Gip-Gip Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 I bought a working PEB (with full sized 5¼" FDD) off of ebay for ~$50, not including shipping. It didn't come with any cards but I thought it was a pretty good deal considering that most sell for over 3x as much with as little as a disk controller card. Not to mention I could pretty easily make a card that combines the Flex Cable Interface, a floppy disk controller, and a whole slew of other things (coprocessor?) for less than the unit itself. What do you guys think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 Btw I meant to post this in the regular forum, going to get an admin to move it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew180 Posted July 12, 2017 Share Posted July 12, 2017 I think if a PEB with a few cards are going for $150 then I might need to consider selling mine! I bought one back when I started getting back into the 99/4A (early 2000s) for something like $40, and that included 32K, Serial IO, SSSD drive, disk controller, flex cable. Maybe they are becoming harder to get? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 12, 2017 Author Share Posted July 12, 2017 I think if a PEB with a few cards are going for $150 then I might need to consider selling mine! I bought one back when I started getting back into the 99/4A (early 2000s) for something like $40, and that included 32K, Serial IO, SSSD drive, disk controller, flex cable. Maybe they are becoming harder to get? PEBs with one card are going for $180 Here's a look at the ebay listings: Ungodly expensive beasts. Really sucks since they're the key to having a usable TI-99. TIs on the other hand can sell for ~$40 (I think I got mine, with original box and manual, for $32, maybe?). Just for amusement, let's look at the prices for the Flex Cable Interface 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omega-TI Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Too bad you live so far away, because I have ZERO interest in shipping the heavy thing. Anyway if someone closer is interested, I have a spare P-Box in good condition that has 32K, Flex, TI-FDC and the original disk drive. I'll even throw in a spare 1/2 height 3.5" FD-235HF drive in a 5.25" adapter frame that will give someone the ability to store 360K if they do the 80 track modification. It also has a quiet fan installed, it's actually the same one shown in << THIS BLOG ENTRY >>. I suppose I could take pictures if anyone is interested. My asking price is $145.00 firm. Of course anyone interested would have to drive to the Winlock exit (milepost 63) in Washington state for the hand-off. The is one caveat, you have to get your own power cord... it's the same type used on PC's so they are cheap and easily obtainable. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 I bought a working PEB (with full sized 5¼" FDD) off of ebay for ~$50, not including shipping. It didn't come with any cards but I thought it was a pretty good deal considering that most sell for over 3x as much with as little as a disk controller card. Not to mention I could pretty easily make a card that combines the Flex Cable Interface, a floppy disk controller, and a whole slew of other things (coprocessor?) for less than the unit itself. What do you guys think? Good deal as long as it is clean and not rusted or corroded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Gip-Gip, I would be interested to see what ideas you have for creating a combo card (as you suggested) to combine the functionality of multiple expansion cards. Could you expand on that a little? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 13, 2017 Author Share Posted July 13, 2017 (edited) Gip-Gip, I would be interested to see what ideas you have for creating a combo card (as you suggested) to combine the functionality of multiple expansion cards. Could you expand on that a little? Thanks! I can think of a few ideas off the top of my head: Floppy controller General coprocessor USB adapter Modem 1mb+ of RAM The floppy controller, coprocessor and RAM are pretty straight forward so it's almost guaranteed I'll put them on a board. The modem and the USB adapter are above my skill level at this point, so I won't try to add them until everything else is fully tested. Edited July 13, 2017 by Gip-Gip 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickyDean Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 I can think of a few ideas off the top of my head: Floppy controller General coprocessor USB adapter Modem 1mb+ of RAM The floppy controller, coprocessor and RAM are pretty straight forward so it's almost guaranteed I'll put them on a board. The modem and the USB adapter are above my skill level at this point, so I won't try to add them until everything else is fully tested. Keep us informed, I have two of the old proto boards, and two of the new proto boards. After some other things I was going to tinker with a floppy idea. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted July 13, 2017 Share Posted July 13, 2017 Yes, please keep us updated. There is likely to be considerable interest in your efforts. I am intrigued. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
x24b Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is it a possibility to create a full 99/4A card for the PEB? That would make good sense from a packaging perspective. Everything would be in the PEB including the speech synthesizer and an added real time clock. A TI keyboard could be put in a 3d printed case connected by a cord in the back. You could have a single floppy, SD card and cart port next to it. FPGA project? If the PEB card were designed right, it could fit in an original case as well and be hooked up like a standard 99/4A. How crazy am I? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 http://www.s-n-u-g.de/sgcpu/index_e.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted July 14, 2017 Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is it a possibility to create a full 99/4A card for the PEB? That would make good sense from a packaging perspective. Everything would be in the PEB including the speech synthesizer and an added real time clock. A TI keyboard could be put in a 3d printed case connected by a cord in the back. You could have a single floppy, SD card and cart port next to it. FPGA project? If the PEB card were designed right, it could fit in an original case as well and be hooked up like a standard 99/4A. How crazy am I? crazy.. so crazy it's already been done 2.5 times.. Myarc Geneve Snug SGCPU Geneve2 (vapour at this point but in "process") All of these just replace the console and not the drive controllers or speech etc.. and work with the original PEB and cards or with snug they made their own PEB cards.. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 Is it a possibility to create a full 99/4A card for the PEB? That would make good sense from a packaging perspective. Everything would be in the PEB including the speech synthesizer and an added real time clock. A TI keyboard could be put in a 3d printed case connected by a cord in the back. You could have a single floppy, SD card and cart port next to it. FPGA project? If the PEB card were designed right, it could fit in an original case as well and be hooked up like a standard 99/4A. How crazy am I? As posted above, it has been done. Rather, there's not a huge incentive to make such a thing as an original TI would be around the same price and look less ugly at the same time. It would make more sense (in my opinion) to have a coprocessor that can do the things the TMS9900 can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 14, 2017 Author Share Posted July 14, 2017 Upon reading some things and looking at some pictures, it appears I have a 99/4 PEB instead of a 99/4a. I can't imagine there's a huge difference in functionality, but I'm willing to bet they go for more than the average 99/4a PEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 I can think of a few ideas off the top of my head: Floppy controller General coprocessor USB adapter Modem 1mb+ of RAM The floppy controller, coprocessor and RAM are pretty straight forward so it's almost guaranteed I'll put them on a board. The modem and the USB adapter are above my skill level at this point, so I won't try to add them until everything else is fully tested. Hard Drive is 10 times better then Floppy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 Hard Drive is 10 times better then Floppy. USB flash/hard drive? I doubt I couldn't implement something like a SATA interface. I wouldn't go for a PATA or SCSI interface just due to the absolute mess it would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 USB flash/hard drive? I doubt I couldn't implement something like a SATA interface. I wouldn't go for a PATA or SCSI interface just due to the absolute mess it would be. LOL PATA or SATA and SCS are use same connectors and interface is almost the same. Main difference is SCSI and SAS operate without any CPU input at all, unlike SATA or IDE or EIDE that need CPU time to transfer or read or write data. http://www.diffen.com/difference/SATA_vs_Serial_Attached_SCSI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 Some of the PEBs say 99/4 and have a square power switch. These are the early version from 1982. Then came the later version with the rocker switch (late 1982/early 1983). The easy ability to switch to different input voltage levels using the fuse insert on the back with the rocker switch versions and shorter fingers in the back of the card cage are pretty much the only differences you will find between PEB boxes--and none of them are rare or more valuable. The only PEB that is truly rare is the one with the Control Data branding, as opposed to the TI branding. The same goes for Control Data branded PEB cards and consoles. TI only made about 1,500 sets of these to fulfill their contract obligations with CD, IIRC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 (edited) LOL PATA or SATA and SCS are use same connectors Lies! Lies! Just for reference, Here's PATA SATA (the big one is the power connector) and SCSI I hope it's obvious why I wouldn't want to deal with the connectors for those drives. Edited July 15, 2017 by Gip-Gip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 Some of the PEBs say 99/4 and have a square power switch. These are the early version from 1982. Then came the later version with the rocker switch (late 1982/early 1983). The easy ability to switch to different input voltage levels using the fuse insert on the back with the rocker switch versions and shorter fingers in the back of the card cage are pretty much the only differences you will find between PEB boxes--and none of them are rare or more valuable. The only PEB that is truly rare is the one with the Control Data branding, as opposed to the TI branding. The same goes for Control Data branded PEB cards and consoles. TI only made about 1,500 sets of these to fulfill their contract obligations with CD, IIRC. Thanks for clearing that up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RXB Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 SAS and SATA uses same one. https://www.google.com/search?q=sata+and+sas+cables&rlz=1C1CAFB_enUS731US731&oq=sata+and+sas+cables&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l2.4655j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Also I have adaptors for SATA to IDE or PATA, and SATA to SCSI, they go both ways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gip-Gip Posted July 15, 2017 Author Share Posted July 15, 2017 SAS and SATA uses same one. I've never said anything against SAS. I always meant the old SCSI Also I have adaptors for SATA to IDE or PATA, and SATA to SCSI, they go both ways. I'm fine with implementing serial hard-drive standards, but I'm not adding another parallel standard with the floppy disk drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry.peterson Posted July 15, 2017 Share Posted July 15, 2017 I bought a working PEB (with full sized 5¼" FDD) off of ebay for ~$50, not including shipping. It didn't come with any cards but I thought it was a pretty good deal considering that most sell for over 3x as much with as little as a disk controller card. Not to mention I could pretty easily make a card that combines the Flex Cable Interface, a floppy disk controller, and a whole slew of other things (coprocessor?) for less than the unit itself. What do you guys think? I might part with a PEB or two or some of my other surplus stuff, BUT; shipping is such a pain. (but if somebody knocked on my door...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+arcadeshopper Posted July 16, 2017 Share Posted July 16, 2017 Upon reading some things and looking at some pictures, it appears I have a 99/4 PEB instead of a 99/4a. I can't imagine there's a huge difference in functionality, but I'm willing to bet they go for more than the average 99/4a PEB they are identical other than the power switch is a button on the 4 and rocker switch on a 4/a PEB.. they are no difference in price, functionality or rarity. I have 2-3 of each Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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