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S-100 Revival After 30+ Years
- Thread starter jgrant911
- Start date
jgrant911
Member
Tony,
I do have the original manual for the 2710 Serial board. I have scanned the first 2 chapters which include the configuration info but the site won't allow attachments over 256K (not enough for the file).
If you send me a private message with your email I can send it to you that way.
Jim
I do have the original manual for the 2710 Serial board. I have scanned the first 2 chapters which include the configuration info but the site won't allow attachments over 256K (not enough for the file).
If you send me a private message with your email I can send it to you that way.
Jim
Could one of you send me the CCS 2710 manual as well?
I'd like a copy and forward a copy to <http://s100computers.com> as well (they have a large collection of S100 manuals there… excluding the 2710).
You may eMail me directly at: <geowar 1 @ mac . com> (san spaces). TIA!
I'd like a copy and forward a copy to <http://s100computers.com> as well (they have a large collection of S100 manuals there… excluding the 2710).
You may eMail me directly at: <geowar 1 @ mac . com> (san spaces). TIA!
Hi JG,
I guess I should read more than I write, but this one item caught my eye.
You talked about read data coming out of an SA801 drive when there was no disk in the drive.
Just to confirm you are not crazy (or ... both of us are) I saw the same issue with data coming out with my drive door open on an SA800.
I believe I was measuring the digital TP16 + Read Data on the board.
I have two drives, was just running one, and connected up the second and the data did not seem to be there.
I glanced at it with probe 2, believe it was on auto trigger, and didn't see any pulses
(probe 1 was intended for index, trigger, but was not connected)
Drive 1 went to the side (though I still do not have much success with writes to drive 2).
I will go back to my drive 2 and confirm there is no output triggering just on the TP16.
(maybe there is something gating the TP16 to the drive interface if there is digital noise...)
Will let you know.
Al
I guess I should read more than I write, but this one item caught my eye.
You talked about read data coming out of an SA801 drive when there was no disk in the drive.
Just to confirm you are not crazy (or ... both of us are) I saw the same issue with data coming out with my drive door open on an SA800.
I believe I was measuring the digital TP16 + Read Data on the board.
I have two drives, was just running one, and connected up the second and the data did not seem to be there.
I glanced at it with probe 2, believe it was on auto trigger, and didn't see any pulses
(probe 1 was intended for index, trigger, but was not connected)
Drive 1 went to the side (though I still do not have much success with writes to drive 2).
I will go back to my drive 2 and confirm there is no output triggering just on the TP16.
(maybe there is something gating the TP16 to the drive interface if there is digital noise...)
Will let you know.
Al
Last edited:
jgrant911
Member
Long overdue update:
I took a long break from working on the Shugart drive problem; partly frustration and partly other priorities. When I got back into it I ended up getting a lot of help from Herb Johnson (retrotechnology.com). Thanks Herb! The short version of the story is, after chasing a few false leads it ended up that the problem was just the deteriorating surfaces of the 8" floppies that I was using.
The box of 30+ floppies I had stored since the early '80s contained a few boot disks that I had used then and continued using during my current work. I guess that since these saw the most accumulated exposure to environmental and physical abuse over that time, they were also the first to start shedding bits of their magnetic coating. Once I realized this, I quickly made several new boot disks using virgin floppies that were in box.
The system has been working quite well for the past month or so and I am now engaged in trying to get an HxC SD Floppy Emulator to work with my CCS 2422 Disk Controller so that I will no longer be dependent on the 8" floppies. This effort has not yet been successful, so if anyone reading this has any experience with the HxC Emulator I would like to hear from you.
Cheers!
Jim
I took a long break from working on the Shugart drive problem; partly frustration and partly other priorities. When I got back into it I ended up getting a lot of help from Herb Johnson (retrotechnology.com). Thanks Herb! The short version of the story is, after chasing a few false leads it ended up that the problem was just the deteriorating surfaces of the 8" floppies that I was using.
The box of 30+ floppies I had stored since the early '80s contained a few boot disks that I had used then and continued using during my current work. I guess that since these saw the most accumulated exposure to environmental and physical abuse over that time, they were also the first to start shedding bits of their magnetic coating. Once I realized this, I quickly made several new boot disks using virgin floppies that were in box.
The system has been working quite well for the past month or so and I am now engaged in trying to get an HxC SD Floppy Emulator to work with my CCS 2422 Disk Controller so that I will no longer be dependent on the 8" floppies. This effort has not yet been successful, so if anyone reading this has any experience with the HxC Emulator I would like to hear from you.
Cheers!
Jim
jgrant911
Member
Al,
Just updated my Shugart post but wanted to let you know what I found in my research, It turns out that due to the nature of the data recovery circuitry in the Shugart drive, that it is entirely possible to have a stream of random pulses present at TP16 when there is no floppy inserted or the drive is not selected (I had this on one of my drives and not the other). This is apparently related to the way the Read Amp chip operates as described in the comment (attached) in the MC3470 Read Amp Application Note AN-917. Fortunately this makes no difference. That random pulse stream is never seen by the Controller because the output Read Data is gated by the Drive Select and Head Load logic. Only data read from the disk appears on the Read Data output (Pin 46) to the Controller.
Jim
Well, Thanks Jim for the update.
In my absence maybe you never found my obituary so decided to reply.
Sure glad I don't work for you, expect my raise may be sub 0%.
I'm digging back toward my IMSAI workbench and hope once holidays pass (another excuse) I will have nothing better to do.
Glad you updated this.
This may be my IMSAI path with the SA-800s
Al
In my absence maybe you never found my obituary so decided to reply.
Sure glad I don't work for you, expect my raise may be sub 0%.
I'm digging back toward my IMSAI workbench and hope once holidays pass (another excuse) I will have nothing better to do.
Glad you updated this.
This may be my IMSAI path with the SA-800s
Al
gotcha
Member
Hello,
I just found such a CCS 2710 S100 board. Was the documentation scanned and published ?
Thanks
I just found such a CCS 2710 S100 board. Was the documentation scanned and published ?
Thanks