Dragon 32 / Dragon 64 Version

[rwap]

Jeff,

Whilst you are looking at the Sinclair QL version, how about a Dragon 32 / Dragon 64 version of the software?

Details are:
DragonDOS 40T SS DD:
MFM Double Density
number of tracks (40)
number of sides (1)
number of sectors per track (18)
sector size (256)
2:1 interleave
bitrate ??

DragonDOS 40T DS DD:
MFM Double Density
number of tracks (40)
number of sides (2)
number of sectors per track (18)
sector size (256)
2:1 interleave
bitrate ??

DragonDOS 80T SS DD:
MFM Double Density
number of tracks (80)
number of sides (1)
number of sectors per track (18)
sector size (256)
2:1 interleave
bitrate ??

DragonDOS 80T DS DD:
MFM Double Density
number of tracks (80)
number of sides (2)
number of sectors per track (18)
sector size (256)
2:1 interleave
bitrate ??

bitrates (at least as far as the WD2797 is concerned ) are 256kbits/s for DD

[lotharek]

rwap -- Yours board are ready - pic programming left and testing

[rwap]

rwap -- Yours board are ready - pic programming left and testing

Great - would love to introduce these to the QL and the Dragon markets

[Jeff]

rwap -- Yours board are ready - pic programming left and testing

Great - would love to introduce these to the QL and the Dragon markets

Yes all this formats are supported if you use the "Load Raw image" button.

[rwap]

Actually Jeff, it looks as though if support were added for Dragon disk image files, they would also work for TRS-80 disks and possibly others, like the Newbrain computers..

Not quite a raw disk image, as there is a header at the start and 3 different formats - see:

http://archive.worldofdragon.org/index. ... ile_Format

The three file types are described at the bottom of the page.

[rwap]

At the Vintage Computer Festival last weekend, some Dragon users had the chance to try this out and managed to get it working with the Dragon 32 Computer.

Jeff - any chance you could incorporate some of the changes in the software - it is fairly easy.

You need to take a Dragon 32 VDK or JVC and remove the header - calculate the image size modulo 256 and trim that many bytes from the beginning of the image. e.g., if the file size is 184332, (184332 % 256) == 12, so delete 12 bytes from the beginning of the file (leaving 184320 bytes which is 40 * 18 * 256).

This should also work with the Tandy CoCo.

The options then needed for the disk image are:

Track type: MFM
Reverse side: leave unticked
tracks ... grouped: leave unticked
GAP3 length: 24
Sector ID start: 1
Sectors size: 256
Interleave: 2 (otherwise it'll be very slow)
Sectors per track: 18
RPM: 300
Bitrate: 250000

If this could be added as its own Dragon 32 JVC/VDK import that would be great.

[Jeff]

VDK support added ! :

https://hxc2001.com/floppy_drive_emulat ... r_soft.zip

[rwap]

That is great - many thanks Jeff

[Jeff]

That is great - many thanks Jeff

Please give me a feedback after your tests.

[rwap]

The software seems to work fine on all the images which have been tried, so the Dragon 32 can be added to the list of compatible computers

[Jeff]

The software seems to work fine on all the images which have been tried, so the Dragon 32 can be added to the list of compatible computers

Thanks !

[rwap]

It has even now been tested on the Dragon Alpha (also known as the Dragon Professional) - although as it was an unreleased business machine (I have seen 3 of the 4 units known to exist) it is probably not worth mentioning!