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KAYPRO and KayFreHD as a hard disk module

As promised, I have developed a small Python utility to create a blank hard disk image file with your choice of geometry. It's been tested on my Turbo-Rom equipped K10. Unless your specified drive is the same geometry as the original K10 hard drive, you will need to use the ADVFMT.COM utility to format and partition the image. It has a small number of baked in drive types, but you can also specify a custom drive. This is free software, released under a BSD license. Please let me know of any issues that may arise and I'll do my best to fix them.

The forum software will not allow me to upload it as an attachment, unfortunately, so please drop me a PM if you want a copy.
 
ngtwolf said:
... I'm curious is anyone has tried this with the TRS-IO instead of the FreHD (or has an idea why it wouldn't work). I'll likely try both but it would cool if that worked as well.
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I had never heard of the TRS-IO - interesting device. Are you aware of anyone selling them as assembled units, kits or bare PCB?
 
shirsch said:
Hi, Fletch. I just re-read your posting. After you use the Advent tools to partition and format the drive, you must generate + write a system,then reboot before trying to access the new volumes. Perhaps you did that up front, but your description above implies you generated a new system _after_ first trying to access the drive. If that was indeed the case, I'm not surprised there were issues.
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That is almost certainly the reason! At the end of the TurboRoM install process I had two working disks, one with a 56K working memory and one at 63K. I knew that I needed to use the 56K one when adding the HD and that I needed to peek and build a new image once the install was over but I assumed that the 56K image would work after the HD install so I was trying to use the HDs before peeking and generating a new system.

I'll run through it again this weekend.

Many thanks!

Fletch
 
Fletch said:
That is almost certainly the reason! At the end of the TurboRoM install process I had two working disks, one with a 56K working memory and one at 63K. I knew that I needed to use the 56K one when adding the HD and that I needed to peek and build a new image once the install was over but I assumed that the 56K image would work after the HD install so I was trying to use the HDs before peeking and generating a new system.

I'll run through it again this weekend.

Many thanks!

Fletch
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Let me know how it goes. And, if you get a chance, please try my Python utility to build an empty image (check your PMs)?

Anyone know why I'm unable to add a file attachment to forum posts?
 
shirsch said:
I had never heard of the TRS-IO - interesting device. Are you aware of anyone selling them as assembled units, kits or bare PCB?
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Not that I know of. I had PCB's made from JLCPCB using gerbers of the files on the github. You'd also need a programmer to write the JED file to the chip.

shirsch said:
Let me know how it goes. And, if you get a chance, please try my Python utility to build an empty image (check your PMs)?

Anyone know why I'm unable to add a file attachment to forum posts?
Click to expand...

The file attachment system here is pretty limited. For compressed files, It needs to be zip (not tar) and it has pretty low file size restrictions (256k I believe). You're best off just linking to a file stored elsewhere.
 
Fletch said:
That is almost certainly the reason! At the end of the TurboRoM install process I had two working disks, one with a 56K working memory and one at 63K. I knew that I needed to use the 56K one when adding the HD and that I needed to peek and build a new image once the install was over but I assumed that the 56K image would work after the HD install so I was trying to use the HDs before peeking and generating a new system.

I'll run through it again this weekend.

Many thanks!

Fletch
Click to expand...

You can use the hard disk from the working diskette, but you need to do a cold reboot after initialization and partitioning. The working diskette identifies hard disk volumes only during the boot process. At least, that's working for me.
 
Thought I'd share my solution for making the SD card accessible from outside the system:

sd_mount.jpg

I picked up this flat-cable extension from Amazon a while back and it worked out quite well. Now I can use the sneaker-net approach to copy files in/out of the SD card using cpmtools on my Linux machine. And, although it's not very noticeable in the photo, I ran short length of clear plastic tubing between the HD activity hole and the read/write LEDs on the FreHD. Although fiber-optic or solid plastic would have been better, this makes the LEDs visible if viewed directly on.
 
shirsch said:
I picked up this flat-cable extension from Amazon a while back and it worked out quite well.
Click to expand...

Do you have a link or something? my google-foo isn't working to track this down and I'd probably like to get a couple for future projects.

Edit: nevermind, just as I asked, I figured out the correct search term 'SD Card Extension'. :)

Saw the amazon ones, I also saw cheap ones on aliexpress which are okay for my timeline...

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesal...B_20200406125631&SearchText=sd+card+extension
 
Here's a link to one that looks like mine:

https://www.amazon.com/Gplink-Extension-Adapter-Flexible-Extender/dp/B06X3Y4BBB

I think they make them with all combinations of standard and micro SD on the ends. I had a bunch of micro adapters, so this worked fine. There was a convenient gap between the top of the front panel and the outer case. Make sure yours has clearance enough not to crush the cable.
 
shirsch said:
Here's a link to one that looks like mine:

https://www.amazon.com/Gplink-Extension-Adapter-Flexible-Extender/dp/B06X3Y4BBB

I think they make them with all combinations of standard and micro SD on the ends. I had a bunch of micro adapters, so this worked fine. There was a convenient gap between the top of the front panel and the outer case. Make sure yours has clearance enough not to crush the cable.
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Thanks. Yeah, I'm still waiting for parts to finish my FreHD/Shim for my kaypro but I was planning on just throwing this out the back somewhere.. Wouldn't need to access it very much, just there in case I did need to and still better then opening it up.
 
ngtwolf said:
Thanks. Yeah, I'm still waiting for parts to finish my FreHD/Shim for my kaypro but I was planning on just throwing this out the back somewhere.. Wouldn't need to access it very much, just there in case I did need to and still better then opening it up.
Click to expand...

Sure, it really depends on your work flow. I make heavy use of cpmtools on Linux for bulk transfer of files between the Kaypro and outside world, so it's important to me that the SD card be readily accessible.
 
I have a question. Lets say someone stumbles across this posting in the future, build the shim, burns the kayplus ROM and has a kit freHD. Is there a ready made image they can just throw down on an SD card to save from all the configuring?
 
VERAULT said:
I have a question. Lets say someone stumbles across this posting in the future, build the shim, burns the kayplus ROM and has a kit freHD. Is there a ready made image they can just throw down on an SD card to save from all the configuring?
Click to expand...

I plan to make an image available cnce I get 3rd-party verification that it works for other folks. If anyone wants to test, please PM me and I'll give you a download link. No point in distributing it far and wide if there are issues.
 
VERAULT said:
PM Sent!
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If you have the stuff built, it would be awesome to test and let us know. I have the image from Shirsch but the slow boat from china with the parts to finish this build is taking even longer than usual. Maybe customs is letting it sit for 3 days before they touch the packages. :)
 
Sure i can do that. I just need to burn the kayplus rom.. I have some eproms coming in the mail. Other than that everything is done.
 
Ok I need some help. I received a couple blank ST M2764A eproms in the mail today. I verified it was blank with my mini pro and burned the kayplus 84 rom image from here: http://www.microcodeconsulting.com/z80/kayplus.htm to the blank rom with these settings :minipro.png I verified it. But when I boot it in my kaypro 4/84 (with a universal board) I get nothing on the CRT at all.

What did I do wrong?
 
VERAULT said:
Ok I need some help. I received a couple blank ST M2764A eproms in the mail today. I verified it was blank with my mini pro and burned the kayplus 84 rom image from here: http://www.microcodeconsulting.com/z80/kayplus.htm to the blank rom with these settings :View attachment 60147 I verified it. But when I boot it in my kaypro 4/84 (with a universal board) I get nothing on the CRT at all.

What did I do wrong?
Click to expand...

Sorry to be Captain Obvious, but are sure you grabbed the correct image for your machine?
 
I used the one marked kayplus'84 rom at bottom of page . i am new to bruning roms.. Very new so i dont know what i am doing.

Besides burning the rom do i need to do anything else? Mod the board in any way? Jumpers? I thought it was plug and play.
 
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