Acorn A3000

HxC Floppy emulator support for all others computers...
Samy83
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2016 4:55 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Samy83 »

No jumpers but a small switch which is marked DSSW1 with 2 positions.
The switch is in 0.

Hemdale
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 12:40 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Hemdale »

Have you solved the problem?

Zarchos
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2017 6:48 am

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Zarchos »

Hi all.

Please note you must make the distinctions between 2 types of Archimedes :
- The earliest series A300s and A400s, the A540, the A680 and the RISC iX machines, the BBC A3000 : they use a 1772 diskette controller and will not handle disk formats higher than 800 kbytes (DD)
- The laptop A4, the A5000 and the ARM250 based machines (A3010, A3020, A4000) and they will handle disk formats up to 1600 kbytes.(HD)
Same thing for the RISC PCs.

If I can give you some help please tell me.

I previously read that the BBCA3000 cannot handle more than one diskette drive and it is false : exactly like for the A300 and A400 series, with an additional small board you can have a second diskette drive.
http://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org ... uffer.html

I don't think there is really a format for the Archie images ... you'll find zipped contents of diskettes, most of the time.
IIRC the adf don't work because dumping the contents of a disk is no use when there is a copy protection system (for games).
Démos and everything PD or shareware as found on the apdl web site or the Stuttgart ftp only use zip, and not diskette dumps.
If you want to play games, upgrade to 4 Mbytes and legally use ADFFS from Jonathan Abbott for his Archimedes Software Preservation Project :
http://jaspp.huber-net.de/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4LqXC ... s2J5qF_wqg

https://youtu.be/z-ufQTw1YVw in German


Zarchos.

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Hi guys,

I've just bought a HxC revision F for my Acorn 3010. I've got the same problem everyone has had and solved, except I'm at a loss.. I can get 1.44Mb IBM PC / Dos disk image working ok, so I assume cable is fine (bought a new cable with the drive just in case from Lothatek). Seems rather slow though. And saving to the disk works but it fails with a few errors, but the file seems to be written fine. First error is "Please insert disc 'HD1440KB', after CANCELLing that, it says 'Ambiguous disc name error when reading ADFS::HD1440KB.$'. I am getting nowhere with the HFE's I've created from the ADFs. Question: Do I simply load up the ADF in the Emulator software (Mac OS X, v2.1.6.0) and then export as HFE or should i be creating a raw disk and setting parameters?

If anyone can send me a working HFE then then I can establish whether it's just what the emulator software is outputting and not my drive/.CFG file thats an issue.

Any other hints welcome!

Warmest Regards,
Me.

Jeff
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Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Jeff »

If possible try a better sdcard. Sound like there is an issue with yours.

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for replying. I've tried 2 SD cards so far. Gonna try a third..

By the way, tried 3 cables which all look completely intact and no joy. One is new off Lothareks site as I mentioned.

Also it doesn't SEEM to read past track 1. Sits on track 2 after boot and doesn't seem to go anywhere beyond that.

UPDATE:

Tried a third. No joy. The previous 2 were formatted in Mac OSX, I did the third in Linux.

Any other ideas?

I've got the ID0A dipswitch on, others all off.

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Here's my SD cards I've tried.
Attachments
sdcards.jpg
sdcards.jpg (129.01 KiB) Viewed 8350 times

Jeff
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Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Jeff »


stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Jeff,

When I try update the firmware the LCD shows 1 line of black blocks like all the pixels are on. The lights flash furiously but nothing completes..

My current firmware is: v1.8.2.40

Ok wait.. Ignored the blocks.. There is a lot of flashing like its copying and then it goes into a 2-flash, 2 second delay cycle. So according to your docs thats SDcard init failure.. ? Gonna try a clean SD

:(

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Jeff,

Got the firmware upgraded to 1.8.6.14a, but same problems..

Do you happen to have a CFG and a demo HFE for this platform on you? OR anything else to suggest?

Jeff
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Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Jeff »

stomachcontents wrote:
Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:33 pm
Jeff,

Got the firmware upgraded to 1.8.6.14a, but same problems..

Do you happen to have a CFG and a demo HFE for this platform on you? OR anything else to suggest?
Let's restart from the beginning : Is Reading of converted ADF files working properly with the exact same speed as the original floppy drive, or it is slower ?

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Hi Jeff,

Reading doesn't work at all for anything except this dos disk HFE.

I cant convert ANY ADFs to working HFEs. I copied a dos disk HFE from a zip i found which contained demo HFEs for various platforms. The dos HFE works sort of but its slow and writing to it causes all sorts of errors even though the file appears to be written. Used the Edit app to create a tiny text file. That caused errors.

So thats all that comes close to working. Trying to use HFEs that i converted from game ADFs (800kb images) just gives me Drive Empty.. noothhing i do changes that.

Jeff
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Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Jeff »

stomachcontents wrote:
Tue Oct 10, 2017 5:50 pm
Hi Jeff,

Reading doesn't work at all for anything except this dos disk HFE.

I cant convert ANY ADFs to working HFEs. I copied a dos disk HFE from a zip i found which contained demo HFEs for various platforms. The dos HFE works sort of but its slow and writing to it causes all sorts of errors even though the file appears to be written. Used the Edit app to create a tiny text file. That caused errors.

So thats all that comes close to working. Trying to use HFEs that i converted from game ADFs (800kb images) just gives me Drive Empty.. noothhing i do changes that.
Please share these ADF files.

stomachcontents
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:12 pm

Re: Acorn A3000

Post by stomachcontents »

Hi Jeff,

I've sent them to your hxc2001 email address.

Jeff
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Re: Acorn A3000

Post by Jeff »

stomachcontents wrote:
Wed Oct 11, 2017 1:01 pm
Hi Jeff,

I've sent them to your hxc2001 email address.
Received. I think that you try to force the interface mode with the A3000: Remove the sdcard, press select -> interface cfg -> try PC 1.44MB and PC 720KB mode.
i suspect that the shugart drive was changed by a pc drive in the A3000.

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