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opg
Joined: Mar 29, 2004 Posts: 954 Location: Berkeley, CA, US
Audio files: 3
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 6:40 am Post subject:
Apple IIe and Tandy 1000EX!!! |
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Any ideas for what I can do with these?
I'm sure everyone has seen my "drum module manufacturers are evil" thread/rant by now. Perhaps I can incorporate these awesome machines in my trigger module/sampler project. Or maybe there's something cool, something I don't even know about....
The only problem I'm having right now is sending disk images from my PC to these machines. They both take 5.25" floppy disks, so I have to (at least for the Apple IIe) piece together a null modem cable. The Apple has a Hayes modem on it, but using it or a null modem cable (via the serial port) is pointless if I don't have any programs on the Apple for file transferring (like Kermit, etc).
Even though the Tandy uses DOS, its serial cards are ancient and completely foreign compared to my PC and the Apple.
I let a friend borrow my old Apple IIGS a few years ago, and it would be a lot more fun because it has more sound capabilities. I can't get it until he comes back from Iraq, though......Don't ask. |
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elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 1:00 pm Post subject:
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In the case of the AppleII I am pretty sure absolutely every program written for that one is now avaialble on the net. I havenĀ“t used mine for like 18 years or so. I am not sure I even have it anymore. There were some midi interfaces for it and you could easily program midi filters and such. That said, I guess something like a mint condition fully expanded SE30 would be more fun these days.. but mint condition SE30s are for collectors only and i guess you could buy 2 Xserves for the price of one perfect and complete SE30 ( and the monitor has to be excellent too.)
Uh.. I guess those machines are for your collection of great stuff anyway. A more recent G3 based tower, running OS 9 and MAX should probably be more fun. You can get pre OS X gear for nearly nothing these days. _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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opg
Joined: Mar 29, 2004 Posts: 954 Location: Berkeley, CA, US
Audio files: 3
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 5:57 am Post subject:
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I've been to the Asimov FTP site and seen all the music software I could use. But I'm not sure the Apple IIe is capable of producing sound. I wanted to focus on the Tandy 1000EX because I have heard songs made on it, and I have all the software. I just don't know how to get them from my PC to the Tandy yet. I'm just trying to capture some nice, warm digital tones.
Plus, monochrome screens ROCK! |
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paul e.
Joined: Sep 22, 2003 Posts: 1567 Location: toronto, canada
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 7:57 am Post subject:
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yes the apple IIe can make sound
3 voices.. _________________ Spiral Recordings |
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blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24075 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 277
G2 patch files: 320
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 10:53 am Post subject:
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opg wrote: | I just don't know how to get them from my PC to the Tandy yet! |
Just some thoughts, things I'd try when it was my problem :
Get the floppy drive out of the tandy, and connect it to any PC that still has a floppy interface - that is when the cable interface on the Tandy was modern enough (otherwise you'll need to find some PC compatible 5 1/4 inch drive). This should work, except that probably the step time used by a modern PC is too fast for an old floppy drive and somehow the PC must know how to treat the drive : probably 360 kB, 40 tracks single sided single density or something like that.
So what you need as well is some special PC software that knows how to deal with old floppy drives, or a very old PC that still has the BIOS settings for this accesible through the BIOS setup.
I don't know where to find such software but some years ago I did find some, somewhere ...
And things might even work automagically when you use a Tandy formatted floppy on the PC.
Then it would probably be best to make a floppy with an old Kermit or preferably XModem program (like Mirror II maybe) for the Tandy and after that work through a NULL modem to transfer all other possible stuff.
Jan. |
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blue hell
Site Admin
Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24075 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 277
G2 patch files: 320
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 12:51 pm Post subject:
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a link :
http://members.iweb.net.au/~pstorr/pcbook/book4/floppyd.htm
typing "help format" on win xp gives (which seems promising) :
Quote: | Formats a disk for use with Windows XP.
FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q]
FORMAT volume [/Q]
volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:filesystem Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, or NTFS).
/V:label Specifies the volume label.
/Q Performs a quick format.
/C NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed
by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened
handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
are strongly recommended for general use.
NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume:
FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918
Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
cluster size.
NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes
above 4096.
/F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track. |
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opg
Joined: Mar 29, 2004 Posts: 954 Location: Berkeley, CA, US
Audio files: 3
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2005 6:55 am Post subject:
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I got a serial cable for the Apple IIe and all the info on the settings for the PC's Hyperterminal, how to ready the Apple, and even some PC applications that will make everything go even smoother.
The way I read, with the null modem (serial) cable, I can simply pass any program data from Hyperterminal to the Apple prompt. I was hoping that I could save this onto a disk without having any of the ProDos crap added to it and then pop it in the Tandy (and possibly rename some stuff). It sounds too easy to be right, though. The Tandy 1000 EX has this external floppy drive port which would be awesome, but like you said, it's way too old-school. One of those cardboard-looking pieces of garbage for a connection and no adapters for it. I might be able to rip out the internal floppy and get an adapter to put it in my PC. All this 'cause I can't find a normal 5.25" floppy drive. I'll check the junk shop on Friday again.
I read a great article on the Apple IIe's sound capabilities. Some SuperNerds figured out how to toggle the speaker and I got all their programs.
http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/GS.WorldView/v1997/Mar/sound22.shk.info2.txt |
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opg
Joined: Mar 29, 2004 Posts: 954 Location: Berkeley, CA, US
Audio files: 3
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2005 9:26 am Post subject:
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The Null Modem cable is setup and I can send out data via Hyperterminal (which I will soon replace with SuperTerm), but the Super Serial Card in the Apple IIe is not receiving anything. I'm supposed to be able to enter data on the PC and have it show up on the Apple at an AppleSoft prompt (]).
Any ideas on what settings I can adjust on the Apple IIe? Right now, I am sending data out of HyperTerminal at 300 baud rate. Do the DIP Switches on the Super Serial Card have to also be set to 300? I've also checked the jumper to make sure it is using the 25pin port and not the modem port. The null modem cable is going out of COM3 on the PC, to a 9pin to 25pin adapter, then to a 25pin cable into the Apple IIe.
What am I missing? |
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