Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[James Zeun]

Agreed

I'd love to output to a TV or VGA monitor.

On Sat, 28 Jul 2018, 2:32 a.m. Randall.kindig, 
wrote:

> Video alone would be great
>
> On Jul 27, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Nickolas Nolan 
> wrote:
>
> DVI reproduction is exactly the same question I've had on my mind lately.
>
>
> @ken, would you be willing to share or link your existing works? I dont
> have much time/capacity myself, but I would like take a crack at
> reproducing something physical for video only.
>
>
> thanks,
>
> Nick
>
>

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Randall.kindig]

Video alone would be great

> On Jul 27, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Nickolas Nolan  wrote:
> 
> DVI reproduction is exactly the same question I've had on my mind lately.
> 
> 
> 
> @ken, would you be willing to share or link your existing works? I dont have 
> much time/capacity myself, but I would like take a crack at reproducing 
> something physical for video only.
> 
> 
> 
> thanks,
> 
> Nick

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Nickolas Nolan]

I forgot my web client sends as html, so it got scrubbed. This is just a dupe 
in plaintext.

DVI reproduction is exactly the same question I've had on my mind lately.

@Ken, would you be willing to share or link your existing works? I dont have 
much time/capacity myself, but I would like take a crack at reproducing 
something physical for video only.

thanks,

Nick

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Nickolas Nolan]

DVI reproduction is exactly the same question I've had on my mind lately.@ken, would you be willing to share or link your existing works? I dont have much time/capacity myself, but I would like take a crack at reproducing something physical for video only.thanks,Nick
 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Fugu ME100]

I did reverse engineer around 60% of the boot code of the DVI last year to work 
out how the Video and Floppy were used – most of it is very low level interface 
software for the FDC chip and some spaghetti code to control the graphics chip. 
 Quite a lot of corners cut and some neat ways to deal with multiple interrupts 
on an Z80 is what I found -  I thought I knew how to write Z80 ML!

Then ported the interface logic to a PIC 32MX (at least in essence) to produce 
VGA output at 40x26 or 80x26,  with 3bit color if you wanted it.  The drives 
use an SD Card with virtual Floppies to allow support for all the features 
found in disk basic.   It runs all the diagnostics in the service manual and 
the user manual examples.   I did extend it to provide color with esc sequences 
and some basic graphics – however it is very crude at the moment using print 
chr$(27) + code.  The next step was to extend the disk basic with an overlay to 
take advantage of the enhanced capabilities.   At that point I ran into a 
terminated apt lease and have spent time looking for somewhere to live.  
Everything is in boxes now.

The board needs a respin to fix a power supply issue that will allow it to be 
properly powered from the model T.   It can be powered from USB at the moment 
with a virtual serial terminal.  It could be extended to mount the SD Card  as 
a mass storage unit on a PC then write to or extract from the virtual floppy.

As far as the model T is concerned it looks and runs like a DVI.  It has been 
tested on the 100, 102 and 200.  Oh and the cables do not need to be reversed :)

There are quite a few sections incomplete that are not part of the regular DVI: 
WiFi, Analog inputs, Keyboard and Sound, all of which would require disk basic 
extensions to be used successfully or at least some low level BASIC/MK code.   
However I am no longer sure about these as the RS232 port might be a better 
solution for WiFi and the keyboard/sound are beyond the DVI spec.

Anyway I will try to pick it up again once I have moved.

I decided not to use the PI at the time because I wanted to be able to plug 
this into the Model T and use it as a disk drive without the need to use a 
power brick or anything beyond the T and power supply.

If anyone has some good/interesting software to run on the DVI I would really 
appreciate access to test out the board. Thanks!

From: M100 
mailto:m100-boun...@lists.bitchin100.com>> 
on behalf of George Rimakis mailto:grima...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: mailto:m...@bitchin100.com>>
Date: Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 6:40 PM
To: mailto:m...@bitchin100.com>>
Subject: Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

Has anyone managed to reverse engineer this DVI?

That would be a neat project.

~George

On Jul 25, 2018, at 9:30 PM, Randall Kindig 
mailto:randall.kin...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Thanks, Brian, that’s very helpful.

Randy
On Jul 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Brian White 
mailto:bw.al...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.

It's these two items:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Faw%2Fd%2FB003PU1EVG%2F=02%7C01%7C%7Cc7b3280776c84e21f30308d5f298c14b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C636681660240960767=J1WOI4CVLxSNjTvm7nSnaQ%2BxOaMjYgzK%2BLiM6VP3GTo%3D=0>

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FConnector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft%2Fdp%2FB00XP54YKE%2F=02%7C01%7C%7Cc7b3280776c84e21f30308d5f298c14b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C636681660240960767=%2Fc%2BZE%2FCXrpMufrsdeRK52pv6m1UDFoazvIZH8DVu1Zk%3D=0>

These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon on my 
phone. You can get the same things lots of different places including ebay and 
digikey etc.

That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick that end 
into the 102 or 200.

For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the computer.

That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the computer end has 
an easy answer. And that cable works the same on both 102 and 200.

I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's connected, but 
just imagine both the DVI and the computer are sitting on a table, with the 
back of the computer facing the front of the DVI, and both boxes are sitting 
right-side up on their feet. From that starting position, the cable travels 
from under the front of the DVI to the computer without twisting or folding 
over. Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also the bottom 
at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha rainbow one, you could 
write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right on the cable at the computer end 
with a sharpie, and that would 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Ken Pettit]

Hey George,

I have reverse engineered the Video portion of DVI, at least enough to 
get 80x25 mode working in VirtualT.  I was working on a modern 
equivalent called TDock, but discovered I had less than zero time 
between work and two young kids.  The idea at the time was to build an 
expansion board for a RaspPi board with connectors and 5V I/O to 
interface with the M100.


I actually built a board at OSHPark, but didn't get it to work before 
running into my time crisis (two years ago).


Ken

On 7/25/18 6:40 PM, George Rimakis wrote:

Has anyone managed to reverse engineer this DVI?

That would be a neat project.

~George

On Jul 25, 2018, at 9:30 PM, Randall Kindig > wrote:



Thanks, Brian, that’s very helpful.

Randy
On Jul 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Brian White > wrote:


Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.

It's these two items:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/

These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon 
on my phone. You can get the same things lots of different places 
including ebay and digikey etc.


That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick 
that end into the 102 or 200.


For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the 
computer.


That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the 
computer end has an easy answer. And that cable works the same on 
both 102 and 200.


I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's 
connected, but just imagine both the DVI and the computer are 
sitting on a table, with the back of the computer facing the front 
of the DVI, and both boxes are sitting right-side up on their feet. 
From that starting position, the cable travels from under the front 
of the DVI to the computer without twisting or folding over. 
Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also the 
bottom at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha 
rainbow one, you could write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right 
on the cable at the computer end with a sharpie, and that would be 
enough for even an unsuspecting future owner to get it right safely. 
The DVI end is polarity keyed so you don't have to worry about that end.


The only remaining annoyance with that cable is when you pull the 
cable out of the computer, the gender-changer pins are just as 
likely to stay in the computer as stay on the cable, and then they 
are a little difficult to get out of the computer because there is 
nothing to get a grip on. So you might want to use a tiny (tiny!) 
bit of super glue to keep the pins in the cable. Just enough to 
stick the two black plastic parts together, but try to avoid letting 
super glue wick and travel down into where the pins make contect 
inside the connector on the cable.


Thanks to Mike Stein for the clue about the effect that kind of 
straight-through doulble-ended pin header ends up having on the pin 
mapping when you use one to butt two female idc plugs up to each 
other. It ends up having the same effect as the twists in the normal 
cable.

--
bkw

On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 8:10 PM Randall Kindig 
mailto:randall.kin...@gmail.com>> wrote:


I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any
and had never seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working
units.

I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the
small LCD.  It also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are
great, if finicky.

Randy

On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg mailto:ke...@acm.org>> wrote:


I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269


On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com
 wrote:

Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen
the DVI. Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a
stock M100 with a floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth
its weight in gold!

Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know
what DVI was.

Are these rare? Do many on the group have them?



Sent from my iPad

On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum mailto:ku...@fastmail.com>> wrote:


DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a
180k 5.25" disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to
the system bus and has it's own DOS.

Kurt


On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com
 wrote:

Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI.
Other than it being a firm video output.

What is DVI in relation to the M100?

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Randy Kindig]

That would be pretty cool!  I’ve never seen a modern similar device made for 
the M100/102

Randy

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 25, 2018, at 9:40 PM, George Rimakis  wrote:
> 
> Has anyone managed to reverse engineer this DVI?
> 
> That would be a neat project.
> 
> ~George
> 
>> On Jul 25, 2018, at 9:30 PM, Randall Kindig  wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks, Brian, that’s very helpful.
>> 
>> Randy
>>> On Jul 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Brian White  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.
>>> 
>>> It's these two items:
>>> 
>>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/
>>> 
>>> https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/
>>> 
>>> These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon on my 
>>> phone. You can get the same things lots of different places including ebay 
>>> and digikey etc.
>>> 
>>> That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick that 
>>> end into the 102 or 200.
>>> 
>>> For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the 
>>> computer.
>>> 
>>> That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the computer end 
>>> has an easy answer. And that cable works the same on both 102 and 200.
>>> 
>>> I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's connected, 
>>> but just imagine both the DVI and the computer are sitting on a table, with 
>>> the back of the computer facing the front of the DVI, and both boxes are 
>>> sitting right-side up on their feet. From that starting position, the cable 
>>> travels from under the front of the DVI to the computer without twisting or 
>>> folding over. Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also 
>>> the bottom at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha rainbow 
>>> one, you could write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right on the cable 
>>> at the computer end with a sharpie, and that would be enough for even an 
>>> unsuspecting future owner to get it right safely. The DVI end is polarity 
>>> keyed so you don't have to worry about that end.
>>> 
>>> The only remaining annoyance with that cable is when you pull the cable out 
>>> of the computer, the gender-changer pins are just as likely to stay in the 
>>> computer as stay on the cable, and then they are a little difficult to get 
>>> out of the computer because there is nothing to get a grip on. So you might 
>>> want to use a tiny (tiny!) bit of super glue to keep the pins in the cable. 
>>> Just enough to stick the two black plastic parts together, but try to avoid 
>>> letting super glue wick and travel down into where the pins make contect 
>>> inside the connector on the cable.
>>> 
>>> Thanks to Mike Stein for the clue about the effect that kind of 
>>> straight-through doulble-ended pin header ends up having on the pin mapping 
>>> when you use one to butt two female idc plugs up to each other. It ends up 
>>> having the same effect as the twists in the normal cable.
>>> -- 
>>> bkw
>>> 
 On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 8:10 PM Randall Kindig  
 wrote:
 I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any and had 
 never seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working units.
 
 I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the small LCD.  
 It also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are great, if finicky.
 
 Randy
> On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg  wrote:
> 
> 
> I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:  
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269
> 
>> On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. 
>> Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a 
>> floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>> 
>> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>> 
>> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>> 
>>> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 
>>> 5.25" disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus 
>>> and has it's own DOS.
>>> 
>>> Kurt
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
 Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than 
 it being a firm video output.
 
 What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>>> 
> 
 
>> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[George Rimakis]

Has anyone managed to reverse engineer this DVI?

That would be a neat project.

~George

> On Jul 25, 2018, at 9:30 PM, Randall Kindig  wrote:
> 
> Thanks, Brian, that’s very helpful.
> 
> Randy
>> On Jul 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Brian White  wrote:
>> 
>> Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.
>> 
>> It's these two items:
>> 
>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/
>> 
>> https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/
>> 
>> These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon on my 
>> phone. You can get the same things lots of different places including ebay 
>> and digikey etc.
>> 
>> That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick that end 
>> into the 102 or 200.
>> 
>> For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the computer.
>> 
>> That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the computer end 
>> has an easy answer. And that cable works the same on both 102 and 200.
>> 
>> I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's connected, 
>> but just imagine both the DVI and the computer are sitting on a table, with 
>> the back of the computer facing the front of the DVI, and both boxes are 
>> sitting right-side up on their feet. From that starting position, the cable 
>> travels from under the front of the DVI to the computer without twisting or 
>> folding over. Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also 
>> the bottom at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha rainbow 
>> one, you could write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right on the cable at 
>> the computer end with a sharpie, and that would be enough for even an 
>> unsuspecting future owner to get it right safely. The DVI end is polarity 
>> keyed so you don't have to worry about that end.
>> 
>> The only remaining annoyance with that cable is when you pull the cable out 
>> of the computer, the gender-changer pins are just as likely to stay in the 
>> computer as stay on the cable, and then they are a little difficult to get 
>> out of the computer because there is nothing to get a grip on. So you might 
>> want to use a tiny (tiny!) bit of super glue to keep the pins in the cable. 
>> Just enough to stick the two black plastic parts together, but try to avoid 
>> letting super glue wick and travel down into where the pins make contect 
>> inside the connector on the cable.
>> 
>> Thanks to Mike Stein for the clue about the effect that kind of 
>> straight-through doulble-ended pin header ends up having on the pin mapping 
>> when you use one to butt two female idc plugs up to each other. It ends up 
>> having the same effect as the twists in the normal cable.
>> -- 
>> bkw
>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 8:10 PM Randall Kindig  
>>> wrote:
>>> I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any and had never 
>>> seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working units.
>>> 
>>> I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the small LCD.  
>>> It also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are great, if finicky.
>>> 
>>> Randy
 On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg  wrote:
 
 
 I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:  
 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269
 
> On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. 
> Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a 
> floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
> 
> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
> 
> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
> 
>> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" 
>> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has 
>> it's own DOS.
>> 
>> Kurt
>> 
>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>>> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
>>> being a firm video output.
>>> 
>>> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>> 
 
>>> 
> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Randall Kindig]

Thanks, Brian, that’s very helpful.

Randy
> On Jul 25, 2018, at 1:12 AM, Brian White  wrote:
> 
> Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.
> 
> It's these two items:
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/ 
> 
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/ 
> 
> 
> These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon on my 
> phone. You can get the same things lots of different places including ebay 
> and digikey etc.
> 
> That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick that end 
> into the 102 or 200.
> 
> For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the computer.
> 
> That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the computer end has 
> an easy answer. And that cable works the same on both 102 and 200.
> 
> I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's connected, 
> but just imagine both the DVI and the computer are sitting on a table, with 
> the back of the computer facing the front of the DVI, and both boxes are 
> sitting right-side up on their feet. From that starting position, the cable 
> travels from under the front of the DVI to the computer without twisting or 
> folding over. Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also 
> the bottom at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha rainbow 
> one, you could write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right on the cable at 
> the computer end with a sharpie, and that would be enough for even an 
> unsuspecting future owner to get it right safely. The DVI end is polarity 
> keyed so you don't have to worry about that end.
> 
> The only remaining annoyance with that cable is when you pull the cable out 
> of the computer, the gender-changer pins are just as likely to stay in the 
> computer as stay on the cable, and then they are a little difficult to get 
> out of the computer because there is nothing to get a grip on. So you might 
> want to use a tiny (tiny!) bit of super glue to keep the pins in the cable. 
> Just enough to stick the two black plastic parts together, but try to avoid 
> letting super glue wick and travel down into where the pins make contect 
> inside the connector on the cable.
> 
> Thanks to Mike Stein for the clue about the effect that kind of 
> straight-through doulble-ended pin header ends up having on the pin mapping 
> when you use one to butt two female idc plugs up to each other. It ends up 
> having the same effect as the twists in the normal cable.
> -- 
> bkw
> 
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 8:10 PM Randall Kindig  > wrote:
> I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any and had never 
> seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working units.
> 
> I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the small LCD.  It 
> also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are great, if finicky.
> 
> Randy
>> On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg > > wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:  
>> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com  
>> wrote:
>>> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. Are 
>>> these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a floppy 
>>> drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>>> 
>>> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>> 
>>> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum >> > wrote:
>>> 
 DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" 
 disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has 
 it's own DOS.
 
 Kurt
 
 
 On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com 
  wrote:
> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
> being a firm video output.
> 
> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
 
>> 
> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Brian White]

Randy I never answered your last question about the Model 200 cable.

It's these two items:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003PU1EVG/

https://www.amazon.com/Connector-Rainbow-Ribbon-Cable-1-6ft/dp/B00XP54YKE/

These are just representative examples pulled up quickly from amazon on my
phone. You can get the same things lots of different places including ebay
and digikey etc.

That's it. You just stick the gender changer into one end and stick that
end into the 102 or 200.

For polarity assurance, just keep the cable flat all the way to the
computer.

That's it. No soldering, and the lack of polarity key on the computer end
has an easy answer. And that cable works the same on both 102 and 200.

I mean it can buch up or fold or loop any way it wants once it's connected,
but just imagine both the DVI and the computer are sitting on a table, with
the back of the computer facing the front of the DVI, and both boxes are
sitting right-side up on their feet. From that starting position, the cable
travels from under the front of the DVI to the computer without twisting or
folding over. Whichever side of the cable is the bottom at the dvi, is also
the bottom at the computer. If it was a grey cable instead of tha rainbow
one, you could write "bottom" & "top" or "up" & "down" right on the cable
at the computer end with a sharpie, and that would be enough for even an
unsuspecting future owner to get it right safely. The DVI end is polarity
keyed so you don't have to worry about that end.

The only remaining annoyance with that cable is when you pull the cable out
of the computer, the gender-changer pins are just as likely to stay in the
computer as stay on the cable, and then they are a little difficult to get
out of the computer because there is nothing to get a grip on. So you might
want to use a tiny (tiny!) bit of super glue to keep the pins in the cable.
Just enough to stick the two black plastic parts together, but try to avoid
letting super glue wick and travel down into where the pins make contect
inside the connector on the cable.

Thanks to Mike Stein for the clue about the effect that kind of
straight-through doulble-ended pin header ends up having on the pin mapping
when you use one to butt two female idc plugs up to each other. It ends up
having the same effect as the twists in the normal cable.
-- 
bkw

On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 8:10 PM Randall Kindig 
wrote:

> I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any and had
> never seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working units.
>
> I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the small LCD.
> It also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are great, if finicky.
>
> Randy
>
> On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg  wrote:
>
>
> I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269
>
> On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI.
> Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a
> floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>
> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>
> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them?
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>
> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25"
> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's
> own DOS.
>
> Kurt
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it
> being a firm video output.
>
> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>
>
>
>
>

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Randall Kindig]

I currently have 2.  Until a few months ago I didn’t have any and had never 
seen a working unit.  Now I have 2 great working units.

I allows the M100/102 to display on a monitor rather than the small LCD.  It 
also gives it one or 2 disk drives.  They are great, if finicky.

Randy
> On Jul 24, 2018, at 7:42 PM, Ken Gregg  wrote:
> 
> 
> I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now:  
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269
>  
> 
> 
> On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com  
> wrote:
>> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. Are 
>> these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a floppy 
>> drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>> 
>> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>> 
>> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum > > wrote:
>> 
>>> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" 
>>> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's 
>>> own DOS.
>>> 
>>> Kurt
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com 
>>>  wrote:
 Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
 being a firm video output.
 
 What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>>> 
> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Ken Gregg]

I see one of these units up for auction on ebay right now: 
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Radio-Shack-Tandy-TRS-80-model-100-disk-video-interface/223062580269



On 7/24/2018 12:25 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the 
DVI. Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 
with a floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!


Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.

Are these rare? Do many on the group have them?



Sent from my iPad

On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum > wrote:


DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 
5.25" disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus 
and has it's own DOS.


Kurt


On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com 
 wrote:
Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than 
it being a firm video output.


What is DVI in relation to the M100?

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Greg Swallow]

As best as I can remember the history a DVI was an expensive little box, when 
they first came out. The biggest problem is the cable end connecting to the 
M100 system bus is a rather fragile 40 pin DIP. Mine has 2 broken pins now. 
Then came the M102 and M200 and a new connector, but then none of the after 
market products that used the M100 bus would work with the new M102 or M200.

There was an after market video interface, Kolor Kwik (I think), written about 
in Portable 100 Magazine. The author released a product based on the article 
which aloud the M100 to be attached to a VGA monitor, but no storage. Some 
other company released a similar product based on a submission from someone for 
development and those plans may have been based on the information in the 
article with some minor changes. Some kind of battle ensued. In the end DVI or 
other was a rather expensive addition at the time. When I finally got my DVI 
they were being discontinued and dumped from stores that had them for $99. I 
was so happy, until I tried to use Lucid on the DVI with a Tandy VM-2 Monitor. 
It was not pretty.

If anyone has any corrections to this chime in please.

God Bless,

GregS <><


- Original Message -
From: "james zeun" 
To: m...@bitchin100.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2018 1:20:31 PM
Subject: Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

Hmm I would have loved to hook my M100 up to a monitor. Is there a modern 
equivalent.

Sent from my iPad

> On 24 Jul 2018, at 9:06 pm, Gregory McGill  wrote:
> 
> Pretty rare my buddy that worked at rs says he only sold a couple the entire 
> time he was there
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 12:26 PM  wrote:
>> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. Are 
>> these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a floppy 
>> drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>> 
>> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>> 
>> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>>> 
>>> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" 
>>> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's 
>>> own DOS.
>>> 
>>> Kurt
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
>>>> being a firm video output.
>>>> 
>>>> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>>> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[james . zeun]

Hmm I would have loved to hook my M100 up to a monitor. Is there a modern 
equivalent.

Sent from my iPad

> On 24 Jul 2018, at 9:06 pm, Gregory McGill  wrote:
> 
> Pretty rare my buddy that worked at rs says he only sold a couple the entire 
> time he was there
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 12:26 PM  wrote:
>> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. Are 
>> these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a floppy 
>> drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>> 
>> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>> 
>> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
>> 
>>> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>>> 
>>> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" 
>>> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's 
>>> own DOS.
>>> 
>>> Kurt
>>> 
>>> 
 On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
 Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
 being a firm video output.
 
 What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>>> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Gregory McGill]

Pretty rare my buddy that worked at rs says he only sold a couple the
entire time he was there

On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 12:26 PM  wrote:

> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI.
> Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a
> floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>
> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>
> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them?
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>
> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25"
> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's
> own DOS.
>
> Kurt
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it
> being a firm video output.
>
> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>
>
>

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Tom Dison]

Don't forget the Video part. Many moons ago I had a DVI with a model 100
and a monochrome monitor. Suddenly you had 80-column text. Combined with
the extra storage of a floppy I felt like I was in heaven.

On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 2:26 PM  wrote:

> Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI.
> Are these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a
> floppy drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!
>
> Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.
>
> Are these rare? Do many on the group have them?
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
>
> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25"
> disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's
> own DOS.
>
> Kurt
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it
> being a firm video output.
>
> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
>
>
>

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[james . zeun]

Oh! Well I've owned my M100 for years now and I had never seen the DVI. Are 
these rare? What advantages does this give over a stock M100 with a floppy 
drive? I gave a REX in mine, worth its weight in gold!

Thanks for the replies guys, I still ashamed I didn't know what DVI was.

Are these rare? Do many on the group have them? 



Sent from my iPad

> On 24 Jul 2018, at 8:12 pm, Kurt McCullum  wrote:
> 
> DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25" disk 
> drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has it's own 
> DOS.
> 
> Kurt
> 
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
>> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it 
>> being a firm video output.
>> 
>> What is DVI in relation to the M100?
> 

Re: [M100] Ask a silly question

[Kurt McCullum]

DVI = Disk Video Interface. It expanded the 100 or 200 with a 180k 5.25"
disk drive and an external monitor. Attaches to the system bus and has
it's own DOS.
Kurt


On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, at 12:07 PM, james.z...@gmail.com wrote:
> Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than
> it being a firm video output.> 
> What is DVI in relation to the M100?

[M100] Ask a silly question

[james . zeun]

Perhaps I missed the memo, but I'm not familiar with DVI. Other than it being a 
firm video output.

What is DVI in relation to the M100?