Hello!
I am using the HxC Floppy Emulator with a 2GB MicroSDcart connected to a Corcomp DS/DD controller (WD1773?). It is possible to read Basic programs, data files or Assembler files in tagged format, but the raw machine language program format, called EA5, crashes the system. If those programs are greater than 8KB than they are chained together and the loader reads the first file (dskx.example), copies the data from the VDP memory into CPU ram and tries to read the file examplf for the next data block. If the file header of examplf points to an other block then examplg is going to be load until the header informs the loader that this was the last file in the chain. I did not check a single EA5 file yet. Maybe I have not yet set the configuration the right way. No hints in the manual for me. Need some help. Is writing to a disk possible?
EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
eck wrote:Hello!
I am using the HxC Floppy Emulator with a 2GB MicroSDcart connected to a Corcomp DS/DD controller (WD1773?). It is possible to read Basic programs, data files or Assembler files in tagged format, but the raw machine language program format, called EA5, crashes the system. If those programs are greater than 8KB than they are chained together and the loader reads the first file (dskx.example), copies the data from the VDP memory into CPU ram and tries to read the file examplf for the next data block. If the file header of examplf points to an other block then examplg is going to be load until the header informs the loader that this was the last file in the chain. I did not check a single EA5 file yet. Maybe I have not yet set the configuration the right way. No hints in the manual for me. Need some help. Is writing to a disk possible?
Yes writing to the disk is possible. EA5 is supposed to write on the disk during loading ?
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Moin Jeff!
I am not 100% sure but there is no need for the loader to write to the disk when he is forced to load editor assembler option 5 files(EA5). Am I ought to use a certain syntax when I am going to save programs or data to the selected disk on the SDcard ? With a real floppy I type save DSK1.Program and a BASIC program is stored on the disk in drive one?
I am not 100% sure but there is no need for the loader to write to the disk when he is forced to load editor assembler option 5 files(EA5). Am I ought to use a certain syntax when I am going to save programs or data to the selected disk on the SDcard ? With a real floppy I type save DSK1.Program and a BASIC program is stored on the disk in drive one?
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
eck wrote:Moin Jeff!
I am not 100% sure but there is no need for the loader to write to the disk when he is forced to load editor assembler option 5 files(EA5). Am I ought to use a certain syntax when I am going to save programs or data to the selected disk on the SDcard ? With a real floppy I type save DSK1.Program and a BASIC program is stored on the disk in drive one?
There nothing special to do to save on the disk. The emulator act as a normal floppy disk drive.
Did you have try what are you doing with a true disk drive ?
EDIT: is it a single density disk (FM) ?
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Yes it is a single density disk which I obtained through the internet. This is the size of the original TI disk controller(SS/SD 89KB). My old 5.25 Floppy drives half height (DS/DD) 40 tracks wont work since I used a new cable to connect the HxC to the controller. The drive select LED flashes but no motor drive action is performed and an error occurs. So there is no access to my own stuff. It is a Y-cable designed for PCs with 3.5 and or 5.25 inch drives with 80 tracks. Seems this one killed my drives because the old cable wont bring them up. To test the write option on MFM disks i have to search for other Ti disk images on the internet. Hope there is also a single EA5 file there to test. Thank You for your help.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Ok. Actually FM write support isn't in your firmware.eck wrote:Yes it is a single density disk which I obtained through the internet. This is the size of the original TI disk controller(SS/SD 89KB). My old 5.25 Floppy drives half height (DS/DD) 40 tracks wont work since I used a new cable to connect the HxC to the controller. The drive select LED flashes but no motor drive action is performed and an error occurs. So there is no access to my own stuff. It is a Y-cable designed for PCs with 3.5 and or 5.25 inch drives with 80 tracks. Seems this one killed my drives because the old cable wont bring them up. To test the write option on MFM disks i have to search for other Ti disk images on the internet. Hope there is also a single EA5 file there to test. Thank You for your help.
I will release a new firmware very soon with the FM write support (it's almost ready).
So stay tuned on the project web page:
https://hxc2001.com/floppy_drive_emulat ... l#download
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
OK. Merci Monsieur.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Shame on me!
I found other EA5 files, single and multiple, on the internet and they are all working as intended. First I tried to load corrupted files which would crash the system even on real hardware. I beg your pardon. But there is an other problem that I cannot fix. To test the write-function of the HxC I created a blank disks (5.25 DSDD 360K with the two speed options) and saved them to the SD card, but the disk-manager software is not able to format them for Ti purposes. A readable HFE-file is 1.021 KB in size and the empty floppy files have only 981KB. Some files converted by the batch function of your software will not be recognized. These files are also 981KB in size. The catalog-program cannot handle them. Maybe tracks 0 and 1 are not generated? How can I bypass this problems? I posted a second fault: The original TI-controller can handle DSSD(180K) but the disk drives they sold were single sided so the most software came on 90K disks.
I found other EA5 files, single and multiple, on the internet and they are all working as intended. First I tried to load corrupted files which would crash the system even on real hardware. I beg your pardon. But there is an other problem that I cannot fix. To test the write-function of the HxC I created a blank disks (5.25 DSDD 360K with the two speed options) and saved them to the SD card, but the disk-manager software is not able to format them for Ti purposes. A readable HFE-file is 1.021 KB in size and the empty floppy files have only 981KB. Some files converted by the batch function of your software will not be recognized. These files are also 981KB in size. The catalog-program cannot handle them. Maybe tracks 0 and 1 are not generated? How can I bypass this problems? I posted a second fault: The original TI-controller can handle DSSD(180K) but the disk drives they sold were single sided so the most software came on 90K disks.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Can you send me the problematic image file ?eck wrote:Shame on me!
I found other EA5 files, single and multiple, on the internet and they are all working as intended. First I tried to load corrupted files which would crash the system even on real hardware. I beg your pardon. But there is an other problem that I cannot fix. To test the write-function of the HxC I created a blank disks (5.25 DSDD 360K with the two speed options) and saved them to the SD card, but the disk-manager software is not able to format them for Ti purposes. A readable HFE-file is 1.021 KB in size and the empty floppy files have only 981KB. Some files converted by the batch function of your software will not be recognized. These files are also 981KB in size. The catalog-program cannot handle them. Maybe tracks 0 and 1 are not generated? How can I bypass this problems? I posted a second fault: The original TI-controller can handle DSSD(180K) but the disk drives they sold were single sided so the most software came on 90K disks.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Hello Jeff!
You can download the hfe-file here :http://www.FastShare.org/download/leer_dsk.hfe
You can download the hfe-file here :http://www.FastShare.org/download/leer_dsk.hfe
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
and the dsk file please.eck wrote:Hello Jeff!
You can download the hfe-file here :http://www.FastShare.org/download/leer_dsk.hfe
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
OK. Here is a file converted by the batch :http://www.FastShare.org/download/Spellbrk_dsk.hfe. Merci for Your efforts.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
In fact i need the dsk file too.eck wrote:OK. Here is a file converted by the batch :http://www.FastShare.org/download/Spellbrk_dsk.hfe. Merci for Your efforts.
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Pardon, but I did not read Your post properly and I fear that the .dsk format is not supported either. The two sided version (180KB) is loaded in the HxC software in the posted way and the single sided (90KB) files point this out. The batch ignores them. It seems that the PC99 and TI99 files are rare in use and I cannot find a converter either. Here is the Spellbrk.dsk :http://www.FastShare.org/download/Spellbrk.dsk
Re: EA5 type files with TI-99/4A
Well, in fact your dsk are converted as a MSX dsk file.eck wrote:Pardon, but I did not read Your post properly and I fear that the .dsk format is not supported either. The two sided version (180KB) is loaded in the HxC software in the posted way and the single sided (90KB) files point this out. The batch ignores them. It seems that the PC99 and TI99 files are rare in use and I cannot find a converter either. Here is the Spellbrk.dsk :http://www.FastShare.org/download/Spellbrk.dsk
Since there are no informations about the dsk floppy layout on this file, the software cannot load it correctly (i mean with the right floppy format).
You must load them using the "Load Raw image" function.
This is explained in the user manual Page 20:
https://hxc2001.com/floppy_drive_emulat ... Manual.pdf