trouble with HP 16500A

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

email sent.

nebelfuerst
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by nebelfuerst »

here comes the file for 16500a.
extract both zips and join the files to get the HFE
Attachments
STARTUPA.002.zip
(146.73 KiB) Downloaded 428 times
STARTUPA.001.zip
(236.31 KiB) Downloaded 459 times

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

Is it working ?

nebelfuerst
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by nebelfuerst »

Jeff wrote:Is it working ?
Yes. I tried the image I uploaded and it worked.
Here's the .cfg for completeness.

I had to attach the 10k pullups to all OC-Outputs to make the HxC work, as the 16500a has no pullups on the floppybus.
I set the "classic" floppydrive to ID0 and the HxC to ID1. So I was able to copy the disks to HFE.
Attachments
HXCSDFE.ZIP
(176 Bytes) Downloaded 405 times

gklotek
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by gklotek »

I have an HP 16500A with FDC9793 floppy disk controller and the usual SONY MP-52W-30 floppy drives. I am trying to get the 34-pin Slim SD HxCFloppyEmulator to work. The slim HXC has 1K pull up resistors installed on R4, R8, and R9 (FLOPPY_READY#, FLOPPY_DATA#,FLOPPY_DSKCHG# lines). The slim HXC is connected to the 16500A floppy cable using an adapter boards similar to the one described in the HP 4145B thread.

The slim HXC works fine in the 4145B using the adapter board. I am able to read the 4145B systems disks using the HxC Floppy Emulator Software and generate the .hfe and .cfg files for the SD card. Everything works great!

I follow the exact same procedure to read the 16500A system disk and generate the .hfe and .cfg files. When the 16500A is powered up, the instrument reports front disk error "failed". It does matter whether the slim HXC is connected as front or rear disk via switch settings DS0A "on" or DS1A "on" (no rear floppy disk installed) or in a two disk configuration as the front disk (DS1A on, all other switches off) and the rear disk MP-52W-30 installed (drive select "0" switch setting the on floppy drive).

In the two disk configuration, the 16500A boots fine from the rear disk, but reports front disk "failed". When I try to read the front disk (slim HXC disk), the 16500A reports "unsupported format".

Has anyone had any success getting the 34-pin Slim SD HxCFloppyEmulator to work with the HP 16500A?

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

gklotek wrote:
Sun Jan 26, 2020 7:12 pm
Has anyone had any success getting the 34-pin Slim SD HxCFloppyEmulator to work with the HP 16500A?
yes, i think that all the needed stuff are in the previous post ? Which images are you using ?

gklotek
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by gklotek »


gklotek
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by gklotek »

Jeff,
I have also used the HxC software to read the HP 16500A system disk and generate the STARTUPA.hfe file. The 16500A floppy appears to be HP LIF, sectors/track = 5, sector size = 1024 bytes, bitrate = 500,000, and RPM = 600. I have checked the STARTUPA.hfe to make sure it has the correct bitrate and rpm. Still no go. The 16500A reports disk error or unsupported format.

FYI: The slim HxC works great in an HP 35665A FFT spectrum analyzer. It replaces an Epson SMD-300 floppy drive. I use the same interface adapter for the Sony MP-F52W-30. It took less than hour to get the slim HxC working and recognized by the 35665A. So far it appears to function identically to the Epson drive although I have not exercised all the functions.

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

Is the HP 16500A trying to read the disk on the Slim HxC ? Are you sure that the image is loaded by the emulator (should make a sound when you insert the sdcard) ?

gklotek
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by gklotek »

Jeff,
Yes, the 16500A is trying to ready the Slim HxC. Yes, I believe the image is loaded. The 16500A reports either "disk error" or "unsupported format". When I try to format the Sd card via the 16500A, it either goes into a loop and never finishes or reports disk is write protected, but it is not.

At this point, I believe that there is some compatibility issue between the Standard Microsystems FDC9793 floppy disk controller and the Slim HxC. I believe that the HP 16500A has another CPU board version that uses NEC (Zilog) uPD765C floppy disk controller and may work fine with the Slim HxC. Unfortunately I do not have access the uPD765 version.

Do you think that the Slim HxC requires different firmware to support the FDC9793?

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

gklotek wrote:
Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:35 pm
Do you think that the Slim HxC requires different firmware to support the FDC9793?
no.

The "unsupported format" message make me think that you are using a wrong floppy image, with the wrong sector format, or the wrong disk RPM.
Is your drive really rotating at 600 RPM ?

gklotek
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by gklotek »

Jeff,
I finally got the Slim HxC to work in HP 16500A. I needed to add additional pull up resistors to TRACK00, INDEX, and WRITE DATA lines (pins) on the adapter board between the Slim HxC and the 16500A floppy cable. Apparently the CPU board/floppy controller does not have pull up resistors.

In any case, I am able boot from the Slim HxC and to read, copy, and format the rear Sony floppy drive and vise versa. The STARTUPA.hfe posted earlier works fine as well the one I made from the HP floppy. I can also boot off the rear Sony drive and read and write to the Slim HxC .hfe file that was generated as blank floppy using the predefined disk layout LIF 3 1/2" 616KB DD.

Thanks for your help.

Jeff
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Re: trouble with HP 16500A

Post by Jeff »

Ok fine. FYI there are some empty footprints on the Slim HxC to place additional pull-ups.

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