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

[djos]

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

 

[bitseeker]

Yeah, to think my entire collection of hundreds of 5.25" floppies would barely put a dent in a freebie thumb drive these days. I wonder how much longer those disks will maintain a readable signal.

[djos]

Yeah, to think my entire collection of hundreds of 5.25" floppies would barely put a dent in a freebie thumb drive these days. I wonder how much longer those disks will maintain a readable signal.

I've got close to 10 GB of c64 disk images! Considering they are 170 kb each.... 

The old discs last surprisingly well if they've been stored in a reasonable location.

[bitseeker]

It's been a few years since I fired up my old Atari 8-bit machines, but some of those floppies are from the late 80's and still worked fine. Good longevity, indeed.

[djos]

It's been a few years since I fired up my old Atari 8-bit machines, but some of those floppies are from the late 80's and still worked fine. Good longevity, indeed.

Good stuff, just make sure you clean the drive heads with IPA frequently as the discs can get gunk building up on them.

[djos]

It's been a busy week building parts - I've build and sent the following orders for EEVB Forum members:

DavinD ISA/r Adapter x1
EMan - ISA /r adaptors x2

plus I've shipped at least 9 adapters and all 4 of the spare Floppy adapters I built to members of the VCF forum.   

[bitseeker]

Very cool. So, what's next?

[djos]

Very cool. So, what's next?

I'm still designing a clock board for the EX and trying to work out how to make a riser board with ram and maybe DMA on it. I haven't had much time to work on either as I've been busy building the PLUS-ISA/R boards.

[bitseeker]

No worries, was just curious.

[djos]

No worries, was just curious.

Curiosity is always welcome. 

The clock board is done electronically but I'm still sorting the physical properties out.

[djos]

Well I'm a happy bunny, got PCB v2 of the Printer Adapter yesterday and now that I have the wiring around the right way (not mirrored) it actually works! 

https://youtu.be/rYrEzZlc1iI

Tandy 1000 Printer Port Adapter

Is $21 USD + $5 USD shipping (inc paypal fees)

AFAIK, these are not compatible with the original 1000, A, and HD models.

[bitseeker]

Very cool! Congrats!

[djos]

Very cool! Congrats!

Thanks mate.

I did a quick video tour of my Tandy, hopefully it's not too painful to watch.

https://youtu.be/St8Nx7iHA2o

[bitseeker]

Thanks for the tour. The video sync relative to the screen was pretty good. The video looked fine considering you were holding a phone. The only problem was the audio level dropped significantly after the bit where you showed the printer port and floppy adapters.

Now, I want to go play all the Space Quest games. It's been many years.

[djos]

Thanks for the tour. The video sync relative to the screen was pretty good. The video looked fine considering you were holding a phone. The only problem was the audio level dropped significantly after the bit where you showed the printer port and floppy adapters.

Now, I want to go play all the Space Quest games. It's been many years.

No worries.

Bugger I thought I'd audio level'd the entire video, I must have only done bits. 

next time I'll use my Camera on a tri-pod, that should be much easier.

The Space Quest series is just brilliant, I never get sick of it. 

[bitseeker]

My brother and I lost many hours of sleep thanks to SQ. Good times.

[djos]

My brother and I lost many hours of sleep thanks to SQ. Good times.

Lol same here, my sister and I put many many hours into all the sierra quest games. 

[djos]

The only problem was the audio level dropped significantly after the bit where you showed the printer port and floppy adapters.

Just updated the video, hopefully the low sound issue is better now.

[bitseeker]

Yes, audio is much better now. 

[djos]

Yes, audio is much better now. 

Awesome, I've never used iMovie before so didn't realise the audio adjust isn't global, it's per segment which does make sense.

[DavinD]

Love the video.  Got my boards a couple of days ago and they work great!  I do hope you get the clock chip going at some point.  My favorite game on the Tandy was Starflight.  Spent many hours on that one.

[djos]

Love the video.  Got my boards a couple of days ago and they work great!  I do hope you get the clock chip going at some point.  My favorite game on the Tandy was Starflight.  Spent many hours on that one.

Fantastic!

The PCB's have shipped and I have all the parts for the smart watch design so we'll find out if my first active PCB works soon enough.

[djos]

I got a Gotek Drive yesterday and promptly flashed it with the HxC Firmware after soldering on the required header pins. I'm planning to replace the segment display with a mini OLED display - for now tho it fits great into my empty Tandy external drive shell. That said I do need to replace the the Floppy power lead on the PCB with a longer one.

[DavinD]

I ended up ruining 2 of the Gotek drives trying to solder and flash myself.  I think my iron is just old and dirty (or I just suck at soldering). 

So, off to ebay I went to buy one already flashed.  lol

I installed mine in place of the internal floppy.

I have a second 1000ex that I'm leaving bone stock.

[djos]

I ended up ruining 2 of the Gotek drives trying to solder and flash myself.  I think my iron is just old and dirty (or I just suck at soldering). 

So, off to ebay I went to buy one already flashed.  lol

I installed mine in place of the internal floppy.

I have a second 1000ex that I'm leaving bone stock.

Lol, I just hold the pins in place with Kapton tape while soldering and that makes it easy. I've got a hobbiest grade station which is actually pretty darn good considering how affordable it was ($250 AUD including desoldering station).

Because the Tandy can switch Floppy boot drives so easily I'm not going to bother replacing the internal drive, I did consider a 3.5" transplant tho.