Subject: NanoPEB V 2.0 report

From: Bill R Sullivan <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 14:05:34 -0700

I'm rapidly reaching the point where I will abandon this device and go 
back to my original CF7A+/NanoPEB V 1.0 units for all development and 
fun.  Except for X4th99 development which rewires 256K AMS minimum. My 
SNUG-TI (TI-99/4P) system includes 1MB AMS on-board the SGCPU card, and 
my standard TI w/PEB (TI-99/4A) has a 1MB SAMS card, so either system 
SUPPORTS X4TH99 development.  TIB+ doesn't require more than the 
standard 32K for now, but may get AMS/SAMS as an option later on.

My difficulties with this NanoPEB V 2.0 started a few days ago after I 
had used the abused TI XB module to merge many TIB+ programs into just 
one, so they (as one) could be loaded into BCART instead of MSAVEd in 
GRAM 7 where many small BASIC programs can be stored and selected from 
the TI Menu.  I still decide to shrink that program even more by 
factoring common GOSUB routines and adding new ones due to other areas 
of commonality.  This required more than the simple merge lines 
capability of TI XB and some other enhanced XB modules. I know I used 
the GK MILK and other combining features on diskettes that came with my 
GK to make a combined XB+EA module with XB getting lots of additional 
line editing capabilities, but I wasn't able to find it or SEB that has 
pretty much the same capabilities less the ones that were added in GRAMS 
0-2.  As this NanoPEB doesn't have COM1 or any serial communications 
capability I had to plug my old NanoPEB V 1.0 in place of the V 2.0.  I 
should probably explain that each of these devices has a TI Speech 
Synthesizer attached as this makes it easier for me to switch them out 
and in the TI console with all pressure to do so applied to the Speech 
Synthesizer case. Obviously, I have a lot of these chatter boxes as 
three were removed from their boxes, and are attached to RAVE99 
adapters.  None of my TI Speech Synthesizers have ever failed although 
two of the RAVE99 adapters are deceased as well as my only Corcomp 
Triple Tech card.:-(

The serial communications were not required as I found SEB on DSK2 
(VDISK02), and loaded it into my GK then restored the V 2.0 unit, and 
began the modifications to that TIB+ program.  I also decided to slim 
down TIB+ to just enhancements not supported by those that are included 
in the Winfried Winkler 80 column Editor Assembler module (Called 
Assembler & Editor).  Those enhancements  that are similar are not 
identical in implementation and usage so more changes to make and test 
requiring that I go back and forth between WWEA80 and SEB.  Therefore it 
became necessary to save SEB to disk file.  DSK2. (VDISK02) is where I 
keep my frequently used GK type saved module files.  I went to verify 
the saved module files,and found that they and all files after them in 
the catalog were just scrambled garbage.  I've spent hours and hours 
trying to save this module to vdisk with GK and CSAVE, and have only 
been successful saving to an empty volume that can't have any other 
files added to it without the vdisk getting trashed.  I don't know what 
the reason for this consistent failure is as no one else has reported 
such a problem.  It may just be the 2GB CF card, but I don't want to 
start from scratch, and I'm certainly losing patience re-formatting 
vdisks and copying files from several other vdisk sources.  The more I 
recover and restore vdisk files the more corruption occurs.

The only time I've had this level of corruption occur was when I was 
using CF cards that weren't compatible, but this 2GB CF card came with 
the first NanoPEB V 2.0. received from Jaime.  Any ideas?

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

---

From: Bill R Sullivan <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:09:04 -0700

Jeff,

I replaced the NanoPEB V 2.0 with the V 1.0 unit, and used the V 2.0 2GB 
CF card in the V 1.0 unit.  I proceeded to cleanup and restore the 
corrupted volumes then did a normal save from from my GK to DSK2.SEB_EA 
(this volume had more than 50 files already on it) as I normally did 
prior to the corrupted GK file save of SEB_EA.  No problem, no corrupted 
files--all appear normal (more than a dozen files catalog as being after 
the 7 SEB_EA files). However I will do a lot more file copies to and 
from the same volumes (VDISKS) before I contact Jaime regarding this bad 
NanaoPEB V 2.0, in addition to the COM1 port not functioning.  Do you 
know of any specific tests I should perform?  Just to be sure that the 
corruption problem is caused by the NanoPEB and not a flawed CF card?

Bill R Sullivan (fdos)

On 10/7/2013 8:36 AM, Bill R Sullivan wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> I think only the first file gets saved correctly because there is 
> never a file2 as it is always nothing but trash; name, filetype, 
> etc.--all trashed, and depending on how many files are written file4 
> and/or file6 are duplicated.
>
> Correct, as far as I can tell, there is no beneficial reason to try 
> and make this unit productive as it will always be less than the other 
> two, and I could save a hair or two also.  I also haven't heard from 
> Jaime since returning the other one less 2GB CF card which he said I 
> could keep for my "troubles".  Of course, at that time I hadn't 
> discovered this problem yet.
>
> Bill R Sullivan (fdos)
>
> On 10/6/2013 7:58 PM, Jeff White wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 06 Oct 2013, at 17:05, Bill R Sullivan <[email-masked] 
>> <mailto:[email-masked]>> wrote:
>>>
>>> fun.
>> Not sure that you get any advantage with V 2.0, especially 
>> considering the serial port had failed.
>>
>> <snip>
>>>
>>> files added to it without the vdisk getting trashed.
>>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> Could be that the disk bitmap is not being handled correctly.  What 
>> size volumes have you tried with GK and CSAVE?  Do they save multiple 
>> files correctly, or just the first file of the set?
>>
>> Jeff White_
>> 
>

---

From: Jeff White <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2013 05:03:09 -0400

Bill,

I wonder if the V 2.0 is having multiple files open issues.  With GK and CSAVE, I think you can save individual ROM and GROM banks.  If you mark one at a time and save each with a different filename, do you get corruption?

If so, if you save one at a time, reset computer, then save another, do you get corruption?

Jeff

On 07 Oct 2013, at 15:09, Bill R Sullivan <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Jeff,
> 
> I replaced the NanoPEB V 2.0 with the V 1.0 unit, and used the V 2.0 2GB CF card in the V 1.0 unit.  I proceeded to cleanup and restore the corrupted volumes then did a normal save from from my GK to DSK2.SEB_EA (this volume had more than 50 files already on it) as I normally did prior to the corrupted GK file save of SEB_EA.  No problem, no corrupted files--all appear normal (more than a dozen files catalog as being after the 7 SEB_EA files).  However I will do a lot more file copies to and from the same volumes (VDISKS) before I contact Jaime regarding this bad NanaoPEB V 2.0, in addition to the COM1 port not functioning.  Do you know of any specific tests I should perform?  Just to be sure that the corruption problem is caused by the NanoPEB and not a flawed CF card?
> 
> Bill R Sullivan (fdos)
> 
>> I think only the first file gets saved correctly because there is never a file2 as it is always nothing but trash; name, filetype, etc.--all trashed, and depending on how many files are written file4 and/or file6 are duplicated.
>> 
>> Correct, as far as I can tell, there is no beneficial reason to try and make this unit productive as it will always be less than the other two, and I could save a hair or two also.  I also haven't heard from Jaime since returning the other one less 2GB CF card which he said I could keep for my "troubles".  Of course, at that time I hadn't discovered this problem yet.
>> 
>> Bill R Sullivan (fdos)
>> 
>>> On 06 Oct 2013, at 17:05, Bill R Sullivan <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>>>  
>>> Not sure that you get any advantage with V 2.0, especially considering the serial port had failed.
>>> 
>>> <snip>
>>> Could be that the disk bitmap is not being handled correctly.  What size volumes have you tried with GK and CSAVE?  Do they save multiple files correctly, or just the first file of the set?
>>> 
>>> Jeff White_
>> 
> 
>