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Mouse support in early DOS 2.1 / 3.3

Or you can use a program like Procom Plus and set the data rate to 1200 8N1 (many mice) or 2400 8N1, move the mouse around see what codes are returned.
 
alank2 said:
A good program for testing the mouse might be the Norton Commander.
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An old version of PC Paintbrush (or similar, like Logitech's PaintShow Plus) would also seem like a logical choice, assuming this 1000EX has enough RAM for that. If there's no mass storage in the machine some versions of these will run okay from a single floppy.

For generally checking the serial port programs like Check-It! have loopback tests. The UART chip actually has an internal loopback that can be enabled for testing, so you can *mostly* check and see if your serial port has a pulse without an external plug. The one thing this won't catch is if one of the external transceiver chips is blown.
 
A later version of Deskmate might be another option. Unfortunately, the version of Deskmate typically included with the 1000EX had problems with serial mice.
 
SofterEasy77 said:
try to update mouse.lan, idk =\ it's would be useful for it and could solve the issue
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What is mouse.lan? I can't say I've ever heard of it.

But ATM, I'm having trouble remembering how to create & populate disk images for hthe GoTek emulator on the machine. I tried making a new 720k image and putting some softwares on it, but the GoTek doesn't recognize it.

Using Winimage for this, btw. I thought that's what I used last time...

As for mass storage, I'll have some if I ever get around to completing my Tandy 3in1 card.
 
Always have issues with win10 formatting the image correctly. Win7 and before worked fine. So I just imaged blank diskettes, and use those. Doing it this way made life so much easier. Here are blank 720k and 1.44mb disk images that I use

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  • Blank diskette images for winimage.zip
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Well FWIW I'm using Win7.. and whatever I did before must have worked, as those images work fine. But whats got me more confused is that the images don't have an .img extension. Its some extension I dont recognize, and Irfanview is claiming it for some reason.

The DOS 3.3 images are .img, but I dont recall if I built those or downloaded them.

So here's a question: What size images will the 1000EX + Gotek support? Obviously the stock machine had 360k drives, but I'm assuming 720k is OK. But what about 1.2, 1.44, 1.73, 2.88 etc? Is this limit a BIOS thing, or does DOS control that support?

OH, AND BTW - The machine has 640k RAM. Came with the Tandy RAM board with 128K, but I filled the empty sockets so now its maxed, at least in tetms of the Tandy RAM board. If ever get my act together and finish my 3in1 card, I can get another 96k (HMA) and probably ditch the Gotek for the XT-IDE CF card drive.
 
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Far as I know its double density only on 1000 line stock, but i'm a little fuzzy to all the models. Miss my 1000RL.
 
So here we have it - the update post.

It turns out that the new Tandy serial card + Tandy 25-1040C mouse (both eBay buys..) are indeed working, and correctly at that. It's always tricky trying to troubleshoot an issue when more than one vsriable has been introduced - buf it seems that any trouble was just a matter of my inexperience.

But running Norton Commander 3.0 got me the mouse cursor I'd been expecting as if on a Linux console.

Now I'll try running cutemouse, to see if I can cut down memory usage a bit. That MS driver is huge compared to CM.
 
But one more question - what disk image software creates .IMA files? All of the game disk images that I myself compiled for the Gotek are .IMA. I can't recall what was used to create them, though.. and Winimage seems to create .IMG.. so I'm confused as usual.

ETA: Also, I did verify that my 1000EX system will work with both 360k & 720k disk images. For fun, I'll probably try a 1.44M at some point, and I'm sure the Gotek will accept it - though I doubt the EX will.
 
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Chuck(G) said:
IMA files are raw sector-by-sector data. Winimage should handle them.
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Ok ok.. I think I'm starting to come up to speed.

Right, IMA is an UNcompressed disk image file. There must be an extension collision with Irfanview, which is why the latter is claiming those files..

The IMZ is a compressed (ZIPped?) disk image file.

In any case, I was able to inject ctmouse.exe (1.9 branch as I have only serial mouse) into my DOS image files so that can now be tested. Hard to believe it's so darn small compared to mouse.exe.
 
WimWalther said:
tried making a new 720k image and putting some softwares on it, but the GoTek doesn't recognize it.
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Has your GoTek been modified with a third party firmware like HxC or Flashfloppy, or are you using whatever the factory is slapping on them now?

The EX will not work, full stop, with a 1.44MB image because the data rate the emulator will switch to will be wrong. There are techniques if you’re using the HxC or Flashfloppy firmwares to make 2MB-ish images that *do* work, but they’re nonstandard and require a device driver on the Tandy side.
 
Eudimorphodon said:
Has your GoTek been modified with a third party firmware like HxC or Flashfloppy, or are you using whatever the factory is slapping on them now?

The EX will not work, full stop, with a 1.44MB image because the data rate the emulator will switch to will be wrong. There are techniques if you’re using the HxC or Flashfloppy firmwares to make 2MB-ish images that *do* work, but they’re nonstandard and require a device driver on the Tandy side.
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I bought my Goteks a couple years ago IIRC. At that time, I did re-flash the firmwares, though again I don't recall which 3rd party code was used. When the Gotek in the EX powers up, the LED display briefly showx "F-F" - is that for FlashFloppy?

Correct me here, but at the time of purchase, I think that the basic $18 Gotek versions didn't even support 360k / 720k floppies, so I needed the 3rd party code to have that ability.

Thanks for the info re: 1.44M images, I wasn't aware that the Gotek would change data rate. So do the physical 1.44 drives also run at a higher rate?
 
WimWalther said:
Thanks for the info re: 1.44M images, I wasn't aware that the Gotek would change data rate. So do the physical 1.44 drives also run at a higher rate?
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Yes. The difference between a 720k and 1.44mb floppy is entirely that the "high density" drive write twice as much data per rotation of the disk. That's why typical XT-class PC disk controllers can't drive them at full capacity, the 1000EX included.

So "FF" does indicate FlashFloppy; if you updated them three years ago you may want to update to a newer version to see if any bugs you might have are fixed. I'd also recommend looking at the wiki for the OLED display upgrade, it makes life a lot easier.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Second that on the OLED. Easy to install and actually gives some information.
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In fact, FF did have OLED suport at the time, and I went ahead and ordered a display to use in one of mine. (On first try, I'd accidentally ordered the wrong Gotek model, a model that lacked the buttons & LED display and had planned to "convert" it to a PC-useful version in time as the basic hardware is the same.)

But after the correct model arrived, I'd shelved the project and have just now picked it up again. The switches should be here soon, and I already have the OLED as mentioned. Good point about updating the FW, I'll do it once the other work is done.

Btw, any suggestions on fixing the OLED in place? There are no provisions for this in the Gotek case.

ETA: Oh btw, cutemouse works just dandy. I went with the 1.9 branch as I only need serial support, and all I needed to do was run CTMOUSE.EXE and it loaded up for COM1 and just works. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
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Speaking of my Tandy 3in1 project, I was wondering if one of you might have any parts on hand?

I still need (1) each 44pin PLCC socket (15/16" square) and 32pin DIP (7/8" wide).

Also need most all of the 74XX series chips and possibly the SRAM chip as well as the oscillator.

Full Bill of Materials is here: https://github.com/rkrenicki/Tandy-EX-HX-3in1

Please LMK if you have some of this stuff laying around.
 
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