TESTFDC

[Adrian Graham]

> On 27 Jan 2018, at 20:23, Rob Jarratt <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> 
> A 380Z, nice! I used to use those when I was at University. My final year project used one connected to a research machine called MU6-G for diagnostics. All the registers in the machine were connected up as one enormous shift register, so you could get and set any register in the machine from the 380Z. I wrote a program to do simple diagnostics on the machine. It was a lot of fun.
> 
> They don’t come up very often and go for more money than I can justify.

It was the first machine I used at school so when someone offered me a broken one back in 2011 I jumped at the chance. I tried fixing it back then with Tony’s help but wasn’t as confident as I am now so it only took me a few hours to fix. Fortunately it came with boot disks but making new ones has been a massive lesson in CP/M compatibility and reintroduction to assembler coupled with swearing :)

It uses an odd format that 22DISK doesn’t like though, but ImageDisk works nicely now that I have the right PC hardware to do it. I’m now keen to try cpmtools on linux once I find out if that floppy controller is still supported, and if it isn’t how far back to I need to go!

Much writing and pictures (no swearing) at http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/rml/380z.php

Cheers

A

> Regards
> 
> Rob
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Adrian
>> Graham via cctalk
>> Sent: 27 January 2018 19:16
>> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>> Subject: TESTFDC
>> 
>> I’d like to thank whoever it was who added the Abit K8V Pro/Winbond
>> W83627HF with its test results to the TESTFDC page for writing SSSD disks. I’ve
>> been trying to get a similar setup going for a fortnight now and last week found
>> this motherboard on e*ay for Not Many UK Pounds. Coupled with a scrap
>> Athlon64 system from work and a scratched Windows98 CD I eventually got it
>> going earlier and can now read/write single density floppies meaning I can
>> archive the disks I got with my Research Machines 380Z :D
>> 
>> Typical of my luck a contact has also found an Adaptec 1522A that he’ll
>> hopefully send me too, then I’m covered for all eventualities.
>> 
>> Now where did I put that 8” drive...
>> 
>> —
>> Adrian/Witchy
>> Binary Dinosaurs - Celebrating Computing History from 1972 onwards
>> w: binarydinosaurs.co.uk <http://binarydinosaurs.co.uk/> t: @binarydinosaurs
>> f: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs

—
Adrian/Witchy
Binary Dinosaurs - Celebrating Computing History from 1972 onwards
w: binarydinosaurs.co.uk t: @binarydinosaurs
f: facebook.com/binarydinosaurs