28 Aug
2021
28 Aug
'21
9:12 p.m.
On 8/27/2021 10:08 PM, Jay Jaeger via cctalk wrote:
JRJ
JRJ
On 8/26/2021 2:51 PM, Jay Jaeger via cctech wrote:
Another update. Without messing with the cable pinouts the fluxengine
will only support a Micropolis drive strapped for DS2 (as fluxengine
drive 0).
I have successfully read a couple of Mod I disks (143KB). But some have
not read very well. Sometimes it goes "off the rails" and says there
are 77 tracks, even when the input config specifies 35. My guess is
that at the least the decoder could probably need some improvement - a
task I am not up for, at present.
On 8/25/2021 5:58 PM, Mike Loewen via cctalk wrote:
The fluxengine almost works with my Micropolis drives - but there are
some problems.
1)? The drive select pins are different.? I am having *some* luck access
one driver of my daisy-chained pair, but not the other.? The fluxengine
setup and/or the drive also seem to get confused when I try to access
the other drive.? I submitted an issue on github for more flexible drive
selection / motor control capability.? One could work around this with
suitable cabing / jumpering.
2)? So far I have not been able to read an entire Mod II disk
successfully - lots of good sectors on two, but not all without errors
on either one.? But I have not tried cleaning the heads on my drives, or
trying the Mod I with different select jumpering.
3) The Micropolis drives are slow stepping, so I added multiple commands
to seek to cylinder 0 to my script - not sure if that is actually
working right.
On Wed, 25 Aug 2021, Dennis Boone via cctalk
wrote:
??? As a few of the signals on the 34-pin
connector are different
than the Shugart layout, I'm considering making up a custom cable and
connecting it to my Catweasel MK4+. I have a utility from Andrew
Lynch called "cwns", which is a modified version of "cw2dmk" to read
Northstar hard-sector (10 SPT) diskettes. I might be able to modify
that to read the VG 16 SPT diskettes, if the 1043-2 will work with
the Catweasel.
>
It will not - but it has nothing to do with the cabling.? I already
tried with my catweasel.? I was able to read flux, but between the
hard sectoring and (possibly) different meta markers for the floppy
sectors, the .scp file is useless.? I just got my Cypress board for a
fluxengine in the mail yesterday, but haven't set it up yet - maybe
tomorrow.? The website for fluxengine indicates it ought to work.
Mike Loewen??????????????? mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology??????????????? http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
JRJ