TI-99/22 project

[Shift838]

I finally carved out some time to work on the back of the case.

 

Turned out pretty good.  Just the top to go now then I can work on a keyboard enclosure.

 

I designed a small low profile PC L bracket frame.  my plan is to hook the VGA display connector and a DB25 connector that I will be using for the mechanical keyboard.

 

[Shift838]

My case is done!

 

Here is the final pic.  Case top..  With my cartridge extender board the cartridge comes out of the case top perfectly.

 

[stevee671]

This looks great!!

[+dhe]

@stevee671 How is your build coming along?   Except for Shift838, it's been pretty quiet on the build scene.

[stevee671]

On 10/20/2024 at 11:50 AM, dhe said:

@stevee671 How is your build coming along?   Except for Shift838, it's been pretty quiet on the build scene.

I got mine built, but I have yet to get it to boot up. There seems to be some issue with it. Shift838 and I were troubleshooting it, but you can only get so far with a logic probe and multimeter.

 

So my board is with shift838 now. Maybe he can work his magic on it and figure out what's going on with it. Time will tell...

[Tornadoboy]

My two cents, take it for what it's worth.

..

 

Personally my dreams specs are:

 

- Completely backwards compatible to all the original 4a software and hardware with minimal or no use of emulation or FPGAs.

 

- Has all the most important hardware built into one main reasonably sized PCB, such as 32k, speech, RS232, USB ports and disk controller.

 

- Built entirely with thru-hole parts. 

 

- Has the most critical carts built in, such as XB, disk manager, editor assembler, etc.

 

- Built in HDMI/VGA output using something readily available and reasonably priced.

 

- Has some sort of built in solid state mass storage device like an SD card with enough capacity to hold pretty much all the classic modules, cassette and disk programs.

 

- Has a separate keyboard so the main unit can be pushed back and not hog all my desk space like an original with the monstrous PEB would.

 

 

 

Icing on the cake (non-critical things that would be awesome to have):

 

- Higher but adjustable speed so some programs won't run too fast. It would be cool if it was software controllable too so you can change classic basic/xbasic programs to rush through processing stuff but keep other parts like character movement down to playable levels.

 

- Wireless keyboard

 

- Has a PCB that'll fit in a small ATX case (I know that's on the radar screen)

 

- Some sort of mouse driven Windows-like GUI.

 

- Easily expandable for future hardware upgrades.

 

- 1meg or higher internal memory

 

- 80 column or high resolution

 

- Relay board to control external devices with supporting software.

 

- Internal clock.

 

- Internal bios allowing changes to hardware settings.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 22 by Tornadoboy

[RickyDean]

Well depending on what you use with this you have a lot of what your asking. If you place a internal edge connector or another interface method, using Jason's Pico Side port device, you get most of the upgrades you just mentioned. You get cartridge selection, Disk controller with disk images, wireless/bluetooth keyboard,, mouse, joystick. You can have a built in Extended Basic and if you have or set up right, you can go into Funnelweb as a loadable, DM, editor, assembler, etc. You can have an internal clock and up to an 8meg SAMS. You can use a F18a, Pico9918, TIM, or a Tang 9k, to have 80 column display.

[GDMike]

Tipi also gives a rtc

[RickyDean]

There is a tipi pcb that was designed to be attached to the second expansion port header, so you can have a tipi inside instead of a Pico, but you'd lose the wireless keyboard, mouse, joystick capability, and loading of carts too, I believe, as well as no SAMS, or Myarc memory. So choices have to be made.

[RickyDean]

On 10/21/2024 at 8:05 PM, stevee671 said:

I got mine built, but I have yet to get it to boot up. There seems to be some issue with it. Shift838 and I were troubleshooting it, but you can only get so far with a logic probe and multimeter.

 

So my board is with shift838 now. Maybe he can work his magic on it and figure out what's going on with it. Time will tell...

I would also look for small almost imperceptible flaws. I was inspecting one of the two I am building and found that a .01uf capacitor was cracked. When I went to dedolder it, it fell apart.

[Tornadoboy]

Are there any revisions to the PCBs someone plans to post in the relatively near future? I'm thinking of ordering the boards this weekend but I'll wait if we're on the verge of another update, I'd hate to order only to have it be out of date within a few weeks, which would be my luck 

 

What's the Unicorn board for? Also is there a circuit that could reduce the number of wires between the keyboard and main PCB? Using a db25 cable sounds a bit awkward, using like an 8 wire phone or RJ45 cable would probably be a lot more flexible. Sure I could use a USB keyboard but I hear there's some response lag with those, not to mention I'd rather use an original layout.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:35 PM by Tornadoboy

[Shift838]

On 10/23/2024 at 5:31 PM, Tornadoboy said:

Are there any revisions to the PCBs someone plans to post in the relatively near future? I'm thinking of ordering the boards this weekend but I'll wait if we're on the verge of another update, I'd hate to order only to have it be out of date within a few weeks, which would be my luck 

 

What's the Unicorn board for? Also is there a circuit that could reduce the number of wires between the keyboard and main PCB? Using a db25 cable sounds a bit awkward, using like an 8 wire phone or RJ45 cable would probably be a lot more flexible. Sure I could use a USB keyboard but I hear there's some response lag with those, not to mention I'd rather use an original layout.

 

 

The developer has not done any other updates as of now.  The current V0.96 is the latest.

 

you will not get around using at least 18 wires on the keyboard as of yet.  I have my USB keyboard adapter and there is no lag whatsoever.  We have found that some of the newer USB wireless keyboards like the 8bitDo does not work via RF, but does with the cable with no problem.  I think it is the way it needs to connect to the RF.  I have used wired keyboards like dell and wireless keyboards like logitech with no issues.

[Tornadoboy]

Thanks! I'm probably going to order the boards tonight or tomorrow. I'm going to play around a few ideas about the keyboard cable, if I come up with anything useful I'll post it here.

Edited Friday at 10:14 AM by Tornadoboy

[Shift838]

5 hours ago, Tornadoboy said:

Thanks! I'm probably going to order the boards tonight or tomorrow. I'm going to play around a few ideas about the keyboard cable, if I come up with anything useful I'll post it here.

We started another thread a few weeks ago for issues that we have encountered with the 99/22.  You may want to peruse that one too.  One of the big issues is that we have found that the 99/22 is not currently compatible with the FinalGrom cartridge.  I'm hoping there is a simple solution, and I have reached out to the developer of the FinalGrom and he will be looking into it when he returns from vacation next week or so.

 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/372983-ti-9922-issues/#elControls_5539259_menu

 

[Tornadoboy]

Ok the deed is done and the boards are ordered, I'm looking forward to having a working 99/4a type computer on my desk! 

 

Has anyone ordered from that guy on Ebay for the bundle of chips for this project? If so, how did it work out and did the chips work? 

[stevee671]

Here's mine up and running with a Tipi and on a BBS!

Edited Sunday at 03:51 AM by stevee671

[visrealm]

19 hours ago, stevee671 said:

Here's mine up and running with a Tipi and on a BBS!

Very pleased to see the PICO9918 working in one of these. Thanks for the update, @stevee671

[+dhe]

What was the cause of it not originally not running?

[Gary from OPA]

5 minutes ago, dhe said:

What was the cause of it not originally not running?

I think it was not having the two eproms for console ROM programmed correctly.

[GDMike]

Software wise, it would be ideal for a 99 windows software developer package.

[Shift838]

15 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

I think it was not having the two eproms for console ROM programmed correctly.

so, when I received Steve's 99/22 to diagnose. Everything I did came back to some issue with the ROMs or in this case the EPROMS, specifically, I did notice that on Steve's 99/22 board the GROM lines were always low, and they should not be.  That is what was making me think it was an issue with the EPROMs. 

 

I know some EPROMS even though they claim not to require external power to get them programmed do need external power to get them programmed correctly and luckily one of the programmers I have has an external power source.  Not all EPROMs I have found require external power, but some do, so I make it a habit when I program EPROMs to use my programmer that has an external power source.

 

I was on the phone with Steve walking him through the programming and from what he described it seemed they were programmed.  However, when I pulled them and loaded up the binary files to perform a verify, they both failed the verification.  I then checked both the HIGH and LOW EPROMs, and the LOW EPROM came back as blank, while the HIGH EPROM showed it had some data in it, but it did not seem it was correct.

 

I programmed the low and pulled a new EPROM out of my stash and programmed one for HIGH and then the 99/22 booted.

 

I was happy it was an easy fix.

Edited 1 hour ago by Shift838