TI-99/4a used as clock?

[J.Ivy]

So hello everyone, ive an idea that id like to run past you. So I have a good working TI board and power supply that I would like to mount in a clear plexiglass case on the wall and have it display the time (analog clock with hands, or digital number style) to a small flatscreen.

 

Did any of the original cartridges have a program for displaying the time, or is there a program that would let me do this?

 

I plan to add a fan and heatsink to the board, so it can stay running 24/7. Id love to see this vintage board up and running and doing a job again. Plus, i just want to see a cool motherboard mounted on the wall

 

Anyone have any ideas about how this can be accomplished? Help is much appreciated.

[Shift838]

So hello everyone, ive an idea that id like to run past you. So I have a good working TI board and power supply that I would like to mount in a clear plexiglass case on the wall and have it display the time (analog clock with hands, or digital number style) to a small flatscreen.

 

Did any of the original cartridges have a program for displaying the time, or is there a program that would let me do this?

 

I plan to add a fan and heatsink to the board, so it can stay running 24/7. Id love to see this vintage board up and running and doing a job again. Plus, i just want to see a cool motherboard mounted on the wall

 

Anyone have any ideas about how this can be accomplished? Help is much appreciated.

 

Since the 99/4a does not have a real time clock in the console you could write a simple basic program you could load that acts as a clock and displays the time as it counts for each second, but it would have to be loaded from a storage device something like minimemory, cassette or disk.

 

but you would have to hook a keyboard up to the motherboard to be able to type of course to load and make the proper selections.

 

a for next loop and some other logic would be pretty simple.

 

I could probably pound something out for fairly quick if you like.

[J.Ivy]

Well after a brief search, it appears that the mini memory cartridges are still able to be found. So if I bought a mini memory, then hooked up a keyboard to this spare TI board, I could then type out a program that would be saved to the mini memory, acting as my clock then. Correct?

 

While I DO have a fully functioning ti-99 in my collection, I dont have the cassette or disk drives for it. So typing it out would perhaps be my only way. Unless I try and build a cassette emulator, then download the sound file from my pc.

 

What would be the best route for someone like me?

 

Cschneider - if you think that this would be the best way, writing a Basic program for it, id be grateful if you could hammer out the code for me. Id be sure to post pics

Edited September 29, 2015 by J.Ivy

[Shift838]

Well after a brief search, it appears that the mini memory cartridges are still able to be found. So if I bought a mini memory, then hooked up a keyboard to this spare TI board, I could then type out a program that would be saved to the mini memory, acting as my clock then. Correct?

 

While I DO have a fully functioning ti-99 in my collection, I dont have the cassette or disk drives for it. So typing it out would perhaps be my only way. Unless I try and build a cassette emulator, then download the sound file from my pc.

 

What would be the best route for someone like me?

 

Cschneider - if you think that this would be the best way, writing a Basic program for it, id be grateful if you could hammer out the code for me. Id be sure to post pics

 

Yes, you can actually save a program to the minimemory cartridge as it has a battery backup. of course the batteries go out have so many years and you will need to replace them. They are soldered on the board, but many of us have replaced the batteries with externally mounted CR holders.

 

a link to some good info on the minimemory cart is HERE

 

Here is a quick listing of a clock program i did for you. it seems to work with the testing I have done so far.

 

I coded it in TI BASIC.

1 REM ************************

2 REM *12 HOUR CLOCK PROGRAM *

3 REM * BY CHRIS SCHNEIDER *

4 REM * SHIFT838 *

5 REM * ©OPYRIGHT 2015 *

6 REM ************************

100 CALL CLEAR

101 PRINT "Input hours as 1 to 12"

102 PRINT

103 PRINT "Input minutes as 0 to 59"

104 PRINT

110 INPUT "HOUR >":HR

115 IF HR<1 THEN 100

116 IF HR>12 THEN 100

120 INPUT "MINUTE >":MN

125 IF MN>59 THEN 100

130 HR$=STR$(HR)

140 MN$=STR$(MN)

150 SS$="0"

160 CALL CLEAR

170 IF HR<10 THEN HR$="0"&STR$(HR)

180 IF MN<10 THEN MN$="0"&STR$(MN)

190 IF SS<10 THEN SS$="0"&STR$(SS)

200 DISPLAY AT(12,10):HR$&":"&MN$&":"&SS$

210 FOR X=1 TO 100

220 NEXT X

230 SS=SS+1

240 SS$=STR$(SS)

250 IF SS>59 THEN MN=MN+1

260 IF SS>59 THEN SS=0

270 MN$=STR$(MN)

280 IF MN>59 THEN HR=HR+1

290 HR$=STR$(HR)

300 IF SS>59 THEN SS=0

310 IF MN>59 THEN MN=0

320 IF HR>12 THEN HR=1

330 GOTO 170

Edited September 29, 2015 by Cschneider

[Shift838]

This code works great in Classic99, but for some reason not on a real TI. I'll pound it out to work on real TI and repost.

[Shift838]

another option is if you have an extended basic cartridge, you could use an mp3 player to hook up to the cassette interface port so you could save the program to the mp3 player. only certain MP3 player types will work. there is some post on atariage about it somewhere.

 

it does not appear the DISPLAY AT command works in BASIC as it does in XBasic.

[Opry99er]

IIRC, there is no DISPLAY AT available in console BASIC.

 

I have a friend who makes clocks out of motherboards... He just uses them as the face with hands and a battery pack on the back. Not a fitting end for a /4A board, IMO.

[J.Ivy]

IIRC, there is no DISPLAY AT available in console BASIC.

 

I have a friend who makes clocks out of motherboards... He just uses them as the face with hands and a battery pack on the back. Not a fitting end for a /4A board, IMO.

 

Yup, id far rather have this mounted in a case, on the wall, driving a tiny lcd tv screen, displaying the time or some other semi use full info. I have started in on the case, cut out some oak and polyurethane stained it. Plus im happy to have found just where i stored (misplaced for a few years) my plexi glass sheets, that will make up the cover for the TI "clock case"

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2015 by J.Ivy

[Omega-TI]

If I'm not mistaken, Tursi has a copy of an assembly clock routine that loads and stays resident even when using other programs, damn near the closest thing to a RTC that you can get. The only drawback is that it will lose a second or two when you are accessing the disk drives IIRC.

[Shift838]

Well after a brief search, it appears that the mini memory cartridges are still able to be found. So if I bought a mini memory, then hooked up a keyboard to this spare TI board, I could then type out a program that would be saved to the mini memory, acting as my clock then. Correct?

 

While I DO have a fully functioning ti-99 in my collection, I dont have the cassette or disk drives for it. So typing it out would perhaps be my only way. Unless I try and build a cassette emulator, then download the sound file from my pc.

 

What would be the best route for someone like me?

 

Cschneider - if you think that this would be the best way, writing a Basic program for it, id be grateful if you could hammer out the code for me. Id be sure to post pics

 

I think your best bet is going to be to get a xb cartridge if you don't have one and maybe a small mp3 player that will work with the TI's Cassette port.

 

The Display AT command works to a point with the mini-memory cart in basic but not like you are going to want it to.

 

To see a video of the program running click HERE

 

this is just used with the standard color scheme. the background and foreground colors can be changed easily based on what you would like.

[J.Ivy]

So the XB cartridge has the feature that im looking for?, i.e a clock.

 

Sounds good to me, a simple solution like this is almost always the best

 

Thank you all for your help everyone, this is sure to be a fun little project.

Edited September 30, 2015 by J.Ivy

[Shift838]

So the XB cartridge has the feature that im looking for?, i.e a clock.

 

Sounds good to me, a simple solution like this is almost always the best

 

Thank you all for your help everyone, this is sure to be a fun little project.

 

XB cartridge itself does not have a clock, but coding the clock in XB was easy. See post #4 in this thread, that's the code i used. You will just have to save it to some type of media to be able to load it. you cannot save it to the XB cartridge.

 

this version is the one that works best for the displaying of the clock.

[+Ksarul]

Or you could write a short assembly clock routine that expects to start in the >6000 space, burn it to an 8K EPROM, and put that on a cartridge board. That way, you can pull up the program, set your clock, and let it run--and everything you need is now part of the system. . .no mini memory, XB, or other loaders necessary. This method also gives you a way to quickly reset everything after a power outage too. . .

[J.Ivy]

Well the board and keyboard are mounted, still have to knock out the plexi glass case to cover it. I think i will be going the XB route, it seems simplest. Burning an eprom chip on a new cartridge, while that would be fun, i dont think I can do it yet.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2015 by J.Ivy

[+Ksarul]

That looks nice!

[Omega-TI]

Well the board and keyboard are mounted...

 

 

 

May I make one small suggestion? I'd go to Ebay and do a search for "IC heatsink". You'll be able to find one (probably more) for just a couple of dollars delivered to your mailbox. Then you can attach it to the 9918.

[J.Ivy]

 

May I make one small suggestion? I'd go to Ebay and do a search for "IC heatsink". You'll be able to find one (probably more) for just a couple of dollars delivered to your mailbox. Then you can attach it to the 9918.

 

Dont worry, I havent forgotten the heat sink, I just havent attached it yet. I still need to make the plexi case to fit over the board, then decide how ill run the power and video cables. As for the display for the TI-clock, im thinking of buying a Sony Watchman on ebay, mounting its tiny board and 2" lcd to an identical piece of wood and plexi case, mounting it next to the TI-99.

Edited October 2, 2015 by J.Ivy

[Opry99er]

A very cool idea, but remember... The TI standard display is 24x32. If you use a standard display of the time, your digits will be 1/24th the height of the screen size... In the case of a 2" screen, that is only 1/12th of an inch high. Not really legible.

 

A custom display can be created using graphics which could increase that size, but that program would be somewhat more complex than the nice clean one Chris posted. Also, using vanilla XB, the "draw" time for the large digits would likely hamper a "seconds" display, as youre having to "draw" each digit from scratch.

 

SPRITEs could be used and CALL PATTERN would be your friend using single sized, double magnified SPRITEs, (keeps the fast digit switching speed) but your display digits would still only be 1/6 of an inch tall.

Edited October 3, 2015 by Opry99er

[J.Ivy]

Opry99er

 

Thank you for the heads up. I hadnt considered that the numbers would end up as only 1/12" of an inch high, somehow I just assumed i could easily make the numbers much larger.

 

Oh well, I can always just find an old 20" flat screen tv on craigslist and use that for the display.

[Opry99er]

You could redefine some characters, use double sized double magnified SPRITEs... Would give you 1/3 of an inch high numbers...

[Opry99er]

A graphical display segment could be written to interface with Chris's clock program. If it is a matter of altering patterns and such, it might not be too clunky.

Edited October 3, 2015 by Opry99er