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Victor 9k / Sirius 1 Software

djg said:
For the command that gave the error you entered
l 100 2a8 1
my instruction was
l 100 2 2a8 1
The second were reading sector 0 twice so it isn't that informative. You will need to alternate the two commands.

Keep track of what output from the emulator goes with what command you executed in debug.

You can hit return and type annotations in the emulator window. What you enter will be ignored by the emulator.
Click to expand...
Hi djg,

sorry, but now I hopefully have typed in the correct initial commands:

No reaction to l 100 2 2a8 1:
1706204822906.png
If I put in the other one, the emulation doesn't react either, but my floppy drive reacted, does the 2 in
l 100 2 2a8 1 state the drive number, as the HDD in this emulation is A:\, should the '2' be a '0' then?

Altering the debug command to l 100 0 2a8 1 did not bring an emulation reaction as well besides that the Floppy drive wasn't reacting any more.

Interestingly the following was possible and triggered a reaction by the emulation:


Changing to Drive A:\ (HDD) and executing DIR :
1706205555738.png

Trying to execute Kermit on A.\ (wasn't possible)
1706205625361.png
There are again three seek time values under 1ms in it.

Thanks for looking into this!

Best,

Martin.
 

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1302L said:
l 100 2 2a8 1 state the drive number, as the HDD in this emulation is A:\, should the '2' be a '0' then?
Click to expand...
Correct. If your hard drive is A change the highlighted 2 to 0.
 
djg said:
Correct. If your hard drive is A change the highlighted 2 to 0.
Click to expand...
Thanks djg

So the nomenclature is as follows (?):

(load) L [address] [drive] [firstsector] [number] drive must be '0' in my case, does [number] refer to the amount of sectors to be loaded?

I would be curious about an explanation why I can access the emulated HDD and execute DIR, which works fine, but cannot execute any files. Am I wrong with the presumption that for running DIR and displaying files on the screen also the right cylinders and sectors must be found on the disc?

Would it be possible to load i.e. KERMIT.EXE by N a:KERMIT.EXE and see what happens then?

Thanks in advance,

Martin.
 
Last edited:
1302L said:
(load) L [address] [drive] [firstsector] [number] drive must be '0' in my case, does [number] refer to the amount of sectors to be loaded?
Click to expand...
Yes

1302L said:
I would be curious about an explanation why I can access the emulated HDD and execute DIR, which works fine, but cannot execute any files
Click to expand...
Can't answer that. Loading files it probably doing larger reads.

1302L said:
Would it be possible to load i.e. KERMIT.EXE by N a:KERMIT.EXE and see what happens then?
Click to expand...
I think its debug a:kermit.exe
 
Hi,
thanks for your answer.
You have been right, it was debug a:kermit.exe
Expected reaction, 'General Failure error reading drive A', also after several attempts.
At this point of time I am suspecting the HDD controller again.
I would be so good to have a second, secured working XEBEC controller to get behind it, maybe anyone has one for sale?
regarding the Oscilloscope: Does it have to be a Digital or analogue Unit?
I could get a HAMEG (German Brand) 2-Ch. Digital/Analogue for around 100USD.
Best,
Martin.







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Moonferret said:
I'm also running one of @djg 's emulators in my Sirius. Works great but I seem to have an early version of the Xebec card that doesn't seem to support any drives over 10Mb. Currently have the emulator configured with 10mb virtual drives.

Cheers,
Dave
Click to expand...
Hi all,
might this be the problem on my emulation?
I trust, both of the emulations I use are >10MB.
Thanks,
Martin.
 
Dear Paul,
thanks, but where to get an emu file <10MB? :)
I thought also about the DOS: Would it make a difference if I boot i.e. with DOS 3.1 and the files on the emulated disk are originating from another DOS?
Cheers,
Martin.
 
Good morning,

Another Victor 9000 owner here. Ours booted last time we checked but for space considerations we cannot deploy it in a permanent place. We have also some software for it. And also its original bulk case.
Not at this moment but whenever the system was deployed, could you tell me how could I help you?

Regards,
Jaume
 
RetroAND said:
Good morning,

Another Victor 9000 owner here. Ours booted last time we checked but for space considerations we cannot deploy it in a permanent place. We have also some software for it. And also its original bulk case.
Not at this moment but whenever the system was deployed, could you tell me how could I help you?

Regards,
Jaume
Click to expand...
Hi Jaume,
welcome to this thread!
What V9K are you running? A dual Floppy or a Floppy HDD model?
In terms of Software, if you have Greaseweazle device and are able to make images of your software, @pdevine is archiving the software here:

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org archive.org
This also a good source vice versa, without Paul's archive I wouldn't have got my Victor back to life quite easy.
If you have a HDD model, do you have a HDD image of your Disk or do you even run djg's HDD emulator?
Thanks and best regards,
Martin.
 
1302L said:
Hi Jaume,
welcome to this thread!
What V9K are you running? A dual Floppy or a Floppy HDD model?
In terms of Software, if you have Greaseweazle device and are able to make images of your software, @pdevine is archiving the software here:

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org archive.org
This also a good source vice versa, without Paul's archive I wouldn't have got my Victor back to life quite easy.
If you have a HDD model, do you have a HDD image of your Disk or do you even run djg's HDD emulator?
Thanks and best regards,
Martin.
Click to expand...
As far as I remember, dual floppy (but my memory often fails).
Yes, we have a greaseweazle at home.
I cannot answer the other questions yet, we haven't used it that much. I will schedule a deployment for this system this weekend so I can be more concise.

Regards
 
I don't think its a hardware problem with your controller. I have someone else having problem and the two short seek times.

Did you try the older software (message #218)
Did you ever run the debug l commands against your a drive (message #243)?

I made a version that prints out more info on what the PRU are doing.
https://github.com/dgesswein/mfm/tree/debug

mfm/inc/version.h should be 4.14d1 if you got the correct code.
make to rebuild

use script command to capture the output from mfm_emu then do the debug command to seek between two cylinders a couple time.
1302L said:
regarding the Oscilloscope: Does it have to be a Digital or analogue Unit?
I could get a HAMEG (German Brand) 2-Ch. Digital/Analogue for around 100USD.
Click to expand...
I like digital since it allows you to easily do single shot captures. If you post model/link I can comment on it. Early digital scopes aren't great.
 
To use git

cd /opt/mfm
git fetch origin debug:debug
git checkout debug
make

or can download zip file.
 
Hi djg,
sorry for my late reply, I will look into this tonight and give feedback.
Many thanks in advance,
Martin.
 
Hi all,
before I dig into djg's last post a short question.
I was able to purchase a dual floppy Victor Mod. 524
The machine isn't working, but that's not my topic, I thought, I'll take the quite rare occasion and see what I can do with it later, or use it for spares.
The 524 I'll bought has two interesting components. The drives are '96TPI SSR' (Single Sided?) while the drive in my HDD Victor is a 96 TPI DSR (Double Sided?)

1. A RAM extension, at least I think it is one
2. Some kind of Audio - Out Card, plugged directly into the main board, the 'Audio-Out' leads to a 3,5mm Headphone Socket on the back of the machine

Ad1: As I tried to put the RAM card into my HDD Victor (First extension Slot) nothing happened, still 256kB RAM as before, is there any Hint how to use this card? Maybe another jumper positioning? I tried other slots as well, same outcome.

Ad2: For what purpose was this Audio Card, my (supposedly) newer HDD Victor doesn't have the four pin - connector on the main board to plug the little card in.

Thanks for any Information!

Best,

Martin.
 

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Question 1 is solved.
Set the jumpers right according to field services bulletin 581-228-SB6
The Victor did not state the memory on the start screen, but running RAMTEST shows now 384 kB of RAM :)
Cheers,
Martin.
 

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djg said:
To use git

cd /opt/mfm
git fetch origin debug:debug
git checkout debug
make

or can download zip file.
Click to expand...
Hi djg,

I did the install via github.

Changing from C:\ (Floppy) to A:\ (HDD) and executing DIR:
1706899368162.png

Executing KERMIT.EXE on A:\

Please see Log File.

Executing DEBUG a:kermit.exe

Please see Log File.

This is what happens while starting the machine with no Floppy active:

1706900125363.png

I am getting the Error Code X98 (Bad Hard Disk Label)

Best,

Martin.
 

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@1302L That's actually not an audio out card but an audio in card. All the Victor's and Sirius 1's shipped with a speaker. The expectation was that you'd hear any sound via the built in speaker. That's a microphone in port that's used for recording audio into the Victor. There's already documentation for it on bitsavers here http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/victor/victor9000/Victor_9000_Audio_Tool_Kit_II.pdf, and the software for it is here: https://archive.org/details/victor9k-audio-toolkit. The speaker came built-in but the microphone input was extra. I believe the thinking went that only a small select few would be making audio files, while many would be consuming it.
 
1302L said:
Changing from C:\ (Floppy) to A:\ (HDD) and executing DIR:
Click to expand...
Didn't print too many lines. Did you get a directory or did you get an error? I think you showed DIR worked previously. Also did you previously get X98 (Bad Hard Disk Label) when trying to boot or did you get some other error?

Where did the emulator image you are using come from?

This thread is mixing several things so getting unwieldy to track. We may want to start a separate thread.

Also the files you attached only have some of the emulator output. Did you use the script command which should have had all or did you capture some other way? If some other way is this all the output related to the commands you ran?

Bad thing is the low seek times went away so debug output doesn't show what I was hoping to see. If you can find any way of triggering the low seek times that's what I was hoping to see.

Did the L command trying to read single sector work for any sector address? Did it work with the previous software version? What error is reported if it doesn't work?
 
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