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TI-99/4A - Floppy drive?

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DreadStorm

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2008
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161
Location
Greer, SC
I've seen pictures, so I know they're out there. Individual floppy drives. The only ones I've seen in circulation are those housed in the big expansion chassis.

My question is this:

Is it possible to adapt a floppy drive for use with ye olde TI? Just a single drive, without the monster chassis. I spent about 3 hours on Google tonight looking around, and the closest I got was saying it has been done outside of TI products...just nothing saying how nor what's needed.

Any directions to point to?

Or better...Anyone got a spare (working or not) sidecar floppy drive you're willing to part with?
 
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Yeah, I just found a project/instruction page that shows how to upgrade the controller you mentioned to support DS-SD/80-track drives. I saved the schematic, just in case.
 
If you're interested, I have a PEB that I rescued and would consider parting with for the right price.

It's fully loaded with the RS-232, memory, drive controller, AND PASCAL card.

Shipping will probably be a bit uncomfortable going from Amarillo, TX to you in Greer, SC.

PM me if you're interested.

Curtis
 
If you want a more modern PEB, I bought one (don't remember the exact name) from ebay. Its a small board with serial,32k expansion and a cf card for floppy emulation. I think they run about $50...

I really liked the idea of storing the floppy images on cf, rather than dealing with a physical drive.
 
Definitely interested in both. PMs sent.
But I was trying to avoid getting a PEB for the one I use, saving that for the "museum piece" one instead. And as I mentioned in a new post here, I just got the ideal "museum piece" machine just yesterday. Thing's never been used.
The reason I was looking for a sidecar floppy was because I didn't want to have to shell out for two PEB units - but I still need the one. Although a custom little one would be suitable for the one I would use regularly.
 
There are only a few options for adding a floppy drive to a TI:

The PHP1800 sidecar controller with a disk drive attaches to it in an external powered floppy case.
A Percom Data TX99 sidecar controller with integrated floppy drive.
A PEB with Disk Controller Card (there are about 7 different controllers with floppy options).
A CorComp 9900 Micro-Expansion system with a disk drive attached to it in an external powered floppy case.
A Myarc MPES-50 sidecar with two integrated floppy drives.
An Atronic CPS99 Sidecar device with a disk drive attached to it in an external powered floppy case.
A TI HexBus Controller and a 5.25 HexBus floppy drive (extremely difficult option)
A CF7+ or NanoPEB device from Jaime Malilong--these are attached to the side of the console and use a CF card for mass storage.

There are also a couple of Hard Disk options (MFM, SASI, IDE, and SCSI), if you're really into the system.
 
DreadStorm said:
I've seen pictures, so I know they're out there. Individual floppy drives.
Click to expand...

BUT, you need a controller. The drive is easy, any standard single or double density drive, 5¼" or 3½".

The PEB holds a drive (or two) plus several cards but is very heavy so shipping cost is high, often more than the box is worth.

TI software originally came on 5¼" single-sided single-density diskettes (90KB) but most of the controllers handled double-sided drives with no problem. High-density 1.2MB disks are a problem but 1.44MB disks are fine if you either have a 720KB drive or tape over the HD hole on the disk.
 
Do any of you know, if one had a PHP1800C disk drive controller, if one could attach one of the somewhat-commonly-available devices that emulate a floppy drive using Compact Flash or SD cards to it and have it work? SD in particular would be extremely handy in terms of transferring files (disk images, etc.) between my Mac and the TI. I'm really trying to avoid buying a PEB, mostly because I don't want the huge box where I plan to set up the TI in the house. It's primarily going to be a nostalgic game machine for my girlfriend, and she'll mostly use cartridges, but I wouldn't mind, if I decided to fiddle with it once in a while, being able to save my work. :)
 
Far as I know the ti 99 does not use fat modes, so doubt a floppy emulator work, unless designed for the purpose. :(

Most all the emulators use fat-12. :S

BTW, i am interested in a floppy controller+memory expansion as well. Have a mint 4/a here with 0 software. I have some CoCo stuff if anyone wishes to trade. Wonder if the coco drives would work on a 99er. Bet they would as the connector is just a standard shugart. If it would then I already have 2 360kb (think they are 360kb might be 720kb) drives waiting to attach to a controller . :D
 
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I have a 5 1/4 Drive for the TI, I beleive it requires the exapansion box to work with a TI. Mine is brand new and still in the box.
 
twolazy said:
Far as I know the ti 99 does not use fat modes, so doubt a floppy emulator work, unless designed for the purpose. :(

Most all the emulators use fat-12. :S

BTW, i am interested in a floppy controller+memory expansion as well. Have a mint 4/a here with 0 software. I have some CoCo stuff if anyone wishes to trade. Wonder if the coco drives would work on a 99er. Bet they would as the connector is just a standard shugart. If it would then I already have 2 360kb (think they are 360kb might be 720kb) drives waiting to attach to a controller . :D
Click to expand...

After I posted, I found an indication that some of them may actually work. :) So I'm going to experiment with that.

This page lists TI-99/4A compatability. The notes say "MFM & FM tracks supported." Have no idea what that means. :/ But it's something!
 
Maize said:
The notes say "MFM & FM tracks supported." Have no idea what that means.

FM is single density and MFM is double density. The original TI standard was a 90KB disk and drive which is single-sided, single-density. The PC standard 360KB disk and drive is double-sided, double density.
Click to expand...
 
HI, regarding to Floppy Emulators for floppy drive replacement, we have developed the FlexiDrive floppy emulator. It is OK to replace 3.5", 5.25" and 8" floppy drive units on any computer system, with DOS or Non-DOS file system.
Support FM and MFM Modulation, 1.44Mb, 1.2Mb, 800Kb, 720Kb, 640Kb, 360Kb, and also you can configure all the parameters to make it compatible with special or custom formats.
As media you can use SD card or USB Pendrive, and you can storage up 2500 floppies on the media. For more information please contact me or visit www.floppyemulator.com
I hope that this product will be useful for some of your cool Vintage Computers. Thanks and Best regards, Ariel/
 
Ksarul said:
There are only a few options for adding a floppy drive to a TI:

The PHP1800 sidecar controller with a disk drive attaches to it in an external powered floppy case.
A Percom Data TX99 sidecar controller with integrated floppy drive.
A PEB with Disk Controller Card (there are about 7 different controllers with floppy options).
A CorComp 9900 Micro-Expansion system with a disk drive attached to it in an external powered floppy case.
A Myarc MPES-50 sidecar with two integrated floppy drives.
An Atronic CPS99 Sidecar device with a disk drive attached to it in an external powered floppy case.
A TI HexBus Controller and a 5.25 HexBus floppy drive (extremely difficult option)
A CF7+ or NanoPEB device from Jaime Malilong--these are attached to the side of the console and use a CF card for mass storage.

There are also a couple of Hard Disk options (MFM, SASI, IDE, and SCSI), if you're really into the system.
Click to expand...
I didn't think that the CF7+ and the NanoPEB were in Production so I've also been looking at the HxC floppy emulator. It seems to be coming down to needing a controller for it though. The one Youtube video I found that showed anything about the setup used the Corcomp 9900 which I don't think is very easy to find.
 
Possible purchase as you have listed it

Possible purchase as you have listed it

curtis said:
If you're interested, I have a PEB that I rescued and would consider parting with for the right price.

It's fully loaded with the RS-232, memory, drive controller, AND PASCAL card.

Shipping will probably be a bit uncomfortable going from Amarillo, TX to you in Greer, SC.

>>>Is this possibly still available? If so, why not ship it to France:

M. le Pr J. W. Montgomery
55, rue de Rountzenheim
67620 Soufflenheim
FRANCE

>>>Let me know how much you want for it. E-mail: 106612.1066@compuserve.com

>>>I should think that the postage would not be atrocious.
Click to expand...
 
Maize said:
Do any of you know, if one had a PHP1800C disk drive controller, if one could attach one of the somewhat-commonly-available devices that emulate a floppy drive
Click to expand...

What I've heard of are either VERY expensive or not compatible with the TI disk layout of 256-byte sectors. I do think there is at least one on eBay that works...
 
twolazy said:
BTW, i am interested in a floppy controller+memory expansion as well.
Click to expand...

There are quite a few TI users in the Chicago area, recently there was an annual Faire that you just missed, held in the first few days of November. I understand there are often freebies available...
 
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