+OLD CS1 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 This probably merits another thread entirely, but has anyone ever looked at adapting floppy drives for other computers for the TI? Like Apple (a DuoDisk would be neat) or other more Shugart-like drives? I do not believe drives like Amiga or Atari ST would work, nor would Commodore or Atari 8-bit (the former are somewhat Shugart-modified and the latter are "smart" peripherals.) What about IEEE-488 for the TI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 I've got a TI IEEE-488 Card, but I haven't had time to dig into it to see exactly how much of the communication protocol was actually implemented in the DSR. I eventually plan to get an IEEE drive to test it out though. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 (edited) I've got a TI IEEE-488 Card, but I haven't had time to dig into it to see exactly how much of the communication protocol was actually implemented in the DSR. I eventually plan to get an IEEE drive to test it out though. . . I have a Commodore SFD-1001 1MB 5.25" that I would like to use. I also have a couple of MSD-2 drives which have both the IEEE-488 and Commodore IEC serial. (At least one of the MSD-2 work, I am unsure about the rest.) Here is what confounds me: is a '488 device automatically compatible with a computer with a '488 interface? I have seen PCI '488 cards but I hesitate to buy due to this. It seems that the whole idea of the GPIB is to be compatible across a range of systems (though not necessarily for storage devices.) Edited September 10, 2014 by OLD CS1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 '488 device automatically compatible with a computer with a '488 interface? Electrically compatible yes, I believe, but you need software to understand and drive the device. OPEN 1,8,15, ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Electrically compatible yes, I believe, but you need software to understand and drive the device. OPEN 1,8,15, ... Right, therein lies the problem. On the '488 buss, this command addresses device 8 and sub-channel 15. That seems unique usage to Commodore computers, though perfectly within protocol specs. On the up-side, if the '488 card is addressable, it might not be difficult to write a program to access the drive as expected. Commodore '488 drives are rare enough that I would not expect a TI DSR to support them. A quick glance at the DSR spec and it seems it very file-oriented, though a sub-program might allow better access to the devices (IEEETALK, IEEELISTEN, etc. or TALK488, LISTEN488, etc.) This is another intellectually stimulating thing for me to ponder. Time to pull out the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide (a FANTASTIC book which covers everything in minute particularity,) the 1541 Internals, the TI DSR manual, and some IEEE-488 stuff. It would be interesting to see if any other computer used the '488 buss for storage, as well, and how it was done there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Try contacting Jaime Malilong at his e-mail address at the bottom of his webpage: http://webpages.charter.net/nanopeb/ ...lee Contacted Jaime. We'll see.. Now, do I want the old or the new NanoPEB. The higher speed V2 is intriguing, but I hear compatibility with software is a problem. I suppose stick with the V1 to get my feet wet.. You never know what the future brings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Is there any example out there on how to access the serial port (RS232 or COM1) via assembly? Is it okay to use the DSR from within an evironment where we do not want to use the GPL interpreter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lee Stewart Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 I'm using the MG DSRLNK in fbForth, which uses GPLLNK. However, TI Forth uses only ALC for DSRLNK with no branch to GPLLNK. The attached file has the DSRLNK routine, entry point = DLENTR via DSRLNK DATA DLNKWS,DLENTR. For RS232, COM1, etc. you need to set up an appropriate PAB in VRAM with the mode descriptor length at byte 9 and the mode descriptor starting at byte 10. If the mode descriptor is “RS232.BA=9600”, the length byte is 13. The device manual should give you all of the device options that can go in the descriptor. You probably know a lot of this. The point is you can, indeed, code DSRLNK in pure ALC. There is another ALC-based DSRLNK that was perfected by Paolo Bagneresi and others (Tursi, ?). It is practically identical to the one in the attached file. Someone will pop up with the other one, I'm sure. forth1lst.txt ...lee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 I think the 256M Card is enough, hey? That's a ton for a 1980's home computer.. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 256M is definitely enough, but note that you lose half of it, so you really only have 128M of available space (the TI uses 256 bit sectors, but the PC requires 512 bit sectors, so you lose half of the space to maintain dual compatibility). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yeah, I remember that. Should be enogh.. By the time I outgrow it, I might want something different. And outgrowing it is probably far fetched.. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 Ordered One! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkeey Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 (edited) It arrived!.. Still waiting for my 5v power supply, null modem, and USB to Serial. I was going to hack up a USB cable to rob 5V, but I'll be patient. It's a V1 NanoPEB so it will be the slower one.. This version works with existing Terminal programs, right? Hopefully a standard null modem cable will work. The illustrations on this site appear to use dummy handshaking. Edited October 14, 2014 by slinkeey 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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