Hello, folks!
Hope you all had a very merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, or whatever you
celebrated! Also, best wishes for the New Year, which will be... in
around two and a quarter hours in my neck of the woods :)
It's been a while since I posted anything related to DiscFerret. Rest
assured, I have not been resting on my laurels (Balrog and Lord
Nightmare have made certain of that!). In fact, I've just released a
shiny new toy for all you DiscFerret owners... Well, two actually!
Microcode Release 0026 and C-API 1.3!
New in these releases...:
- Microcode:
- Added a clock divider to the Data Acquisition core. Now you can
specify how much timing resolution you need -- 80ns (12.5MHz), 40ns
(25MHz), 20ns (50MHz) or the full 10ns (100MHz). When set to 40ns, the
DiscFerret matches the Kryoflux for read speed (84 tracks double-sided
in one minute and 45 seconds). At full resolution, it still only takes
three minutes and 25 seconds to image the same disc.
- Completely rewrote the data sync-word detector. All the ripple
clocks and clock-domain crossings are gone, and the data separator is
FAR more reliable. The capture and lock range is about 20% of the
nominal data rate (!), which is more than adequate for most disc drives.
The sync word may be up to 16 bits long, and can also include "don't
care" bits!
- Miscellaneous fixes to the data separator configuration (it was
set for a 16MHz clock, but provided with a 20MHz clock. Despite this, it
still worked fine!)
- C/C++ API
- Support added for the new clock divider register.
Files are all downloadable from the usual place --
http://www.discferret.com/
(or more specifically:)
http://www.discferret.com/wiki/DiscFerret:Downloads
And you can, as always, browse the source code here --
http://hg.discferret.com/
On the cards for the New Year --
- Work has started on a new, simplified API. This will make its grand
d?but some time in the new year.
- I'm working on improving the accuracy of the INDEX pulse storage
logic. When finished, this will improve the accuracy of INDEX timing
measurements to match the data timing measurements! (This is a minimum
of a factor of 8 improvement over the KryoFlux analyser, and a factor of
128 improvement over the current microcode release!)
Special thanks for this release are due to:
Rich Thomson,
Karsten Scheibler,
Sarayan,
Balrog,
Lord_Nightmare,
... and anyone else I've forgotten!
Thanks!
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
I have powered up the LA36 with the Selenar Graphics board in it, and
>from the information kindly obtained by list members (Byte Magazine
article about the Selenar Graphics II), I have been able to verify that
the unit indeed works. The graphics mode works, and all of the other
features documented in the Byte article seem to function properly.
The issue that I've found is that only 5 of the 7 print pins are
working. Numbered with the top pin as number 1, it is the 3rd and 6th
pins that are either not firing at all, or are jammed such that they
can't come forward enough to make an impression.
I can't find a service manual for this unit online anywhere, so I'm
wondering what the best approach to diagnosis would be. I do have
schematics, but since the unit has a Selenar Graphics II logic board,
I'm not sure how well the schematics will help. Since the Selenar board
replaces the stock logic board, I can safely assume that it retains the
pinouts for the connectors that go from it to the power board that has
the drivers for the solenoids in the printhead. So, I can probably
scope out the drivers to see if they are firing on pin 3 and 6 when
printing characters that require those dots, which I will do when I have
time, but I'm wondering the next step would be if I find that there are
firing pulses coming out of the pin drivers for pin 3 and pin 6.
Obviously, if I find that the pulses aren't being generated, then I have
to dig into the solenoid drivers for these pins and figure out what has
failed and fix it.
If I find that the solenoid drivers are OK, then what should be done
next?
Would it be to remove the printhead and do what Tony suggested, which
would be to use a bench power supply (I have a good Tektronix bench
supply does truly does deliver 0.00V) to try to fire the solenoids to
see if they are gummed up? If so, how do I go about removing the
printhead to do this? Just from looking at things, it looks like I would
have to do a lot of disassembly to get the printhead out of there. Does
the printhead come off separately from the carriage that it rides on, or
do I have to remove the whole carriage assembly?
Any guidance would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick Bensene
Like the Sanyo just yesterday, I have a Compaq SLT/286 portable computer
taking up space. Very nice condition, with power unit, dock, and bag. Any
interest CHEAP? I am located in New York, zip 10512.
Unlike the Sanyo, if there is no interest, I suppose I will just chop this
up.
I am desperately trying to clear out a bedroom to work on it - the bedroom
that ends up being the junk overflow containment chamber. It would
actually be nice to sleep in it sometime.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
I have a PDP 11/03 that used to be part of the startup for an 11/780 at
the University of Arkansas at Fayettville. The 780 has long ago been
scrapped.
So, the 11/03 has the following boards:
M8017-AA : DLV11-E/EC Single-line async control module (Replaces
M8017,M8017-YB) Renamed DLVE1
M7940 : DLV11 Serial Line Unit (SLU, Async)
M7944 : MSV11-B 4-Kword 16-bit MOS RAM
M7946 : RXV11 RX01 8" floppy disk controller
M9400-YE : Bootstrap terminator
I also have the RX01 drive. So, other than media, what other options do
I need to get this running as an 11/03? Where is the best place to get
some basic media images? Is it possible to create boot media on the 8"
drives I have connected to my PC using IMAGEDISK, 22DISK or the
catweasel?
I know a lot of these questions are answered out there, but I've not
seen (yet) a simple step by step to get one of these running.
I have the opportunity to get a couple of memory boards also:
M8044-DB 32K, 16-BIT RAM for LSI-11
M8044-DE 32K, 16-BIT RAM for LSI-11
So, will these work with this 11/03? It seems they will, but I was
looking for verification.
Thanks for any help, and of course the associated "have you tried
googling..." responses.
Kelly
I wouldn't mind moving a few more copies out of this stack of 100 freshly printed books! So I'm knocking $3 off and it's shipped free in the US ($3 off international shipping).
http://www.classiccomputing.com/CC/HB_Book.html
Best,
David Greelish, Computer Historian
- Author, "The Complete Historically Brewed"
- Founder, Atlanta Historical Computing Society
- "Classic Computing Show" podcast
- "Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer" audiobook podcast
- "Retro Computing Roundtable" podcast
ClassicComputing.com | atlhcs.org
Does anyone have the O/S, Applications, and Diagnostice disks for this
ancient IEEE 488 bus controller (Fluke 1720A)? It used a TI 9900
processor if I remember correctly. The operating system was called FDOS-
a custom effort too I think, distributed on three 5 1/4" floppies. This
is no longer available from anywhere or anyone, including Fluke.
Thanks for any help and/or leads.
Geoff
During the ongoing clearout, I've found some full-length EISA
controller cards. By the look of it, there are some SCSI 2 host
adaptors - they have high-density 50-pin connectors on their
backplates - and what might be ESDI controllers.
I don't own any EISA machines any more and am not expecting to, so if
nobody wants these, I will send them to recycling.
Free for the cost of postage. Surface post to the USA/Canada/south
America would not be /too/ prohibitive. They're currently in London.
I've never had any interest in anything on the Vintage Computer boards
& I don't think these are worth eBaying, but if anyone wants to
disseminate this offer, please feel free - including my email and
other contact details in the .sig.
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884
I have been fortunate to acquire a Kaypro system that appears to be in
great condition and looks to work.
It looks exactly like this:
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/Kaypro-I-Micro.htm
Thus, it says Kaypro 1 on the artwork
Still, the sticker on the rear says Kaypro 2, so I'm confused.
In any event, I have no system disks for it (There is a slight
possibility they are part of the stash with which the Kaypro was
bundled, but it's 100 sq ft of stuff). Thus, I'm wondering if there is
a kind soul who might be able to ship me a set of disks. (I'll pay
shipping, of course).
I also am the proud owner of 2 Obsorne machines (one works, the other
seems to have drive issues. They are the redesigned units, but (as I
suspected) the systems disks won't work on the Kaypro.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
A while back, I mentioned that I'd found and potentially fixed the "bricking" problem with the CQD-220.
To recap, for those that werent following, the problem lies in the code for the on-board 8086 when you set the number of both disks and tapes to zero. The 8086, during its routine to load the values from the EEPROM, loads the total number of disks and tapes and executes a loop with a counter predecrement; if the counter is loaded as 0, it effectively runs through the loop 256 times instead of 7 (the max), which spins out of control and blows away some RAM somewhere before crashing.
Fortunately, through a compiler bug or some such, there are 5 bytes available from a totally redundant instruction (loading a value into a register where the same value is already loaded) in just the right place to test the total number of devices and jump to the "uninitialized device table in EEPROM" section of the routine if it is zero. With one byte to spare! (good thing NOP is only a byte in 8086)
This applies to the A7A revision of the ROM, anyway; I haven't gotten to the A8 version yet, though I know it exhibits the same bug. Hopefully it also has the same redundant instruction. In any case, I should be able to find and fix it quickly once I have the time, because I know where to look.
So, here's the thing; I've finally gotten the time to test the fixed ROM image (was temporarily short of 27256 chips, but that's been resolved) and I'd like to get the fixed images somewhere they'll be easy to find if anyone else runs into the same problem (this took me over a year of sporadic attention to fix). Does anyone know where I should post this? There's my own website, which is really not a thing anymore, but there are probably lots of places Google is more likely to find.
Also, are there copyright implications to consider? I know CMD is long gone, but I still worry about these things.
Last thing: does anyone know the difference between the A7A ROM and the A8? I've not found anything different; I assume it's probably an obscure bugfix.
The images are only 64K total, so I shouldn't imagine they'll be bandwidth intensive.
- Dave
