CF7 and P-box y-cable tests in progress...
winston19842005
with PIO, no 32k (this earlier model does not support
32k).
First test:
Pbox with SAMS memory card, SCSI card
TI with 32k onboard RAM, Gram Kracker
(I know I should've removed the SAMS card, but I've
done this before).
Setup worked pretty well. I loaded several things from
the SCSI, loaded Wycove Forth from the CF.
This was as much as I tested with this setup.
Second test:
Pbox setup the same
TI standard console with Gram Kracker
SCSI locked up quite frequently. Funny, WDS* worked
more often than SCS*. Checked SCSI connections (they
were just working). Removed CF7, SCSI operation back
to normal (nuts!). CF7 operations seemed unaffected.
I loaded Wycove Forth off the CF7, and keyed in the
"Devices" routine that displays DSRs, modified to give
the CRU addresses.
CF7 uses >1100 for disks and >1300 for PIO (as
expected). Thus I could not test my RS232 without
modifying it.
I added my HRD and P-code card.
I couldn't access my HRD - it often loses its ROS. But
in Forth, I could see the devices and even catalog the
drive. Will need to test this further.
P-System - locks up after accessing CF7 - CF7 disk
activity light stays lit. Tried again while holding
FCTN-4 down, it boots up all the way - but I don't
currently have any Psystem images on my CF. Will need
to test this further, but not happy with the issues.
Did more SCSI testing - had some issues, but got DM2K
loaded, and was able to do quite a bit of copying
until receiving a write protect on source (I've gotten
this silly error before when copying, so it is either
a DSR issue, DM2K issue, or? Will not blame the CF7
for this one - I was happy that it copied as much as
it did).
Loaded the SAMS ABOOT menu. Loaded ac99, Linker.
Memory pages look ok. I couldn't find a memory test
for it.
Through all the testing, I did try messing with the
cable (because of the card-edge issues) but didn't
notice any problems while doing so, or any problems
being solved just after messing with it.
Limited testing of speech - it is in my pbox - through
XB.
Where to now?
I will need to modify my RS232 (it is a Corcomp - I
saw a jumper, tried it, nothing changed).
I will need to create some Psystem disks on the CF.
I need to find a SAMS memory tester.
I need to copy the HRD disk over to the CF, so I can
run memory tests and do more HRD testing.
--- ti99_forever <ti99_forever@ yahoo.com> wrote:
> I received my cable today.
>
> I can't say I'm really happy with the construction.
> My
> original (that I bought from them 20 years ago) was
> much better.
>
> This is that "rainbow" strand type cable. It has 3
> female connectors.
>
> The ends have "card-edge" pieces stuck in them to
> convert them to male. And I mean "pieces". They
> basically took card-edge and pieced two together on
> each end, instead of taking a larger connector and
> cutting it down to size. There is nothing holding
> the
> 2 pieces together on each end except the female
> holder.
>
> I did try it out, and am surprised that it appears
> to
> work. I really would like to know what signals are
> connected at the breaks, so I will probably look for
> my P-box guide.
>
> I didn't extensively test it. I put the p-box on
> first, and saw the BwG screen on power-up, and
> loaded
> DSK1.LOAD. No other testing was done.
>
> Then I connected my CF7 adapter, turning off the
> p-box
> (because of the BwG controller) and ran a little
> program to catalog DSK1.
>
> I think $33 is a little high for this "quality" of
> cable. Perhaps I can find some card-edge adapters of
> larger size, same spacing that I can cut down to
> size
> leaving one piece on each end...
winston19842005
My Corcomp Rev C board has a jumper to set it to >1500.
But, doing this doesn't automatically make it RS232/3, RS232/4 and PIO/2.
That only happens if you have another RS232 at >1300.
With the CF at >1300 (PIO, PIO/1) I can still access RS232/1 and RS232/2 on
the RS232 card.
Verified the CRU settings using the DEVICES word in Wycove Forth.
Did rest of the testing in TI Basic:
If I print to PIO or PIO/1, the CF LED lights up (I don't have a printer
attached to that port). If I print to PIO/2, the RS232 card lights up, but
does NOT print, it just hangs...
SCSI issues were pretty bad during this testing - consistent lockups, had to
power off the pbox several times.
On 1/17/08 7:42 PM, in article C3B5600B.9D16%bjjl...@bellsouth.net,
Guillaume Tello
Can you make this test for example:
On the Y cable: speech and CF7
With E/A module
And try to load from the CF7 (the editor or the assembler), if you succeed,
I'll buy a Y cable too...
Guillaume.
winston19842005
On 1/18/08 6:18 AM, in article 47908ae4$0$868$ba4a...@news.orange.fr,
"Guillaume Tello" <houte...@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
I connected my 32kx16bit TI up to the y-cable with speech synthesizer on one
end and the CF7 on the other.
I was able to load & run:
the EA into my Gram Kracker.
Wycove Forth using both the GK and EA module. Wycove Forth is 3 program
image files.
DIS/FIX 80 object files.
the BASIC Catalog program that came with my CF7.
I do not have the newer CF Manager. I need to download it sometime and make
sure I have the utilities for the CF loaded on my PC. I did a recent
reinstall, and am still coming across things missing.
I also was able to use the speech from Wycove Forth.
I also do not have the Editor or the Assembler on CF anywhere. But they are
program image files - cannot imagine that they would not load... Could you
load any program image files under EA #5?
So, it looks good to me...
Your mileage may vary...
winston19842005
On 1/21/08 2:36 PM, in article C3BA5E83.9EDF%bjjl...@bellsouth.net,
"winston19842005" <bjjl...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
Especially since you have on-board 32k. There may be issues with that...
Guillaume Tello
"winston19842005" <bjjl...@bellsouth.net> a écrit dans le message de news:
C3BA624C.9EE2%bjjl...@bellsouth.net...
>> So, it looks good to me...
>>
>> Your mileage may vary...
>>
> Especially since you have on-board 32k. There may be issues with that...
Sure... That's the problem!
In spite of that, your tests look good enough to try the Y cable.
I thank you for your time spent on that!
Guillaume.
Guillaume Tello
anymore...
Thanks by advance!
Guillaume.
winston19842005
On 1/21/08 3:47 PM, in article 4795042a$0$907$ba4a...@news.orange.fr,
"Guillaume Tello" <houte...@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> BTW, can you remind me the URL where I can find the Y Cable. I can't find it
> anymore...
>
> Thanks by advance!
www.iec.net, part # L1173, side-port splitter cable.
winston19842005
Finally downloaded the new vol1 from the Compact Flash site with CFMGR.
This volume# vs. dsk# can really be nasty, when you have volume 2 in DSK1
and volume1 in DSK2 or stuff like that.
In testing with the y-cable, I started getting READ/WRITE errors this
morning, and some data corruption. I need to isolate this.
Note: the PBox is OFF on the 2nd branch, but the speech synthesizer is also
connected. I've been getting lock-ups formatting disks, backing them up,
etc.
I plugged the CF adapter directly into the side of the TI, seems to work ok.
Now I am testing it with the speech unplugged and the adapter on the
y-cable. So far, so good. Looks like I may need an external power supply or
perhaps the speech is interfering. I think it is the former.
Also tried changing the 3.3V jumper to 5V, didn't see any REAL improvement.
Finally wound up with most of my tools disks on the CF corrupted, so I quit
for a while.
Even printing from the CF adapter I dropped some bits early on resulting in
wrong characters.
Frustrating morning.
Backups under CFMGR resulted in multiple read/write errors. Formatting a
volume resulted in more than 2 sectors used (the normal for sector 0 vib and
sector 1 fdr).
These went away when the other branch of the y-cable was not connected.
Time to pull out my spare power supply, I guess.
Think I will take a break today.
P.S. - I did test the pbox, which has SCSI, RS232, SAMS in it right now -
after removing the CF adapter. This was a "cable test", albeit of the other
end.
It seemed to work flawlessly...
Guillaume Tello
> Now I am testing it with the speech unplugged and the adapter on the
> y-cable. So far, so good. Looks like I may need an external power supply
> or
> perhaps the speech is interfering. I think it is the former.
Looks like my own problem!
With the TI Speech plugged, lots of problems with the CF7+ but the CF7+
alone is ok.
Guillaume.
winston19842005
On 2/10/08 9:55 AM, in article 47af1022$0$883$ba4a...@news.orange.fr,
"Guillaume Tello" <houte...@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
Yes, but you have a separate power supply for yours. I need to test that as
well.
Remember the tests with the EA cart worked well.
Stuart Conner on the TI Olug has a setup like yours, where he bridged the
power supplies over the speech synthesizer. He says his works well...
His is an older CF7.
winston...@yahoo.com
This concerns using the CF7 with a P-Code card.
After transferring some P-system disks over to the CF7, the P-system
still fails to boot.
It hangs with the disk LED on on the CF7.
Should not be surprising - the P-Code card fails to recognize the
Horizon Ram Disk as well. I imagine it does some low-level access to
the disk controller card that the CF7 doesn't support.
It is a shame that I shall never see the P-system unchained from slow
floppy drives - closest I came was emulate files on the old Myarc
HFDC. These were fast - I can only assume an HRD or CF7 would be
faster.