Tandy 1000 ex/hx PLUS Expansion to 8-Bit ISA Riser card project

[DavinD]

There's a new 1000ex on Ebay with the memory expansion and a modem if anyone's looking.

[DavinD]

Tell me more about the smart watch clock chip.  I've been thinking about adding one to mine.

[djos]

Tell me more about the smart watch clock chip.  I've been thinking about adding one to mine.

They fit in the HX models just fine but they don't fit in EX's because they are too tall and the Rom is right next to the expansion slot.

They are like a real-time clock but aren't recognised as such, you run the smart watch utility in your autoexec file every boot up to set the computers time and date from it. It goes under a boot rom and uses some clever tricks to work without interfering with the Rom itself. They have small coin batteries embedded in them which hold the time and date.

The batteries are mostly dead now which is another issue.

[DavinD]

How are things going with this?

[djos]

How are things going with this?

Just waiting for the PLUS-ISA/R PCB's to arrive from Elecrow - they were sent on the 5th so should arrive any day.

I haven't had any feedback on the "PLUS-ISA Riser Board" for machines without the Ram expansion so I've put that on ice for now. Im also thinking of building 512kb of ram into it so it only needs 2 ISA Slots - I think I've worked out how to do this but havent had the time to update my design.

I've also been designing a Dallas DS1216 clock board for the 1000 EX machines which is compatible with Tandy's "SmartWatch" software. Due to the location of the Bios ROM in the 1000 EX, the Tandy SmartWatch doesnt fit as it blocks the ram expansion board from being properly inserted. Also the SmartWatch batteries are all dying and my design uses replaceable CR1632 Coin-Cells. I'm just waiting on a few parts to test my prototype's physical design before ordering PCB's.

[djos]

LOL, went to the post office this morning and my PCB's were there! Excellent!! 



and mechanically everything fits as it should! 

Tandy 1000 PLUS-ISA/R Adapter:


Tandy 1000 Printer Port Adapter:


Guess I need to do some soldering this weekend! 

[bitseeker]

Yeah, looks like you've got quite a bit of soldering ahead.

(Hmm, in addition to a happy oscilloscope smiley, we need a soldering one, too.)

[djos]

Yeah, looks like you've got quite a bit of soldering ahead.

(Hmm, in addition to a happy oscilloscope smiley, we need a soldering one, too.)

Indeed, I built a few untis this arvo to test and the PLUS-ISA/R Adapters work great - I can finally close the lid on my 1000 EX! 

My printer adapter has an issues tho, I must have crossed the streams somehow!

Adapters:


Fits perfectly:




Of course ISA adapters have the connectors on the top of the boards and PLUS boards on the bottom of the board - no big deal tho if you put the card with ports in the lower slot.



looks much better now with the lid on.

[DavinD]

This is awesome!  Can't wait.

[bitseeker]

That ISA adapter turned out great, djos! Now your EX won't feel drafty anymore.

[djos]

This is awesome!  Can't wait.

If you want them faster I can just send you the parts? They are dead easy to build - price is the same because I'm mainly doing this for fun and not covering my time etc.

a set of 2 is $25 USD + $5 USD shipping (inc paypal fees)
or if you only need 1, they are $12.50 USD + $5 USD shipping (inc paypal fees)

Cheers Derek

[djos]

That ISA adapter turned out great, djos! Now your EX won't feel drafty anymore.

Cheers, took me quite a few iterations to get it right, but now im really happy with it. 

[DavinD]

Adrian (If you're still watching this thread) or others...

Does anyone have a DOS 6.22 DD image?  I only have a 1.44 one.

[bitseeker]

Davin, you can download 6.22 (as well as other oldies, but goodies) from WinWorld. The images they have for 6.22 are the upgrade version. So, if you want to install it to a hard drive, boot the floppy, then hit F3 to exit setup before you get to the upgrade warning. Fdisk, format, and sys to C: to make it bootable, then run the 6.22 install again to complete the installation.

[DavinD]

Davin, you can download 6.22 (as well as other oldies, but goodies) from WinWorld. The images they have for 6.22 are the upgrade version. So, if you want to install it to a hard drive, boot the floppy, then hit F3 to exit setup before you get to the upgrade warning. Fdisk, format, and sys to C: to make it bootable, then run the 6.22 install again to complete the installation.

The issue is I needed a 720k images as the Tandy can't read a 1.44HD image.  I ended up using my old 386 and putting a physical 720k disk in it and sysed it.  Then I booted from my external drive and sysed a blank image.  I think I'm good now.  I have the real dos 6.22 images from my MSDN subscription.

[djos]

Apparently PC DOS 7.1 is the best "new" dos version for Tandy 1000's according to the below faq.

http://www.oldskool.org/guides/tvdog/1kfaq.html#III.A.2

I'm running MS DOS 5 atm and have the issue with my external 720k drive wanting to format disks as 360k- I could solve it with drivparm but if PC DOS 7.1 solves this issue I'll likely go with that - it has fat 32 support built in so I can format my microdrive as a single 4 GB partition.

Otherwise it recommends MS DOS 3.30.

[djos]

PS. IBM PC DOS 7.1 can be found here:

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=80531#p382098

EDIT: updated the link to go direct to the Streamlined process.

[DavinD]

I'm trying to use 2.5mb floppy images on my Gotek (HXC) drive like Adrian did.  The original Tandy DOS 2.1 doesn't work.  6.22 mostly works.  I'm still having an issue copying come bigger files where I get an ARF error.  I'll have to try out IBM PC DOS.

[djos]

I'm trying to use 2.5mb floppy images on my Gotek (HXC) drive like Adrian did.  The original Tandy DOS 2.1 doesn't work.  6.22 mostly works.  I'm still having an issue copying come bigger files where I get an ARF error.  I'll have to try out IBM PC DOS.

You could also try using the following in the config.sys file:

DRIVPARM=/D:0 /F:2 /H:2 /S:9 /T:80

(For drive A: - drive B: is /D:1, etc.)

and bump up the number of tracks or sectors DOS supports to match the max number supported by the Gotek 2.5mb format.

[bitseeker]

The issue is I needed a 720k images as the Tandy can't read a 1.44HD image.  I ended up using my old 386 and putting a physical 720k disk in it and sysed it.  Then I booted from my external drive and sysed a blank image.  I think I'm good now.  I have the real dos 6.22 images from my MSDN subscription.

Oh, 720K! For some reason, I thought you were looking for a 5.25" image (older Tandy). Glad you found a way to make it work.

[DavinD]

There's a new 1000EX on Ebay with the memory card.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tandy-1000-PC-EX-and-Extra-Drive-/172829026083?hash=item283d69a723:g:9-YAAOSwU2VZmc80

[djos]

And one in Australia too:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/182727247733

[bitseeker]

There's a new 1000EX on Ebay with the memory card.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tandy-1000-PC-EX-and-Extra-Drive-/172829026083?hash=item283d69a723:g:9-YAAOSwU2VZmc80

That drive looks like a tape backup.

[djos]

There's a new 1000EX on Ebay with the memory card.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tandy-1000-PC-EX-and-Extra-Drive-/172829026083?hash=item283d69a723:g:9-YAAOSwU2VZmc80

That drive looks like a tape backup.

and it's SCSI too so pretty useless with a 1000 EX that has no HDD to backup and no SCSI controller!

[bitseeker]

But with a bus expander, that could be remedied. You want to back up your floppy collection, right?