28 replies to this topic

[idflyfish]

Hello everyone,

I saw a nanoPEB on ebay today and I am considering purchasing one. I seem to remember there being a couple of things that are incompatible with nanoPEB. What would I have to give up/compromise if I purchase one of these little beauties?

Mike

[Lee Stewart]

Well,

• You give up the old PEB, which shouldn't be a problem unless you have specialized cards you can't do without.
  
• You'll need a way to copy/transfer any disk files you can't find online (your own, principally---the rest can be managed in many ways). Several options are available. It's very easy to grab anything online and put it on the CompactFlash "drive" that comes with it via a PC.
  
• You'll give up the Centronics parallel port because the nanoPEB only comes with an RS232 serial port. (If you need parallel instead of serial, the CF7+ is what you should get---it has the parallel port but no serial port. Otherwise, I think it's the same as the nanoPEB.)
  
• You'll give up slow disk access speeds!

That's all I can think of at the moment. BTW, I have a 2GB nanoPEB and it works well!


...lee

Edited by Lee Stewart, Tue Oct 4, 2011 9:49 AM.

[Willsy]

Lee,

Does TF work with the nano? I've got a nano but never plugged it in!

[idflyfish]

I would definitely need TF to work...that would be a deal breaker for me.

[Lee Stewart]

Mark...

I don't have your TF cartridge, yet. I've only been using TF with Classic99 and MESS. I can't imagine it wouldn't!

...lee

Edited by Lee Stewart, Tue Oct 4, 2011 10:42 AM.

[matthew180]

Yes, TF works with the CF7, CF7+, nanoPEB, or whatever it is officially called? I picked up the CF-card thing at the Faire last year and use it to get code on to the real hardware for testing (mostly the F18A). I have the TF cart and it works fine as far as I can tell. I have never really pushed TF on my setup, but it sees the device, 32K, disks, etc. just fine.

[idflyfish]

matthew180, on Tue Oct 4, 2011 10:52 AM, said:

Yes, TF works with the CF7, CF7+, nanoPEB, or whatever it is officially called? I picked up the CF-card thing at the Faire last year and use it to get code on to the real hardware for testing (mostly the F18A). I have the TF cart and it works fine as far as I can tell. I have never really pushed TF on my setup, but it sees the device, 32K, disks, etc. just fine.

Excellent..thanks for the feedback.

[Willsy]

Yeah, ta!

[idflyfish]

Just bought a nanoPEB...I have no fiscal discipline

[Lee Stewart]

idflyfish, on Tue Oct 4, 2011 9:52 PM, said:

Just bought a nanoPEB...I have no fiscal discipline

Join the club! Oh, wait, you already have!

...lee

[OLD CS1]

Not too long ago I picked up a 4GB CF7+ and I enjoy it. It has not replaced my PEB system, though: I plan to use it with a new beige console (QI, not v2.2, YIPEE!) which I just picked up. It is really nice to be able to load a DSK image and run it on real hardware.

I just still need to work out a method for getting my real disks to DSK images and back.

I think i would, however, like the nanoPEB over the CF7+ as I can find better use of the serial port than the parallel port. I recently tested an HP 822C inkjet printer with the stock TI parallel interface and it worked pretty much perfectly, with the exception that when the print "job" was done the printer was left with the last page sticking half-out.

[Mirage]

Where would one buy a nanoPEB? Are they still available?

I did find this, which seems to be the official site, but I see no link to purchase:

http://webpages.charter.net/nanopeb/

Edited by Mirage, Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:13 AM.

[rocky007]

i still have in stock, if interested

[Mirage]

rocky007, on Tue Nov 22, 2011 7:29 AM, said:

i still have in stock, if interested

Are you the creator of them, or someone else? How much are they? I can't find any info on them whatsoever. Let me know, thanks!

[rocky007]

i'm not the creator, i resell it for the price i bought it ( it's brand new ) just give me a day to check that

Edited by rocky007, Tue Nov 22, 2011 5:27 PM.

[Mirage]

I did just find it on ebay, just not listed explicitly as NanoPEB: item 200678091431

I'm not 100% certain this is really a "need" I have yet But it seems like the sort of thing I should pick up while I still can!

[rocky007]

ok, i found the price : it was 50 US$
( nanopeb V.1 with RS232 )

[Mirage]

rocky007, on Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:17 AM, said:

ok, i found the price : it was 50 US$
( nanopeb V.1 with RS232 )

The one on ebay is $30 + $7 ship + $10 power = $47 shipped. Or of oourse only $37 shipped without the PS.

After playing with the TI again last night for awhile, maybe I'll just stick with carts. It's an interesting machine, but I'm not so sure anymore I'd really have any use for a NanoPEB with it...

So instead of derailing this NanoPEB thread.... what uses do all of you have for the NanoPEB? What are your favorite things to do with it (specifically, software-wise). I can see if you're into TI coding/development, but beyond that, is there that much interesting disk-based or RAM-requiring software that would make a non-development user interested in having/using it? Thoughts!

Also, what is this "TF" cart referenced in the above posts?

Edited by Mirage, Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:05 AM.

[rocky007]

i can't do better, it's the price i bought it in jan 2011.

Honnestly, nanoPEB is really interesting, it's cheap and so powerful. but strangely, even if it's a great device, i still prefer to use my old 5"25 disks drive ( without good reason )... maybe the sound of PEbox's fan relax me

if you don't have 32ko memory expansion yet, Nanopeb is a must have.

[Mirage]

rocky007, on Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:10 AM, said:

i can't do better, it's the price i bought it in jan 2011.

Honnestly, nanoPEB is really interesting, it's cheap and so powerful. but strangely, even if it's a great device, i still prefer to use my old 5"25 disks drive ( without good reason )... maybe the sound of PEbox's fan relax me

if you don't have 32ko memory expansion yet, Nanopeb is a must have.

I understand, no big deal, thanks for the offer, I was just saying that's what the current price is.

Looking for ideas on the sorts of things people are using it for... whether that be games that require the nanoPEB resources (RAM, disk emulation etc), or applications, and so on. I'm not familiar at all with TI-specific software at all, other than the 70-odd carts I have.

[rocky007]

oh yes, i checked the ebay page, you're right.. price is down from 59 US$ to 29 US$ ...no luck for me

it's many good games & utilities that requires ( or works better with ) 32ko RAM expansion. Disk emulation is just a question of confort, especially if you download image from internet and need to transfert to the TI

[Willsy]

You're probably better off with an emulator on your PC. I would suggest classic99 - it's free, works really well, and you get a fully expanded TI-99/4A with 1 MB memory expansion card on your PC.

[Mirage]

Thanks. I've found a bunch of websites now that have disk images on them. I think I've seen enough to know that if I can get a nanoPEB for a good price, it would be worth having.

The only thing that bothers me is that the special software needed to transfer files to the CF is DOS, so I'd have to go into DOS/Windows, but that sort of thing is to be expected with smaller projects like this, and I guess I'd just transfer most stuff at once and be done with it, so no big deal.

I messaged the ebay guy to see if he has any more, since that one sold.

[Mirage]

Willsy, on Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:20 AM, said:

You're probably better off with an emulator on your PC. I would suggest classic99 - it's free, works really well, and you get a fully expanded TI-99/4A with 1 MB memory expansion card on your PC.

I already have everything else... 3 TI units, 70+ carts, joysticks, joystick adapter, all the various cables, 2 speech synthesizers... I'm all in pretty much, just would need the nanoPEB. As for emulation, I generally prefer to use and experience actual hardware. Emulation doesn't do much for me unless it's unreasonable to get the real hardware, or it's for certain systems that I just don't care enough about the real hardware to own, like Genesis, SNES. Otherwise... real hardware, the full experience for me! Thanks for the suggestion though.

[MoreBITS]

Mirage, on Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:24 AM, said:

Willsy, on Thu Nov 24, 2011 8:20 AM, said:

You're probably better off with an emulator on your PC. I would suggest classic99 - it's free, works really well, and you get a fully expanded TI-99/4A with 1 MB memory expansion card on your PC.

I already have everything else... 3 TI units, 70+ carts, joysticks, joystick adapter, all the various cables, 2 speech synthesizers... I'm all in pretty much, just would need the nanoPEB. As for emulation, I generally prefer to use and experience actual hardware. Emulation doesn't do much for me unless it's unreasonable to get the real hardware, or it's for certain systems that I just don't care enough about the real hardware to own, like Genesis, SNES. Otherwise... real hardware, the full experience for me! Thanks for the suggestion though.

Do you need your second Speech Synthesizer, or would you sell it?