SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
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Martin Hepperle
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Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:20 am
Location: Germany

SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

Post by Martin Hepperle »

Hi,

I am trying to connect a HxC Slim module to my HP 9153 disk drive system. This disk system is connected via HP-IB to a HP-86 computer. The original disk drive is a 600 rpm SONY MFD-52-W10 disk drive.
I have read the thread http://torlus.com/floppy/forum/viewtopi ... =25&t=1296 and prepared a cable with the same connections. This also corresponds to the docs of the drive.
However, I have not been successful to access the HxC drive from my HP 86 computer.

I tried several variations of hfe disk images (different transfer speeds) but this made no difference.
The drive uses an "unusual" sector size of 256 bytes.

When I switch on the drive system with the HxC I get 3 beeps, pause 1 beep. What does this mean?

I also looked at the disk image from a disk formatted with the original floppy disk drive. This has been read via a Windows XP PC and therefore shows a transfer rate of 250 only (which corresponds to 300 rpm of the PC drive). Otherwise the image header looks like the one from the thread above and doubling the speed does not make a difference.
Additionally I have attached a description with my wiring and the relevant information from the SONY manual.

Maybe someone has some ideas? I own an oscilloscope and a cheap logic analyzer. Would it help to monitor the input signals sent to the HxC module?

Martin
Attachments
HP 9153C - Floppy Dump.zip
(157.69 KiB) Downloaded 348 times
HxC with Sony Drive.zip
(121.64 KiB) Downloaded 342 times

Martin Hepperle
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:20 am
Location: Germany

Re: SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

Post by Martin Hepperle »

Continuation of my previous post: I have now hooked my 8 channel USB logic analyzer to pins 2,4...34 (in three runs)

Then I issue a "CAT" command. The CAT command produces signals going from idle "high" to "low" (logical 1) and then staying "low" for about 12 seconds on the following lines:
2 Disk Change Indicator (out)
12 Drive Select 1 (in)
14 Drive Select 2 (in)
16 Motor On (in)
18 Direction Select (in)
26 Track 0 Indicator (out)
28 Write Protect Indicator (out)
All other lines stay "high" (logical 0).
Does this make sense? Why goes pin 28 low (the SD card is not write-protected).

Martin

Jeff
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Re: SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

Post by Jeff »

The image is probably not mounted. Are you using the indexed mode ?

Martin Hepperle
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:20 am
Location: Germany

Re: SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

Post by Martin Hepperle »

yes, I think so. I have named my test files according to the numbering scheme

DSKA0000.hfe
DSKA0001.hfe
... etc.
I have not yet tried to place DSKB... files on the card.
Does the upper/lowercase of the names and the extension play a role? Is .hfe different from .HFE?

Besides that I only have a HXCSDFE.CFG file on the SD Card.

When I press and hold the button on the "Slim" Emulator I get a single beep which indicates the first file is (should be) selected.
I can also circle through the images by pressing the button several times according to the number of files. After the last I get a beep when the first file should be reached again.

But now, after reading your reply I looked again at the documentation and it may be that I forgot to activate indexed mode in the HxC Floppy Emulator settings and thus in the CFG file.

I will try this evening when am at home at my computer. Maybe this my only mistake.

Martin

Martin Hepperle
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Sep 09, 2016 11:20 am
Location: Germany

Re: SONY MFD-52-W10 replacement in HP 9153C

Post by Martin Hepperle »

Jeff,

the magic word was "indexed mode". I had not understood that I need to set this mode in the CFG file. my fault. Now I have done this and my images work fine.

It might be good to add one or two sentences to page 9 of the "Slim" manual to make this clear.
Maybe something like:
"To use the indexed mode the files have to be numbered according to the scheme shown and the corresponding option has to be set in the configuration file HXCSDFE.CFG. Use the HxC Floppy Emulator software to create this file."

Also it would be nice if the meaning of the beeps would be explained. I understand that each track change is indicated by a click and sometimes multiple track changes combine into a beep. But there seem to be other acoustic signals, e.g. at startup.

A minor last idea for improvement is the Tab-order in the software. Usually a user would expect to be able to move with the "Tab" key from edit field to edit field or to the nearby command button. In the HxC software a logical tab-order is non-existent. Each tab places the focus on some control, but there is no logical sequence. Similarly some of the Menu shortcuts do not work as expected (using Alt+underlined character) as they start other commands because of duplication with shortcuts to buttons. For example there are two Alt-L combinations in the menu. This does not make sense.

Please don't get me wrong. These comments are just meant to show some minor points for further improvement.
I am impressed by the good work and I have updated my note about the wiring, switch settings and image file properties that I use for my HP gear so that other users can profit from this.

Merci beaucoup
Martin
Attachments
HxC with Sony Drive.zip
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