Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

HxC Floppy Emulator Ensoniq Keyboards/Samplers support
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MirageMann
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Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

Hello,

after 4 days of googling and reading thousands of threads I'm ready to ask:

Situation:
- Ensoniq Mirage (1984, SNr 000021, so an early one!)
- HxC Lotharek 3,5" (Rev F)
- selfmade Disk-Images using Omniflop on an old Win 2000 Laptop (451kB each)
- different SD cards (FAT12 / FAT16 / FAT32) 16MB / 64MB / 512MB

- Mirage ist trying to boot
- nd is blinking - HxC is reacting like an original drive (red light is also blinking synchron to the Mirage behaviour)
- display of HxC shows "RA T:000/080"
- SD Card contains the CFG File and different HFE Files (also copies with extension EMD)
- HFE Files werde made with HxCFloppyEmulator v2.1.9.1 on a MacBook Pro

I've tried nearly all possible combinations (hfe / EMD / different CFG / SD Cards) - My Mirage is not booting. It is as if there is no diskette in the drive but the emulator can handle the SD Cards (no errors, choosing of different HFE images is possible...)

I'm not sure about the CFG File (is it that critical to have the right one...?)
Why has a converted RAW Files 2MB instead of 451kB?

Can anybody help me to get my Mirage booting?
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

Jeff
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by Jeff »

> - display of HxC shows "RA T:000/080"

If it also show "S:1" try to reverse the floppy ribbon.
The right jumper setting is ID0-A.

I sent you the OS files by email.

MirageMann
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

hmm.. it shows already "S:0"...
switches are set to "IDA0" ("ON", rest is set to "OFF")

Thank you for the files - unfortunately they are also not working

Do I have to reverse the cable in this situation? ("reverse" means to turn it at the mainboard and at the emulator upside down? Or does it mean to change the "direction" by inserting the mainboard side into the emulator side and vice versa?)

additional Information to the LEDs: the one near the display is always red, the one near the SD-Card is flushing at every time the sampler tries to load the disk (blinking "nd" is stopping for a short time while loading - this is equal to a real disk operation)
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

MirageMann
Posts: 6
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

...even more information:

I connected a real diskdrive (a citizen - the only one of eight drives that worked "a little bit"):
- in case of an empty diskdrive the Mirage shows "ud" (this is in fact ok - not "nd" as I mentioned in the post before...)
- in case of a original disk the Mirage shows "nd" (this is in fact not normal, the sampler should boot)
- after some faulty attempts to boot, sometimes it works suddenly and the Mirage display shows "21" which is ok.

I always thought this behaviour is because of the wrong diskdrive (it is a 1,44MB drive and double sided).
But maybe there is an additional problem that now causes also the issues with the HxC solution. It is weird that the attempts to boot from SD-card are not working the same as it does with the citizen diskdrive (booting sometimes until "21")

Tried to boot the Mirage with an original "format disk" and hotswapped the diskdrive to HxC-drive:
- Mirage is waiting for a fresh diskette and for pushing the sequenzers save button (which is ok)
- Mirage display shows "nd" and formatting a HFE image disk on SD card is not possible (access to the card can be seen; red light flashes one time and "RA T:000/080 S:0" is on the display)
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

Jeff
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by Jeff »

Just see that you have a "DSK8" model. So i think that i sent to you the wrong OS files. Let me check if i have the DSK8 OS.

MirageMann
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

Just to be sure:

what should I exactly do with the images that you sent me? I put them meanwile to a SD-Card and made some experiments to boot the Mirage (not working)
Or do I have to copy it on a 3,5" diskette to boot the Mirage (so that the Mirage can handle some new features I don't know about...)?

I assume that there is a communication problem between Mirage and emulator (perhaps only a little one).
"Little" because the Mirage can address the emulator without a problem. He advises the emulator to deliver data. I can see this on the emulator display (RA T:000/080 S:0, red LED). Also the Mirage reacts some kind of normal (display: "nd", waiting, trying again to ask for a disk... looping in this state...) - someone should tell him about a inserted disk :wink:

There is the "little kick" missing, to boot the Mirage (even with my own-made hfe files from my original Mirage diskettes). I had this issues also with 6 out of 7 real 3,5" diskdrives months before. Only my Citizen OSDC-45C is working but also not without problems: it needs 3 times of disk access (motor spin on and of) to boot.
(video of the working combination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm4as0rz4yA)

What is about the PIN 2 and 34 thing...? Could this have to do something with this old kind of hardware?
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

Jeff
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by Jeff »

Try this image.
This one was reported as slow loading but it appears to work.
MIRAGE_HFE.zip
(250.23 KiB) Downloaded 477 times

MirageMann
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

Thank You for the new files!

I copied them to an SD Card --> not working
I converted the OS32.EMD to OS32.hfe, copied it to the Card --> not working

The sampler shows a behavior as if there is a non compatible disk inserted (blinking "nd")

I dismounted the Mirage: no twist in cable, capacitors seems all to be ok, no corrosion, the drive controller is a WD1770-PH from WDC 1982

by the way: what is it exactly with the "EMD" file? I have read, that the Mirages perhaps need this extension? I converted it to hfe, because they wouldn't be shown as disk in the emulator...
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

Jeff
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by Jeff »

Ok. Could you try to image your current semi-working floppy disk ?

(page 14) :
https://hxc2001.com/download/floppy_driv ... al_ENG.pdf

MirageMann
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by MirageMann »

...needed some time to set up a pc with the semi functional 3,5" drive...

I used a IBM Windows XP computer and installed the citizen drive. I was not able to build an image of the original Ensoniq Diskette:
- OmniFlop crashes (computer shut suddenly down)
- HxCFloppyEmulator software: error 21, RPM Problem
the drive is not working in a desktop computer...

Any image I can build has 440 kB and represents a one sided 80 track file. This works fine with an old laptop and the IBM (with new 3,5" drive). I'm pretty sure that this images are equal to all third party images.

The emulator has access to the sd-card.

Are there more things to try? (SD-Cards, different configuration,...)
What is about this EDM renaming to HFE thing...?
Ensoniq Mirage DSK-8; 1984; SNr: 000021 / Lotharek HxC 3,5" Ver-F / Omniflop - Win2000/ Mac OS X

Jeff
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Re: Ensoniq Mirage, Lotharek Rev F: "nd" blinking and not booting

Post by Jeff »

You can send me the disk if you want, i have all the needed stuff to make a dump here.

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