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making a Trs-80 model 1 level 2 boot disk

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Lurch666

Experienced Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2010
Messages
190
Location
Stoke-on-trent. U.K.
I now have an expansion interface for my trs-80 and am looking to sort out getting disks working with it.I have a disk drive I use with my coco that should work fine but I need a boot disk.
Since it's a model 1 I have read that I can't use a PC to make the disk as they can't handle the single density.
I could use a null modem cable but how would I write the image to a disk without a boot disk to initialize dos in the first place?
I have an apple ][,coco,bbc micro and a C64 with disk drives.Could any of those be used to make my boot disk?
 
You can use a PC but it needs to be an older model. But your mainboard controller might work with LDOS 5.3.x Don't know till you try. So try this route 1st.

If that doesn't work then maybe you need a an older system like a Pentium 1 throught Pentium III. The mainboard would need to have ISA slots. What you will need is an Adaptec AHA-1522 or AHA-1542 these are ISA bus SCSI controllers whose built in floppy controllers will handle single density.

You can diable the onboard SCSI if not needed through jumpers. All you have to do is set the adaptec as the floppy controller and conncet the floppy cable to it and disable the onboard floppy controller. This is what I use and it has performed quite well. Just try to stick with LDOS 5.3.x it is the best version IMHO to use.

Hope this helps.
 
Possible made a disk but when I try the disk drive with the expansion port the drive light comes on for a few seconds then goes off.Should it be like an apple ][ where it constantly seeks until it finds a disk or does it only try once?
 
What type of drives are you using? If they are the stock Silver RS drives one needs to be terminated for them to work. Also how many drives do you have?
 
Lurch666 said:
Possible made a disk but when I try the disk drive with the expansion port the drive light comes on for a few seconds then goes off.Should it be like an apple ][ where it constantly seeks until it finds a disk or does it only try once?
Click to expand...

It seeks for a few seconds and if it doesn't recognise a disk it stops. You need to push reset for it to try again.

Tez
 
Making single density M1 disks is hard and most PC controllers won't do it. Know any M1 users in the UK...someone who could send you a known good boot disk or you could visit?

If not maybe I could send you one for the cost of return postage and a few blank disks. PM me.

Tez
 
Chromedome45 said:
What type of drives are you using? If they are the stock Silver RS drives one needs to be terminated for them to work. Also how many drives do you have?
Click to expand...


I'm using the same drive I use with my coco 2.It's a single cumana 5 1/4 inch floppy drive from a BBC micro.It is marked as drive 0 and has a switch for 40/80 tracks.I used drivewire and my coco2 to copy the disk image from a PC to a disk.No idea if it even works like that but I really don't have any PC's that are old enough.Going to try and make an dsk file from the boot disk I made and try it in an emulator to see if it's copied properly.I can get a dos disk from the dude who supplied the expansion interface (from Australia so I will take a while) but I would like to see if I can make one myself first.

EDIT:read the disk into a dsk image but the trs-80 emulator wouldn't recognize it so that's a dead end.It looks like this is going to be a challenge.Going to think on it and see if anything comes to me.
 
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I am on the US east coast so I might be able to send you a couple of boot disks to get you going. Plus its a lot closer than Australia. Let me know. cost would be
Shipping plus a small disk fee.
 
HT1080Z - VideoGenie-I/System-80/HT-1080Z emulator.I used it to boot the image to make sure it was a proper Ldos image.The image name is ID1-531.dsk.
It booted fine on the emulator so I used the coco with drivewire to transfer it to a disk but it wouldn't boot on my trs-80.

I have ordered an Adaptec AHA-1522 now as I figure I will want to make other disks once I sort out the boot disk.I will have to find a PC with ISA slots but I think I can scrounge one off a mate of mine.
 
Putting a disk image onto a disk using a Coco and Drivewire is not going to create a bootable disk.

There are patches for TRS-DOS to recognize DAMs that any PC can write. Someone needs to patch a copy of TRS-DOS, write the PC compatible DAMs to it and then post that image using Dave Dunfield's Imagedisk.

You can then write it out to a blank floppy using any 360k PC drive.


Lurch666 said:
HT1080Z - VideoGenie-I/System-80/HT-1080Z emulator.I used it to boot the image to make sure it was a proper Ldos image.The image name is ID1-531.dsk.
It booted fine on the emulator so I used the coco with drivewire to transfer it to a disk but it wouldn't boot on my trs-80.

I have ordered an Adaptec AHA-1522 now as I figure I will want to make other disks once I sort out the boot disk.I will have to find a PC with ISA slots but I think I can scrounge one off a mate of mine.
Click to expand...
 
OK this is proving more difficult than I thought.Mostly because I've forgotten everything I used to know about using an old PC.I now have a Pentium 3 with ISA and a AHA-1522.I am using windows 98SE and in dos my system doesn't see the floppy drive at all.In windows the adaptec floppy driver says it has no available IO ports but it's not showing any conflicts in the resources.I have disabled everything else (serial and parallel ports and the on board floppy controllers) but I can't get the floppy drive to work with the scsi card.I am using a PC 5 1/4" drive at the moment and have had it working when plugged into the on board floppy socket.
Do I need to get this working in dos or is it ok to do it in windows as I know the emulator has to work direct with the floppy drive hardware?
 
Ok did you move the floppy cable to the AHA-1522? Also did you disable the onboard floppy controller through BIOS? And did you assign the floppies? Assuming drive a: is a 360k? Ok look at the AHA Manual and determine which jumpers need to be set to enable the AHA's floppy controller. This is only assuming that you do not have a printed manual. Sorry if obvious questions but need to know what was done to help out. Good news is the floppy works with the Motherboard floppy controller. Also best to have it working in DOS before any windows stuff. I hope this helpful.

Link to the AHA-1522 at Adaptec: http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/_eol/isa/aha-1522/
 
First off I got the floppy working with the onboard controller to make sure it worked.I'm using a cable with a twist in to to assign it as drive A: as when I used an untwisted cable it wouldn't work.I also have a switch on the back of the floppy which I set to 40 (I presume the other setting of 80 means double density).In bios I had the a: set to 5 1/4" 360k.I have windows 98 installed so I booted straight into dos (F8) then typed a:.I got no reaction from the floppy at all.Booting into windows 98 the floppy worked fine.formatted a disk,wrote a test file and read it back again.if I went into a dos prompt in windows the floppy still worked but if I left windows and dropped back into proper dos the floppy stopped working again.

Then I plugged the AHA-1522 in with floppy enabled (it's a dip switch) and disabled the onboard fdd but left the a: drive set to 5 1/4" 360K.I removed the floppy cable from the motherboard and plugged it into the AHA-1522 floppy socket.Again in dos I got no reaction but in windows clicking the a: drive results in the PC freezing for a while and I get no reaction from the floppy.As stated before in the device manager the adaptec floppy controller has a yellow exclamation mark next to it as it's not running because it says it has no usable IO.Have tried manual config of the resources but it won't let me change any of them and none of them show a conflict anyway.

I am now reinstalling windows 98 with the AHA-1522 installed with the floppy in hoping a fresh install will fix the problem.Dunno why I can't get the floppy to work in dos-I can get a 3 1/2" floppy to work in dos.
 
Lurch666 said:
...I also have a switch on the back of the floppy which I set to 40 (I presume the other setting of 80 means double density).
Click to expand...

No. The density is determined by the disk controller rather than the drive. The numbers will refer to tracks. Flip the switch if you want the disk to be a 40 track drive, and 80 if you want it to be an 80 track drive. (Note: this is NOT the same as making the drive a Hi-density 1.2 MB one, although they too have 80 tracks).

Tez
 
The re install of windows made no difference.
Looking at the manual it states I should put some .sys files into the config.sys to make the AHA work in dos.I will put these in to see if they make and difference.
@tezza.So what if any difference does switching between 40 and 80 tracks make?

EDIT:also the card is a AHA-1522B.Would that make a difference?
 
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Been trying to get this working for 3 days now (in between going to work).
Since I couldn't get my AHA-1522B working I got to thinking maybe the card was faulty so I ordered a AHA-1542CP to see if that made any difference.
It will be a few days before that arrives so I was browsing the 'net and I found a little snippet of information about why I couldn't get the floppy drive to work in dos.Apparently if you are using a twisted cable device ID's have to bet set to 1 (mine was set to 0).So I switched the jumper on my floppy and tried again but since the AHA-1522 wasn't working in windows it still wouldn't see my floppy so I removed the card and tried it with the motherboard floppy controller.

IT WORKED.I could now try the trs emulator in dos and it has formatted a floppy and written a copy of LDOS to it.Put it into my TRS-80 floppy drive and LODS booted up fine.PHEW.

So I can now make TRS-80 boot disks and anyone in the U.K. who needs one can send a floppy to me and I'll sort it out for you.
Now to make a few game disks.

P.S. anyone want to buy a ISA scsi card?:p
 
Lurch666 said:
@tezza.So what if any difference does switching between 40 and 80 tracks make?
Click to expand...

Good to hear you got it sorted!

Switching to 80 tracks would cause the drive to act like an 80 track drive i.e. double the number of tracks. Most conventional 360k drives for PC-type machines were 40 track. An 80 track drive (assuming it was double sided) would hold 720k. Switching to 40 probably makes this drive double step so act like a 40 track one.

Regarding the TRS-80 Model 1, I wrote a little about the mix of drives associated with that machine in a piece on System 80 site, explaining why my disk images are in a particular format. If interested, it is here
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/system-80/software-archive-disks-technical.htm

tez
 
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