99er Forums

Hi there,

I bought a very complete TI99 set from a woman whose (late -i think) husband worked for Texas Instruments.
The thing is, that I don't know how to connect all the peripherals. I know how to connect the tape, tv. But there's also:

- a RS232 module
- a Memory expansion
- 2 diskdrives
- diskcontroller

The interesting thing is the 2 diskdrives + controller, see my site: http://angelohouben.nl/i-bought-a-texas-instruments-ti994a/
I connected the diskdrives with a flatcable to the controller. The controller has a (wooden) connector that should connect to the right port on the TI, but there are two catches:
1. the connector doesn't fit easy, so I guess I have to put either the memory expansion or the RS232 device between de disk controller and the computer
2. how does the floppydrive get its power? Should I connect a psu to the wooden connector?

It's puzzling.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

cheers

Weird... the disk controller card is meant for a Peripheral Expansion System... but it looks like it was modified to be plugged into the older "daisy chain" devices you have. So it would have to be at the end of the chain...

Those drives certainly require an external supply... the drives should have a molex-style connector, and you could get a cheap PC supply and connect them to it.

So, plug the RS232 & 32k in, and then the disk controller into that last device... I have to wonder though where the disk controller will get its power from? Is that a power connector on the wooden-connector? That the black cable laying across it in photo 1&2 mates to?

But no, if that is a power connector on the disk controller, it is meant only for that card, and not the drives...look at photo 2, at the upper right of each drive, the plastic (molex) connector with the pins (4). A PC power supply (older model, I'd guess), will have the mates for these... plug-in compatible, too...

Good luck, hope it passes the "smoke test"!

Thanks for your reply
Yeah the smoke test... I'm afraid of that

The only thing I'm wondering about is the (looks like) power connector on the wooden plug.
I guess that's indeed only for powering the diskcontroller.
Next to it you see a 5 pin power supply. Shall I try to connect it ? (fingers crossed)

But first I need to find a psu for the molex. I guess I could use a pc psu of a defect one I have.

cheers!

That is a strange little adapter for the disk controller card--and very interesting. Is the block at the bottom of the card also permanently attached? It looks like it might be separable from the connector there that would usually be the attachment point in the Expansion box (it is a 60-pin connector inside the metal clamshell). I think you are right about the 5-pin connector. It should only power the disk controller card, as the bus wires between sidecar devices don't carry power beyond the speech synthesizer. It should just feed power to the card and pass through the rest of the bus lines--you can verify that by opening it (and high-resolution photos of the inside of that thing would be interesting too). It looks like another of the strange and interesting Almelo hardware bits for the TI survived (they made a lot of neat one-off stuff there, as they were one of the main research locations for the TI-99 in Europe).

I will post an update when I get to it

btw: I don't have a speech synthesizer, do I?
I see you talking about that.

Hi there,

as promised: a picture of the innerside of the controller:
http://angelohouben.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_0698.jpg

I decided not to connect this stuff, because I don't know for sure if this will work.
I think I'm gonna sell this stuff on Ebay. I don't have enough time to play with it (and my commodore collection gets too large ).

Hi there,

I've put everything for auction on E-bay, if you're interested, check:
http://www.ebay.nl/sch/mahouben/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

thanks and goodluck with it if you buy it

cheers!