Steve, I just noticed that the GoldCard 7.1 rom image is wrong in your
Club100 directory. It's a copy of the DISK+ 3.1 rom.
However, the hex file is correct. I converted it to a binary and here is
a copy of that: http://tandy.wiki/File:GoldCard_7.1.bin
--
bkw
On 1/11/21 19:40, Steve Baker wrote:
Greetings again Brian and everyone,
I would never ask to break something.
If it has screws or obvious snaps, and you're comfy then fine,
otherwise don't think one second about it.
My sincere apologies! I didn’t for a moment think that you were asking
me to break anything; my post was simply me lamenting my emerging but
nascent skills! The case appears to be quite well stuck together, and I
was hoping that I might’ve been able to crack it open without needing to
hot glue it back together (ugh, my glue gun chops are awful!).
But… I did take a peek at the 256Kb IC cards and sure enough, there’s
not only a battery compartment that easily unscrewed, but also an on/off
switch! Pretty cool stuff, so I took some more photos and added two
slides into the PDF (pages 12 and 13, in particular). This also shows
the other 32Kb IC card I have (sure enough, it initialized and works!).
This should be a direct link to the updated PDF with the additional
photos, for convenience (if this doesn’t work, the link to the folder is
in the thread, below):
http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=Gold
<http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?action=downloadfile&filename=Gold> Card 7.10
Photos and 1988 Review.pdf&directory=Steve Baker&
Next for me with the Goldmine (clearly, I like giving things nicknames)
is in the software; I'd like to figure out more about the ROM Eliminator
feature chronicled in the article (slide 17). Might they have a
precursor to REX? While mine is probably not the industrial interface
($100 option) perhaps the ability to save and restore Option ROMs is
available?
Onward we go,
SB
--
Greetings from Steve Baker
“Gravity brings me down…”
On Jan 11, 2021, at 6:54 PM, Brian White <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I would never ask to break something.
If it has screws or obvious snaps, and you're comfy then fine,
otherwise don't think one second about it.
Thanks for dumping the rom and the pics.
On Mon, Jan 11, 2021, 5:07 PM Steve Baker <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
From Brian K. White:
Could you look a little more at the cards?
Do they come apart to see the board inside?
Is the battery permanent or a removable coin cell?
Does the main unit with the sockets come apart to see that board?
Good questions and thoughts @Brian thanks for your follow-up with
this! In the next day or two I’ll poke around a little bit. I’m a
bit squeamish to crack open stuff, not for fear of discovery but
for fear of naively breaking brittle rare stuff! I’ll do my best
to do what I can (if I see something I can open and/and detach, I
certainly will!).
Whatever I’m able to learn on the hardware side, I’ll take
additional pictures and update the PDF (and post here letting you
and others know). I also happen to have a Tarjeta IC Card
MF3132-003T originally for Noritsu machines that I wanted to use
in my Tandy WP-2 (sadly, it doesn’t work) so I’ll see if it works
in this fella at all.
I love how thin the unit is.
Yes, the black plastic case is incredibly thin and I could see how
convenient it would be to have it affixed under the Model T
(especially if the user has two of those groovy little legs
installed as kick-stands of sorts). I’ll probably replace the
battery and caps on this particular T102, retr0brite the case, and
nickname it Goldmine. ;-)
Cheers,
SB
--
Greetings from Steve Baker
“Gravity brings me down…”
On Jan 11, 2021, at 1:17 PM, Brian K. White <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
This is very cool.
Could you look a little more at the cards?
Do they come apart to see the board inside?
Is the battery permanent or a removable coin cell?
Does the main unit with the sockets come apart to see that board?
I love how thin the unit is.
--
bkw
On 1/10/21 5:25 PM, Steve Baker wrote:
Thanks! Yep, it’s very well-built and I’m looking forward to
digging into it once I (finally) put together my MVT100 kit that
you sent me months ago! (I’m perhaps too cautious…)
By chance, is Mo still associated with King Computer Services
(that’s one of the companies mentioned in the credits screen)? I
sent an email to them and attached the PDF too.
https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm
<https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm>
<https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm
<https://www.kingcomputerservices.com/contact.htm>>
It’d be great to learn more about the history of this project,
how long it was on the market, if the manuals are available
somewhere, etc. (looks like I’ve found my next windmill).
Cheers and again, thanks,
SB
--
Greetings from Steve Baker
“Gravity brings me down…”
On Jan 10, 2021, at 5:10 PM, Stephen Adolph
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>>> wrote:
very interesting! Never seen that before.
Well Mo Budlong wrote some very good software, I'm sure it is
really a good device.
thanks for putting that together!
Steve
On Sun, Jan 10, 2021 at 4:06 PM Steve Baker
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>> wrote:
Quick update on my (previously mysterious) Gold 7.10 chip. I
dusted off the corresponding hardware (an interesting case with
two 256Kb IC cards that plugs into the system bus) and was
able to
get it working. It offers two banks of 256Kb storage plus some
utilities to format and test IC cards, copy cards, transfer
files
to/from RAM, and so on.
Today I made a quick PDF that has (a) photos of the software
running on a Tandy 102, the chip itself, and the IC case and
cards; and (b) a two-part article written by Mike Nugget in the
Oct/Nov 1988 issues of Portable 100. Thought it might be
interesting to read a more robust hands-on review, as I’m just
starting to figure out what this does.
The PDF is stored here in my Club100 folder:
http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&;
<http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve Baker&>
<http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&;
<http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?direction=0&order=&directory=Steve%20Baker&;>>
… along with the HEX and BX files of the chip itself. Now I’m
totally curious about what I have… given the chip has a
hand-written label, is this a pre-production version? Or
were all
of them shipped like this, thereby asserting a relatively low
volume (the 512k set had a list price of $550 back in ’88)?
Well,
it’ll be fun to see what I can do with it.
Cheers and here’s to a good week,
SB
—
Greetings from Steve Baker
“Gravity brings me down…”
--
bkw
--
bkw
