11 Jun
2023
11 Jun
'23
1:29 a.m.
Well, I've got the Greaseweazle software to run, but I don't know why,
which is hardly encouraging.
Installing various Windows updates, downloading .dlls, and puting the
latter in various directories changed the error messages but it never
actually worked. But downloading the latest Greaseweazle software did,
it ran first time. So no idea what I was doing wrong (maybe 32 bit
.vs. 64 bit Windows applications?)
I can now get the list of commands when I run gw.exe. And can get help
on them using the -h option. I've not tried connecting a drive yet,
but the software can find and talk to the board (the green 'activity'
LED turns on). For example 'gw rpm' which is used to check the drive
speed by timing the index pulses times out and gives a 'no index'
error which seems entrely reasonable.
However I am not sure if I'll be able to use it. There is one very
important thing missing : DOCUMENTATION. The 'wikii' on github is
ridiculously incomplete. There is no user manual or man pages. The
software source in python (a language I've never used) has very few
comments and is not clear at all.
It's not clear to me exactly what all the options are for, and when to use them.
-tony
11 Jun
11 Jun
1:56 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 9:29 AM Tony Duell via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
However I am not sure if I'll be able to use it.
There is one very
important thing missing : DOCUMENTATION. The 'wikii' on github is
ridiculously incomplete. There is no user manual or man pages. The
software source in python (a language I've never used) has very few
comments and is not clear at all.
It's not clear to me exactly what all the options are for, and when to use
them.
-tony
I also got one ion the hope I'd be able to read a 1.44MB dos floppy that
may or may not have some useful software on it.
It installed and ran without issue on Linux but, like Tony, I'm finding the
documentation a bit short. And I don't know much python either though I do
find it fairly readable.
I have tried the examples that do exist and they work as described. It's
not clear though yet how to proceed though in the simplest case I think it
has provided me with a 1.44MB image of a test floppy. Using it for non-DOS
floppies may be more difficult but the main reason I'm unsure is that it's
fairly quiet about what it does and I don't know yet how much recovery work
it's done unbidden. I do believe the greaseweazle firmware includes some of
the retry mechanism and may 'just work'. Note that the test floppy I'm
using is easily readable.
However, while I was waiting for the board, I looked around for software
and as well as that recommended by the designer I also found some called
fluxengine. This was written for a different adapter - actually a Cyprus
dev board connected directly to a floppy socket, not a custom board, but it
supports the greaseweazle adapter and only lose part of the functionality.
I haven't investigated the documentation on that yet but it's very well
presented and I have hopes that I wil be able to use it too. I'd recommend
looking at it - it was very little trouble to get working. I didn't try it
on Windows but it has support for that.
https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine
I think there were a couple of recommendations for greaseweazle here so I
guess someone's found it useful before. I'm interested in any hints - if
you send any to tony please cc me.
Although Tony seems to have resolved his Windows problems, it did occur to
me that this could be paired with a raspberry pi or clone to make a
self-contained device with little cost or effort.
-adrian
2:07 a.m.
Further on the greaseweazle docs - there is a forum at
https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle/discussions which seems quite lively
and may be the right place to start.
On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 9:56 AM Adrian Godwin <artgodwin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 9:29 AM Tony Duell via cctalk
<
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
However I am not sure if I'll be able to use
it. There is one very
important thing missing : DOCUMENTATION. The 'wikii' on github is
ridiculously incomplete. There is no user manual or man pages. The
software source in python (a language I've never used) has very few
comments and is not clear at all.
It's not clear to me exactly what all the options are for, and when to
use them.
-tony
I also got one ion the hope I'd be able to read a 1.44MB dos floppy that
may or may not have some useful software on it.
It installed and ran without issue on Linux but, like Tony, I'm finding
the documentation a bit short. And I don't know much python either though I
do find it fairly readable.
I have tried the examples that do exist and they work as described. It's
not clear though yet how to proceed though in the simplest case I think it
has provided me with a 1.44MB image of a test floppy. Using it for non-DOS
floppies may be more difficult but the main reason I'm unsure is that it's
fairly quiet about what it does and I don't know yet how much recovery work
it's done unbidden. I do believe the greaseweazle firmware includes some of
the retry mechanism and may 'just work'. Note that the test floppy I'm
using is easily readable.
However, while I was waiting for the board, I looked around for software
and as well as that recommended by the designer I also found some called
fluxengine. This was written for a different adapter - actually a Cyprus
dev board connected directly to a floppy socket, not a custom board, but it
supports the greaseweazle adapter and only lose part of the functionality.
I haven't investigated the documentation on that yet but it's very well
presented and I have hopes that I wil be able to use it too. I'd recommend
looking at it - it was very little trouble to get working. I didn't try it
on Windows but it has support for that.
https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine
I think there were a couple of recommendations for greaseweazle here so I
guess someone's found it useful before. I'm interested in any hints - if
you send any to tony please cc me.
Although Tony seems to have resolved his Windows problems, it did occur to
me that this could be paired with a raspberry pi or clone to make a
self-contained device with little cost or effort.
-adrian
2:29 a.m.
Sorry to drip-feed this, but
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Rescuing_Floppy_Disks is a useful
source on comparing various methods. It's clear that this type of interface
has particularly strong support on Apple due to their previous use of
non-IBM formats, and Amiga is also quite common (I think that's where
greaseweazle started).
7:17 a.m.
On 6/11/23 02:29, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote:
Sorry to drip-feed this, but
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Rescuing_Floppy_Disks is a useful
source on comparing various methods. It's clear that this type of interface
has particularly strong support on Apple due to their previous use of
non-IBM formats, and Amiga is also quite common (I think that's where
greaseweazle started).
Fundamentally, it seems to me that they're all the same basic hardware,
timing intervals between flux transitions.
So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
--Chuck
7:44 a.m.
Fundamentally, it seems to me that they're all the
same basic hardware,
timing intervals between flux transitions.
So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
I could make a stupid comment and ask 'what's the difference between a
PDP8, PDP11, PERQ or HP9830?'. Apart from having finite memory, all
are (I believe) equivalent to a Turing machine.
But more seriously when I started asking about writing images to
floppy disks, I asked what options were available and what I'd need.
Apart from the (IMHO) stupid suggestion of a 1990's PC compatible, the
only thing that was mentioned to me was the Greaseweazle. Nobody
pointed me at web sites giving comparisons between the various methods
and devices.
-tony
8:21 a.m.
On 2023-06-11 8:44 a.m., Tony Duell via cctalk wrote:
A: the blinking lights.
But more seriously when I started asking about writing images to
Fundamentally,
it seems to me that they're all the same basic hardware,
timing intervals between flux transitions.
So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
I could make a stupid comment and ask 'what's the difference between a
PDP8, PDP11, PERQ or HP9830?'. Apart from having finite memory, all
are (I believe) equivalent to a Turing machine.
floppy disks, I asked what options were available and
what I'd need.
Apart from the (IMHO) stupid suggestion of a 1990's PC compatible, the
only thing that was mentioned to me was the Greaseweazle. Nobody
pointed me at web sites giving comparisons between the various methods
and devices.
-tony
I would of thought the AMIGA would have a say here,
as it reads a disk track as just a bunch of flux transitions.
Ben.
9:43 a.m.
On 6/11/23 08:21, ben via cctalk wrote:
I would of thought the AMIGA would have a say here,
as it reads a disk track as just a bunch of flux transitions.
Other than the FBGA-equipped ones (e.g. Catweasel Mk 3-4) and a few
others, all basically use the same "timer capture" facility in all but
the most basic MCUs. For writing, one can, similarly, use the
timer-based PWM facilities in the same chips.
Other than timer clock rate and local RAM, they're pretty much the same
from a hardware standpoint. I doubt that one can say that across the
entire PDP-11 line.
My own implementations use an 84 MHz timer clock (prescaling selected)
with HF noise filtering and 192KB of local memory. Most of my analysis
is done in the MCU, not relying on any PC/Apple host. No need for USB,
(although I use it for speed and include an option to run using a UART)
a dumb terminal would suffice for interface. Since the MCU includes a
NIC, one could conceivable run it from a smartphone.
--Chuck
12 Jun
12 Jun
6:06 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 09:21:52AM -0600, ben via cctalk wrote:
[...]
I would of thought the AMIGA would have a say here, as
it reads a disk
track as just a bunch of flux transitions.
The Amiga has a choice of two fixed clock rates, both of which happen to
correspond with common DD disk formats of the day. A (digital) PLL is used
to nudge the frequency to synchronise with the incoming flux transitions
when reading, but that's to handle wow and flutter, not formats using a
different clock.
This is sufficiently-limiting that the Amiga cannot use standard HD drives,
but needs a special drive which drops to 150RPM when HD media is inserted so
that the clock speed remains the same.
11 Jun
11 Jun
11:07 p.m.
Is it really necessary to be always so confrontational? It is unpleasant.
On Sun, 11 June 2023, 10:44 pm Tony Duell via cctalk, <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Fundamentally,
it seems to me that they're all the same basic hardware,
timing intervals between flux transitions.
So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
I could make a stupid comment and ask 'what's the difference between a
PDP8, PDP11, PERQ or HP9830?'. Apart from having finite memory, all
are (I believe) equivalent to a Turing machine.
But more seriously when I started asking about writing images to
floppy disks, I asked what options were available and what I'd need.
Apart from the (IMHO) stupid suggestion of a 1990's PC compatible, the
only thing that was mentioned to me was the Greaseweazle. Nobody
pointed me at web sites giving comparisons between the various methods
and devices.
-tony
12 Jun
12 Jun
2:50 a.m.
It is called feedback - directly given but fair and polite.
Delays, filtering, non-linearities, distortion, etc reduce its effectiveness.
Martin
PS I shall omit, as unnecessary, a discourse on the benefits of feedback
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Hunter via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: 12 June 2023 07:08
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Cc: Tom Hunter <ccth6600(a)gmail.com>
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Greaseweazle part 2
Is it really necessary to be always so confrontational? It is unpleasant.
On Sun, 11 June 2023, 10:44 pm Tony Duell via cctalk, <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Fundamentally,
it seems to me that they're all the same basic
hardware, timing intervals between flux transitions.
So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
I could make a stupid comment and ask 'what's the difference between a
PDP8, PDP11, PERQ or HP9830?'. Apart from having finite memory, all
are (I believe) equivalent to a Turing machine.
But more seriously when I started asking about writing images to
floppy disks, I asked what options were available and what I'd need.
Apart from the (IMHO) stupid suggestion of a 1990's PC compatible, the
only thing that was mentioned to me was the Greaseweazle. Nobody
pointed me at web sites giving comparisons between the various methods
and devices.
-tony
4:58 a.m.
On Mon, Jun 12, 2023 at 7:08 AM Tom Hunter via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Is it really necessary to be always so confrontational? It is unpleasant.
Could you please indicate exactly which statement in my original
message you object to?
[And please don't top-post. It's annoying]
-tony
On Sun, 11 June 2023, 10:44 pm Tony Duell via cctalk, <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
> > Fundamentally, it seems to me that they're all the same basic hardware,
> > timing intervals between flux transitions.
> >
> > So other than the soaftware, what's the difference?
>
> I could make a stupid comment and ask 'what's the difference between a
> PDP8, PDP11, PERQ or HP9830?'. Apart from having finite memory, all
> are (I believe) equivalent to a Turing machine.
>
> But more seriously when I started asking about writing images to
> floppy disks, I asked what options were available and what I'd need.
> Apart from the (IMHO) stupid suggestion of a 1990's PC compatible, the
> only thing that was mentioned to me was the Greaseweazle. Nobody
> pointed me at web sites giving comparisons between the various methods
> and devices.
>
> -tony
>
24 Jun
24 Jun
11:10 p.m.
Still trying to make sense of this thing.
The problem is that one very important thing is missing. I refer to
DODUMENTATION. I don't fall for this modern rubbish that a product
with a thin manual is easy to use. No, the thicker the manual the
better. It will probablt answr my questions. But the Greaseweazle has
no documentation at all other than the built-in help, (which is what
I'd expect, a reminder of the options if you know the product and
can't remember the exact term used to, say, check the drive speed).
If I type 'gw' at a command prompt I get the following, which at
least gives the options.
------------------------------
C:\classic_computer\greaseweazle\greaseweazle-1.13>gw
Usage: gw [--time] [action] [-h] ...
--time Print elapsed time after action is executed
-h, --help Show help message for specified action
Actions:
info Display information about the Greaseweazle setup.
read Read a disk to the specified image file.
write Write a disk from the specified image file.
convert Convert between image formats.
erase Erase a disk.
clean Clean a drive in a zig-zag pattern using a cleaning disk.
seek Seek to the specified cylinder.
delays Display (and optionally modify) drive-delay parameters.
update Update the Greaseweazle device firmware to latest (or
specified) version.
pin Change the setting of a user-modifiable interface pin.
reset Reset the Greaseweazle device to power-on default state.
bandwidth Report the available USB bandwidth for the Greaseweazle device.
rpm Measure RPM of drive spindle.
-------------------------
I can basically understand that
So lets see how to write an image to a disk . I type gw write -h and get :
-------------
C:\classic_computer\greaseweazle\greaseweazle-1.13>gw write -h
usage: gw write [options] file
Write a disk from the specified image file.
positional arguments:
file input filename
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--device DEVICE device name (COM/serial port)
--drive DRIVE drive to read (default: A)
--diskdefs DISKDEFS disk definitions file
--format FORMAT disk format
--tracks TSPEC which tracks to write
--pre-erase erase tracks before writing (default: no)
--erase-empty erase empty tracks (default: skip)
--fake-index SPEED fake index pulses at SPEED
--no-verify disable verify
--retries N number of retries on verify failure (default: 3)
--precomp PRECOMP write precompensation
--dd DD drive interface DD/HD select (H,L)
DRIVE: Drive (and bus) identifier:
0 | 1 | 2 :: Shugart bus unit
A | B :: IBM/PC bus unit
SPEED: Track rotation time specified as:
<N>rpm | <N>ms | <N>us | <N>ns | <N>scp | <N>
TSPEC: Colon-separated list of:
c=SET :: Set of cylinders to access
h=SET :: Set of heads (sides) to access
step=[0-9] :: # physical head steps between cylinders
hswap :: Swap physical drive heads
h[01].off=[+-][0-9] :: Physical cylinder offsets per head
SET is a comma-separated list of integers and integer ranges
e.g. 'c=0-7,9-12:h=0-1'
FORMAT options:
acorn.adfs.160 acorn.adfs.1600 acorn.adfs.320
acorn.adfs.640 acorn.adfs.800 acorn.dfs.ds
acorn.dfs.ss akai.1600 akai.800
amiga.amigados amiga.amigados_hd atari.90
atarist.360 atarist.400 atarist.440
atarist.720 atarist.800 atarist.880
coco.decb coco.decb.40t coco.os9.40ds
coco.os9.40ss coco.os9.80ds coco.os9.80ss
commodore.1541 commodore.1571 commodore.1581
dec.rx01 dec.rx02 dragon.40ds
dragon.40ss dragon.80ds dragon.80ss
ensoniq.1600 ensoniq.800 ensoniq.mirage
gem.1600 ibm.1200 ibm.1440
ibm.160 ibm.1680 ibm.180
ibm.2880 ibm.320 ibm.360
ibm.720 ibm.800 ibm.dmf
ibm.scan mac.400 mac.800
mm1.os9.80ds.hd32spt mm1.os9.80ds.hd36spt msx.1d
msx.1dd msx.2d msx.2dd
occ1.dd occ1.sd olivetti.m20
pc98.2d pc98.2dd pc98.2hd
pc98.2hs raw.125 raw.250
raw.500 sci.prophet sega.sf7000
tsc.flex.dsdd tsc.flex.ssdd zx.trdos.640
Supported file suffixes:
.a2r .adf .ads .adm .adl .d64 .d71 .d81 .d88 .dcp .dim
.dsd .dsk .edsk .fdi .hdm .hfe .ima .img .imd .ipf .mgt
.msa .raw .sf7 .scp .ssd .st .td0 .xdf
----------------
And this is where I get lost..
What are all the file suffixes (extensions?) Does the program
determine the file type from that?What does each type of image file
contain as regards metadata?
If I specify a disk format, and there's also metadata giving the same
type of information, which overrides the other? Or is it an error?
What are all the pre-defined formats? What machines do they apply to?
What is the exact definition of each one?
What is a disk definitions file, what is its format?
What are 'shugart bus units' and 'IBM/PC bus units'? As far as I can
tell, the floppy drives on the IBM PC use the normal shugart SA400
interface
Which options do I have to specify for a particular image file type?
If I miss something, is it an error, or is there a default? In the
latter case, what is it?
I found somewhere a comment that certain image types were read only.It
is not clear if this means they can be read by the gw software and
written to a physical disk or that they can only be used with the
'read' option and thus can be created but not read. I suspect the
former, but it is not specified.
There should at least be the equivalent of manpages for this thing.
It's getting to the point where it's going to be quicker for me to
make my own device and learn how to write the software!
-tony
25 Jun
25 Jun
12:29 a.m.
On Jun 24, 2023, at 11:10 PM, Tony Duell via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
And this is where I get lost..
I do not understand your overbearing attitude of helplessness toward this project. I have
known you on many occasions to go to far greater lengths to achieve far deeper
understanding of far more complicated devices. Far less intelligent people than you have
managed somehow to marshal the necessary resources to make useful headway with the damn
thing. The majority of the questions you’re demanding answers to seem to me like the kind
of questions that could be easily answered with about four minutes’ worth of simple
experimentation.
What gives?
ok
bear.
1:43 a.m.
On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 8:31 AM r.stricklin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
It's a combination of things :
I regard the Greaseweazle (or any other similar device) as a tool to
help me to do something which I enjoy -- running classic computers.
While I am happy to spend time improving my skills at using tools, I
do not expect to have to guess at what the designer was doing.
I also want to understand what my tools should be doing. Not what they
seem to have done in the past. Getting some of my classics running is
a big enough ob without having to worry whether or not some missing
option in writing the boot disk image to a real disk has caused that
disk to be mangled. The more I know to be correct, the better. I can
sit down with the Greaseweazle board, the PC, a floppy drive and a
logic analyser and probably find some combination of options that
produces what look to be sensible signals on the Write Data line. But
whether they are sensible signals is a much bigger problem.
Yes, I like solving puzzles. But this shouldn't be a puzzle. If I want
to solve a puzzle about reading and writing arbitrary disk formats the
I'll design my own device to do it.
-tony
On Jun 24, 2023, at 11:10 PM, Tony Duell via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
And this is where I get lost..
I do not understand your overbearing attitude of helplessness toward this project. I have
known you on many occasions to go to far greater lengths to achieve far deeper
understanding of far more complicated devices. Far less intelligent people than you have
managed somehow to marshal the necessary resources to make useful headway with the damn
thing. The majority of the questions you’re demanding answers to seem to me like the kind
of questions that could be easily answered with about four minutes’ worth of simple
experimentation.
1 Nov
1 Nov
4:19 a.m.
An interesting update on greaseweazle. As I understand this it now supports
LIF at the file level as well as at the disc format level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLdqJqJ490
On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 9:43 AM Tony Duell via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 8:31 AM r.stricklin via
cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
this project. I have known you on many occasions to go to far greater
lengths to achieve far deeper understanding of far more complicated
devices. Far less intelligent people than you have managed somehow to
marshal the necessary resources to make useful headway with the damn thing.
The majority of the questions you’re demanding answers to seem to me like
the kind of questions that could be easily answered with about four
minutes’ worth of simple experimentation.
It's a combination of things :
I regard the Greaseweazle (or any other similar device) as a tool to
help me to do something which I enjoy -- running classic computers.
While I am happy to spend time improving my skills at using tools, I
do not expect to have to guess at what the designer was doing.
I also want to understand what my tools should be doing. Not what they
seem to have done in the past. Getting some of my classics running is
a big enough ob without having to worry whether or not some missing
option in writing the boot disk image to a real disk has caused that
disk to be mangled. The more I know to be correct, the better. I can
sit down with the Greaseweazle board, the PC, a floppy drive and a
logic analyser and probably find some combination of options that
produces what look to be sensible signals on the Write Data line. But
whether they are sensible signals is a much bigger problem.
Yes, I like solving puzzles. But this shouldn't be a puzzle. If I want
to solve a puzzle about reading and writing arbitrary disk formats the
I'll design my own device to do it.
-tony
> On Jun 24, 2023, at 11:10 PM, Tony Duell via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
And this is where I get lost..
I do not understand your overbearing attitude of helplessness toward
4:27 a.m.
I should say that that's actually the Fluxengine software in combination
with the Greaseweazle hardware.
On Wed, Nov 1, 2023 at 11:19 AM Adrian Godwin <artgodwin(a)gmail.com> wrote:
An interesting update on greaseweazle. As I understand
this it now
supports LIF at the file level as well as at the disc format level.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLdqJqJ490
On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 9:43 AM Tony Duell via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Sun, Jun 25, 2023 at 8:31 AM r.stricklin via
cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
this project. I have known you on many occasions to go to far greater
lengths to achieve far deeper understanding of far more complicated
devices. Far less intelligent people than you have managed somehow to
marshal the necessary resources to make useful headway with the damn thing.
The majority of the questions you’re demanding answers to seem to me like
the kind of questions that could be easily answered with about four
minutes’ worth of simple experimentation.
It's a combination of things :
I regard the Greaseweazle (or any other similar device) as a tool to
help me to do something which I enjoy -- running classic computers.
While I am happy to spend time improving my skills at using tools, I
do not expect to have to guess at what the designer was doing.
I also want to understand what my tools should be doing. Not what they
seem to have done in the past. Getting some of my classics running is
a big enough ob without having to worry whether or not some missing
option in writing the boot disk image to a real disk has caused that
disk to be mangled. The more I know to be correct, the better. I can
sit down with the Greaseweazle board, the PC, a floppy drive and a
logic analyser and probably find some combination of options that
produces what look to be sensible signals on the Write Data line. But
whether they are sensible signals is a much bigger problem.
Yes, I like solving puzzles. But this shouldn't be a puzzle. If I want
to solve a puzzle about reading and writing arbitrary disk formats the
I'll design my own device to do it.
-tony
> On Jun 24, 2023, at 11:10 PM, Tony Duell via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
And this is where I get lost..
I do not understand your overbearing attitude of helplessness toward
11 Jun
11 Jun
10:11 a.m.
I would have liked to find that comparison site earlier. However I think
I'd still have gone for greaseweazle.
On Sun, 11 Jun 2023, 09:29 Tony Duell via cctalk, <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Well, I've got the Greaseweazle software to run,
but I don't know why,
which is hardly encouraging.
Installing various Windows updates, downloading .dlls, and puting the
latter in various directories changed the error messages but it never
actually worked. But downloading the latest Greaseweazle software did,
it ran first time. So no idea what I was doing wrong (maybe 32 bit
.vs. 64 bit Windows applications?)
I can now get the list of commands when I run gw.exe. And can get help
on them using the -h option. I've not tried connecting a drive yet,
but the software can find and talk to the board (the green 'activity'
LED turns on). For example 'gw rpm' which is used to check the drive
speed by timing the index pulses times out and gives a 'no index'
error which seems entrely reasonable.
However I am not sure if I'll be able to use it. There is one very
important thing missing : DOCUMENTATION. The 'wikii' on github is
ridiculously incomplete. There is no user manual or man pages. The
software source in python (a language I've never used) has very few
comments and is not clear at all.
It's not clear to me exactly what all the options are for, and when to use
them.
-tony
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Adrian Godwin -
ben -
Chuck Guzis -
Martin Bishop -
Peter Corlett -
r.stricklin -
Tom Hunter -
Tony Duell