- Start with known good Northstar DS floppy having data that extends to side 1
- Capture raw file using Kryoflux Beta software
- Convert to NSI image using HxCFloppyEmulator software
- Capture sector image of floppy using FC5025 device and save as NSI
- Checksum both image files
You can disregard my concerns about missing data on side 1. I managed to get diskettes mixed up here and the previous floppy was empty on the second side. For today's test I made sure to use a diskette that was > 50% full.
Note: I re-checked the results from the FC5025 device and I'm still seeing a +2 physical skew in sector location. It makes no sense that Northstar would be using a 1:1 skew since controllers and host computers of that era were not fast enough to read a non-interleaved diskette without wasting rotational time. The FC5025 reads the entire track at once and does decode sectors, so I tend to believe what it's telling me. Once you get the Gotek firmware fully operational I'll run some read benchmarks against a real floppy. It should be very obvious if the emulator is using a non-optimal skew.
Let me know when you have a version of HxCFloppyEmulator that can decode Heath diskettes and I will try the same test on those.