FM-77AV40SX Support

[TheRogue]

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that I have been trying to use my revision C SD emulator from Lotharek with my FM-77AV40SX and I've been running into some problems. The 3 double density images I have (701,360 bytes (684KB) as a D77, 655,360 bytes (640KB) as an IMG) load no problem and run as they should, but every other disk image I have will convert to HFE no problem but when I try to use them with the FM-77AV40SX they don't work. The machine does acknowledge that a disk is in and tries to read it, but nothing happens. Literally nothing. The machine will just sit with a flashing cursor until you reset it. Normally if no disk is in the machine will boot to basic after about 10 seconds, but when I mount any disk image the machine will just sit forever at a blank screen with a blinking cursor in the left hand corner. I have attached a file with all the FM77 disk images I have, along with the latest English translation of the FM-77AV emulator, can you please look into why this is happening? I don't think the problem is with the software that converts the disk images to HFE format, since if I convert an image to HFE and then convert the HFE to IMG I can load the resulting IMG in an FM-77AV emulator it loads there no problem. To me this shows the problem lies with the firmware. I do not believe it is a problem with copy protection or some similar issue, since even the disk images of F-Basic will not load, with the exception of the final version of F-Basic which comes as a 684KB D77. I also know the disk images are good because I can both boot them on an emulator and use DITT to write them to real floppies and boot them on the machine that way. I will include a set of tools for working with D77/D88 files, as well as the version of DITT I translated as well in case you want to see how the images are on a real disk. Please keep in mind that DITT needs to be run from real mode DOS, not just a command prompt. Please look into this for me. I would really really appreciate it! Thank you very much!

File links:

XM7 3.4L21a English Translation: http://www.mediafire.com/?5jd7z48lyi9snzx
D88 Image Tools: http://www.mediafire.com/?2ujcdjn77y7wj3n
FM-77AV Disk Images: http://www.mediafire.com/?8s7bbr81n9ok42s
DITT 1.50 Original Japanese and English Translation: http://www.mediafire.com/?n3v0bu7o57jqg2v

[Jeff]

The 3 double density images I have (701,360 bytes (684KB) as a D77, 655,360 bytes (640KB) as an IMG) load no problem and run as they should, but every other disk ...

So the FM-77AV40SX can read these images with the HxC ?

[TheRogue]

The 3 double density images I have (701,360 bytes (684KB) as a D77, 655,360 bytes (640KB) as an IMG) load no problem and run as they should, but every other disk ...

So the FM-77AV40SX can read these images with the HxC ?

Yes, the 3 images that are 684KB (F-BASIC V3.4L21 System Disk.D77, FM77AV40SX Nyumon Disk.D77, and FM Graphic EditorII V1.0.D77) work perfectly with the HxC, booting up extremely fast on the FM-77AV40SX, but none of the others do. At first I thought it might be because the other images might be copy protected or something, but then I realized that is not the problem, because the other versions of F-Basic are definitely not copy protected and they will not run either.

[TheRogue]

Just in case it helps, I have just finished translating another utility from Japanese that lets you work with D77 files. It's probably not necessary, but I figure more utilities can't hurt. Here it is:

[Jeff]

i have tried some D77, and there are some odd things in these files images (some tracks with 256 strange sectors...)
This will take some time to correct this.

Do you have some documentation about the D88/D77 format ?

[TheRogue]

I will look for some documentation right now. Thank you very much for all your help. I will get back to you as soon as I can with information.

EDIT: I am still looking for the information, but I did find this interesting thing. I found the floppy pinouts for an earlier version of this system, and they seem to be SLIGHTLY different from standard shugart. Please let me know what you think. I'll get back to you when I have the specs on the format.

[TheRogue]

As of yet I haven't been able to find any information on the format, but I have contacted a few friends in Japan about it. I'm just waiting to hear back from them. Will it be possible to look into it at all in the meantime or are you at a standstill without the information?

[TheRogue]

Well I just put my foot in my mouth here.. I have been searching in Japanese. A quick search in English found exactly what we needed:

Code: Select all

D88 (D68/D77/D98) File Structure
================================
-         All values are stored in little-endian format.


Image File Structure:
=====================

          Disk 1 Header
          Disk 1 Data
            Track 0
              Sector 1 Header
              Sector 1 Data
              ...
            Track 1
              Sector 1 Header
              ...
            ...
          Disk 2 Header
          Disk 2 Data
          Disk 3 Header
          ...


Disk Header:
============
Size:     688 or 672 bytes.   

Offset    Size             Meaning
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00h       16(CHAR)         Disk name / comment.
10h       1                00h (ASCII comment terminator).
11h       9                Reserved (00h).
1Ah       1                Write protect flag. 00h = normal. 10h = write protected. *1
1Bh       1                Media flag. 00h = 2D, 10h = 2DD, 20h = 2HD. *2
1Ch       4(DWORD)         Disk size (includes header size).
20h       4(DWORD) * 164   Track table. Offset of each track from disk start. *3
                           0 if track is unformatted or not used. *4

*1        Any non-zero value should be treated as write protected.
*2        The tool "1DDITT" also defines the flags 30h for 1D and 40h for 1DD disks.
*3        Older tools only allowed up to 160 entries. -> header size is 672 bytes.
*4        At least one of the many D88 tools is known to set all unused entries at
          the end of the table to the end of the disk.

-         To get the maximum number of tracks check the first non-zero value in the table.
          It must be either 688 or 672.
-         If the disk is unformatted only the first value in the table is set (688 or 672)
          and the disk ends after the table.


Disk Data Area:
===============
Offset:   2A0h or 2B0h.
Size:     variable.

Track:
------
-         Each track starts at the offset (relative to start of disk) found in the
          track table.
-         Tracks don't have any header data.

Sector:
-------
Size:     10h (header) + variable data size

Offset    Size          Meaning
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00h       1             C (cylinder)
01h       1             H (head).
02h       1             R (record/sector ID).
03h       1             N (sector size). Bytes in sector = 128 << N.
04h       2(WORD)       Number of sectors in track. *1
06h       1             Density flag. 00h = double density. 40h = single density.
07h       1             Deleted data (DDAM) flag. 0 = normal, 10h = deleted.
08h       1             FDC status code. 00h = normal, B0h = Data CRC error, etc.
09h       5             Reserved (00h). *2
0Eh       2(WORD)       Actual data size following the sector header in bytes.
---                     End of sector header.
10h       (variable)    Sector data.

*1        If this is not the same for all sectors within a certain track the disk is damaged.
*2        Neko Project II stores values used for 1.44MB floppy disk emulation here.

-         Actual data length might not match N field value.
-         Sectors appear in the order in which they were read.
-         Sector headers without data are possible.
-         Sector header fields should be checked carefully since damaged image files are
          all too common. 

Information available in Japanese here: http://www1.plala.or.jp/aoto/tech.htm

[TheRogue]

Hey there guys. Just wondering if any progress has been made on getting this to work or even figuring out why it doesn't as of yet work. I am very eager to do a permanent install of the HxC emulator into my FM-77AV40SX.

[Jeff]

Hey there guys. Just wondering if any progress has been made on getting this to work or even figuring out why it doesn't as of yet work. I am very eager to do a permanent install of the HxC emulator into my FM-77AV40SX.

Just try this : Activate the "Double Step" option in the software setting for 40 tracks disk images before export/convert them into hfe.

[TheRogue]

OH!!!! I need to activate it before I export to hfe... I thought it was a function of the emulator, not the file. I turned on doublestep and then saved the config to my SD Card. D'OH! My FM-77AV40SX is currently in pieces because I am rebuilding it's cassette interface, but I should have that done this coming Thursday, so I will let you know then if it works. Thanks so much!

[TheRogue]

Hi guys. So I had a chance to test your suggestion today, and it made no difference. I turned on double-stepping before converting the images to HFE, and the problem is still exactly the same. The computer seems to hang on trying to load from the floppy drive. I guess there is some other problem then double-stepping. Any other ideas?

[Jeff]

Hi guys. So I had a chance to test your suggestion today, and it made no difference. I turned on double-stepping before converting the images to HFE, and the problem is still exactly the same. The computer seems to hang on trying to load from the floppy drive. I guess there is some other problem then double-stepping. Any other ideas?

Please complete this : Which file are you trying ? Please send me the HFE that you have tried + the originals files
(no need to have the whole collection. Only 2/3 samples of the non working files is enough) .

[TheRogue]

Here you go, this is what you wanted:
https://rapidshare.com/files/3242414231 ... orking.rar

[TheRogue]

Hey guys! Have you had a chance to look at this yet? Are the images that I gave you good or do you need different ones?