[M100] Fwd: Selling PG Designs expansion and Interactive Solutions ROM

[Eric Miller]

Hello fellow M100-ers,

I'm selling my PG Designs 128K Expansion and/or my Interactive Solutions
ROM. I thought I'd give the group a chance at them before going to eBay.
Both work. Full disclosure, Burt repaired a broken pin on the PG Designs
expansion. Burt's video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBUoIRcxhOg=3s

Make an offer if interested. Buyer will also pay for shipping. I will
accept PayPal.

Thanks for your consideration.

Eric Miller

Re: [M100] Software Archive

[you got me]

Contact me directly for archive information.

From: M100  on behalf of Carlos M. Nunez, 
M.D. 
Sent: Thursday, February 3, 2022 12:21 AM
To: m100@lists.bitchin100.com 
Subject: [M100] Software Archive

Thanks again for all of the great suggestions to my "getting started" 
questions. I've already got a perfect cable in hand and working with TEXT and 
TELCOM connecting to HyperTerminal on my Windows PC. That alone has saved me so 
much manual work. I can easily send from PC->M100 BASIC code saved as 
text/ASCII as a .DO file and then copy/paste right into BASIC, as long as the 
line numbers are respected between the copy and target basic file.

I have a REX# on order, and should be good until stock on Backpack drives is 
replenished.

I have searched around and can't really seem to find a good, comprehensive 
software archive for the M100 and related. For example, the TRS-80 Color 
Computer has a very good archive with hundreds of titles in disk, cassette and 
ROMPak formats, with heaps of books, documents and documentation. I am having 
trouble finding something like that for the M100. Is there a copyright issue, 
or is the CoCo user base just simply more active?

Thanks in advance.

Re: [M100] Tandy Model 100/102 modem pickup line

[Brian K. White]

Wow, ok, I hadn't considered that someone had replaced the main rom.
All bets are off in that case.

I would not be surprised if the modem doesn't work at all with the wrong 
rom installed. The main rom has to match the hardware and the North 
American main rom does not match the European hardware, and the modem is 
definitely one of the things, like the keyboard, which is different 
between countries.


You only do something hacky like that fully accepting that you are 
breaking some things in order to get some other things. But you didn't 
make that choice, you're stuck with something someone else did and then 
sold to you.


I would definitely start with putting the unit back to stock condition, 
meaning put an EU main rom back in and remove the rex#, just as a first 
diagnostic step just to establish a baseline even if you want to go back 
to the hacked-up condition later.


Did the seller at least supply the original rom with the unit? If not, 
it might be taped inside.


I don't know of any copies of the EU rom for download. Asking here or on 
two facebook groups is probably your best chance to find one.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Model.T.Computers

This one in particular has a lot fewer, but mostly European members:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/olivettim10

I think it can be dumped out the serial port with a BASIC program, so 
anyone should be able to dump it for you without having to desolder the 
chip or use an eprom burner. I'll try to find the basic program for 
dumping the rom out the serial port, that way you can make it as easy as 
possible for someone to do the favor by having some directions ready to go.


If the REX# really is incompatible with the EU main rom, and Steve can't 
produce an EU version of the REX# firmware, then you'll probably just 
have to choose one or the other for that unit, either have the hardware 
all work properly, or have REX# on that unit.


--
bkw

On 2/3/22 17:40, Cedric Amand wrote:

Thanks, i'll try all that.
I must admit I don't fully understand what the REX# does, as I've only 
use it to make backups of the RAM, but it's features go way beyond that, 
so it's unclear to me if - for example - the tsdos that comes with would 
be "US minded".


 From what I understand, the original owner (which may even be in this 
list) had to replace the belgian/european ROM with another ROM, most 
likely a US one, to be able to use the REX# ( that's what I got from 
what he told me, don't quote me on this )


All these changes could, maybe, break my modem.

However i've been looking at the schematics of the modem part and all of 
this is as simple as can be, it's really purely analog in many areas, 
and there is no way on earth any of this is software controller. I mean 
: the thing doesn't care if the dial tone is 440, 600 Hz or anything (at 
least looking at the hardware I see no way this would be measured, even 
less handled by software)


So if I take for granted my M102 is a Belgian.european one (it' has the 
sticker of the telco!), I guess the electronics where adapted to our 
particular voltages.

What could be a possibility if that some of these are now out of spec

One final comment ; if I hit F4 (TERM) in TELCOM, the M102 starts to 
emit an awful noise (like if it was connected to a data line !) it does 
that even when the M102 is not connected to anything ( I mean, no wire 
connected to it at all) It is also, afaics, completely crashed (i have 
to reset/reboot)

Is that "normal" ?
That would point to a problem with ROM/REX...


thanks again for taking the time to help weirdo that wants his analog 
modem to work :)




Le jeu. 3 févr. 2022 à 23:32, Brian K. White > a écrit :


I can tell you one thing for sure, the REX has no effect on the modem.

But you can prove that to yourself by just removing it. It doesn't hurt
anything and it won't even lose it's programming. Just pop it out, and
see that it made no difference.

Have you tested the line with a plain analog telephone?

Have you verified the modem cable doesn't have a broken wire?

Since you are talking about dialing vs answering, is the the ANS-ORIG
switch in the ORIG position? (Answer vs Originate)

Measure the voltage between tip & ring when the the modem is
on-hook. It
should be 48vdc

Measure the current on either tip or ring when the modem is
off-hook. It
should be about 20ma, at around 9vdc (actually a wide range from 3
to 12)




--
bkw

Re: [M100] Tandy Model 100/102 modem pickup line

[Cedric Amand]

Thanks, i'll try all that.
I must admit I don't fully understand what the REX# does, as I've only use
it to make backups of the RAM, but it's features go way beyond that, so
it's unclear to me if - for example - the tsdos that comes with would be
"US minded".

>From what I understand, the original owner (which may even be in this list)
had to replace the belgian/european ROM with another ROM, most likely a US
one, to be able to use the REX# ( that's what I got from what he told me,
don't quote me on this )

All these changes could, maybe, break my modem.

However i've been looking at the schematics of the modem part and all of
this is as simple as can be, it's really purely analog in many areas, and
there is no way on earth any of this is software controller. I mean : the
thing doesn't care if the dial tone is 440, 600 Hz or anything (at least
looking at the hardware I see no way this would be measured, even less
handled by software)

So if I take for granted my M102 is a Belgian.european one (it' has the
sticker of the telco!), I guess the electronics where adapted to our
particular voltages.
What could be a possibility if that some of these are now out of spec

One final comment ; if I hit F4 (TERM) in TELCOM, the M102 starts to emit
an awful noise (like if it was connected to a data line !) it does that
even when the M102 is not connected to anything ( I mean, no wire connected
to it at all) It is also, afaics, completely crashed (i have to
reset/reboot)
Is that "normal" ?
That would point to a problem with ROM/REX...


thanks again for taking the time to help weirdo that wants his analog modem
to work :)



Le jeu. 3 févr. 2022 à 23:32, Brian K. White  a
écrit :

> I can tell you one thing for sure, the REX has no effect on the modem.
>
> But you can prove that to yourself by just removing it. It doesn't hurt
> anything and it won't even lose it's programming. Just pop it out, and
> see that it made no difference.
>
> Have you tested the line with a plain analog telephone?
>
> Have you verified the modem cable doesn't have a broken wire?
>
> Since you are talking about dialing vs answering, is the the ANS-ORIG
> switch in the ORIG position? (Answer vs Originate)
>
> Measure the voltage between tip & ring when the the modem is on-hook. It
> should be 48vdc
>
> Measure the current on either tip or ring when the modem is off-hook. It
> should be about 20ma, at around 9vdc (actually a wide range from 3 to 12)
>

Re: [M100] How to delete then re-install VirtualT 1.6

[Ken Pettit]

Hey Bob,

Okay, I think you need to delete your VirtualT preferences file.  I had 
to boot my Windows Virtual Machine (and here I was having such a good 
day up until that point) to figure out where it is saved.


You should have something like C:\Documents and 
Settings\{user_name}\Application Data\virtualt and within should be a 
virtualt.prefs file.  If you delete (or rename) that file, then VirtualT 
will "forget" that you ever had a REX file.


Ken

On 2/3/22 2:22 PM, b...@pigford.org wrote:


Thanks, Steve!

I get the following message:

 “Could not open REX file C:/Program 
Files(x86)/VirtualT/virtual-win32-v1.6/T200/”


VT1.6 will still run, but I get this same message when I close the 
program.


I see that “virtual-win32-v1.6” is on my C:/ root directory, but not 
in the “Program Files(x86)” directory, and there is no “VirtualT” sub 
directory there either.


I created a “VirtualT” directory in the “Program Files(x86)” directory 
and tried to install again.  I get this message next:


“Compressed (zipped) Folders was unable to create the specified 
directory.  Ensure that the directory does not already exist, and that 
the path entered us valid.”


Thanks for your help.

   Bob

*From:* M100  *On Behalf Of 
*Stephen Adolph

*Sent:* Thursday, February 03, 2022 4:01 PM
*To:* m...@bitchin100.com
*Subject:* Re: [M100] How to delete then re-install VirtualT 1.6

Hi Bob,

I think you just unzip it, and a folder structure is created.

you don't really have to install it, you just go into the folders, and 
run the VirtuaT.exe file.


give that a try!

Steve

On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 3:58 PM > wrote:


I apologize, but I can not find any instructions on how to get
VirtualT loaded into my 64bit Win10 box after downloading the .zip
file from source forge.

Again, I apologize for my ignorance.  I used to be smarter than this.

Bob

Re: [M100] Tandy Model 100/102 modem pickup line

[Brian K. White]

I can tell you one thing for sure, the REX has no effect on the modem.

But you can prove that to yourself by just removing it. It doesn't hurt 
anything and it won't even lose it's programming. Just pop it out, and 
see that it made no difference.


Have you tested the line with a plain analog telephone?

Have you verified the modem cable doesn't have a broken wire?

Since you are talking about dialing vs answering, is the the ANS-ORIG 
switch in the ORIG position? (Answer vs Originate)


Measure the voltage between tip & ring when the the modem is on-hook. It 
should be 48vdc


Measure the current on either tip or ring when the modem is off-hook. It 
should be about 20ma, at around 9vdc (actually a wide range from 3 to 12)


--
bkw


On 2/3/22 07:04, Cedric Amand wrote:

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member, out of Belgium, I have a dozen of vintages PCs, I 
especially likes laptops. I'm an electronics engineer which helpes for 
fixing. Thanks for welcoming me and thanks to whoever created this in 
the first place.


I'm trying to make the internal modem of my Tandy/RS Model 102 work again.

I've connected it to a small home phone exchange (pabx) so that I have 
real proper vintage phone lines , but the same problem occurs on my home 
phone line (which is not PSTN anyway, it's an emulated analog line turn 
into voip by a modern cable modem router)


I absolutely wanted to have my own "lab" of proper PSTN lines so that's 
why I have my little PABX from the 90s; which gives me the possiblity to 
experiment with modems.


My problem is ; my model 102 does not pickup the line.
A regular analog phone does, a good old USRobotics Courrier 56K does, 
but the T102 does not.


I have the proper Tandy grey/beige(rather pink now) cable
It's inserted in the right way. My init string (STAT) is starting with 
M, for internal modem


If I put a phone on the gray line, and "pink" in the PABX ; i can hear 
my PABX's dial tone, until I make the M102 dial, in which case the phone 
goes silent (which is normal).


But the PABX doesnt show the line as beeing picked up (a led should turn 
red), I can hear the M102 pulse dialing "in the void", but to no end... 
The PABX supports pulse dial. I tried 10pps and 20pps.


But it seems the problem is not dialing, it's the actual, i'd say 
"electrical" pickup of the line.
It seems either the voltages are not right, or something is not working 
like it should.


I tried BASIC with "CALL 21200" (which pickups the lines) you can hear 
the relay click, but again, the PABX does not see that as someone 
picking up a phone.


I have an European M102 (could that be an issue ?) My "phone line" 
(vintage PABX) is a european (belgian) one.
However the M102 has been "upgraded" by a REX# v2.0 rom by the previous 
owner, that may be an issue (this upgrade was not my doing. I can barely 
use REX.) I'm with TSDOS101


It's unclear if, eventually, the modem section could need a repair 
(recap or smth)
Another possilbity would be that the tone i'm giving it (440Hz over 
here) is not recognized (seems to be 600Hz in the US), but I find this 
unlikely this would be software controlled, and my M102 is a Belgian 
model it even has the "RTT" (telco of the time) sticker on it


I'm out of ideas.
Any help greatly appreciated



--
bkw

Re: [M100] How to delete then re-install VirtualT 1.6

[bob]

Thanks, Steve!

I get the following message:

 

 “Could not open REX file C:/Program 
Files(x86)/VirtualT/virtual-win32-v1.6/T200/”

 

VT1.6 will still run, but I get this same message when I close the program.

 

I see that “virtual-win32-v1.6” is on my C:/ root directory, but not in the 
“Program Files(x86)” directory, and there is no “VirtualT” sub directory there 
either.

 

I created a “VirtualT” directory in the “Program Files(x86)” directory and 
tried to install again.  I get this message next:

“Compressed (zipped) Folders was unable to create the specified directory.  
Ensure that the directory does not already exist, and that the path entered us 
valid.”

 

Thanks for your help.

 

   Bob

 

From: M100  On Behalf Of Stephen Adolph
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2022 4:01 PM
To: m...@bitchin100.com
Subject: Re: [M100] How to delete then re-install VirtualT 1.6

 

Hi Bob,

I think you just unzip it, and a folder structure is created.

you don't really have to install it, you just go into the folders, and run the 
VirtuaT.exe file.

 

give that a try!

Steve

 

On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 3:58 PM mailto:b...@pigford.org> > 
wrote:

I apologize, but I can not find any instructions on how to get VirtualT loaded 
into my 64bit Win10 box after downloading the .zip file from source forge.

Again, I apologize for my ignorance.  I used to be smarter than this.

Bob

Re: [M100] How to delete then re-install VirtualT 1.6

[Stephen Adolph]

Hi Bob,
I think you just unzip it, and a folder structure is created.
you don't really have to install it, you just go into the folders, and run
the VirtuaT.exe file.

give that a try!
Steve

On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 3:58 PM  wrote:

> I apologize, but I can not find any instructions on how to get VirtualT
> loaded into my 64bit Win10 box after downloading the .zip file from
> source forge.
>
> Again, I apologize for my ignorance.  I used to be smarter than this.
>
> Bob
>

Re: [M100] Software Archive

[Carlos Nunez]

Thank you!

These links are all very helpful!

Best regards,
Carlos


> On Feb 2, 2022, at 5:15 PM, Joshua O'Keefe  wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Feb 2, 2022, at 4:22 PM, Carlos M. Nunez, M.D.  wrote:
>> I have searched around and can't really seem to find a good, comprehensive 
>> software archive for the M100 and related. 
> 
> A single, unified archive has yet to be created for a variety of reasons.  I 
> personally prefer not to mix artifacts from different archaeological digs 
> since I don't have the time or attention span to do the cataloging work it 
> would need.
> 
> When I just want something, the resources I scour, in somewhat this order:
> * The club100 BBS archive:  https://ftp.whtech.com/club100/
> * The club100 Personal Archives -- a collection of uploads from various 
> users, some of which are incredible work: http://www.club100.org/memfiles/
> * The M100SIG file, a scrape of the CompuServe SIG's file area.   
> https://github.com/LivingM100SIG/Living_M100SIG
> * The xibalba archive (now offline, but available by archive.org): 
> https://web.archive.org/web/2017155020/http://www.xibalba.com/website100/software.html
> 
> I also keep a little S3 bucket of stuff I find or make or just had a hard 
> time getting ahold of:  http://public.nachomountain.com/files/m100/

Re: [M100] Tandy Model 100/102 modem pickup line

[Francesco Messineo]

Hi,
I'm not familiar with the 102, but on the EU Olivetti M10, the
internal modem was disabled by removing a few parts (including the
line transformer) and shorting out the RX operational amplifiers on
the solder side of PCB. I've tried to restore the functionality of the
internal modem of my Olivetti M10 but I'm still missing some bits. By
the way, the internal modem design on these machines were hardwired to
the BELL 103 standard, so it wouldn't be of much use in Europe in the
'80s (nor it would pass any telecom licensing in those
years). On my M10 I've re-calculated the RX and TX filter to work with
CCITT V.21 standard and hacked the PCB to allow the modem IC to use
V.21 modulation instead of the Bell 103 one.
By the way, I have a small VOIP pabx at home with analog to voip
converters, so I can test and use the old modems and the old phones.
HTH
Frank IZ8DWF

On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 1:04 PM Cedric Amand  wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I'm a new member, out of Belgium, I have a dozen of vintages PCs, I 
> especially likes laptops. I'm an electronics engineer which helpes for 
> fixing. Thanks for welcoming me and thanks to whoever created this in the 
> first place.
>
> I'm trying to make the internal modem of my Tandy/RS Model 102 work again.
>
> I've connected it to a small home phone exchange (pabx) so that I have real 
> proper vintage phone lines , but the same problem occurs on my home phone 
> line (which is not PSTN anyway, it's an emulated analog line turn into voip 
> by a modern cable modem router)
>
> I absolutely wanted to have my own "lab" of proper PSTN lines so that's why I 
> have my little PABX from the 90s; which gives me the possiblity to experiment 
> with modems.
>
> My problem is ; my model 102 does not pickup the line.
> A regular analog phone does, a good old USRobotics Courrier 56K does, but the 
> T102 does not.
>
> I have the proper Tandy grey/beige(rather pink now) cable
> It's inserted in the right way. My init string (STAT) is starting with M, for 
> internal modem
>
> If I put a phone on the gray line, and "pink" in the PABX ; i can hear my 
> PABX's dial tone, until I make the M102 dial, in which case the phone goes 
> silent (which is normal).
>
> But the PABX doesnt show the line as beeing picked up (a led should turn 
> red), I can hear the M102 pulse dialing "in the void", but to no end... The 
> PABX supports pulse dial. I tried 10pps and 20pps.
>
> But it seems the problem is not dialing, it's the actual, i'd say 
> "electrical" pickup of the line.
> It seems either the voltages are not right, or something is not working like 
> it should.
>
> I tried BASIC with "CALL 21200" (which pickups the lines) you can hear the 
> relay click, but again, the PABX does not see that as someone picking up a 
> phone.
>
> I have an European M102 (could that be an issue ?) My "phone line" (vintage 
> PABX) is a european (belgian) one.
> However the M102 has been "upgraded" by a REX# v2.0 rom by the previous 
> owner, that may be an issue (this upgrade was not my doing. I can barely use 
> REX.) I'm with TSDOS101
>
> It's unclear if, eventually, the modem section could need a repair (recap or 
> smth)
> Another possilbity would be that the tone i'm giving it (440Hz over here) is 
> not recognized (seems to be 600Hz in the US), but I find this unlikely this 
> would be software controlled, and my M102 is a Belgian model it even has the 
> "RTT" (telco of the time) sticker on it
>
> I'm out of ideas.
> Any help greatly appreciated

[M100] Tandy Model 100/102 modem pickup line

[Cedric Amand]

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member, out of Belgium, I have a dozen of vintages PCs, I
especially likes laptops. I'm an electronics engineer which helpes for
fixing. Thanks for welcoming me and thanks to whoever created this in the
first place.

I'm trying to make the internal modem of my Tandy/RS Model 102 work again.

I've connected it to a small home phone exchange (pabx) so that I have real
proper vintage phone lines , but the same problem occurs on my home phone
line (which is not PSTN anyway, it's an emulated analog line turn into voip
by a modern cable modem router)

I absolutely wanted to have my own "lab" of proper PSTN lines so that's why
I have my little PABX from the 90s; which gives me the possiblity to
experiment with modems.

My problem is ; my model 102 does not pickup the line.
A regular analog phone does, a good old USRobotics Courrier 56K does, but
the T102 does not.

I have the proper Tandy grey/beige(rather pink now) cable
It's inserted in the right way. My init string (STAT) is starting with M,
for internal modem

If I put a phone on the gray line, and "pink" in the PABX ; i can hear my
PABX's dial tone, until I make the M102 dial, in which case the phone goes
silent (which is normal).

But the PABX doesnt show the line as beeing picked up (a led should turn
red), I can hear the M102 pulse dialing "in the void", but to no end... The
PABX supports pulse dial. I tried 10pps and 20pps.

But it seems the problem is not dialing, it's the actual, i'd say
"electrical" pickup of the line.
It seems either the voltages are not right, or something is not working
like it should.

I tried BASIC with "CALL 21200" (which pickups the lines) you can hear the
relay click, but again, the PABX does not see that as someone picking up a
phone.

I have an European M102 (could that be an issue ?) My "phone line" (vintage
PABX) is a european (belgian) one.
However the M102 has been "upgraded" by a REX# v2.0 rom by the previous
owner, that may be an issue (this upgrade was not my doing. I can barely
use REX.) I'm with TSDOS101

It's unclear if, eventually, the modem section could need a repair (recap
or smth)
Another possilbity would be that the tone i'm giving it (440Hz over here)
is not recognized (seems to be 600Hz in the US), but I find this unlikely
this would be software controlled, and my M102 is a Belgian model it even
has the "RTT" (telco of the time) sticker on it

I'm out of ideas.
Any help greatly appreciated