Petsd

[Towmater]

It appears the PetSD is mostly abandoned as well so whatever this weird bug is with some MCU's won't ever get fixed.

Could you not use a Tapduino? I thought the tape drive on a PET was the same interface as a Vic20?

[ngtwolf]

Could you not use a Tapduino? I thought the tape drive on a PET was the same interface as a Vic20?

Absolutely, though I actually modded a commodore tape deck with a 3.5mm jack so I can use that to load tape based games.

This is for loading disk based games.

[dabone]

I'm currently helping test one of these..

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthrea...dy-for-testing

So hopefully they should be available soon. Tiny, host files off the sd card or a web server.

[ngtwolf]

I'm currently helping test one of these..

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthrea...dy-for-testing

So hopefully they should be available soon. Tiny, host files off the sd card or a web server.

That does look interesting, curious what the costs would be. If it's less than the PetSD+, it would be the way to go since the PetSD+ is basically abandonware and a bit buggy.

That said, I basically have my PetSD working so that's good enough for me.. I already put enough money into this computer which has a pretty limited use case over other 8 bit machines of the era so no plans to invest any more in accessories for it. It's no doubt one of the best looking 8 bit machines, but software is definitely lacking.

[tingo]

It appears the PetSD is mostly abandoned as well so whatever this weird bug is with some MCU's won't ever get fixed.

Well, the software / firmware is open source, so if interested people would, they could update it and fix any errors. There are already 4 forks of the software on github, and at least one of them have newer commits than the original. As with any other open source project, if nobody is interested, then it dies / goes stagnant.

[ngtwolf]

Well, the software / firmware is open source, so if interested people would, they could update it and fix any errors. There are already 4 forks of the software on github, and at least one of them have newer commits than the original. As with any other open source project, if nobody is interested, then it dies / goes stagnant.

Yup, absolutely. Though, not everyone is a programmer so not everyone can fix the errors. In fact, the guy who seems to sell PetSD's has an extensive blog on what the issue is but similarly, has no programming ability to fix it.

I remember for the TRS-IO, they kinda relied on you to compile the source and no matter what I did, I couldn't get the dang thing compiled because I didn't have the full compiler environment or the knowledge to track down all the libraries needed (plus only worked with certain compiler environments). Eventually I found the bin file that someone had compiled and was able to flash it an easier way (with a minipro).

In any case, it's working for me just relies on some janky multiple reset approach to get it to work which isn't the end of the world, i guess, since the pet isn't a daily driver for me anyway.

[shirsch]

I'm currently helping test one of these..

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthrea...dy-for-testing

So hopefully they should be available soon. Tiny, host files off the sd card or a web server.

Does it support REL (random record access) files? The original design did not.

[Eudimorphodon]

I'm currently helping test one of these..

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthrea...dy-for-testing

So hopefully they should be available soon. Tiny, host files off the sd card or a web server.

I'm curious, does this new version support the BASIC 4.0 disk access commands (and relative files), or is it still mostly program-loading only using the BASIC 2.0 syntax?

With some luck (fingers crossed) I might be looking for options for PET-compatible storage dingusi that maybe I could integrate directly onto a new-build motherboard soon.

[dave_m]

Right now only SAVE and LOAD commands, but he is looking into adding DOS Wedge shortcut commands. He is also looking into a wifi interface where one can download (LOAD) program files from an internet site. It works in beta testing.

Why would anyone want relative file support? Are there any legacy programs that use them? The biggest name database program is 'Data file Handler' and its only uses .seq files albeit with assembly routines.

[dabone]

Currently it supports the sd card and up to 4 web server drives. I've got my webserver running on a synology with php installed.
Any webserver that supports php should work.