James,
I've never used teeny. From what I understand it's a DOS program that must have
com1-4 to load a client onto the M100. But other than that I don't know much
about it. a TPDD client like TS-DOS allows you to connect directly to your
drive. Getting one loaded is not always easy. Obviously REX would be the
easiest route. I use the Sardine ROM to load a client since it has that
function built in. Sorry I can't be of more help with Teeny.
Kurt
On Wednesday, May 27, 2015 11:46 AM, James Zeun <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hi buddy
I was wondering what you would like me to do next, setup Teeny? From the sounds
of it, the way I've been using my M100 thus far, using Telecom. Is only
skimming the surface of what I can do with the machine. So I should probably
get remote TPDD? setup on my machine.
James
On 26 May 2015 at 14:34, James Zeun <[email protected]> wrote:
I don't think you ever ran any utilities to rebuild your REX did you?
Nope, you might have to talk me through that, but i'm more then willing to give
it a shot!
Never used TS-DOS, TPDD? Tandy Portable Disk Drive? I actually have one and i
have a cable for it, I just dont know if it works as I dont have any software
for it and have never used one before. A friend just donated it to me.
At present I'm using a null modem cable, linked to a Linux box running minicom.
It's been the only fool proof way of getting data off and on the machine so
far. Hyper terminal was a nightmare! I keep seeing people mention Teeny and
I've been meaning to look in to it. See my original plan was to get the REX,
get lots of space for programs and then download them and start learning out to
use them. But I've sort of got hung up on the REX part haha
Cheers
James
On 26 May 2015 at 13:15, Stephen Adolph <[email protected]> wrote:
I could send you that software if you wanted to try it.
You would need a working TPDD device, like laddiealpha running on a PC, plus a
serial cable. I'm guessing you have the serial cable sorted out but have you
ever run TS-DOS or Teeny on the M100, and connected to a "remote TPDD" on your
PC?
Steve
On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 8:07 AM, Stephen Adolph <[email protected]> wrote:
James, just checked the hundred or so email here.
I don't think you ever ran any utilities to rebuild your REX did you?
In some cases I send out software that retests and rebuilds REX, but if you
never did that then it should be still "as shipped".
steve
On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 7:59 AM, James Zeun <[email protected]> wrote:
I just looked back, here is the link. This guys board looks just like mine,
except I have more ram fitted
http://www.mvcsys.de/doc/remem_install.html
On 26 May 2015 at 12:52, James Zeun <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Steve
Under other circumstances, say if we lived in the same country, I would post
you the machine and the REX to you, no questions asked. But given the distance
and the age of the M100, I dont think it would be good for the computer or my
nerves. As I would be having kittens, wondering if it was going to get lost in
the post. Plus there is the matter of shipping, I can see posting the M100
would be expensive.
This is a totally new platform to me, while I know what a binary is, I've not
really encountered HEX files before. Aside from HEX archives on the Macintosh
Plus. My understanding of ROMs and checksums is not shall we say that good, in
fact it's down right rubbish! The closest I've come to playing with ROMS is on
a BBC Micro computer and even then i was only fitting them. So I think it is
fair to say your knowledge on this subject surpassed mine in leaps and bounds.
Which is probably why your building the REX and I'm not :-P
I am very happy to post you the REX, as I would like to know what the heck is
going on myself. Is my machine faulty? is the REX faulty? Are all European
M100's built like mine? Could the REX not working in my machine, be an
indication of an inherit incompatibility between US and EU models? Am I going
to struggle with other expansion modules?
One way or the other its all a process of learning more about these little
machines. I've done a little research on EU M100's and found another guy here
in the UK who has a machine like mine. I think I sent you a link / picture of
it a while back. So we at least know mine isn't a one off. The guy in question
was trying to fit something to his machine but discovered his mobo didn't match
up with the US machines.
The REX is installed like it is shown in the wiki page, with the two lines on
the PCB lining up with the gaps in the plastic surround. I wont deny getting
stung with the extra charges really wasn't great, since then it's sort of felt
like everything that could go wrong HAS. It's been a struggle to keep up my
enthusiasm but I do like using this little computer, it's leagues better then
the Amstrad NC100 and other machines of that ilk.
If you want to email me your address, I will sort out sending you the REX, is
there any point me posting you the new ROM as well?
Cheers
James
On 26 May 2015 at 12:00, Stephen Adolph <[email protected]> wrote:
James,
Sorry, I thought you would understand that the 32k file is a binary file, and
the file you extracted from your now modified laptop would be hex ascii.
And yes, the goal is for you to be able to verify that you got what you asked
for, and that involves confirming that your installed ROM matches the binary
that I sent. Does that clarify?
There are lots of things online to help you out.
I used winhex to convert your file from hex ascii to binary, then compute the
hash 16. Your extracted ROM has a checksum of A8AF - as expected.
So, as I said in the off list thread, I can't do anything further. You have
hardware that I have never seen, which could be defective for all I know. It
also could be a broken REX.
If you want you can send REX to me on your dime and I can test it out. If it
is "no fault found" then I suppose you would want a refund which I am fine with
but you will need to contact Ken and understand what he is willing to do.
I am assuming that REX is correctly installed. Did you check that? Please go
to to the wiki to understand how to install REX.
If you'd rather avoid shipping costs I'm happy to refund my portion of this now.
In the past I have had people send me their machines to debug, which generally
is a learning opportunity. But since you are in the UK and already unhappy
about the money you have spent, I'm not interested in pursuing this option as
there are no guarantees that anything can be made to work for you.
If I had more of these different UK machine data points, I would be comfortable
with saying that REX does NOT WORK in a UK machine. But, with a data point of
ONE unit, I don't think it is correct to make that statement.
..Steve
On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 5:32 AM, James Zeun <[email protected]> wrote:
Hey guys!
So since posting in April that I was having trouble getting REX to work,
there's been a little progress, but not a lot. Stephen kindly supplied me with
a ROM file that was compatible with the REX and using a company Kurt had told
me about. I had a new System ROM burnt for my machine.
The ROM arrived last week and after installing it, the REX still doesn't
respond to the CALL63012 command. When I input that command, the machine locks
up and only by pressing the RESET can I get it back. This also has the side
effect of wiping clean the computers memory, which I thought was interesting,
because pressing the RESET shouldn't do that. Only a hard reset zaps your ram
(unless I'm mistaken?).
Stephen asked me if i could do a system dump and compare results with (I
believe) the original file he sent me. However I'm not entirely clear on the
method he wants me to use, e.g Am I comparing the file sizes of each file or
something more involved like comparing the contents? The latter of which I
wouldn't have a clue about. The system dump I made over the weekend curiously
comes to 64kb, while the image file Stephen sent me weights in at 32kb. I'm a
little confused why the dumped file is twice the size, surely it should be the
same size as the file Stephen sent me.
File size aside, everything else about the ROM seems to work, except I'm still
having issue with the REX. So either the fault is with the module or my M100,
or there is something else about the EU M100 that makes it incompatible with
REX. As its been established the motherboard and the system rom of my machine
differ from US machines. The only part of that which bothers me, is
compatibility. It just seems like bad business sense to make US and EU machines
so radically different. that they can't share addon modules.
Well thats the slog so far, big thanks to those people who have helped me on
this. It sucks big time that it didn't worked out the box, but at least we know
that EU M100's are funny buggers...well mine is at least! lol
--
My retro tech blog and general ramblings
http://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/
--
My retro tech blog and general ramblings
http://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/
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My retro tech blog and general ramblings
http://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/
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My retro tech blog and general ramblings
http://bytemyvdu.wordpress.com/
