29 Aug
2004
29 Aug
'04
3:09 p.m.
About the best I could do is to snail-mail the ROM to
you. -or- I'll be in San Diego tomorrow - Monday.
That's a very generous offer, but there are two problems ... first I'm
presently in San Bernardino :( and won't be back in San Diego until Sunday,
and only Sunday at that.
The bigger problem, though, is actually getting the capsule out to read it.
I opened up my HHC-4 and dug out the NYL capsules, which I hadn't examined
too closely before. They *seem* to be regular 24-pin EPROMs (with an NYL
sticker conveniently covering the UV window; they're 4K TMS 2532s, for those
interested). The problem is not the chip, which seems to be a regular old
ROM. The problem is that the DIP legs are wrapped *around* the capsule
carrier, and digging the DIP out is probably going to damage the chip. I
could try wiring it into my Jason-Ranheim Promenade, but I don't see much I
could attach the wires to on the capsule side, and soldering leads directly
on to the DIP legs is right out because I'm very worried I would ruin this
first example of this capsule I've ever seen!
Is the BASIC ROM similarly "wrapped" on yours? If it is, perhaps there's
another way of doing this -- some way of reading out the contents of the ROM
using the HHC itself. If you've got the printer, maybe if we could scrabble
some way of printing out a hex dump, assuming this BASIC is halfway sane and
has PEEK and POKE or a moral equivalent. We'd just have to figure out where
in memory, but this is easier than it looks because it would have to start
on a 4K page boundary, meaning we'd only have to glance at 16 possible areas.
If one of them has BASIC keywords, we've found it.
All this to say I would be *very* antsy about damaging a *very* rare ROM
with my relatively novice EE skills, despite the fact I want it *very* much!
--
---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com
-- Five is a sufficiently close approximation to infinity. -- Robert Firth ----
29 Aug
29 Aug
3:09 p.m.
I think I can get the contents, if I can get a look at the ROM.
Contact me directly if it's possible to get the ROM for dumping the
contents.
Mike
On 29 Aug 2004 at 20:09, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
About the best
I could do is to snail-mail the ROM to
you. -or- I'll be in San Diego tomorrow - Monday.
That's a very generous offer, but there are two problems ... first I'm
presently in San Bernardino :( and won't be back in San Diego until Sunday,
and only Sunday at that.
The bigger problem, though, is actually getting the capsule out to read it.
I opened up my HHC-4 and dug out the NYL capsules, which I hadn't examined
too closely before. They *seem* to be regular 24-pin EPROMs (with an NYL
sticker conveniently covering the UV window; they're 4K TMS 2532s, for those
interested). The problem is not the chip, which seems to be a regular old
ROM. The problem is that the DIP legs are wrapped *around* the capsule
carrier, and digging the DIP out is probably going to damage the chip. I
could try wiring it into my Jason-Ranheim Promenade, but I don't see much I
could attach the wires to on the capsule side, and soldering leads directly
on to the DIP legs is right out because I'm very worried I would ruin this
first example of this capsule I've ever seen!
Is the BASIC ROM similarly "wrapped" on yours? If it is, perhaps there's
another way of doing this -- some way of reading out the contents of the ROM
using the HHC itself. If you've got the printer, maybe if we could scrabble
some way of printing out a hex dump, assuming this BASIC is halfway sane and
has PEEK and POKE or a moral equivalent. We'd just have to figure out where
in memory, but this is easier than it looks because it would have to start
on a 4K page boundary, meaning we'd only have to glance at 16 possible areas.
If one of them has BASIC keywords, we've found it.
All this to say I would be *very* antsy about damaging a *very* rare ROM
with my relatively novice EE skills, despite the fact I want it *very* much!
--
---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com
-- Five is a sufficiently close approximation to infinity. -- Robert Firth ----
30 Aug
30 Aug
5:57 a.m.
Rumor has it that Cameron Kaiser may have mentioned these words:
Hrm... that's a different chip than what I have for them - Motorola MCM
68764C and MCM 68766C -- are they pin-compatible to TMS2532s? They're 8Kx8,
IIRC.
What I *Do* have is the gizmothingy converter that plugs into a standard
eprom programmer to program these things. I reprogrammed a couple for use
on my old Tandy CoCo1 for extended basic... (just to see if it would work ;-) )
I have 2 programmers that can read/write these - one on my CoCo (read:
*way* down deep in the pile... would take lots of digging to get at) and my
Xeltek Superpro/L, which needs DOS and a parallel port (both of which I'm
currently experimenting with under VirtualPC 2004 on my Shuttle machine at
work). I should be ready by next week to do eprom programming, if not
sooner. [[ I was having a problem with VirtualPC - 2 different speeds of
RAM in my computer. Win2K was ultra-stable as usual, but amazingly,
compiling things under Linux under VirtualPC was segfaulting... Odd. ]]
I've never programmed one of these with my SuperPro before, but I have...
um... 20 *pounds* or so of these EPROMs, so I have more than a few test
subjects I can sacrifice to the gods... ;-)
I can let the list know when I'm ready -- I've finally dug out the chips
(and will be getting ready to mail a few who've asked me before for them,
as they work on some flavor of DEC hardware as well)
About the best
I could do is to snail-mail the ROM to
you. -or- I'll be in San Diego tomorrow - Monday.
That's a very generous offer, but there are two problems ... first I'm
presently in San Bernardino :( and won't be back in San Diego until Sunday,
and only Sunday at that.
The bigger problem, though, is actually getting the capsule out to read it.
I opened up my HHC-4 and dug out the NYL capsules, which I hadn't examined
too closely before. They *seem* to be regular 24-pin EPROMs (with an NYL
sticker conveniently covering the UV window; they're 4K TMS 2532s, for those
interested). The problem is not the chip, which seems to be a
regular old
ROM. The problem is that the DIP legs are wrapped *around* the capsule
carrier, and digging the DIP out is probably going to damage the chip.
If you're careful, it can be done. I've done it to put one in my Tandy
CoCo1 for extended basic.
Is the BASIC ROM similarly "wrapped" on
yours? If it is, perhaps there's
another way of doing this -- some way of reading out the contents of the ROM
using the HHC itself.
Without the Forth or Basic (which hopefully would support PEEK or some
other direct memory access) I'm not sure how you could, short of writing a
ML program, burning it to a ROM and inserting it...
All this to say I would be *very* antsy about damaging
a *very* rare ROM
with my relatively novice EE skills, despite the fact I want it *very* much!
Want a few extra chips to fiddle with? ;-P
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | "Profile, don't speculate."
sysadmin, Iceberg Computers | Daniel J. Bernstein
zmerch(a)30below.com |
11 Sep
11 Sep
8:53 a.m.
New subject: Vintage Manual Sony Discs - Source needed
I'm looking for a source for vintage Sony 3.5" discs. I'm specifically
looking for the old manual operated shutters. Those were the ones
where you had to open the shutter manually and then squeeze the
corner to get it to snap back.
This is not a case of simply finding something to work. I'm specifically
interested in those vintage discs.
If you don't know what I mean, go here for a photo.
http://www.msdsite.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1647
I have a dual disc drive that uses these and I'd like to keep it as original
as possible, including using original discs.
Thanks,
Mike
17 Sep
17 Sep
7:25 p.m.
New subject: 2.88 floppies
Apparently Intel has the trusty old floppy scheduled for the chopping
block, so naturally I am more interested in them than ever.
Part of my purchase today was a pair of Panasonic LKM-F394-1 floppy drives,
(Gateway branded LS-120), which I was kind of assuming would at least
"read" a 2.88 floppy, but from what I have read it looks like I am wrong.
Is it just the Fujitsu Flopticals that will read 2.88 outside of an actual
2.88 floppy drive?
Also I know the list talked about it a little, but does anybody know how
these USB floppy drives actually work? I saw a snippet in a dogpile search
from a page I couldn't download anymore
(halfbaked.com) that suggested a
fairly raw signal is passed via the USB with the
processing done by the
host PC cpu. That would suggest a lot of modification possibilities wouldn't it?
18 Sep
18 Sep
1:36 p.m.
New subject: 2.8 floppies
A 2.8M (80 * 2 * 36 * 512 is NOT 2.88 for any meaningful definition of M)
floppy drive can also read and write 1.4M.
An LS120 can also read and write 1.4M
A floptical can also read and write 1.4M.
A 2.8M can not read or write LS120, or floptical.
An LS120 can not read or write 2.8M, or floptical.
A floptical can not read or write LS120, or 2.8M.
On Sat, 18 Sep 2004, Mike Ford wrote:
Apparently Intel has the trusty old floppy scheduled
for the chopping
block, so naturally I am more interested in them than ever.
Part of my purchase today was a pair of Panasonic LKM-F394-1 floppy drives,
(Gateway branded LS-120), which I was kind of assuming would at least
"read" a 2.88 floppy, but from what I have read it looks like I am wrong.
Is it just the Fujitsu Flopticals that will read 2.88 outside of an actual
2.88 floppy drive?
What model? none of the flopticals that I have, or have ever
used, can
read or write 2.8M
Such a combination drive is certainly POSSIBLE, but I was never able
to find any being made.
Also I know the list talked about it a little, but
does anybody know how
these USB floppy drives actually work? I saw a snippet in a dogpile search
from a page I couldn't download anymore (halfbaked.com) that suggested a
fairly raw signal is passed via the USB with the processing done by the
host PC cpu. That would suggest a lot of modification possibilities wouldn't it?
19 Sep
19 Sep
1:18 a.m.
New subject: 2.88 floppies
On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 12:25:05AM -0700, Mike Ford wrote:
Apparently Intel has the trusty old floppy scheduled
for the chopping
block, so naturally I am more interested in them than ever.
Also I know the list talked about it a little, but does anybody know how
these USB floppy drives actually work? I saw a snippet in a dogpile search
from a page I couldn't download anymore (halfbaked.com) that suggested a
fairly raw signal is passed via the USB with the processing done by the
host PC cpu. That would suggest a lot of modification possibilities
wouldn't it?
I guess they simply work as a standard "USB mass storage" device,
representing the 1440 KB of a standard 3.5" HD floppy as a big chunk of
adressable storage. That would be a lot simpler and easier than
transfering the raw analog signal from the heads (digitized at high
resolution so things work at all) into the host and processing it there.
They most likely take a bog standard 3.5" HD floppy drive and slap
on some USB interface circuitry - way cheaper than the approach you
describe, I guess.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
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6 comments
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participants (6)
-
als＠thangorodrim.de -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
mike-cc＠msdsite.com -
mikeford＠socal.rr.com -
spectre＠floodgap.com -
zmerch＠30below.com