The comp.sys.apple2 Usenet newsgroup Apple II FAQs originate from the II Computing Apple II site, 1997-2012. Csa2 FAQs resource file: R022TRKSTAR.TXT TrackStar Questions & Answers Note: To correctly view tables and diagrams on a super-res display, use a mono-spaced Font such as CoPilot or PCMononspaced. ____________________________ TrackStar Questions & Answers (last revised: 24 February 2003) by Bill Whitson, Michael Kelsey, Wayne Stewart, Bryan G. Villados, Richard A. Cini, Jr., Bart Prine, Jeff Hurlburt What is a TrackStar? A TrackStar is a single board Apple 2 computer that plugs into a PC Clone with at least one ISA slot or into an IBM PS/2 computer. With this board (and an A2 disk drive) a PC can run Apple II software. Evidently, four Trackstars were produced: Trackstar 64 Trackstar 128 (can upgrade to a Trackstar E via a field upgrade kit) Trackstar E Trackstar Plus (for IBM PS/2 Models 25, 25/286, 30, 30/286) Based upon an earlier Trackstar FAQs by Bill Whitson, and some moderately ambiguous Diamond press releases, it appears that the '64 mimics an unenhanced Apple IIe; whereas the '128 works like an unenhanced IIe with an extra 64k. The 'E and the 'Plus mimic an enhanced Apple //e. Rubywand ____________________________ From: TrackStar FAQ v1.3.1 (5/15/97) by Bill Whitson How compatible is it? Given that I've not found any software that it won't run I would have to say it's very compatible. It has a strange bug that sometimes causes programs to display on a slightly compressed screen. Can it transfer files Apple <-> PC Yep. It works great for that. I used to use it to make disk images of A2 disks on my PC. How much is it worth? How much do you want to pay? I saw one go for $50 US not too long ago (in '93). They had a suggested retail price of $445 when they were last sold back in 1988. What do I need to run a TrackStar? You need a PC or clone with a free 8bit ISA slot, a 360K 5.25" floppy drive, and a MGA, CGA, or Composite monitor. The 8bit slot must allow for a full length card and the motherboard under the front extension of the card must be clear to within 3mm of the surface (the card extends down- ward). What do I need for a floppy drive? The TrackStar can use either a PC compatible 360K 5.25" PC compatible floppy drive or an Apple Disk II (Unidisks may work, but this has not been verified). If you're using a PC floppy, the drive should be a TEAC for the most reliable operation. Other brands will also work, but may not be as reliable and some will not work at all. What operating systems will it work with? Seems to work well with MS DOS from v3.2 to v6.22. Later versions require a setver entry set to 3.3. Will also work with OS/2 2.x in DOS mode. Doesn't seem to work with Windows 95 even in DOS mode. What did the TrackStar originally come with? Well, the 128 came with: 1 5.25" driver disk 1 manual 1 video cable 1 disk cable 1 keyboard overlay 1 resistor pack What's the latest driver version? For the 128 it appears to be v6.2.3. I assume the other models use a different driver scheme but I've only seen my 128 and 2 others. I have tried for two years to get permission from Diamond Multimedia to distribute TrackStar software and documentation to people who need it. Since I have now been told by them that they did not make the TrackStar I've made the software and docs available by FTP at 140.142.225.27 in /pub/trackstar. The files for the Trackstar 128 are ... TS128.621.zip TrackStar 128 drivers v6.2.1 TS128.622.zip TrackStar 128 drivers v6.2.2 TS128.623.zip TrackStar 128 drivers v6.2.3 TS128.overlay.zip TrackStar 128 keyboard overlay TS128.manual.zip TrackStar 128 manual for in .pdf TS.faq This FAQ I just got a Trackstar board with no accessories... It would seem you're not alone. You'll also be missing the manual, RGB monitor cable, and PC disk interface cable. You don't need the RGB cable if you're going to use the a composite monitor and you don't need the PC disk interface cable if you're going to use an Apple drive. Posted on Csa2 by me@here.com ! ____________________________ What are the connections for a CGA video cable to the molex connector on the TrackStar E? The cable has an 8-pin female molex connector going to a 9-pin Dsub9 male plug. -key- 1 2 3 4 5 ]oooooooo[ ' ' ' ' ' 87654321 ' ' ' ' 6 7 8 9 (connectors viewed from front) Molex Dsub9 on TS to PC CGA video output 1* - - - - - 1 Ground 2 - - - - - - 7 Reserved 3 - - - - - - 3 Red 4 - - - - - - 4 Green 5 - - - - - - 5 Blue 6 - - - - - - 6 Intensity 7 - - - - - - 8 Horizontal Drive 8 - - - - - - 9 Vertical Drive *Pin 1 is usually marked "1" on the circuit board. Pin2 of the Dsub9 has no connection. There's also a ground wire that goes to the outside of the Dsub9 plug. Pins as viewed looking at the front (chip side) of the board: _____________________________ --- keyway --- | . . . . . . . . | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | | Wayne Stewart 11 March 2001 ____________________________ Where can I buy a Trackstar? Emerald City Sales http://www.ahhz.com/ eBay http://www.ebay.com/ Haggle http://www.haggle.com/ Comp.sys.apple2.marketplace newsgroup news:comp.sys.apple2.marketplace Rubywand ____________________________ Where can I find more info/documentation? Contact Emerald City Sales ( http://www.ahhz.com/ ). In 1999 they were still selling a set of Xeroxed sheets from the Trackstar E manual for abound $10 - $15. Richard A. Cini, Jr.'s Trackstar Page http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/trackstar.htm http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/zips/tstar_info.zip The Mac Geek ( Bryan G. Villados ) Trackstar Page http://www.macgeek.org/museum/trackstarplus/ GS WorldView's archive http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Docs/ Rubywand ____________________________ Where can I download Trackstar utility software? Emerald City Sales http://www.ahhz.com/ GS WorldView's archive http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Utils/ Richard A. Cini, Jr.'s Trackstar Page http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/zips/tstar_info.zip Also see Q/A "What is the status of TrackStar support software?" below. Rubywand ____________________________ What kinds disks can a TrackStar use? TrackStar can use several kinds of disks and virtual disks (files on your PC that TrackStar treats like disks). On most TrackStar setups, a user will be able to access ... o- regular Apple II 5.25" diskettes via an attached Apple II disk drive which can be set for Slot 6, Drive 1 or Slot 6, Drive 2 (using the tsutilit.com utility). o- at least one virtual hard disk (up to 10MB in size) created via tsutilit.com and assigned to Slot 7. The virtual hard disk will, typically have a name ending with ".hd1". o- virtual "trackstore" disks. These are actually 260k files with names ending in ".app", such as startup1.app. TrackStar can access trackstore files as 140k DOS 3.3 or ProDOS disks at Slot 6, Drive 1 and/or Slot 6, Drive 2. o- 5.25" diskettes in PC drives. This requires a special connector and, generally, the presence of older PC 5.25" drives. Rubywand ____________________________ How do I connect an Apple Disk][ drive to my Trackstar E? Trackstar E can connect to a Disk ][ drive having the ribbon type cable with a 20-pin connector block on the end. According to the Trackstar E manual, you connect the cable to the pins at J4. The colored stripe on the cable must be on the left as you face the Trackstar board. Rubywand ____________________________ How do I use trackstore 'disks'? Here are some 'nice to know' things about trackstore "disks": o- The terms "disk" and "drive" become a bit mixed up when talking about trackstore disks. Actually, TrackStar generally treats a trackstore disk like a Disk ][ drive which has a 140k diskette inserted-- i.e. a drive + diskette. o- You can have any number of trackstore (.app) disk files. These can be created using tsutilit.com or you can duplicate an .app file by copying and renaming-- easy on your PC using a utility such as Xtree. o- All of the trackstore disks (.app files) which you want to be available for use should be in the same PC drive and folder as your other TrackStar files. Usually, this will be a folder named "TS", "TStar", etc. on your PC's C: hard drive. o- The TrackStar 'Help' menu accessed by pressing F1 followed by ESC, lets you freely swap in whatever trackstore disk you like as the Slot 6, Drive 1 or Slot 6, Drive 2 disk so long as the particular Slot 6 drive has already been set up (via tsutilit.com) as a drive which uses trackstore disks. o- Tsutilit.com lets you set up your drives so that you can boot from a trackstore disk. This is very handy for getting a TrackStar system 'up' and going when little useful software is available on regular Apple II diskette. Trackstore disk files with good file handling utilities, etc. can be downloaded, unzipped and moved into your TrackStar stuff folder. These 'disks' can be booted or used to get programs onto your TrackStar's virtual hard disk (or moved to an actual Apple II diskette). o- By default, when you start Trackstar it will try to boot a trackstore disk (.app file) named "startup" something-- e.g. "startup1.app". To have a choice of trackstore disks to boot from after starting star.com, you must remove trackstore (.app) files named "startup1", etc.. from your TrackStar stuff folder. (You can move them to some other folder or rename them to some name besides "startup". Rubywand ____________________________ Where can I get ready-to-go trackstore 'disks'? You can find a couple Trackstore images in .zip form on some popular Apple II archives. One, dosutils.app, is a bootable 'DOS 3.3' diskette with several utilities. The other, pdutils.app is a bootable ProDOS diskette with DSK2FILE v4.3, Block Warden, Shrinkit v3.4, and Copy II Plus. Look for the files at ... GS WorldView's archive http://apple2.org.za/gswv/a2zine/Utils/ Rubywand ____________________________ What is the status of TrackStar support software? Emerald City Sales package For at least the Trackstar E and, possibly, earlier Trackstars, the utilities made available by Emerald City Sales (870-743-3872; http://www.ahhz.com/ ) work reasonably well. One problem (for 'E' board users) is that the chief config utility, tsutilit.com, is for the Plus version TrackStar. This may affect having a second virtual hard disk and possibly affect the color/mono option. Otherwise, this tsutilit.com has worked fine for setting up drives, creating trackstore disks, and other important tasks on the TrackStar E boards everyone seems to be experimenting with. Star.com seems to work fine, too. The startup1 trackstore disk you get from EC is, evidently, totally empty-- in fact, it is not even formatted. A bootable startup1-- file startup1.app-- has been sent to EC; so, maybe this has changed. (You do not need to have a startup1 disk in order to use your Trackstar.) The File Transfer utility is used for transferring files to-from the PC part of your system and the Apple II part. It seems to work fine. Trackstar E v1.3 (1988) package This was made available by Art Luna. It includes an improved tsutilit.com which makes more options available at startup. Trackstar 128 package This was made available by Mike "Moose" O'Malley. Rubywand ____________________________ Someone said I need to add a video output adjustment. How do I do this? I got a TrackStar E and plugged it into our old PC. It seems to be booting a diskette okay from an attacked Disk ][ drive; but, the composite video doesn't give any kind of display on a monitor I know is good. When installing a TrackStar E, it was a chap to discover that composite video from the board would not work with either of our composite monitors-- i.e. an Amdek Color-1 and a surplus B/W monitor. The monitor displays indicated that the video level from TrackStar's composite output was probably too high. On an Apple II+, this would be no special problem because there is a mini-pot to adjust the video output level. If either monitor had an adjustment for video level input, it would not be a problem, either. A check of the TrackStar board revealed that composite video comes from the emitter of a transistor connected to ground via a 75 Ohm resistor. So; the level is fixed. This output goes through a small RF choke to the RCA socket on the back of the board. The cure is to replace the 75 Ohm resistor with a pot. If you run into a similar problem using a composite monitor with your TrackStar E, here are step-by-step directions for swapping in a Video Output adjustment ... 1. On the back of the board, find the trace going to the 75 Ohm resistor and the choke. (The choke is close to the RCA socket. The 75 Ohm resistor is near the choke.) Cut the portion of the trace going to the choke. 2. De-solder and remove the 75 Ohm resistor. (You can snip it off if you like.) 3. On a 200-300 Ohm potentiometer-- I used a, roughly, 250 Ohm mini-pot-- connect three leads. (The length of the leads depends upon whether you have some place on the back of the PC to mount the pot or just plan to put some tape around the pot and let it flop around near the board. I don't know how long the leads can be before noise pickup is a problem. It seems like a good idea to keep length within about 8" or so.) Use three different color wires-- say White, Green, Black. Viewing the pot from the back, connect White to the Left tab, Green to the middle tab, and Black to the right tab. (Mainly, the Green wire needs to be on the middle tab.) 4. Solder the Green wire to the end of the choke which used to be connected to the 75 Ohm resistor-- i.e. the end _not_ going to the RCA socket. Solder the White wire to the place the 75 Ohm resistor used to be connected which used to connect to the choke before the trace to the choke was cut-- i.e. this is the point which goes to the emitter of a nearby transistor. Solder the Black wire to the other place the 75 Ohm resistor used to be connected. This is the Ground end. Note: Mixing up the White and Black leads is okay. The only reason for connecting them a certain way is so that a clockwise turn of the pot = increased Video Output. The circuit you end up with looks like this ... |---- Pot / _______ White_____________/ emitter of transistor Z Z Z <----- Green -----------UUUUUUUUU-------- to RCA socket center pin Z Choke Composite Video Output Z_______ Black____ | _|_ Ground 5. Insert the board. Find some place safe to mount the pot or let it sit so no leads or metal parts touch any circuit. Connect the monitor and power up the computer. Start TrackStar and adjust the pot and monitor for a good display. Note: This gives a good B/W display. So far, I have not gotten any color output from our Trackstar E. Rubywand ____________________________ Ref. Pentium-class workstation internal cache and ThunderClock emulation Some more news on the TrackStar E front. If you have a Pentium class workstation or faster, disable the internal cache. I now get video and the Apple drive "clatters" on Apple reboot. The ThunderClock emulation is fully ThunderClock Plus compatible. I ran my utility disk and, guess what, IT CONFIGURED MY PC'S TIME AND DATE! ALT-ESC toggles between DOS and //e emulation. In DOS mode, I set the time and date correctly and switced back. The ThunderClock Plus software immediately recognized the changes and sync'd to it. Michael Kelsey 20 February 1999 ____________________________ Ref. Using a composite color monitor and and using a PC CGA monitor It seems to be quite common that several TrackStar E's output a bit different composite signal than a typical composite monitor expects. I just tested with a composite monitor this last Friday (an Amiga model) and nothing appeared. Everything remains consistent on the CGA front, though. It would appear the ideal setup is to retain a CGA monitor for the TrackStar E, at least until we have an opportunity to test the true TrackStar E software. Michael Kelsey 7 March 1999 This fits with the info listed in a Trackstar E press release. The 'E is supposed to support IBM MDA, Hercules, and CGA-compatible monitors as well as EGA and TTL VGA when used with a multisync monitor. Rubywand