On 6/18/20 1:41 PM, Charles Hudson wrote:
I happened to find a TPDD complete with cable, manual, power supply and
even a spare belt. What was missing was the disk containing the OS and
utilities.
Does anyone happen to know where an image of this disk exists?
An image exists for tpdd or tpdd2 (I don't remember which one but I
think it was only one of the two), but it doesn't help you because there
is no way to turn it into a disk.
You need to get an actual disk, and then you can use it's backup util
and the real drive to make copies of it.
I made up some nice copies with labels and bootstrap directions right on
the labels for both tpdd and tpdd2, and you get get one from
arcadeshopper.com
https://www.arcadeshopper.com/wp/?page_id=11#!/100-102-200/c/28313042/offset=0&sort=nameAsc
TPDD and TPDD2 are different so you have to get the correct disk for the
drive you have. (26-3808 vs 26-3814)
Until then, there are a few different ways to use the drive right now,
starting from pure downloads and using a modern pc or android phone and
a special serial cable.
What you need is a dos to run on the M100 and a way to bootstrap that
dos onto the m100.
There are a few different dosses (TS-DOS, TEENY, DSKMGR, FLOPPY/FLOPY2)
and a few different ways to bootstrap (rom, disk, serial, cassette).
There is no way to say what is the best or most convenient method,
because none of them are fully convenient, they are all just different
from each other, and one way will be more convenient than others for you
based on what cables and devices you happen to have, and what kinds of
procedures you happen to find simple or complicated.
Myself, I have both REX's and a Teeproms which are two different ways to
have TS-DOS in rom, which is the best dos and the most convenient way to
install & run it.
http://tandy.wiki/REX
http://tandy.wiki/Teeprom
If I am pretending I don't have a ROM version so I need to bootstrap,
the next-most convenient for me is I use a modified version of dlplus
where I added a bootstrapper function and included loader files for
TEENY and DSKMGR. I use that to install TEENY onto the m100 very easily,
then you can use teeny either with a real tpdd drive or with a tpdd
server like dlplus itself.
https://github.com/bkw777/dlplus/
That is most convenient for me because I happen to have the right kind
of serial cable and usb adapter,
http://tandy.wiki/Model_100_102_200_600_Serial_Cable
...and I run linux on my laptop, and the same program is both a
bootstrapper and a tpdd server, meaning I'm really using it with my
laptop not with a real tpdd drive most of the time. TEENY is a very
bare-bones minimum required functionality dos that can't even list the
disk contents, so it's really only good for using with a tpdd server
where you can just see the files on the host and you don't need to be
able to list them from the M100.
Another very convenient way IF you happen to have an Android phone or
other android device, and a usb OTG cable, and the same usb and serial
cables as above, is mComm. mComm is another tpdd server that also
includes a bootstrapper, available in Windows and Android versions, and
I think also includes an installer for TS-DOS as well as TEENY.
Another way that might be the most convenient if you didn't have the
right serial and usb adapters, but did have the cassette cable,
is there is also an MP3 file of the cassette version of TS-DOS.
mComm for Windows and Android, and also a new python version of mCom (I
don't know if the pythn version has the bootstrapper yet, I haven't used
it yet), and the MP3 file are here:
http://www.club100.org/memfiles/index.php?&direction=0&order=&directory=Kurt%20McCullum
The difficulty for the mp3/cassette method is you need the cassette
cable, and you need a device which can play mp3s which not only still
has a headphone jack, but the output from that jack has to go loud
enough. My Note4 phone works on max volume. One step down and it no
longer works. Some devices just don't work no matter what. But if you
have all that, then it's super convenient.
If you don't have the cassette cable, there are usually some on ebay.
Sometimes old original ones, sometimes ones made new. You can search for
cassette cable for trs-80 Model 1, Model III, coco, IBM 5150, Amstrad
6128, Dragon 32/64, besides Model 100.
This guy makes them new (I have exactly this cable and confirm it is
proper for M100 even though he doesn't list any trs-80 models for this
cable):
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Amstrad-CPC-6128-Dragon-32-64-IBM-5150-High-Quality-Cassette-Tape-Leads/264124762008
But for example these all are correct too:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cassette-Interface-Cable-TRS80-CoCo-Mod-I-Mod-III-Mod-4-Mod-100/333592729047?hash=item4dabad15d7:g:X4wAAOSwLcZeucp-:sc:USPSFirstClass!08902!US!-1
https://www.ebay.com/itm/OEM-Tandy-TRS-80-Cassette-Interface-Cable-Model-1-III-IV-4P-INTERNATIONAL/203004131571?hash=item2f43fd38f3:g:Bn0AAOSw1LJevr8k
Oh, looks like arcadeshopper has cassette cables too.
But not everything with a din connector and 3.5mm plugs is right. The
retrocomputershack guy above also makes other cables that look about the
same that won't work on M100.
You still may want the disk even after you get one of these options
going, because if you want to dig through the M100SIG archive and play
with the old utils, there are some disk utils that require the dos that
comes on the disk. Also, the drive can bootstrap from itself if you have
the original disk. All the other dosses require some other pc or phone
or something to get the dos installed after a cold reset if it's not on
a rom or rex.
You need to use SD/DD aka 720K disks, not 1.44M HD disks.
--
bkw
Thanks,
-CH-
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