second drive for the H8

[hl...@aol.com]

Hi everyone,

 

I am looking to add a second 5.25" drive to my H8. Anyone know of drives that will work? I have a full height drive from an old IBM PC. Will that work?

 

Thanks,

Harold

[Les Bird]

Harold,

Many IBM PC drives work just fine. I've not found any that do not work so far.

- Les

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SEBHC" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sebhc+un...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to se...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sebhc/-/YqTiH4pf7GUJ.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Chris Elmquist]

I think you'll be pretty safe with any 48 tpi drive. There are also 96
and 100 tpi 5.25" drives which will have issues with compatibility.

You should be able to Google the make+model of the drive you have and
find some specs to confirm what it is.

Chris

--
Chris Elmquist

[Norberto Collado]

Here is the info on;

Let HD 5,25" FDDs operate at 300 rpm instead of 360 rpm

http://www.oldskool.org/disk2fdi/525HDMOD.htm

Norberto

[steve shumaker]

two online sources for floppy drive specs:

http://marina.mfarris.com/floppy/alps.html

http://theref.mfarris.com/floppy_drives/mf__main.html

s2

[hl...@aol.com]

Les,

 

I was able to use the IBM PC 5.25" drive as my second floppy for the H8. I actually have two IBM drives both Tandon - one is TM100 and the other is TM100-2A. The TM100 worked fine but for some reason the TM100-2A did not work. Could the drive be bad?

 

Harold

-----Original Message-----
From: Les Bird <les...@bellsouth.net>
To: sebhc <se...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Apr 16, 2013 9:00 pm
Subject: Re: [sebhc] second drive for the H8

[Les Bird]

Tandon 2A's should work fine. They are double sided drives.

- Les

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Harold,

 

The TM-100-2A is double-sided.  You probably need to use the HUG H17.DVD from the Hard-Sector Support Disk Set.  The standard version should work if you are running a 2 MHz clock.

 

-- ken

 

---

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Harold,

 

Hmmmm, if you are not running the HUG H17.DVD from the HS-Support Pkg, then that is why your HSFE drives are working as well!

 

-- ken

 

---

From: se...@googlegroups.com [mailto:se...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of hl...@aol.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 6:33 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com

[hl...@aol.com]

Hi Ken,

 

Well you got me on the issue of HUG H17.DVD. Unfortunately I have no idea what you are talking about. However, I would appreciate any assistance/help since I still haven't been able to get the HSFE to work.

 

Thanks,

Harold

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Harold,

 

Copy HSY.DVD to an HDOS 2.0 bootable floppy.  Boot the floppy.  Clear the flags on SY.DVD.  DEL SY.DVD.  Copy SY.DVD=HSY.DVD.  Reboot to load the new driver.

[Chris Elmquist]

Also, if you are able to get HDOS booted from your one 5.25" drive, you
could then use the diags (I forget the name of but I'm sure someone on
the list can help) to help debug the HSFE.

There's a floppy test in the diags that will measure the speed of the
drive. If the HSFE is properly seeing and repeating the INDEX pulses
from the drive, then the floppy diagnostic will indicate correct speed.

I used this diagnostic extensively while developing the HSFE firmware.

Chris

On Wednesday (04/17/2013 at 09:07PM -0400), Kenneth L. Owen wrote:
> Hi Harold,
>
>
>
> Copy HSY.DVD to an HDOS 2.0 bootable floppy. Boot the floppy. Clear the
> flags on SY.DVD. DEL SY.DVD. Copy SY.DVD=HSY.DVD. Reboot to load the new
> driver.
>
>
>
> -- ken
>
>
>
> _____
>

> From: se...@googlegroups.com [mailto:se...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
> hl...@aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 17, 2013 8:34 PM
> To: se...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [sebhc] second drive for the H8
>
>
>
> Hi Ken,
>
>
>
> Well you got me on the issue of HUG H17.DVD. Unfortunately I have no idea
> what you are talking about. However, I would appreciate any assistance/help
> since I still haven't been able to get the HSFE to work.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Harold
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kenneth L. Owen <tx83...@bellsouth.net>
> To: sebhc <se...@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Wed, Apr 17, 2013 8:17 pm
> Subject: RE: [sebhc] second drive for the H8
>
> Hi Harold,
>
>
>
> Hmmmm, if you are not running the HUG H17.DVD from the HS-Support Pkg, then
> that is why your HSFE drives are working as well!
>
>
>
> -- ken
>
>
>
> _____
>

Chris Elmquist

[Mark Garlanger]

The disk diag program is on the HDOS distribution disks. It is called 'TEST17.ABS'. That program also help me when I was writing my emulator.

Mark

[Chris Elmquist]

That's it! Thanks Mark.

cje

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Harold,

 

I have seen your previous posts, but haven’t been following very closely due to other issues taking most of my time and attention.

 

I know that you are working with an H8.  What I don’t know is which CPU you are running, your CPU clock speed and whether you can use Les’ H8D utility to write floppy disks by sending them from your PC.

 

Do you have a modem program on your Heath?  If so, then you can send single files from your PC to the Heath using the serial port and X-modem protocol.  With a 2 MHz clock MAPLE.ABS will reliably transfer files at 4800 baud with INT5 jumper set on your serial port card for the port you are using.

 

Let me know a bit about what you have and what you can already do, then, I will be able to help you get the rest.

[Norberto Collado]

Just send him a bootable HDOS floppy diskette with the diags!

[hl...@aol.com]

Hi Ken and everyone following this,

 

My first computer project was the H8 back in 1980. I've had many computers since then and even  had a computer collection that included the Altair, IMSAI, and a Mark 8.

 

Over the last couple of years I have sold off my collection, but I couldn't give up my H8. So I decided to upgrade my H8 and that is why I joined in on SEBHC.

 

My H8 system consists of:

85-1938-1 8080 CPU  board

H8-64 Rev 2.1 board from Les (upgraded from 32k  Heathkit memory boards)

H8-5 cassette and Serial I/O board

H17 Controller board with 2 drives

HA8-8 Extended configuration board

H19 Terminal operating at 4800 baud

I have HDOS 1.6 and CP/M 2.2.02 bootable on 5.25" hard sector. However, now the HDOS 1.6 doesn't boot because of the 64k.

 

At this point everything seems to be working as designed. My understanding is that to get the HSFE working I will need to upgrade the operating system to at least CP/M 2.2.03. 

 

I have downloaded the H8D utility from the website but have not been able yet to communicate with the H8 through the H8-5. The communication is setup as receive/transmit on pins 2 and 3 and ground on pin 7. Les's utility seems to work and I have loaded H8D files for CP/M 2.2.03 but I don't think that the setup for the RS232 on com1: is right. The computer I am using is running Windows XP.

 

I am considering setting up an old PC with MSDOS 6.2 and run Dwight's H89trans program directly, but that could take some time.

 

Anyway any suggestions and help would be appreciated.

[Chris Elmquist]

On Thursday (04/18/2013 at 09:56AM -0400), hl...@aol.com wrote:
>
> At this point everything seems to be working as designed. My understanding is that to get the HSFE working I will need to upgrade the operating system to at least CP/M 2.2.03.

Not exactly. The HSFE does not require any operating system support
of any kind. You would only need that version of CP/M if you wish to
access all 80 tracks of the 3.5" floppy.

Using any version of HDOS or CP/M will still allow you to access 40
tracks on the 3.5" drive, thereby equating the storage capacity of the
3.5" to the stock 5.25".

So, in other words, the HSFE will work with any OS version and it's only
when you wish to take advantage of more tracks that you need to consider
different OS versions or special drivers to support that. This story
is the same as if you were to add an 80-track 5.25" drive for example.

Chris

--
Chris Elmquist

[dwight elvey]

The H8-5s were flakey at 9600 baud. My program had the
ability to run at 4800 that seemed to work well with most
H8-5s I've tried.
The problem it the design using the optical coupler was really
not well designed.
There is a way, I forget which, that can be used to tell
windows that the com port is not available to windows.
Then the original program can be run from a dos window.
At least that is what I was told.
I believe there were two different programs for the bootstrap
that one had the setup for the slower baud.
I don't know if Les' program supports the lower baud rate.
You might see if you can borrow one of the serial boards.
As for wiring, find a RS232 light box. That will help debug
most RS232 wiring differences.
Dwight
 

 

---

To: se...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [sebhc] second drive for the H8

From: hl...@aol.com
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:56:36 -0400

[Kenneth L. Owen]

Hi Harold,

 

If you will send me your mailing address, I send you a couple of disks that should help.

 

I will make sure that they are configured such that you can use them.

 

You can send it to me directly if you like:  tx83...@bellsouth.net

[Norberto Collado]

Thanks Ken!