11 Sep
2012
11 Sep
'12
12:03 a.m.
On Mon, 10 Sep 2012, Chris Tofu wrote: ?
If you want to write software that runs on the Canon, then working through
that would be a place to start.
Good! Then you've got a start on what you bneed to learn.
C: I don't remember exactly,
Either the 1770, 1771, or 1772 (I think
there was a 1772, no?).
OK, so NOT one of their NEC compatible chips.
C: Personally if the dog didn't run StarFlight, it
wasn't any good (i.e
a fake or pseudo compatible). Ok let the record show that I invented the
term "fake compatible" on 9/10/12 at 6:15 pm EST.
duly noted. Are you sure that you are the first?
C: Ok, I have a bunch of NEC APC I disks. I hope to
read them (hope
springs eternal). I have little more then a little hope that they still
work. I'd like to read them on my Canon AS-100. I have NO docs for the
AS-100, and little more then boiler plate for the APC.
Well, I'd recommend starting by getting code working to read them on an
ordinary PC.
C: That's like putting the horse on the cart and pulling it w/my teeth!
Understand I don't even know which drives will WORK on a peecee.
Yep! Any "ordinary" "standard" (HAH!) 8" drive will work. But,
you might
need to try a bunch of controllers to find one that's OK.
? THEN, once
that is working, try to port that code to the
Canon, etc.
C: LOL LOL
?For example, how do you read a sector on the
Canon?
C: I honestly could not tell you.
Does it have an Int13h that is close enough in
calling structure?
C: Beats me Does it have a
similar INT1Eh if you need to change bytes per sector,
etc., or will you need to talk directly to the chip?? WD 179x chips
have a completely different communication than NEC 765 -like chips.
C: That I
could have told anyone > C: I believe I've plugged hd 5 1/4"
drives into my Canon though,
> w/little success. It utilizes both 5" and 8" off the same connector.
Then you need to work on jumpers. Starting with Drive select.
C: somewhere on the order of 10 years ago a guy named
Yogi in California
won a huge motherload of APC docs for 1$. I mean dozens of manuals,
totally unreal. I might have to look him up.
Good. Find him.
C: Wouldn't snooping through the rom code give an
indication of where
sector marks would be positioned? Or am I again exhibiting a total
ignorance of this affair?
No, you're right that it will give you about half of what you need to
know.
The other half is gonna require looking at sectors on the disk, to
determine things such as how many sectors does it have for each copy of
the FAT, etc.
> But, there is nothing stopping you from doing
things such as looking
> where you think directory entries MIGHT be, etc.
C: I wouldn't know where to look. Eyes are going along w/my knees.
Start with a hex dump of a formatted disk with nothing on it, and a hex
dump of a disk with one file, and a hex dump of a disk with lots of files.
aftermarket board/5 1/4" drive set that I have
for it uses a WD chip).
WHICH WD chip? ?I just don't understand why I can never get an
answer to my original
question...
SA 800
All others are just copies of it. (with improvements)