HEXTIr - TI HexBus SD Drive

[Adrian Graham]

> On 29 Oct 2017, at 17:14, Jim Brain via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> In case anyone has a fondness for niche tech...
> 
> At VCF-SE this year, the TI folks had a great exhibit, and perusing it I saw an unfamiliar machine, the TI CC-40 (Compact Computer-40).  While I was investigating, the exhibitor (MillipedeMan aka Mark), told me the machines were frustrating to use, as TI only supported one communications method on the unit, a proprietary protocol called HexBus, and produced very low quantities of very few peripherals that work on the bus. Most frustratingly, they never producing a mass storage device in any appreciable quantity, and there was no other way to save programs written on the unit.
> 
> Mark did note there was an eBay seller liquidating units, so I bought a 2 unit combo from eBay before I left the show.
> 
> Sadly, Summer happened, but I was finally able to get to the unit, and started working on an SD-based mass storage device for the unit.  It was an interesting journey to learn a new protocol.
> 
> The (development in progress) result is HEX-TI-r, the HexBus SD drive:
> 
> GitHub source code is here: https://github.com/go4retro/HEXTIr
> 
> Video of unit operating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX5ahVCRdvM
> 
> I don't have a project page up yet, but will work on that.

Wow! Many years ago I bought a CC-40 on ebay for pennies, boxed NOS. I forgot about it for over a decade and found it again recently looking for other things, this could be an excuse to get it out and see if it still works :)

Cheers,

—
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs - Celebrating Computing History from 1972 onwards