Subject: Disk drive issues

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:44:38 -0500

Howdy... Could a faulty controller cause files on diskette to get  
"whacked out?". I have not had ample time to test this, but I am  
afraid that even the new drive I installed has not rectified my disk/ 
drive/controller issue.  I tried loading one of my Lemonade Stand  
diskettes into the drive and run it... It kicked out out IO error in  
10.  Line 10 of the code is "RUN DSK1.LEMON8". Obviously it did not
Read the file properly.  On using DMII, however, it showed the file  
fine.  This could be because I made the diskette on the old drive, and  
it is screwed up...  But I tried a couple other diskettes as well and  
sometimes the DMII would read the files ok, sometimes they came out  
corrupt.  I need a drink...

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:57:14 -0800 (PST)

> drive/controller issue.  I tried loading one of my Lemonade Stand

It can, but your first troubleshooting technique on a floppy drive issue 
is always "clean the heads". They build up dust and magnetic crap which 
affects their ability to read, and can even scratch disks.

Faulty controller is pretty low on the list of likely causes of 
problems... you're going to go through dirty heads, improper cabling (did 
you check the termination pack?), drive out of alignment, physical drive 
damage, and bad power before you see bad card, most likely.

These drives are all likely 30 years old or more... it's not strange to 
think they may need cleaning. :)

In the old days, you could get a "cleaning disk" which was a clean felt 
(or other) pad in a diskette jacket that you would apply a cleaning 
solution to, and let it rub against the heads. These days, you'll probably 
need to do it by hand. Do a Google search to find some references, it 
shouldn't be too bad!

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:12:21 -0800 (PST)

Owen,
Do you remember the post I wrote about gunk build-up on the heads destroying any disk you put in that drive thereafter?

--- On Tue, 11/17/09, tursi <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 5:57 PM

  

shouldn't be too bad!

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:31:38 -0500

Yes... And I replaced the drive.  But I was not sure whether my old  
drive had gotten to that point yet.  I guess it did.  :(

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

On Nov 17, 2009, at 6:12 PM, ti99_forever <[email-masked]>  
wrote:

> Owen,
>
> Do you remember the post I wrote about gunk build-up on the heads  
> destroying any disk you put in that drive thereafter?
>

---

From: mark wills <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:23:11 -0800 (PST)

Exactly right. I would also add that the disks themselves (not the drives!) could also be 30 years old, and therefore possibly in not such a good state. Every time they are used they could (possibly?) shed the metallic magnetic coating and leave deposits on the heads - I'm not sure how/if floppy disks degrade much.

This is where devices like the CF7 are a great help - storage on a digital medium. I also really like the card that Theirry has produced (the TI thinks its a disk controller, but it actually stores and retrieves everything on the PC via serial cable) - shame it's not available as a kit at TexinT. I'd buy one of those and have an old old laptop sat on the PEB as a hard disk ;-) - they could be backed up off line to USB stick or USB hard disk in case the laptop bit it.

Mark.

>Sent: Tue, 17 November, 2009 23:57:14

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:56:02 -0600

> need to do it by hand. Do a Google search to find some references, it 

I've seen some for sale on Amazon.com, for a fairly reasonable price, 
both for 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" drives.  Also, atari-commodore-n-morestore on 
eBay sells a kit for 5 1/4" drives for under $7 (which is also wheo sold 
me my 12' composite A/V cable to hook up my TI to the TV).  I haven't 
received it yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how it works.

Of course, I haven't noticed any problems with my drive yet, but I'm a 
big believer in preventative maintenance...

-- 
"Which key is the 'Any' key?"

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:02:31 -0800 (PST)

Mike at Texin Treasures has floppy drive cleaners on the shelf in both 5.25" and 3.5".

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, R Halter <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:56 AM

  

both for 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" drives.  Also, atari-commodore- n-morestore on 

big believer in preventative maintenance. ..

--

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:13:36 -0600

> Mike at Texin Treasures has floppy drive cleaners on the shelf in both 

(facepalms)  I can't believe I forgot about Tex*in Treasures.  That's 
usually the first place I look for TI stuff now.  But anyway, the point 
is, it's not hard to find a drive cleaning kit -- online, anyway.

You really should try cleaning the drive, whether you use Mark's 
suggestion or a commercial cleaning kit, and give it another chance 
(using a disk that you can stand to lose if it doesn't work).

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:18:19 -0600

mark wills wrote:
> 
> 
> This is where devices like the CF7 are a great help - storage on a 
> digital medium. I also really like the card that Theirry has produced 
> (the TI thinks its a disk controller, but it actually stores and 
> retrieves everything on the PC via serial cable) - shame it's not 
> available as a kit at TexinT. I'd buy one of those and have an old old 
> laptop sat on the PEB as a hard disk ;-) - they could be backed up off 
> line to USB stick or USB hard disk in case the laptop bit it.

That *would* be extremely useful!  No more messing around with 
diskettes; just back them up to the "hard drive" and put the original 
disks away.  Plus it sounds like transferring files would be *much* 
easier that way.  You don't happen to remember what the card was called, 
do you?

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:34:49 -0500

Rhea...  Check out my vid on YouTube on file transfer... Once you have  
2 programs and a cable, you can transfer all day long easy as pie... I  
bought a $3 USB to db9 cable, which included a db25 adapter.   
Downloaded QModem from thekeep.net and a friend gave me a copy of MFM  
on diskette.  That's all you need... It's intimidating if you've never  
seen it happen... But I promise, it will happen if you want it badly  
enough.  Go to eBay and type in "USB serial cable" and you'll get a  
thousand hits... Just pick the best looking one with the proper  
requirements, and you're off.

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:44:26 -0600

You guys are confusing me about the file transfer thing.  Why go through all that trouble when you can just put a 3.5" floppy in a PC and your TI PEB and directly copy files all day long between the two with Omniflop?  That's really easy.

Regards,

Jon

  From: Owen Brand 
  Rhea...  Check out my vid on YouTube on file transfer... Once you have 2 programs and a cable, you can transfer all day long easy as pie... I bought a $3 USB to db9 cable, which included a db25 adapter.  Downloaded QModem from thekeep.net and a friend gave me a copy of MFM on diskette.  That's all you need... It's intimidating if you've never seen it happen... But I promise, it will happen if you want it badly enough.  Go to eBay and type in "USB serial cable" and you'll get a thousand hits... Just pick the best looking one with the proper requirements, and you're off. 

  Owen Brand

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:34:48 -0500

> You guys are confusing me about the file transfer thing.  Why go through 
> all that trouble when you can just put a 3.5" floppy in a PC and your TI 
> PEB and directly copy files all day long between the two with Omniflop? 
> That's really easy.
>

The cable is easier to come by than the drives. I don't have the floppy 
drives, I use a serial cable too. :)

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:01:28 -0800 (PST)

--> The cable is easier to come by than the drives <--

There are hundreds for sale on Ebay right now......

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Tursi <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Tursi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:34 AM

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:27:52 -0000

Good!  Order me a dozen for a dollar.

Postle

--- In [email-masked], Marc Hull <marc.hull@...> wrote:
> --- On Wed, 11/18/09, Tursi <yahoogroup@...> wrote:
> 
> From: Tursi <yahoogroup@...>
> Â

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:47:34 -0600

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>

> drives, I use a serial cable too. :)

Really? 3.5" drives are hard to come by?  Hmm.  Didn't know.  I always seem 
to have them lying about my house from obsolete PCs and such.  For me, it's 
the 5.25" SD drives that are really hard to find.  I have a 3.5" drive and a 
5.25" drive in my PEB.  I want to eliminate the 5.25" drive and replace it 
with another 3.5" for easier disk copies.  Tex*InTreasures sells a 3.5" 
external drive for $39.95.  I've thinking about buying that and swapping the 
drive with my 5.25".  Then, I can plug up the 5.25" when I need to get 
something off a big floppy, but put it away for normal use.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:56:00 -0600

> drives, I use a serial cable too. :)

I asked the IT guy at my work to give me any 3.5" floppy drives that he's 
scrapping.  If I get any, I'll let you guys know.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Gregory McGill <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:56:49 -0800

3.5" 720K drives are hard to come by.

1.44's are easy

Greg

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Jon P Vogel <[email-masked]> wrote:

>
>
> From: "Tursi" <[email-masked] <yahoogroup%40harmlesslion.com>
> >
>

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:01:56 -0800 (PST)

> There are hundreds for sale on Ebay right now......

And I not only have dozens of cables in my spare parts box, I can go to 
any shop in town that carries computer cables and buy the needed cable, 
still, today.

I'll have it faster and it's under warranty. EBay, I might have it this 
month, if the seller doesn't steal my money and the mail doesn't lose or 
destroy it, and maybe it'll work when it gets here.

I didn't say the drives were "unobtainable", I said the cable was /easier/ 
to get.

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:08:14 -0800 (PST)

> to have them lying about my house from obsolete PCs and such.  For me, it's

I've never owned a PC that used a 720k 3.5" drive, so yeah, I don't have 
any lying around. (Some of us didn't jump ship so early, I guess! >:) ) I 
couldn't get the 1.4MB drive I did have to work (it would switch on but 
couldn't do anything).

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:09:59 -0600

From: Gregory McGill 

  1.44's are easy

You only need the 1.44's.  They work fine with a TI.  Just format DS, DD, 40-track for 360K.  If you use HD disks, tape over the HD whole.  If you have an original TI disk controller, then format DS, SD, 40-track for 180K.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:13:01 -0600

From: "tursi" <[email-masked]>

> any shop in town that carries computer cables and buy the needed cable,

Don't these same shops sell a 3.5" drive, then?

> destroy it, and maybe it'll work when it gets here.

So, don't use eBay, then.  Buy it local, like you said above.

> I didn't say the drives were "unobtainable", I said the cable was /easier/

Hmm, ok.  I mean, if you like using the cable, that's fine.  But, don't 
confuse your personal preference with there being a difficulty in putting a 
3.5" drive in a PEB.  It's quite easy.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:16:27 -0600

> couldn't get the 1.4MB drive I did have to work (it would switch on but

I've never owned a 720K drive, either.  My PEB has a 1.44M drive.  In your 
case, sounds like the cable might have been on backwards.  Some of the 3.5" 
drives aren't keyed.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:40:07 -0500

I like watching my PC be a slave to my TI using MFM and QModem... It's  
hilarious.  And I personally like the thought of a 30 year old  
dinosaur with 16k of memory (plus 32) being able to talk to a fancy  
schmancy OS that is far less reliable than good ol' Teener... (that's  
the name my wife gave my TI... She says Teener is my girlfriend and I  
spend too much time with her).  HOWEVER---  Compatible drives that can  
read/write info.... That seems a bit more practical.  Not only for  
speed, but because it then becomes possible to be much more  
organized... I am jazzed that I now have (3) 3.5 drives at my  
disposal... One in the PC, and 2 on the TI.... You know what this  
means?? No more MFM problems!!!  :). I will be using MFM during my  
YouTube videos... Because--while it is much more efficient to use  
compatible drives, it is so much "cooler" to actually watch the  
systems talk to one another.  :) Now I can finally make Mark Wills his  
Manic Miner video.  :) That brings me joy.

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

On Nov 18, 2009, at 2:16 PM, "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>  
wrote:

> >> to have them lying about my house from obsolete PCs and such. For  
> me,
> >> it's
> >
> > any lying around. (Some of us didn't jump ship so early, I guess!  
> >:) ) I

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:41:18 -0500

Now I just gotta install the buggers...

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:55:41 -0600

> PEB and directly copy files all day long between the two with Omniflop?  

Because my PC doesn't have a slot for floppy drives (and I would 
therefore have to buy a USB drive), a serial cable is cheaper than a 
3.5" drive for my PEB, and because a card that treats my PC like a 1.3TB 
hard drive (the total capacity of the drives connected to it) just 
sounds really cool.

Making the big, bad eMachine subservient to the TI = win.  ^_^

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:05:29 -0800 (PST)

That's a good point except you don't need 720K drives exclusively....

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Gregory McGill <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Gregory McGill <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 12:56 PM

  

1.44's are easy

Greg

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Jon P Vogel <jonpvogel@comcast. net> wrote:

  

      From: "Tursi" <yahoogroup@harmless lion.com>

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:06:48 -0000

Jon,

You have always been ahead of the program.  This time it is with the use of 3.5 Flippy Drives.  External units can be found for purchase at Tex-N-Treasure.  And...  At a reasonable price.

Omniflop?  Where and how do I get that?

Postle

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:12:44 -0600

From: "R Halter" <[email-masked]>

> therefore have to buy a USB drive),

A USB floppy drive would probably not work with Omniflop.  So, I guess it's 
a cable for you.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:19:22 -0600

Jon P Vogel wrote:
> A USB floppy drive would probably not work with Omniflop.

Really?  Just out of curiosity, why not?

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:28:31 -0600

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>

> Jon,
>
> You have always been ahead of the program.

Hmm???  Usually I'm behind.  Don't confuse me with Jon Guidry.  Now, there's 
a guy ahead of the game.  But, Richard Bell has done a pretty good job of 
setting me up with a CorComp disk controller, HRD and that speech adapter 
thing that puts the synthesizer in the PEB.  So, I'm not complaining.

>This time it is with the use of 3.5 Flippy Drives.  External units can be 
>found for purchase at Tex-N-Treasure.  And...  At a reasonable price.

If I can round some up at work, I'll send them out for free.

> Omniflop?  Where and how do I get that?

This is key.  Before Omniflop, one had to have an older PC running Win98 or 
earlier and use TI99_PC written by  Paolo Bagnaresi.  But, with Omniflop, it 
all changed.  I started using this useful program last Spring.  In fact, it 
was in the middle of that that my TI system died and I didn't have time to 
fix it until now.  But, Omniflop lets me mess with disk files from the 
Internet, use TIDIR to create disk images and then use Omniflop to copy to a 
floppy off my XP PC.  I can finally play "Enchanter" again on my real TI!

Here's the site:

http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm

These instructions are out-of-date as Omniflop now has working native TI 
support, but they are useful:

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/Using%20OmniFlop%20with%20TI%20floppies.%20vers%201.1.pdf

My biggest complaint with Omniflop is that it does too much and is 
complicated to figure out how to use.  But, I _think_ that Paolo going to 
modify TI99_PC to use the Omniflop drivers which would let it have a nicer 
interface.  Hmmm, come to think of it, maybe I could bang one out in Visual 
Basic...

If you need exact instructions, I can probably provide those.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:31:21 -0600

> Really?  Just out of curiosity, why not?

Omniflop provides floppy disk controller drivers to give direct access to 
hardware so that the software can control the floppy disk.  With a USB 
drive, the USB driver is in between the computer and the controller.  If the 
USB driver doesn't allow low-level access to the drive (and it shouldn't, 
since that's not what USB is about) then Omniflop can't do its magic with 
the hardware to access a disk in TI format.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:33:23 -0800 (PST)

I've got a box full of 3.5" pulls from servers, likely never used...

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Jon P Vogel <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Jon P Vogel <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 1:47 PM

  

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:35:48 -0600

>From: ti99_forever 

>I've got a box full of 3.5" pulls from servers, likely never used...

Sounds like a volunteer.  :-)

Are you selling, giving, donating?

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:37:36 -0500

Omniflop... That's the next step for me once I get the drives  
installed.  Marc had suggested I downgrade my OS on my slave PC to  
Windows 98 from XP... If I'm not mistaken, didn't Paolo recently  
upgrade his program to include a ton of other features?  Right before  
the Faire, if I'm not mistaken... I seem to remember the post from the  
other forum.

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:43:17 -0500

How many constitutes "a box"?  We talkin shoe box or refrigerator box?

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:33 PM, ti99_forever <[email-masked]>  
wrote:

> me, it's

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:46:06 -0800 (PST)

I've offered them here several times, $5 a drive + shipping...I might've sold one...

From: Jon P Vogel <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 3:35 PM

  

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:45:58 -0600

From: Owen Brand 
  Omniflop... That's the next step for me once I get the drives installed.  Marc had suggested I downgrade my OS on my slave PC to Windows 98 from XP... If I'm not mistaken, didn't Paolo recently upgrade his program to include a ton of other features?  Right before the Faire, if I'm not mistaken... I seem to remember the post from the other forum. 
No need to downgrade.  And, yes, I thought that I'd read on the other forum that Paolo had updated his program.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:47:16 -0800 (PST)

A box of paper sized box, mostly full. I can't remember at present, but I was sure at one point that I had more than 30...

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Owen Brand <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 3:43 PM

  

Owen Brand**Oprysoft**Opry99er.com
On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:33 PM, ti99_forever <ti99_forever@ yahoo.com> wrote:

    

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Jon P Vogel <jonpvogel@comcast. net> wrote:

From: Jon P Vogel <jonpvogel@comcast. net>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: TI994A@yahoogroups. com
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 1:47 PM

    

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:49:22 -0600

From: ti99_forever

>I've offered them here several times, $5 a drive + shipping...

By "here", I assume you mean the other list.

That's a great price.  I already have as many as I need, but others should 
jump on this.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:51:19 -0800 (PST)

yes... the olug where many things get buried beneath drivel...

From: Jon P Vogel <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 3:49 PM

  

      From: ti99_forever

>I've offered them here several times, $5 a drive + shipping...

>I might've sold one...

jump on this.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:53:58 -0500

<snip>
 >Berry reported that Paolo Bagnaresi totally rewrote his program,  
"TI99-PC" for
use with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Berry showed the first part  
of an
interview with Paolo, which will soon be available on YouTube.

 From OLUG

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:15:28 -0600

The latest(?) version of TI99-PC is here at WhTech"

ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/

It seems to incorporate Omniflop with it.  When I get home tonight, I'll give it a try.

Regards,

Jon
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Owen Brand 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:53 PM
  Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues

  <snip>
  >Berry reported that Paolo Bagnaresi totally rewrote his program, "TI99-PC" for
  use with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Berry showed the first part of an
  interview with Paolo, which will soon be available on YouTube.

  From OLUG

  Owen Brand
  **Oprysoft**
  Opry99er.com

  On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:51 PM, ti99_forever <[email-masked]> wrote:

              
            From: ti99_forever

            Regards,

            Jon

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:36:22 -0000

Jon,

You are not being confused with Mr. Guidry.  And...  Yes he is a very active doer within the TI-99/4A community.

I also have the CorComp Card, or two, which provides the potention for a Virtuial Disk "DSK1.".  

And...  Richard is more than just a "GREAT INDIVIDUAL"!

And... A RAVE Card is installed in each of the three PEBs I own and use.

Thereafter, I went to the "Tex*In Treasure" place.  A Mike Dudeck website and made purchase of a 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive Unit (3.5" External)  Cheap, but not cheap.  One must consider the COST of the External Case with Power Supply.  This done to catch up with you and your current equipment configuration.  Now, the current leader in equipment setup.

Now to find OmniFlop program or the program Bill Sullivan always talks about.  Bill, Bill!   Testing, Testing!

Postle 

--- In [email-masked], "Jon P Vogel" <jonpvogel@...> wrote:
>
> From: "Postle" <postle@...>
> 
> > Jon,
> >
> a guy ahead of the game.  But, Richard Bell has done a pretty good job of setting me up with a CorComp disk controller, HRD and that speech adapter thing that puts the synthesizer in the PEB.  So, I'm not complaining.

This time it is with the use of 3.5 Flippy Drives.  External units can be found for purchase at Tex-N-Treasure.  And...  At a reasonable price.

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:39:31 -0000

So, Where do I make purchase of TI99.  Who sends out the disk copies.

Does it work with the V-2.2 Console?

Postle

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

--- In [email-masked], "Jon P Vogel" <jonpvogel@...> wrote:
>   On Nov 18, 2009, at 3:51 PM, ti99_forever <ti99_forever@...> wrote:
> 
> 
>       
> 
>           --- On Wed, 11/18/09, Jon P Vogel <jonpvogel@...> wrote:
> 
> 
>             From: Jon P Vogel <jonpvogel@...>

---

From: "Jon P Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:47:08 -0600

> So, Where do I make purchase of TI99.  Who sends out the disk copies.

Do you need a copy on disk for your PC?  Can you download from the WH Tech 
site?

> Does it work with the V-2.2 Console?

?? The software is PC software, so it never runs on the TI console.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Tony Knerr <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:50:34 -0500

Jon P Vogel wrote:
> ...
> interface. ...
ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/TI99-PC%203.2.1.%20Password%20%27TI99%27.rar

The new version has been up for about a month or so.
Hurry up and click on the link before Ernie moves it! ;)

Tony

---

From: fdos <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:50:47 -0700

I've been talking about and promoting OmniFlop for a long time until 
recently, due to the release of Paolo's upgraded TI99-PC V 3.2.1 that 
uses the OmniFlop FDC driver for use in a Windows PC.  I did download it 
a week or so back, but I've been too busy to install and test.  So no 
report yet.

Bill S

Postle wrote:
>  
> 
> Jon,
> 
> You are not being confused with Mr. Guidry. And... Yes he is a very 
> active doer within the TI-99/4A community.
> 
> Thereafter, I went to the "Tex*In Treasure" place. A Mike Dudeck website 
> and made purchase of a 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive Unit (3.5" External) 
> Cheap, but not cheap. One must consider the COST of the External Case 
> with Power Supply. This done to catch up with you and your current 
> equipment configuration. Now, the current leader in equipment setup.
> 
> --- In [email-masked] <mailto:TI994A%40yahoogroups.com>, "Jon P 
> Vogel" <jonpvogel@...> wrote:
>  >
>  > a guy ahead of the game. But, Richard Bell has done a pretty good job 
> of setting me up with a CorComp disk controller, HRD and that speech 
> adapter thing that puts the synthesizer in the PEB. So, I'm not complaining.
> 
> <http://www.shlock.co.uk/Utils/OmniFlop/OmniFlop.htm>
>  >
> <ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc%20utilities/Using%20OmniFlop%20with%20TI%20floppies.%20vers%201.1.pdf>
>  >

---

From: fdos <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:54:26 -0700

It won't work with any USB floppy drive as it depends on installing a 
special FDC driver--not a USB driver.

Bill S

Jon P Vogel wrote:
>  
> 
> From: "R Halter" <[email-masked] <mailto:rheahalter%40att.net>>
> 
>  > Jon P Vogel wrote:

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:08:54 -0000

> a week or so back, but I've been too busy to install and test.  So no 

I can report that it worked for me with Windows XP.
You definitely have to install the Omniflop FDC driver.
I was able to write the MDOS beta 2.7 disk to a floppy disk
that was completely readable on my Geneve. 
Kudos to Paolo.

Tony

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:13:11 -0800 (PST)

Second that, Tony. I installed it on one of our XP computers at work (definitely had to install Omniflop drivers first) and converted a whole bunch of disks onto my usb drive.

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Tony Knerr <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Tony Knerr <[email-masked]>
Subject: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:08 PM

  

      --- In TI994A@yahoogroups. com, fdos <fdosbrs@... > wrote:

Kudos to Paolo.

Tony

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:30:27 -0800 (PST)

> You only need the 1.44's.  They work fine with a TI.  Just format DS, DD, 40-track for 360K.  If you use HD disks, tape
> over the HD whole.  If you have an original TI disk controller, then format DS, SD, 40-track for 180K.

I'll give that another shot. My 1.44MB drive wouldn't work correctly on 
the TI controller, though. It had no jumpers, and using the twist or not 
wouldn't give me proper control over which ID it was.

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:32:50 -0800 (PST)

> 3.5" drive in a PEB.  It's quite easy.

This is getting more than a little condescending. The 1.44MB drive I have 
wouldn't respond correctly, it behaved as those the motor control and the 
data control were on different IDs, and interfered with the operation of 
my main drive in all configurations I attempted. This is the first I've 
seen anyone say that a 1.44MB 3.5" drive works on an unmodified TI 
controller at all.

How do you do the cabling?

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:56:24 -0800 (PST)

Mike....

You Ignorant Slut (my best SNL Akroid voice)..... sorry couldn't resist...

In order to use a 1.44 meg drive on a TI two things must happen.  #1 the HD switch needs to be jumpered, glued down (my preference) or you must use a DD floppy.

The cabeling goes like this..... pin 10(FDC side)  crossed to pin 12( drive side) for drive 1.  No changes for drive 2.  pin 14 (FDC side) to pin 12 (drive side) for drive 3....  Now shape up dammit and get with the program ;-)

back to you Chevy.....

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, tursi <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:32 PM

  

controller at all.

---

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:06:04 -0800 (PST)

> In order to use a 1.44 meg drive on a TI two things must happen.  #1 the 
> HD switch needs to be jumpered, glued down (my preference) or you must 
> use a DD floppy. The cabeling goes like this..... pin 10(FDC side)  
> crossed to pin 12( drive side) for drive 1.  No changes for drive 2.  
> pin 14 (FDC side) to pin 12 (drive side) for drive 3....  Now shape up 
> dammit and get with the program ;-)

So only ONE wire is flipped? Will give it a try if I can before I pack up. 
Or straight through for drive 2.

I'm pretty sure I already tried the straight-through cable, but I didn't 
lock down the HD switch (that should not affect whether the other drive on 
the cable is affected though!).

---

From: "Jon Vogel" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:19:00 -0600

> This is getting more than a little condescending.

I'm sorry, Tursi.  That was totally not the tone I was attempting to convey. 
The subtext that I was reading from you in this thread was that you were 
pretty happy using the cable and adding a 3.5" drive to your PEB wasn't 
worth the effort to you.  I can totally understand this.  But, I don't think 
I conveyed that very well.  Apologies.

> The 1.44MB drive I have

I just took apart my working PEB so that I can check exactly what I have 
going on in there.  Here's the rundown:

The 5.25" drive is a TEAC FD-55BV-221-U.  This is configured, via jumper, as 
D1, though I've used it as D0 in the past.
The 3.5" drive is a Sony MP-F17W-5KD.  There are no configuration jumpers. 
A search on the 'net reveals this to be a 1.44meg floppy drive.
The cable is just a straight cable, no "twists" in it like some floppy 
cables have.  The 5.25" is on the end of the cable, the 3.5" connector is 
1/3 from the end.

I don't really remember, I think I recall that if I wanted the 3.5" drive on 
the end (as DSK2), I had to add the "twist".  But, I can't be sure without 
trying and I don't have a spare floppy cable at the moment.

I've used this configuration with both TI controllers and CorComp.

To use this setup, you have to have the 720K floppies.  If you have 1.44M HD 
floppies, you have to tape over the HD hole.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: Barry Peterson <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:25:50 -0600

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:30 PM, tursi <[email-masked]> wrote:

>   > You only need the 1.44's.  They work fine with a TI.  Just format DS,
> DD, 40-track for 360K.  If you use HD disks, tape
I have a box with two Teac 3½" 720KB drives which works exactly the same way
5¼" drives work. They have jumpers (or switches, don't remember which) to
select DSK1-4.

I have used a 1.44MB 3½" drive, taped the HD hole on diskettes, used a
straight-through cable and had it seen as DSK2 and worked fine.

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:37:32 -0800 (PST)

Yea it's drive select. #1=pin 10, #2=pin 12 & #3= pin 14.  Sounds like you had a HD disk installed.  Drives the the TI batty !

From: tursi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:06 PM

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:39:40 -0800 (PST)

Do not use a twisted cable unless you want twisted results.  Hmmmmm where's my cable twister ?

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Jon Vogel <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Jon Vogel <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:19 PM

  

      From: "tursi" <yahoogroup@harmless lion.com>

>> confuse your personal preference with there being a difficulty in putting 

>> a

The 5.25" drive is a TEAC FD-55BV-221- U.  This is configured, via jumper, as 

1/3 from the end.

Regards,

Jon

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:01:52 -0500

> I conveyed that very well.  Apologies.

Thanks, Jon. I do appreciate this. I've had a miserable day and this thread 
wasn't helping, I probably was being more snappy than I needed to be.

> going on in there.  Here's the rundown:

This helped a lot. Your mail came in while I was taking apart my PEB to try 
Marc's suggestions again.

I /had/ to configure my 5.25" as D0, otherwise I have done the same as you 
did. The 3.5" drive is now working - my two main problems were not locking 
the HD tab (I'd heard in the past, at least with the Atari ST, that didn't 
work, so never thought to try it). Also, I have a cable with both 5.25 and 
3.5 connectors both before and after the twist, and I was trying to put one 
drive on either side. When I put BOTH drives before the twist, and jumpered 
as noted, it worked - my 5.25" is DSK1 and my 3.5" is DSK2, on a TI 
controller. I have formatted my first TI 3.5" diskette. That's kind of 
cool - I can get new floppies now. I'm not sure why it wouldn't work after 
the twist as DSK1, but I think a hardware switch to flip them back and forth 
at will should solve that. >:)

I will also lock down the HD tab as Marc suggested, so that all floppies are 
assumed low density.

So Omniflop install into a 64-bit OS? I have 64-bit serial drivers. ;) I'm 
trying to find confirmation of yes or no but it doesn't seem to say.

---

From: "Matthew" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:05:35 -0000

> the cable is affected though!).

Do not use the connectors after the twist, it won't work that way.  I have stock everything (PEB, FDC, 5.25" Full Height) and I added a 3.5" floppy by using a standard PC floppy cable and connecting both the original 5.25" drive and the new 3.5" drive to the two connectors *before* the twist.

The only problem I currently have is that both drives will spin the disk no matter which drive is being accessed.  Gets annoying.  I'm not sure if this can be corrected via the jumpers on the drive itself.

I spent a long time trying to find a 3.5" drive that would work, and currently I have two TEAC FD-235F (720K) drives.  They have a *ton* of jumpers, but I have not found a reference online yet as to how to set them...  Never mind, I just found this link on Dell's site of all places: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/dta/25805/

That is my jumper block!  Sweet.  Hope this helps.

Matthew

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:12:34 -0500

> The only problem I currently have is that both drives will spin the disk 
> no matter which drive is being accessed.  Gets annoying.  I'm not sure if 
> this can be corrected via the jumpers on the drive itself.
>

This is actually normal, and nothing wrong with your setup. :) Even two 
5.25" drives will do that.

MY 3.5" drive is a Sony 1.44MB. It's nice to have this, because I always 
worry that my frequent moves will damage the 5.25" disks.. the 3.5" disks 
are a little tougher. (Also, all the recent activity damaged my 5.25" drive 
locking mechanism... it likes to pop open randomly and fire the disk out 
now. I can see the crack and will try a little superglue there.. ;) )

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:22:06 -0000

I am simply amazed at the problems people have with connecting
3.5" floppy drives to their TIs.

I've never had any connection problems.

Use a straight cable.

Change the drive select line ON THE CABLE in the appropriate place.

Mix and match whatever you want, if you've got mixed 5.25's and 3.5's,
remove the termination packs from the 5.25's.

The HFDC doesn't like too much termination, other cards simply don't care.

Use only double density 3.5" disks unless you've got a Geneve and are using high density. Taping over the hole on high density disks is NOT RELIABLE, period.

Follow the rules and you'll be ok.

Tony

---

From: "Matthew" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:36:32 -0000

> Change the drive select line ON THE CABLE in the appropriate place.

Drive select *on* the cable?  Do you have a picture of such a beast?  I'm not familiar with selecting a drive via a straight through cable.

Matthew

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:54:08 -0500

> I am simply amazed at the problems people have with connecting 3.5" floppy 
> drives to their TIs.

Well, come on Tony. Any task needs a little information, experience, and 
confidence to put it together. Modifying your cable for the drive select 
line is not obvious. It's certainly not "just as easy" as connecting a 
serial cable.  Coming by double density 3.5" disks is not trivial anymore. 
(We'll see what disabling the hole but still using a high density drive is 
like, since that's what I'll have to do). You're the first one in this 
thread to say ANYTHING about the termination packs.

If the "rules" were posted somewhere where people could go look, that'd be 
fantastic. Buried in the odd post on high volume mailing lists doesn't make 
it common knowledge. I've never tried before because I didn't know HD floppy 
drives would even work. It turns out they don't "just" work, you need a 
couple of simple pieces of information first.

You've never had any problems, fantastic. You win the internets. But don't 
put down others who haven't had your luck, skill or knowledge. :)

Now, let's turn that slight into something productive, and post this list 
somewhere useful. I've put all these tips together on my site (okay, maybe 
not /useful/ per sae, but static at least so it's searchable via Google) at 
http://harmlesslion.com/text/ti_35_inch_floppy.txt

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:59:10 -0800 (PST)

GOTO Ron's (Mainbyte's) site and he has a diagram of the the cable mod.  It's not a straight thru cable once the mod is made.

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Matthew <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Matthew <[email-masked]>
Subject: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7:36 PM

  

      --- In TI994A@yahoogroups. com, "Tony Knerr" <tonyknerr@. ..> wrote:

Matthew

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:05:00 -0800 (PST)

Careful gluing your crack Mike, that could be dangerous ;-) 

How about tomorrow(or this week anyway)  we (all of us who care to) come up with a group document that spells out (with pictures courtesy of  Tursi (since his since his are so good) ) ALL that is required to get this task done.  If a knucklehead like me can do it then everyone should be able to.....

From: Tursi <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7:12 PM

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:16:29 -0500

> Careful gluing your crack Mike, that could be dangerous ;-)

I'm an adventurous soul... ;)

> How about tomorrow(or this week anyway)  we (all of us who care to) come 
> up with a group document that spells out (with pictures courtesy of  Tursi 
> (since his since his are so good) ) ALL that is required to get this task 
> done.  If a knucklehead like me can do it then everyone should be able 
> to.....
>

Sorry.. reason you're seeing so much of me these last two weeks is that I'll 
be away for the rest of the month. (Pauses for collective sigh of relief).. 
then all of December will be packing. :/

Better documentation would be good, though.. really, Mainbyte's work is 
fantastic, it makes a good benchmark for where we should be reaching for. 
With the new forum at AtariAge, I would expect we'll see an increase in 
demand for documentation (maybe some of the new folks will help out by 
writing some ;) ).

I still need to try and finish the cartridge conversion tool for ROMs for 
Jon before I go, so that's my next task. After food, that is. ;)

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:34:48 -0500

Mike... Don't stay gone very long... What would we do without ya?  By  
the way, I would be happy to write up any documentation that would  
help... Don't know how much knowledge I have in comparison to most of  
you, but if they are simple tasks, I would love to do it.  Anything  
you guys need... Let me know, I'm game.

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

---

From: fdos <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:53:01 -0700

Tony,

I concur 98%.  I do the drive selects on each drive in my two TI systems 
and one Geneve system.  They all have one 5.25" drive and one 3.5" 
drive.  In the two TI systems the 5.25" drives are drive one and the 
3.5" drives are drive two, but on the Geneve the 3.5" is drive one and 
the 5.25" is drive two.  The SNUG-TI and Geneve have HFDC cards, so the 
associated 5.25" drives are 80 track (actually 1.2MB with motors 
strapped to 300 RPM) and support up to 720K.  The 3.5" drives on the TI 
systems also support up to 720K while the Geneve 3.5" supports up to 
1.44MB.  Only the TI-99/4A system has a Myarc 80 track FDC, but the 
5.25" drive is 40 track for a maximum capacity of 360K.  They have been 
arranged this way since 1999.

No drive failures.  Only one HFDC lost single and high density 
capability a few years ago, but was repaired by Tim Tesch, and is 
working fine today.

Bill S

Tony Knerr wrote:
> Use only double density 3.5" disks unless you've got a Geneve and are 
> using high density. Taping over the hole on high density disks is NOT 
> RELIABLE, period.
>

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:23:03 -0000

I am to understand that with a twisted wire both drives are to beset as drive two...

Postle

---

From: mark wills <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:20:36 -0800 (PST)

Sorry, I gave you the wrong information - brain fade...

The card was actually designed and built our very own Fred Kaal - lovely chap that he is. And a European too!

Here is the web link:

http://members.ziggo.nl/fgkaal/Hardware/hw_ti99hdx_card.html#ti2pc

From the website:

"The Ti99Hdx card is an interface card for the expansion-box wich communicates 
with a PC via a serial interface. For the TI side the interface card acts like 
an ordinary mass storage device. So it is possible to load, save, open, read, 
write and close files. All the file date is send to the PC. On the PC runs a 
windows program wich executes all the file commands. All files are stored in 
V9T9 format in a predefined directory on the PC's harddisk. A file opened as
"HDX1.PRINTER" will send all data via a software connection to the Ti99Print program. This program will send received data to the default Windows printer."

This is an incredible device IMHO, that the entire community could benefit from.

Note, that it is ALSO possible to do it with a TI RS232 card and a small add on board. The add on board replaces the TI RS232 DSR with a battery backed RAM chip. The DSR is loaded once from TI disk, and then sits in the RAM chip. From then on, the RS232 card communicates with the PC. The PC runs a windows program and 'listens' on the serial port. The TI "thinks" it has a disk drive connected. All the files are in V9T9 format on the PC.

Awesome stuff.

I wonder if we could get Fred (or Jon G) to make a run of the add on boards? 

Mark.

>Sent: Wed, 18 November, 2009 16:18:19

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:26:54 -0800 (PST)

OK............go get me a beer ;-)

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:34 PM

  

      Mike... Don't stay gone very long... What would we do without ya?  By the way, I would be happy to write up any documentation that would help... Don't know how much knowledge I have in comparison to most of you, but if they are simple tasks, I would love to do it.  Anything you guys need... Let me know, I'm game.

Owen Brand**Oprysoft**Opry99er.com
On Nov 18, 2009, at 9:16 PM, "Tursi" <yahoogroup@harmless lion.com> wrote:

    

writing some ;) ).

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:12:05 -0500

> OK............go get me a beer ;-)

You have to come to the Chicago Pub Crawl for that request. ;)

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:34:16 -0800 (PST)

Reliability of taping over an HD hole and using it as double-density depends on who you ask.

I've done it for years and have had no issues. The differences between HD and DD 3.5" are not as bad as the differences between 5.25" HD and DD disks...

But I will leave you all to read about it on Wikipedia, since it is already posted there on an online resource. No sense in us re-documenting what is already documented in this case...

From: Tony Knerr <[email-masked]>
Subject: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: [email-masked]
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:22 PM

  

Use a straight cable.

Tony

---

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:44:13 -0500

Will a PBR do?

Owen Brand
**Oprysoft**
Opry99er.com

On Nov 18, 2009, at 11:26 PM, Marc Hull <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Mike... Don't stay gone very long... What would we do without ya?   
> By the way, I would be happy to write up any documentation that  
> would help... Don't know how much knowledge I have in comparison to  
> most of you, but if they are simple tasks, I would love to do it.   
> Anything you guys need... Let me know, I'm game.
>
> Owen Brand
> **Oprysoft**
> Opry99er.com
>

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:12:36 +0100

> From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
> To: <[email-masked]>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 11:08 PM

Thank you Tony. You're the very first TIer to report anything about 
TI99-PC with OmniFlop interface.

Paolo Bagnaresi

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:15:40 +0100

> From: "ti99_forever" <[email-masked]>
> Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 12:13 AM
> Second that, Tony. I installed it on one of our XP computers at work 
> (definitely had to install Omniflop drivers first) and converted a whole 
>  > bunch of disks onto my usb drive.

Glad to hear that.

Paolo Bagnaresi

      --- In TI994A@yahoogroups. com, fdos <fdosbrs@... > wrote:

Kudos to Paolo.

Tony

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:27:21 -0000

> Drive select *on* the cable?  Do you have a picture of such a beast?  I'm not familiar with selecting a drive via a straight through cable.

Drive select 1 = wire 10
Drive select 2 = wire 12
Drive select 3 = wire 14
Drive select 4 = wire 6

If you have a drive that only responds as 2, 
split the cable in the appropriate places.
Cut the appropriate lines and cross connect
as necessary. Solder and cover with electrical
tape. If you plan the cuts correctly, as in one
further up the cable than the other, you won't
need to add short pieces of wire to make the
splices like I did on my first cable.

Tony

---

From: mark wills <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:41:50 -0800 (PST)

Posting with a different subject header, in case it disappears in the noise!

See below...

>http://members. ziggo.nl/ fgkaal/Hardware/ hw_ti99hdx_ card.html# ti2pc
>
>From the website:
>
>"HDX1.PRINTER" will send all data via a software connection to the
>Ti99Print >program. This program will send received data to the default Windows printer."
>
>>From: R Halter <rheahalter@att. net>

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:50:34 -0000

Go here for new 3.5" double density floppy disks if you
don't want to risk the 'taping over the hole' issue.

http://www.floppydisk.com/

Tony

---

From: "Tony Knerr" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:17:01 -0000

I didn't see mention of the 80 track modification
for the TI Disk Controller in this thread, but I
may have missed it. That should be added to any
guide that's being created.

Anyway, it looks as if that file has been removed
from ftp.whtech.com for some reason. So I uploaded
it here in the files section. Can someone with access
please add it to the whtech site?

Tony

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:47:58 +0100

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tursi"
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:01 AM
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues

> trying to find confirmation of yes or no but it doesn't seem to say.

OmniFlop was developed by Jason Watton (www.shlock.co.uk) on a Windows 2K 
system. The drivers have been tested and proved to work well on Windows 
XP, Vista x86 and Seven x86.
As far as I know (and I admit I may know know enough on this matter) they 
have not been tested on any Windows Vista x64 or Seven x64. I have never 
worked with any x64 Windows system, so I just don't know how fussy the x64 
can be about drivers. If the drivers *have* to be 64 bits, no way they 
will work. If the x64 has a 'compatible' mode, so to speak, they might.

Please be the first to try installing OmniFlop drivers on a x64 system and 
report. Chances are that if the x64 OS accepts the drivers, then they will 
work.

Good luck :-)

Paolo

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:50:33 +0100

The following is a shameless plug for TI99-PC 3.2.1. Don't say you haven't 
been warned!

OmniFlop, the PC program by Jason Watton that reads, writes and formats 
almost any floppy disk on a PC is formed by two parts:
1) the drivers. There are two drivers:
   - a) Floppy disk Drive driver. Needed for all the TI activities.
   - b) Floppy disk Controller driver. Needed only for High Density TI 
formats (36 sector/track).
2) The program, again called Omniflop. OmniFlop program works as an 
interface between you and the drivers.

OmniFlop drivers are absolutely outstanding.
Omniflop program is great software too, but maybe a little too complicated 
when used with a TI disk. The software needs you to know density, sector 
per track and total tracks of the TI disk you are going to read. As it 
happens, this is not always the case. You may simply pull an old TI floppy 
out of a dusty box and be wanting the software to tell you what the disk 
is, and not vice-versa.

Quite true, you can use OmniFlop's "Diagnostics" and get a "Disk Test", to 
retrieve the disk parameters. Then, you have to remember the so obtained 
disk parameters to actually read the disk. It can be done, of course, but 
it's a bit complicated, you have many disk parameters you've got to choose 
from.

OmniFlop program never tries to understand the floppy disk filing system 
by the sector contents. Rather, it forces the user to tell the program 
what has to be done with the disk content.

OmniFlop is compatible with (almost) any the existing floppy disk that is 
physically compatibile with a PC floppy disk drive (this leaves out 
Commodore disks, for one). It is very understandable it is not very smart 
when it comes to using the data that is able to retrieve from the disk. 
Cleverly, Jason Watton left that step to the users, making the drivers 
available to anybody who wants to develop an application based on his 
drivers.

So, to avoid any complicay with TI, I wrote a new interface to the 
OmniFlop drivers: TI99-PC for Windows.
This new part of TI99-PC reads the content of sector zero of a TI disk and 
works out the disk parameters from there. No hassle, no question asked. 
Plain and simple. Well, at least that was my intention... :-)

This is why I would suggest TIers to try, at least, TI99-PC 3.2.1. It 
contains TI99-PC for Windows, linked to OmniFlop Drivers.
TI99-PC 3.2.1 can be downloaded from:
ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc utilities/TI99-PC 3.2.1. Password 'TI99'.rar

Paolo Bagnaresi

Note 1
======
There is a very special case when using OmniFlop program is preferable 
than using TI99-PC. This is when the area of sector zero that contains the 
disk layout parameters (bytes 11-20) is damaged. OmniFlop won't balk, but 
TI99-PC might. In this case is better to use OmniFlop, get a complete disk 
image, and then fix the disk image by hand with an ASCII text editor.

Note 2
======
TI99-PC 3.2.1 comes with all the needed OmniFlop drivers. This is because 
I obtained permission by Jason Watton to do so. TI users don't need to 
register at Sherlock Consulting Limited (Jason's site) as long as they use 
OmniFlop drivers with TI disks or with any other disk type that has 
already been equally tested. If you use OmniFlop drivers with an unknown 
disk type, you will be asked to register.

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:22:47 -0800 (PST)

OK.... I'll be the one to ask even though this may be the stupidest question so far.... Does OmniFlop mitigate the need for having a FM capable FDC on the PC ?

--- On Thu, 11/19/09, Paolo Bagnaresi <[email-masked]> wrote:

From: Paolo Bagnaresi <[email-masked]>
Subject: [TI994A] OmniFlop by itself or TI99-PC 3.2.1 (with OmniFlop drivers)?
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009, 7:50 AM

  

been warned!

formats (36 sector/track) .

is, and not vice-versa.

from.

drivers.

ftp://ftp.whtech. com/pc utilities/TI99- PC 3.2.1. Password 'TI99'.rar

Paolo Bagnaresi

Note 1

======

Note 2

======

---

From: Marc Hull <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:23:32 -0800 (PST)

Oh no..... not the PBR thread again ;-)

From: Owen Brand <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: "[email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 11:44 PM

  

      Will a PBR do?

Owen Brand**Oprysoft**Opry99er.com
On Nov 18, 2009, at 11:26 PM, Marc Hull <marc.hull@sbcglobal .net> wrote:

    

      OK.......... ..go get me a beer ;-)

--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Owen Brand <owenbrand@opry99er. com> wrote:

From: Owen Brand <owenbrand@opry99er. com>
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Re: Disk drive issues
To: "TI994A@yahoogroups .com" <TI994A@yahoogroups. com>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:34 PM

    

 

writing some ;) ).

---

From: fdos <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:15:35 -0700

No!  If the controller is MFM only then double density is the minimum.

Bill S

Marc Hull wrote:
>  
> 
> OK.... I'll be the one to ask even though this may be the stupidest 
> question so far.... Does OmniFlop mitigate the need for having a FM 
> capable FDC on the PC ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --- On *Thu, 11/19/09, Paolo Bagnaresi /<[email-masked]>/* wrote:
> 
> 
>     ftp://ftp.whtech. com/pc <ftp://ftp.whtech.com/pc> utilities/TI99-
>     PC 3.2.1. Password 'TI99'.rar
> 
>     Paolo Bagnaresi
> 
>     Note 1
>     ======

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:24:38 +0100

Nope. The restriction remains. The FM/MFM problem (Single/Double density) 
stems from the way the Floppy Disk Controller of your computer was built, 
i.e. it's in the hardware. It 's not related to the software that works 
around your hardware.

You may even change the Operating System of your computer, but the 
problem, if you have one, will still be there.

On the other hand, if you have a Double Density disk controller on your 
TI, any PC will do.

Paolo

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Hull" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 3:22 PM
Subject: Re: [TI994A] OmniFlop by itself or TI99-PC 3.2.1 (with OmniFlop 
drivers)?

---

From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:13:18 -0500

> will work. If the x64 has a 'compatible' mode, so to speak, they might.

They must be 64-bit. It's kernel mode, so there's no emulation layer going 
on in there. That's the down side of kernel mode drivers. Luckily, as we 
move forward, it's possible for more and more to run in user mode, so maybe 
in a few years that issue will start to fade.

> report. Chances are that if the x64 OS accepts the drivers, then they will

I'm not afraid of trying new things, but without the right type of drivers 
it won't work.

I didn't see any links for source.. but the Omniflop page was a little hard 
to follow. If source is available I might be able to try a 64-bit compile.. 
I don't know how much the driver model changed yet.

So, I'm still at square one, using my serial cable, albeit with a more 
reliable drive in my TI. Sorry Jon. ;)

---

From: fdos <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:20:08 -0700

There's no one here (in the entire TI/Geneve community) that enjoys 
turning a PC in to a TI peripheral more than I do.  So my problem is 
that my preference, like you suggested, would have to be the 
daughter-board.  The design, however, is for a TI RS-232 card (which is 
OK for me as I have several TI RS-232 spares), but many here have Myarc 
and Corcomp RS-232 cards (as do I), so not applicable.

Another aspect is that Fred has an ExpressPCB layout for the full 
TI99HDX card which would make it easy for a third party (Jon Guidry, 
etc.) to take on, whereas the TI daughter-board does not.  In the long 
run this may prove to be the best solution, but as of now only my Geneve 
has any open PEB card slots.  My 4P has a TI RS-232 card that could be 
replaced by the TI99HDX, but my 4A does not, and there are no PEB cards 
that I would be willing to pull.

One possible drawback to the TI99HDX is that is appears to be a parallel 
interface, and I would hope to have all of my TI/Geneve systems 
connected to the PC peripheral for files and printing.  Will it work 
with a USB to parallel connection on the PC?  Is it tied to a specific 
parallel port (only one these days, if at all)?  The only way likely is 
to use and old fashion multi parallel port switch, so just one TI or 
Geneve connected at a time through the switch.

My last concern is my printer is directly connected to my LAN--not to a 
PC.  Will this be a problem?

Bill S

mark wills wrote:
>     The card was actually designed and built our very own Fred Kaal -
>     lovely chap that he is. And a European too!
> 
>     Here is the web link:
> 
>     <http://members.ziggo.nl/fgkaal/Hardware/hw_ti99hdx_card.html#ti2pc>
> 
>      From the website:
> 
>     "The Ti99Hdx card is an interface card for the expansion-box wich
>     communicates with a PC via a serial interface. For the TI side the
>     interface card acts like an ordinary mass storage device. So it is
>     possible to load, save, open, read, write and close files. All the
>     file date is send to the PC. On the PC runs a windows program wich
>     executes all the file commands. All files are stored in V9T9 format
>     in a predefined directory on the PC's harddisk. A file opened as
>     Ti99Print
>     <http://members.ziggo.nl/fgkaal/Software/sw_ti99print.html#ti99print>
>     program. This program will send received data to the default Windows
>     printer."
> 
>     Note, that it is ALSO possible to do it with a TI RS232 card and a
>     small add on board. The add on board replaces the TI RS232 DSR with
>     a battery backed RAM chip. The DSR is loaded once from TI disk, and
>     then sits in the RAM chip. From then on, the RS232 card communicates
>     with the PC. The PC runs a windows program and 'listens' on the
>     serial port. The TI "thinks" it has a disk drive connected. All the
>     files are in V9T9 format on the PC.
> 
>     Awesome stuff.
> 
>         *From:* R Halter <rheahalter@att. net>
>         *To:* TI994A@yahoogroups. com
>         *Sent:* Wed, 18 November, 2009 16:18:19
>         *Subject:* Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues
> 
>          
> 
>         mark wills wrote:
>          >
>          >

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:38:49 +0100

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tursi" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: [TI994A] Disk drive issues

> reliable drive in my TI. Sorry Jon. ;)

Jason Watton has never offered access to the source code of his drivers. 
If you ask him persoanlly, you get an access code to the drivers as well 
as two '.h' files:
OmniFlop.h
OmniFlopFmtIds.h

The two files contain the enum values to be used as "Public Constants" by 
the API calls from an external source code (it was Visual Basic in my 
case). You have to find out the values you need, depending on how you want 
to arrange your program.

The way you access the drivers is pretty straightforward, as you would do 
with any floppy access with Windows 2000, basically through IOCTL. There 
are some special calls you need and they are explained in his site.

I don't know the exact reason why Jason doesn't want to release his source 
code. He never offered it, and I never asked. My knowledge on C 
programming doesn't have the needed depth, and I never dared anything 
about the source code. I have an opinion, though. The OmniFlop drivers are 
not just two extra drivers you add to your system. They are a 
*replacement* for the original Microsoft drivers:
- Floppy disk drive
- Floppy dsik controller
After you substitute the original MS drivers with the Jason's drivers your 
system will work exactly as before, except it can do something that was 
not possible before: accessing a ton of non-MS DOS floppy disk formats.

So, his code is really at a very low level, near to the core of Windows. 
Stuff, I assume, you don't easily find around on the net. All assumptions 
on my part, mind you.

I suppose Jason is quite jealous of his code and that he won't be willing 
to release it easily. But maybe he's interested in getting a 64 bit 
version of his drivers. Who knows? If you have the expertise, and you are 
willing to share it, he might be enticed and that would surely be a bonus 
for all of us. Just write him an e-mail and see what he answers. You may 
say we have exchanged messages. And, Jason is always a very nice person to 
write to.

Have fun,

Paolo

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:23:27 +0100

The messages I send to <[email-masked]> are never echoed back to 
me. OTOH, I receive
regularly all the messages from the other TIers at [email-masked].

I use Outlook Express and GMail with POP3 (not IMAP) as a mail server.

Any idea on how to get rid of this nuisance?

Paolo

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:43:45 -0600

> Any idea on how to get rid of this nuisance?

Use Thunderbird.  ^_~

Check your mail filters, both on GMail and on your email client.  Maybe 
your own email address is getting filtered out?

---

From: "fredkaal" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:27:16 -0000

Ti99Hdx has a serial connection!

Fred ;-)

---

From: mark wills <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:37:55 -0800 (PST)

I really think this is an incredible peice of hardware and has been largely overlooked by the community.

Fred, do you think it would be possible to produce a board layout for the daughter board?

Failing that, what about a group effort to get some of the custom HDx (the main board that doesn't require a daughter board) built? Any interest?

Fred, I assume the protocol handles low level IO requests? In other words, the system acts *just* like a drive, including all low level access routines. (Obviously software that talks directly to a disk controller IC won't work, but I assume software that is written to interface to disk DSRs (even low level routines) will work transparently).

Have you come across any compatibility issues? Are you still using the unit that you built?

Thanks

Mark.

>
>From: fredkaal <[email-masked]>
>Sent: Fri, 20 November, 2009 7:27:16
>Subject: [TI994A] Re: Ti99Hdx card
>
> >
>
>
>
>
>  >
>>      
> 
>>> >     <http://members. ziggo.nl/ fgkaal/Hardware/ hw_ti99hdx_ card.html# ti2pc>
>>> > 
>>> >      From the website:
>>> > 
>>> >     <http://members. ziggo.nl/ fgkaal/Software/ sw_ti99print. html#ti99print>
>>> >         *From:* R Halter <rheahalter@ att. net>

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:13:11 +0100

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "R Halter" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:43 AM
Subject: Re: [TI994A] OT - No copy of my own messages from 
[email-masked]

> your own email address is getting filtered out?

No luck so far (I'm still using Outlook Express, though...).
Thanks anyway :-)

Paolo

---

From: R Halter <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:42:27 -0600

> No luck so far (I'm still using Outlook Express, though...).

Check your settings on the group, too.  Maybe there's a "don't send me 
copies of my own messages" setting in there somewhere...

---

From: ti99_forever <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:20:01 -0800 (PST)

No, I've been messing with those recently.

But do check the "bounce history" on there to see if there is a correspondence between # you have sent and not received back and # in the bounce history. Perhaps you aren't receiving all the posts anyway and think you are...

--- On Fri, 11/20/09, R Halter <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Subject: Re: [TI994A] OT - No copy of my own messages from [email-masked]
> Date: Friday, November 20, 2009, 7:42 AM
> Paolo Bagnaresi wrote:
> ------------------------------------
> 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
>     [email-masked]
> 
> 
>

---

From: "fredkaal" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:41:15 -0000

Mark,

I was (am) busy creating a PCB with the free Eagle software because this package can generate a gerber file used by manu PCB manufacturers. Because of lack of interrest i'm not in a hurry. 

I have build two of these units for myself. The big dis advantage of using the prototyping boards (or whatever you call it) is that it is difficult to solder the socket connector in its place. It is to easy to get shorts.

I'm using this device (or this method) for many years now. I can easy create a backup of TI/Geneve files on my PC and create (test)programs on my PC, try it in my emulator and finally try and use it on the real thing by directly loading the files from my PC.

The DSR (for the RS232 card) handles all low and high level requests and still handles RS232/1 and PIO/1. There is also a special low level funtion to backup/restore a floppy to the PC. 

It is a bit of work on the RS232 card but you get a great device.

I'm going to show off this device again next week nov 28th at the Dutch TI-meeting. Was first demonstrated at the annual european TIUG meeting in Utrecht, the netherlands in 1997 (had to check the T-shirt) so the idea is at least 13-14 years old.

Fred ;-)

--- In [email-masked], mark wills <markrobertwills@...> wrote:
> >From: fredkaal <fgkaal@...>
> >>--- In TI994A@yahoogroups. com, fdos <fdosbrs@ > wrote:
> >>>

---

From: "Paolo Bagnaresi" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:21:06 +0100

I've checked Yahoo's "bounce history". The most recent bounced message 
goes back to Jun2 20, 2008. So it's not Yahoo's fault. I think it's gmail 
that filters out more than what's needed.

I have no filter set in gmail, yet something seems to be going on there. I 
haven't figured out what exactly happens, but I have seen around on the 
web that other people had similar problems with gmail and were not able to 
solve them. Mmmh...

Ok, this Off Topic is now completely unrelated to our UG, so I'll just 
drop this thread.

Thanks for helping.

Paolo

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ti99_forever" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: [TI994A] OT - No copy of my own messages from 
[email-masked]

> But do check the "bounce history" on there to see if there is a 
> correspondence between # you > have sent and not received back and # in 
> the bounce history. Perhaps you aren't receiving
> all the posts anyway and think you are...
>

---

From: "Postle" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:23:46 -0000

Fred,

With all things TI by you, I am an interested party.  Screen them, build them, I will be at least one person to make purchase of one or three.

Postle

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

--- In [email-masked], "fredkaal" <fgkaal@...> wrote:
> --- In [email-masked], mark wills <markrobertwills@> wrote:
> >
> > >From: fredkaal <fgkaal@>