm certain exactly what is broken as it could be the AC pwr supply but I haven't checked anything with my meter yet.
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Hi All, just wanted to let Hidden Reef callers know that thanks to my power company, Consolidated Edison, browning me out again this summer I seem to have lost another console power supply. Of course I'm now leaving for work 4:30am and getting home after dark so it may be Sunday before I get a chance to get the Hidden Reef hardware back up and running again.
I will reply here when the system is up ready for log-ins.
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Hi All, finally just about ready to add the TIPI card to the Hidden Reef BBS P-Box for mass storage of the Up/Down load section. During the process of getting this change going I came across a handy little reference board for the 40 pin connector of the Raspberry PI 3B+ at >adafruit.com<. Might be a neat little item to have laying on the bench for those that do much playing around with the Rasberry.
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4 hours ago, InsaneMultitasker said:
I had to take Heatwave BBS offline - there is something wrong with the power supply and/or one or more cards. I noticed an 'electrical' smell yesterday and found the system unresponsive. I will not be able to investigate the true issue right away due to other obligations, so I'll post an update when/if I am able to bring it back online.
The joys of being a SYSOP. I found the Hidden Reef, a BBS that never crashes, unresponsive today due to flaky IDE operation. So now the up/down load section is not available until I get the parts together and install SCSI to run the up/down loads available again.
SYSOPs have all the fun. :)
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8 hours ago, 9640News said:
Does anyone have any of the original drawings, paperwork, etc. on the RAVE PEBox?
Does anyone own the rights to the hardware? Not sure what eventually happened to the company, etc.
Beery
Rave 99 was one of the companies I got the rights to when I bought out Cecure. I have one of the Rave 99 P-Boxes that actually works. I might have an owners manual but I'm not sure why anyone would want one since any boards used with it needed their power supplies removed from them. This caused much confusion in the community and countless MYARC, CorComp and TI boards were ruined when those boards were removed from the Rave 99 P-Box and installed into TI P-Boxes. As far as I know there are no existing drawings and/or manuals available for the Rave 99 P-Box.
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I seem to recall being told by someone who knew way more about ttl logic than I that the TMS9901 is a chip that actually "wears out" over time. Hard for me to understand how something with no "moving parts" can wear out but when I think about cards that use the TMS9901, the CorComp RS232 for instance, I believe it.
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Ditto what atrax27407 typed.
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I remember the last time I was typing with him when he got a Geneve setup from me he was typing about the "RoHS" standard and how much reflow work he was doing for Atari/Nintendo.
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1 hour ago, BeeryMiller said:
Which versions of the EPROM for the F can be used without a daughterboard upgrade?
All EPROM versions prior to 1.6 may or may not work but are more likely to work using the Geneve than the 99/4a. The 1.6 EPROM should not be used without the complete upgrade which requires different hardware modding for each card in the series.
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I think I explained the WHT SCSI controller history here on AA in an SCSI thread a while back so a search for the long version of the history can be found if needed.
Here's the short version on the WHT SCSI controller series history. I was the authorized WHT repair/upgrade station here in the USA until Competition Computer bought the rights for the WHT SCSI series "E", "F" and "G" boards. At that point Don requested I ship all remaining boards/chips I had to him and he shipped that inventory to Competition Computer as part of the sale. At this point any upgrades/runs of boards will need the permission of Competition Computer.
Although many of the original "E", "F" and "G" cards did function on the Geneve most did not on the 99/4a. The 1.6 upgrade gave all three card verisons very stable operation characteristics with all available popular hard drives including ZIP and Syquest EZ-135 units.
Hope this helps.
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Done.
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12 hours ago, Shift838 said:
Wanted to post an update.
I have the IDE card running stable with both a IDE2CF card adapter as well as a IDE2SD card adapter. The only issue I am seeing is a strange time/date format in BASIC only. In Extended Basic the time/date format shows correctly.
I will be sending Fred a new adapter board with the new clock chip (BQ4802YDW) for him to test on his system. He may be able to adapt his DSR to detect it as well. Right now the DSRv12 will assume it's a BQ4847, which is fine as the datasheets shows it to be completely compatible but it's surface mount, that's where my adapter comes in. The adapter converts the BQ4802 surface mount to a DIP, adds a crystal for the clock and 3v CR2032 battery backup. I have also added a jumper/dip switch to be able to turn the Interrupt line off as sometimes if when the unit is powered up it will flag the interrupt at boot and freeze the system. I currently just keep mine off as referenced on Fred's DSR page.
I have been smoke testing the board I built over the last few days after chasing down an issue where the card could not be found about 1/3 of the time. Sending Fred some memory dumps he pointed me to the BUS so I hit the 74ALS245's again with a hot solder iron to re-flow the joints a few days ago and now the card has been stable ever since. (I'm knocking on wood right now...)
This IDE board is definitely tricky to get assembled and working correctly. I know i have probably spent around 4 hours on the initial assembly of this board, then probably another couple of days chasing things down.
Also for all of you Geneve owners out there, it will only currently work in ROMPAGE mode, which is how it has been since it was designed originally.
For everyone that has signed up for a pre-purchase please be sure you have included your email address in the form HERE as I will be communicating with everyone via email.
Once the deadline has passed for payment to lock in your pre-order I will be making the order of the boards. currently I have requested 35 boards, the more we order the better the price for PCB production.
I an source a majority of the components from 2 sources. there are a couple I have to get elsewhere.
I will be making the pre-order going up on my store HERE soon. I'll post here and email everyone when it is available and how much each will be. I will have the different options available for the IDE Pre-order to include bare board, components only, assembled, etc. as well as options to include a IDE2CF or IDE2SD card with memory cards. I will post an estimated price soon based on how many I have scoped right now.
Once the orders are in, i suspect it will be a few weeks before I see the boards and all the components. I will be building the cards and smoke testing each one for 2 days to ensure stability. Stability of the card will usually show itself pretty quick.
Just for giggles shift338 do you have the correct orientation with the three resistor packs at location R1, R2 and R3?
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With the renewed interest in BBS exploration using old school hardware and a landline @110 baud through 56K connection speed the Hidden Reef BBS is found at 718-448-9402 running on real TI hardware 24/7. The Hidden Reef has a large download area for TI Geneve users to download directly to their 99/4a or Geneve. Once on the user's machine all that is necessary is to unarchive the file and run it the same as users would normally do with any native 99/4a/Geneve file. The Hidden Reef BBS is dedicated to the TI, CC40 and Geneve family of computers but all retro machine users are welcome.
Enjoy your BBS travels,
Richard Bell, SYSOP
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The latest version of Fred's DSR V12 is available for download on the Hidden Reef BBS 718-448-9402 24/7 for those that still have an old school 110 baud to 56k modem and land line hooked up to there 99/4a.
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5 minutes ago, mizapf said:
Is this an older IDELOAD? I am using V12 (06/12/2019), and its menu shows as last item "Set IDE clock".
Good point Mizapf. There are a few bug fixes after DSR V07 and everyone should be using DSR V12 now.
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On 5/22/2020 at 12:34 PM, InsaneMultitasker said:
Every time I have turned on the monitor with the intent of doing some quick maintenance, there has been a caller logged in!
The joys of being SYSOP.
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On 3/20/2020 at 1:46 AM, Shift838 said:
I wanted to get this out there so everyone knows what they may be getting themselves into.
not sure yet for how much assembled and tested will be.
I can tell you I have been getting prices from various electronic component distributors and prices have definitely changed since 2005 when this card was originally released. A lot of the components are not made any more and cross-referencing for compatible components is timely.
I have found 3 different distributors that I can get components from, not all from one of course. If i ordered components to populate one board then its about $115.00 before shipping. This does not include the PCB. A PCB this size will require a setup fee from the PCB manufacture as well. I have found some decent prices overseas for PCB manufacturing, but with shipping and all to get here it's about $35-40 per board with the setup fee, if I ordered 10 boards. The more I order the more discount I get.
I think we can all do the math and see this card is not as cheap as it was in 2005 to build. many of the components have doubled or even tripled in price.
Disclaimer: Prices can change daily on Electronic Components and PCB manufacturing. The above price is not guaranteed, but just a ballpark figure.
How far are you from a decision? Weeks? Months? Is the "bare board only" still an option? I know you have the Genie 2.0 project going too so it's a time jam I'm sure.
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There are a few design problems with this controller card like many designs problems don't exist until the design makes it out into actual use. The 10K resistor location next to the heat sink at the bottom right corner needs to be placed away from the back edge of the card as it often gets knocked off when the card is inserted into the P-Box. I can't tell you how many of those I replaced for TIers that often swap cards in and out.
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This is a pic of the IDE controller with compact flash that has been running 24/7 for almost a decade in the Hidden Reef BBS P-Box and holds the up/down load files.
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21 minutes ago, brain said:
I'd possibly be willing to redo the schematic and PCB and make it all through hole, but I'd need help... If I did, I'd probably make the entire design through hole parts, since I don't know that I see any reason it all has to be surface mount.
Check with Ksarul on this as I recall he started a thru hole project for this IDE controller a year or two ago.
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24 minutes ago, matthew180 said:
Vout is the same as Vcc (5V) during normal operation, and switches to the battery voltage (probably about 3V) when power is lost. But the normal operation voltage is still 5V, and this does not address the I/O signals that are still going to be coming from 5V TTL ICs.
Those do not provide the battery Vout to power the external SRAM during power failure, if that is important.
Also, any of these clock chips with internal batteries are going to suffer the same problem, i.e. they will be dead in 10 years, which in retro-computing is not very long. And in 10 years they will probably be near impossible to get. Using an external battery design would be a better option, IMO.
Hi matthew180, the BQ4852YMC-85 carries the 512k SRAM on board so there is no need for a 512k SRAM at location IC23.
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10 hours ago, F.G. Kaal said:
In Thierry's design the RAM chip M68Z512W get its power from the clock chip BQ4847 chip (pin #1 Vout) . See also schematic in my website http://www.ti99-geek.nl/Projects/idecard/Files/ide_sch2.gif
When using the other clock chip BQ4842 you don't need the RAM chip ... the DSR can be stored in the clock cips memory.
If the RAM chip is added anyway then yo have to disable it when using this clock chip.
In the data sheet of the RTC-65271 I don't see a voltage output for some external device. If this clock chip is going to be used some batery backup for the RAM chip must be created.
Fred ;-
Hi Fred, there is supply of BQ4852YMC-85 but Rochester electronics instead of no longer available Texas Instruments.
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Myarc cards for sale/repair tips
in TI-99/4A Computers
Posted
This board has been taken. Stand by as I'll have a few more of these available as time allows. Haven't setup a P-Box yet to start testing what shape the Geneves are in.