Tektronix 4050 GPIB Flash Drive - now available

[nikola-wan]

Hi Kerry, I sent you a PM.

 

[nikola-wan]

I spent some time building Kerry's GPIB Flash Drive and since I had a new laptop, I had to go back through my instructions on adding the Pandauino board support to the Arduino IDE and found my instructions were not complete.

I updated the GPIB Flash Drive User Guide and completely revamped my GPIB Flash Drive repository:
https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4050-GPIB-Flash-Drive

and then synced that repo with my Tektronix 4050 program repo Flash Drive folder - so they now have identical information!
https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files/Flash_Drive

and posted the latest Flash_Drive microSD zip file and the latest Arduino firmware in both repos.

I have updated some of the Flash Drive files - since I repaired my 4054A a month ago!

 

[Kerro]

I spent some time building Kerry's GPIB Flash Drive and since I had a new laptop, I had to go back through my instructions on adding the Pandauino board support to the Arduino IDE and found my instructions were not complete.

I updated the GPIB Flash Drive User Guide and completely revamped my GPIB Flash Drive repository:
https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4050-GPIB-Flash-Drive

and then synced that repo with my Tektronix 4050 program repo Flash Drive folder - so they now have identical information!
https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files/Flash_Drive

and posted the latest Flash_Drive microSD zip file and the latest Arduino firmware in both repos.

I have updated some of the Flash Drive files - since I repaired my 4054A a month ago!

Thanks,
My Tek 4051 ant two other quite unique machines will be on display at the Canberra Retro Computer Fair on June 29

The other machines I will have on display are the HP9100B, the Olivetti P6060 and an ASR33 running Eliza. There will be a huge representation of computers through the decades.

 

[nikola-wan]

I just updated my Flash Drive zip file and User Guide!

************
July 20,2024 update - New Features and Fixes:

New Features:
- Monopoly Game (work in progress), requires 4052R12 or 4051 Fast Graphics ROM (or 4051 MAXIROM)
- Five Color Demo, requires Option 30 and Option 31 Color Dynamic Graphics DVST
- Main Menu updates including adding Monopoly Game and Five Color Demo

User Guide updated with Flash Drive schematic and updated assembly and troubleshooting information.

https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4051-4052-4054-Program-Files/tree/master/Flash_Drive

also updated here:
https://github.com/mmcgraw74/Tektronix-4050-GPIB-Flash-Drive

I demonstrated the Monopoly game work-in-progress and Five Color Demo on the Option 31 Color Dynamic Graphics CRT on my 4054A at VCF Southwest in June 2024.

I started development on my Monopoly game in 1979 on a 4051 at work.
I stopped that development in 1979 when the program size exceeded the 32KB of RAM in the 4051.

I scanned and OCRed my 1979 program listing and moved over 100KB of graphics to separate binary files using R12 graphics to dramatically reduce the program size and it also speeds up display of the board, all the deeds plus chance and community chest cards.

The Monopoly in this release shows random Chance and Community Chest cards when you land on those squares - but does not have the logic for those cards.

I'm working on that logic now.

Monopoly will work on the 4051, 4052 or 4054 computers with my Flash Drive.

It will also work with the latest 405x Emulator experimental fork by @WaveyDipole as I'm using the emulator for code development!

This screenshot shows Fred now owns one monopoly and has added two houses to Mediterranean and Baltic Ave.
The properties owned are marked with the player first initial.
The monopolies are marked with vector lines.

The current player token is the first initial of their name - and I'm using the standard 4050 BASIC command to blink the current player token - which allows the player movement to not be stored as the player is advancing with a roll.

Fred is currently on Vermont Ave - which causes the Deed for that property to be displayed in the middle of the board.
Wilma is on St James Place.

The cash for each player is displayed above the board, and any changes will be updated when the F1 function key (for the 405x Emulator) or User Definable Key 1 is pressed on a 4051/4052/4054.

The work-in-progress includes an R12 "click" sound that I created as the player moves to each property.

I also created a police siren R12 sound effect if the player lands on GO TO JAIL!

 

[nikola-wan]

This seems sensible to me. Do you have your own hypotheses about what the strange U395 and U485 PROMs (the ones filled with a lot of 0x22 bytes) might be for?

Hi Tom!

Reviving your question about the 4054 Option 30 PROMs.

We now have the 4054 Option 30 Operators Manual plus Option 30 quick reference card AND Service Manual including 8x300 datasheet in a single scan from vintageTEK.org posted on the TekWiki 4052 page (https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4052): https://w140.com/tekwiki/images/1/1c/070-2289-02.pdf

Pdf page 121 (Option 30 service manual page 4-6 of Theory of Operation) describes that four of the six ROMs contain the 16-bit 8x300 instructions and the other two contain the Input/Output Destination (IOD) byte which controls the multiplexers for a 24-bit ROM Control Word (Figure 4-3). This reduces the number of 8x300 instructions to move data from two to one! The IOD multiplexer control word "operations" are listed in Table 4-2 on page 4-8.

VintageTEK now has a 4054A with Option 30 and the Option 31 Color DVST, but their Option 30 board is not working right and hangs the system when powered on.

I sent them my @jdreesen 4052 Diagnostic ROM Pack and they verified they have the same v1.5 A-Series ROMs as we both have and it responded that the Option 30 32KB of RAM tested OK, but as I said, their system hangs with the BUSY light if they are not running the Diagnostic ROM, but works fine if the Option 30 board is disconnected.

I dumped my Option 30 PROMs with my Data I/O 29 with Unipak 2B and all six match the ones in your zip file.

I am still working with VintageTEK on trying to get their Option 30 board working.

Monty

 

[nikola-wan]

I have updated my three Tektronix 4050 repositories (Tektronix 4050 GPIB Flash Drive, Tektronix 4051-4052-4054 PROGRAMS, and Tektronix 4051 Emulator) with the latest 23 JUNE 2025 Flash Drive.zip which contains my updates for the VCF SW 2025 Show in June including my Battlestar Galactica Demo and works in progress like Pinball.

I also updated my Flash Drive User Guide to include a rewritten section on Assembling the Flash Drive using my v1A PCB design - available on OSHPARK or just download the Gerber files from OSHPARK and use your favorite PCB fabrication shop. The v1A board change was to move the ISP connector holes in the GPIB Interface PCB based on my latest caliper measurement of a Pandauino 644-Narrow board. I ordered a set of 4050 GPIB Interface boards from JLCPCB and built one Flash Drive using my new instructions and one of the JLCPCB v1A Flash Drive PCBs and it was much quicker and easier. I also added a couple of new photos in that section to clarify the assembly steps.

In addition, I updated the User Guide Firmware Programming section to include my latest learnings on how to get the Arduino IDE v1.8.19 properly configured with MightyCore 2.2.2 support for the 644-NARROW and 1284-NARROW boards.

I also learned that Norcomp is updating their GPIB connector that I use on the Flash Drive and there is currently no stock of those connectors at Mouser and Digikey until December.
In addition, Mouser no longer stocks the 644-Narrow, although they still have some 1284-Narrow in stock.
I received an order for a couple of 644-Narrow boards from the designer of the 644 and 1284-Narrow in France from his Tindie store and used it for the Flash Drive I built yesterday for the @decle repaired 4052 at https://www.museumofcomputing.org.uk/



PS - even though I'm a retired electrical/electronics engineer, the Flash Drive GPIB Interface board was my first PCB design.
GPIB Interface v1A is my second PCB design.
Is anyone interested in a Tektronix 4050 Flash Drive that supports multiple devices on GPIB?

• Multiple Flash Drives for reading/writing two files at the same time
• GPIB devices and instruments plus Flash Drive like: Tektronix GPIB plotters, GPIB tape drives, GPIB instrumentation like 5000 series modular multimeter, A/D and D/A converters, Relay Switches, TEK 492P Spectrum Analyzer, scopes, generators, counters...

I have never done a PCB design with surface mount components - but I think there is room on the GPIB Interface PCB for adding two TI GPIB buffers! JLCPCB has both those buffers and the Norcomp GPIB connector and could assemble them on the PCB!

The current Flash Drive firmware can support multiple GPIB devices using one additional GPIO pin and a couple of lines of Arduino code - as breadboarded, tested, and working by one of our French friends on his 4051! And there are still a couple of unused GPIO pins on the 644 and 1284-Narrow boards.