SVD III/H8D Utility crash

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Mitchell Smith

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Jul 2, 2021, 12:18:52 PM7/2/21
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Hello everyone.
It's been months since I first mentioned that I was having problems with the SVD utility.
Just now trying to get back to it.

Here's what's going on...
I'm running Windows 10.
I launch the H8D Utility.
I select SVD so I can transfer .h8d images to to my SVD III board.
Select the proper comm port and hit Check. I get SVD Ver. 2.4.
I then select LOAD and browse to a disk image.
After I select the image, it doesn't appear to transfer to the SVD board. That is, none of the serial card lights blink like its receiving data.

Then I get a very hard crash. So bad that the task manager won't load most of the time so I can't kill the application.
The times when task manager would load, it appears that the SVD program is continually spawning the "tosvd.exe" program.  It keeps doing this until Windows 10 locks up and I have to force a power off to recover.

I have tried running the program in compatibility mode for WinXP but that doesn't seem to help. It also doesn't seem to matter which .h8d image I choose. I get the same results.

Even tried running under Ubuntu/Wine but the program doesn't like the paths it sees.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks.
Mitch Smith


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Les Bird

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Jul 2, 2021, 1:52:02 PM7/2/21
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Mitch,

Try using the SVD utility from the command line, not by using the H8D Utility which basically spawns a command line instance and kicks off the tosvd.exe utility. Seems like H8D Utility is crashing and spawning a million instances. The H8D Utility is severely outdated and not very compatible with Windows 10 and all of the new Windows restrictions. I’ve been meaning to rewrite it but I keep getting sidetracked.

Here are the instructions for using the command line utility.

Les


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Dave McGuire

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Jul 2, 2021, 1:56:56 PM7/2/21
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On 7/2/21 1:51 PM, Les Bird wrote:
> Try using the SVD utility from the command line, not by using the H8D
> Utility which basically spawns a command line instance and kicks off the
> tosvd.exe utility. Seems like H8D Utility is crashing and spawning a
> million instances. The H8D Utility is severely outdated and not very
> compatible with Windows 10 and all of the new Windows restrictions. I’ve
> been meaning to rewrite it but I keep getting sidetracked.
>
> Here are the instructions for using the command line utility.
> http://thesvd.com/pcsoftware.php

About that, has anyone written any software that directly talks to the
SVD using its protocol, other than the original vendor-supplied utilities?

-Dave

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Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA

Glenn Roberts

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Jul 2, 2021, 2:02:28 PM7/2/21
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I had this “infinite windows” problem on my Win10 machine also.  I was able to get it to work on my old XP Pentium IV and I’m not sure if I ever got back to fixing Win10?  I like Les’ suggestion…

Steven Feinsmith

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Jul 2, 2021, 8:12:58 PM7/2/21
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Yes, you are right about the Windows 10 situation due to enormous restrictions that prevent access to the hardware level. I had the same experience when I wrote in assembly language. I gave up and used Linux, and it worked fine. I loathed Microsoft for controllable everything. The reason is that I had outdated software to work with the vintage EPROM programmer with Windows 10. I had to abandon the Windows series and use the Linux operating system lately with my electronic instruments.

Steven


Mitchell Smith

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Jul 2, 2021, 9:18:01 PM7/2/21
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Success on that one!
How did I not see the Linux version of SVD?
As soon as I used that, it worked perfectly.

But... Now I suspect I have an issue with my H8-4  4-port serial I/O card.

I loaded HDOS_2-0_Issue_#50-06-00_890-64.h8d and HDOS_2-0_Driver_Source_890-104.h8d into the SVD.

After I boot, I get nothing on the terminal. I'm just using an H19 terminal emulator on the same system. COMM port is correct and its set to 9600 baud.

The first channel of my H8-4 is configured for 350 and Int 3.
Second channel is 340 and int 3.
The other channels are set to off.

Hitting space or enter does nothing.

Glenn Roberts

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Jul 2, 2021, 9:28:58 PM7/2/21
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Have you tried configuring one of the other UARTS for console?

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Mitchell Smith
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2021 9:18 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash

 

Success on that one!

Mitchell Smith

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Jul 3, 2021, 9:34:34 AM7/3/21
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Got it working.
My problem was that it wasn't actually booting.
Successfully booted HDOS 2.0.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

Mitch

PRL-89

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Jul 6, 2021, 10:38:26 AM7/6/21
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On a slightly different topic…

Has anyone attempted to update the SVD-III’s PIC code to take advantage of the new battery-backed SRAM feature?  It would certainly make the SVD-III more “portable.”  And there’s a couple of other known SVD-II bugs that could be fixed as well.

Thanks,

Paul

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 6, 2021, 2:54:57 PM7/6/21
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If the battery is preserving the data, then there is no need for FW updates. What I'm missing here?

Norberto


From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of PRL-89 <paul....@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:38 AM

Glenn Roberts

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Jul 6, 2021, 8:04:24 PM7/6/21
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When he developed SVD III Dave Runkle added an ability to battery-backup the RAM (which holds the disk images).  The firmware is actually the same firmware from the previous version (SVD II) and hence isn’t aware that the RAM is backed up, so on power on it starts from scratch, requiring the user to re-load the images.

 

More on SVD III is here:

 

http://www.astrorat.com/semivirtualdiskproject.html

Dave McGuire

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Jul 6, 2021, 8:14:14 PM7/6/21
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On July 6, 2021 10:38:37 AM PRL-89 <paul....@gmail.com> wrote:> Has anyone attempted to update the SVD-III’s PIC code to take advantage of
> the new battery-backed SRAM feature? It would certainly make the SVD-III
> more “portable.” And there’s a couple of other known SVD-II bugs that
> could be fixed as well.

I've been considering doing a re-spin of the PCB and fixing that firmware issue. I don't really have time for another project, but it seems a worthwhile one.

Paul Laba

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Jul 6, 2021, 8:18:35 PM7/6/21
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It’s a useful feature if your PC is not located near your H-8 or H89; you can move back and forth between the two (removing power from the SVD-III) while preserving your images saved in the SRAM.

But the firmware needs to be updated to recognize the presence of the battery and not reinitialize the SRAM when power is restored.

Paul

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norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 6, 2021, 8:58:01 PM7/6/21
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Thanks for the update and the FW then assumes the RAM is not initialized on power-up.

I went back to check the battery circuit and the "RST" signal going to RAM is not setup properly to maintain backup of the RAM. So, every time you power down the new SVD, "RST" might go low causing a write to RAM. So, R12 needs to be wired to pin 32 of the RAM. IC4 pin 14 will need to add a diode and VCC needs to be wired to pin 32 of the RAM. Also, the way is wired now it might drain the battery at a faster rate. 

Can you power down the SVD, measure the voltage at pin 2 of IC4, and measure also voltage at the RAM on pin 32? Then wait 30 minutes and measure again and send me the results. 

This is what the specs states regarding data retention on such RAM. So, if battery voltage is 3Volts, then CE# (RST in this case) should be sitting at 2.8 volts. The lowest it can go without losing data is 1.3V on "RST".







From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Paul Laba <paul....@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 5:18 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>

Paul Laba

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Jul 6, 2021, 10:46:14 PM7/6/21
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Thanks Norberto for that analysis!

Wish I could help, but my SVD-III is nothing more than a PCB and bunch of parts at this point.  I was getting ready to start building it, which prompted my post about the firmware update.

Paul

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 7, 2021, 2:29:56 AM7/7/21
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Someone else might have such board and could help with the measurements. As the 74LS06 is open collector it might not be that bad.  If the measurements are fine, then we just need to add a diode in series with R12 to VCC and nothing else. We need to verify first data retention by the HW before any software updates can be done. 

I think someone on this team can help with the FW once we do verify that the HW is protecting the RAM data during a power-down sequence.

Norberto
  

Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:46 PM

Mitchell Smith

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Jul 7, 2021, 9:31:54 AM7/7/21
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I can certainly help but I'm 3000 miles away from my H8 for the next 3 weeks.
I'm also curious about something. The SVD III has 3 virtual drives. I load HDOS 2.0 in the first, then anything else in the second, it's at 87% of the SVD's memory capacity. There doesn't seem to be room for loading anything into the 3rd device.
Am I missing something or doing something wrong?
Do I need to use the 2nd memory bank for this?

Thanks.
Mitch

norberto...@koyado.com

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Jul 7, 2021, 10:32:48 AM7/7/21
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If we assigned 100K per floppy disk, then you need about 300KB for three drives. As the RAM is divided by two, you have 200KB for two drives + 56KB left. The bank switch will provided additional 256KB for two more 200KB floppies to use. If all RAM could be used by software, you could have 3 floppies drives + 2 spares to use.

 

Thanks,

Norberto

Mitchell Smith

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Jul 7, 2021, 10:56:14 AM7/7/21
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So it's really a limitation of HDOS then?

Tim Gilberts

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Jul 7, 2021, 11:01:36 AM7/7/21
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I had just assumed that it was there to allow its ability to co-exist with other physical drives as main boot or not  rather than having three actual virtual ones, although logic would say some form of setting for the image of drive select was a more logical way to handle that in software.

Tim

Norberto Collado

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Jul 7, 2021, 9:53:39 PM7/7/21
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That it can do.

Image removed by sender.

 

 

Image removed by sender.

prl...@comcast.net

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Jul 8, 2021, 10:41:21 AM7/8/21
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According to the SVD-III Rev C instructions:

The SRAM has been consolidated in to a signal chip. In addition, the new SRAM chip doubles the disk image memory space [from 256K to 512K)]. The current version of SVD firmware does not support this larger memory size. It is hope that a future updates might take advantage of this increase capacity. In the meantime a disk image bank select switch option was added. This bank select switch allows two image banks to be supported.

So with a change to the firmware, you could mount two images stored in the SD-III’s memory.  That would be a pretty powerful feature for those of us with a single-drive H89/H8 (three active drives total).  Or those of us with a “no-drive” H89/H8 (a no-longer-functioning drive).

The battery backup feature would keep the images intact as you moved the SVD back and forth between your H89/H8 and your PC to swap images.  Perhaps an “SVD-IV” could offer Wi-Fi support, so the SVD itself could live permanently in the H89/H8.

Paul


On Jul 7, 2021, 11:01 AM -0400, 'Tim Gilberts' via SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>, wrote:
I had just assumed that it was there to allow its ability to co-exist with other physical drives as main boot or not  rather than having three actual virtual ones, although logic would say some form of setting for the image of drive select was a more logical way to handle that in software.

Tim

On 07/07/2021 15:56, Mitchell Smith wrote:
So it's really a limitation of HDOS then?


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On Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 7:32:48 AM UTC-7 Norby wrote:
If we assigned 100K per floppy disk, then you need about 300KB for three drives. As the RAM is divided by two, you have 200KB for two drives + 56KB left. The bank switch will provided additional 256KB for two more 200KB floppies to use. If all RAM could be used by software, you could have 3 floppies drives + 2 spares to use.
 
Thanks,
Norberto
 
From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.comOn Behalf Of Mitchell Smith
Sent: Wednesday, July 7, 2021 6:32 AM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash
 
I can certainly help but I'm 3000 miles away from my H8 for the next 3 weeks.
I'm also curious about something. The SVD III has 3 virtual drives. I load HDOS 2.0 in the first, then anything else in the second, it's at 87% of the SVD's memory capacity. There doesn't seem to be room for loading anything into the 3rd device.
Am I missing something or doing something wrong?
Do I need to use the 2nd memory bank for this?
 
Thanks.
Mitch
 
 
 
 
On Tuesday, July 6, 2021 at 11:29:56 PM UTC-7 Norby wrote:
Someone else might have such board and could help with the measurements. As the 74LS06 is open collector it might not be that bad.  If the measurements are fine, then we just need to add a diode in series with R12 to VCC and nothing else. We need to verify first data retention by the HW before any software updates can be done.  I think someone on this team can help with the FW once we do verify that the HW is protecting the RAM data during a power-down sequence. Norberto  
From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Paul Laba <paul....@gmail.com>Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:46 PMTo: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crashThanks Norberto for that analysis!

 
Wish I could help, but my SVD-III is nothing more than a PCB and bunch of parts at this point.  I was getting ready to start building it, which prompted my post about the firmware update.
 
Paul
 
On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 8:58 PM norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com> wrote:
Thanks for the update and the FW then assumes the RAM is not initialized on power-up. I went back to check the battery circuit and the "RST" signal going to RAM is not setup properly to maintain backup of the RAM. So, every time you power down the new SVD, "RST" might go low causing a write to RAM. So, R12 needs to be wired to pin 32 of the RAM. IC4 pin 14 will need to add a diode and VCC needs to be wired to pin 32 of the RAM. Also, the way is wired now it might drain the battery at a faster rate.  Can you power down the SVD, measure the voltage at pin 2 of IC4, and measure also voltage at the RAM on pin 32? Then wait 30 minutes and measure again and send me the results.  This is what the specs states regarding data retention on such RAM. So, if battery voltage is 3Volts, then CE# (RST in this case) should be sitting at 2.8 volts. The lowest it can go without losing data is 1.3V on "RST".    
From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Paul Laba <paul....@gmail.com>Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 5:18 PMTo: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash 

It’s a useful feature if your PC is not located near your H-8 or H89; you can move back and forth between the two (removing power from the SVD-III) while preserving your images saved in the SRAM.
 
But the firmware needs to be updated to recognize the presence of the battery and not reinitialize the SRAM when power is restored.
 
Paul
 
On Tue, Jul 6, 2021 at 8:04 PM Glenn Roberts <glenn.f...@gmail.com> wrote:
When he developed SVD III Dave Runkle added an ability to battery-backup the RAM (which holds the disk images).  The firmware is actually the same firmware from the previous version (SVD II) and hence isn’t aware that the RAM is backed up, so on power on it starts from scratch, requiring the user to re-load the images.
 
More on SVD III is here:
 
http://www.astrorat.com/semivirtualdiskproject.html 
 
 
From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.comOn Behalf Of norberto.collado koyado.comSent: Tuesday, July 06, 2021 2:55 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash
 
If the battery is preserving the data, then there is no need for FW updates. What I'm missing here? Norberto 
From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of PRL-89 <paul....@gmail.com>Sent: Tuesday, July 6, 2021 7:38 AMTo: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash 
Mitch, Try using the SVD utility from the command line, not by using the H8D Utility which basically spawns a command line instance and kicks off the tosvd.exe utility. Seems like H8D Utility is crashing and spawning a million instances. The H8D Utility is severely outdated and not very compatible with Windows 10 and all of the new Windows restrictions. I’ve been meaning to rewrite it but I keep getting sidetracked. Here are the instructions for using the command line utility.http://thesvd.com/pcsoftware.php Les  On Friday, July 2, 2021, 12:18:56 PM EDT, Mitchell Smith <kb3...@gmail.com> wrote:   Hello everyone.It's been months since I first mentioned that I was having problems with the SVD utility.Just now trying to get back to it. Here's what's going on...I'm running Windows 10.I launch the H8D Utility.I select SVD so I can transfer .h8d images to to my SVD III board.Select the proper comm port and hit Check. I get SVD Ver. 2.4.I then select LOAD and browse to a disk image.After I select the image, it doesn't appear to transfer to the SVD board. That is, none of the serial card lights blink like its receiving data. Then I get a very hard crash. So bad that the task manager won't load most of the time so I can't kill the application.The times when task manager would load, it appears that the SVD program is continually spawning the "tosvd.exe" program.  It keeps doing this until Windows 10 locks up and I have to force a power off to recover. I have tried running the program in compatibility mode for WinXP but that doesn't seem to help. It also doesn't seem to matter which .h8d image I choose. I get the same results. Even tried running under Ubuntu/Wine but the program doesn't like the paths it sees. Any thoughts or ideas? Thanks.Mitch Smith  --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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/a4ade67d-a0e3-4183-a3ad-3c59e666591fn%40googlegroups.com.--

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 8, 2021, 1:59:18 PM7/8/21
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The board needs to be re-layout to support such changes as there are no spare I/O lines to control "A18".  To get more I/O lines, we will need to add another counter for "A8, A9, A10, & A11". So, that we have "A18, A19, A20, A21" available. Also, the battery circuit needs to be validated properly during a power down sequence to ensure CS# is not active and within voltage range to avoid data corruption.

Dave Runkle did a great super job in cleaning up the original design while keeping it backwards compatible with the original FW. To support all these new features, it needs a new re-design which was out of scope for Dave at that time.

Norby
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Dave McGuire

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Jul 8, 2021, 3:23:00 PM7/8/21
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On 7/8/21 1:59 PM, norberto.collado koyado.com wrote:
> The board needs to be re-layout to support such changes as there are no
> spare I/O lines to control "A18".  To get more I/O lines, we will need
> to add another counter for "A8, A9, A10, & A11". So, that we have "A18,
> A19, A20, A21" available. Also, the battery circuit needs to be
> validated properly during a power down sequence to ensure CS# is not
> active and within voltage range to avoid data corruption.
>
> Dave Runkle did a great super job in cleaning up the original design
> while keeping it backwards compatible with the original FW. To support
> all these new features, it needs a new re-design which was out of scope
> for Dave at that time.

Exactly that is what I've been looking at doing. No promises but it's
like that I will work on it soon.

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 8, 2021, 5:05:33 PM7/8/21
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Thanks Dave. Also, please consider adding a second 512KB IC so that we have 720K on the soft sector side if needed and a USB battery backup circuit as a redundant method driving it thru a diode to the onboard +5V power rail. This allows to download images while the H8 system is powered down or when moving it between H8/H89 systems. For example:

Buy Power Bank 24000mAh Portable Charger Huge Capacity Dual USB External Battery Packs Portable Phone Charger Battery Backup Compatible More the Android Smart phone, Tablets and Others: Batteries - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

Would you be also updating the FW as well to support HW changes?

Thanks,
Norberto


From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dave McGuire <mcg...@neurotica.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 12:22 PM

To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash
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norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 8, 2021, 5:33:54 PM7/8/21
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Where are the SVD.III schematics and board files located?


From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 2:05 PM

Glenn Roberts

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Jul 8, 2021, 7:05:50 PM7/8/21
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Not sure about the board files.  Schematic is in here:

 

http://www.astrorat.com/semivirtualdiskproject.html

http://www.astrorat.com/images/SVD-III-REVC3.pdf

 

I think Tim Gilberts may have recently had a board fabricated so he may be able to enlighten us.

 

  • Glenn

 

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of norberto.collado koyado.com

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 8, 2021, 7:15:28 PM7/8/21
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I meant the board schematics. Where is Dave Runkle to get such files from him?

Norberto


From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Glenn Roberts <glenn.f...@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 4:05 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash
 

Tim Gilberts

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Jul 8, 2021, 7:23:58 PM7/8/21
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I could not find any Gerbers so, as I was impatient I had the original made sorry, not the Astrorat version.  If anyone is in reasonable shipping range (I.e. UK essentially) wants one, let me know as I had extras made.

Tim

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Jul 8, 2021, 8:01:35 PM7/8/21
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OK, we can use the pdf files to recreate the board again with the new changes. Also, we can delete the FTDI board and use the RJ45 connector instead which is cheaper. 

Dave McGuire, all yours and let us know what help you will need. 





From: 'Tim Gilberts' via SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 8, 2021 4:23 PM

PRL-89

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Jul 10, 2021, 9:06:01 AM7/10/21
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Dave, are you thinking that the new board and firmware will still support the other vintage systems supported by SVD-II and SVD-III (Heathkit, TRS-80, Apple II and TI99)?  Or will the new board and firmware support Heathkit (H8/H89) systems only?

I browsed the existing firmware; as expected it has a bunch of system-specific code (especially for Apple II systems).

Probably useful to clarify the compatibility question up front.

Thanks,

Paul

Dave McGuire

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Jul 11, 2021, 8:57:33 PM7/11/21
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On 7/10/21 9:06 AM, PRL-89 wrote:
> Dave, are you thinking that the new board and firmware will still
> support the other vintage systems supported by SVD-II and SVD-III
> (Heathkit, TRS-80, Apple II and TI99)?  Or will the new board and
> firmware support Heathkit (H8/H89) systems only?
>
> I browsed the existing firmware; as expected it has a bunch of
> system-specific code (especially for Apple II systems).
>
> Probably useful to clarify the compatibility question up front.

To be clear, it's not my intention to do a great deal of work on the
SVD. I don't have a lot of time to spend on it, and programming PICs is
not an enjoyable experience. I only want to redesign the board to get
rid of some problem components and make it easier to build. Then I'd
like to modify the firmware so it understand the fact that the SRAM is
no longer volatile. I do not intend to make any other changes.

On the other hand, if I can free up some time, I may end up going
further, but the PIC is a positively awful architecture. If I get into
it enough to document the transfer protocol, I would like to implement a
command line driven transfer program for it, but I can make no promises.
There's very little free time in my world these days.

Mitchell Smith

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Aug 17, 2021, 10:03:09 PM8/17/21
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After using the SVD III over the last week or so, I realized how annoying its behavior is.
I was trying to build up a couple disc images so I could do some assembly programing. Every time you change a disc image it reloads both images. Since I was trying to copy files from several images to disc 0 (sy0:) it became a real chore.
Then yesterday my image just stopped booting. I gave up at that point since I had to get ready for work.
I think it has motivated me to get my H17 fully operational again. I need to find a couple floppy drives next. Not sure if my one existing floppy still works. I also don't have an alignment floppy disc. Back in the day I did a lot of floppy drive repairs. Not sure if I remember what to do now. Another project for the to-do list. 

Les Bird

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Aug 18, 2021, 7:08:08 AM8/18/21
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I would definitely get a HSFE and use 3.5in drives. Way more reliable then using 5.25in drives and media.

Les

Glenn Roberts

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Aug 18, 2021, 7:25:00 AM8/18/21
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Agree with Les. If your goal is more reliable operation going back to the original H17 drives is the wrong direction. In the best scenario, you’ll get one or two drives working and be happily copying files and then you’ll hear that dreaded sound of the drive motor stepping in and out trying to access the disk. Could be old media, dirty head, aging components, whatever - in my experience it’s a matter of when, not if you will encounter this. I think it’s great for us to restore and be able to demonstrate these old drives, which were quite innovative in their day, but they’re simply no longer reliable enough for real work.

The SVD, as a solid state device, should be quite reliable, but I agree with you the software leaves something to be desired… perhaps you can tell us more about how this is failing… there are other solutions but they will require you to in vest in building new boards (e.g HSFE, H37, Z80…)

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 18, 2021, at 7:08 AM, Les Bird <les...@bellsouth.net> wrote:

I would definitely get a HSFE and use 3.5in drives. Way more reliable then using 5.25in drives and media.
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Mitchell Smith

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Aug 18, 2021, 8:54:27 AM8/18/21
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I like building boards so that's not a problem.
Could someone tell me exactly what I would need to use the 3.5" drives?
My system has just the original 8080 CPU, the new 64k memory board, the H17 and controller.

Thanks.
Mitch

Norberto Collado

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Aug 18, 2021, 11:04:50 AM8/18/21
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Mitch,

 

I do have the HSFE that I do not use anymore as I used boards that have that already build in for the H8 and the H89. It is fully functional. I will find it this weekend and send it to you.

 

Ping me during the weekend as I’m busy and easily get distracted. 😊

 

Thanks,

Norberto

Mitchell Smith

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Aug 18, 2021, 11:09:01 AM8/18/21
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Thanks Norberto. I will do that.


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Norberto Collado

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Aug 18, 2021, 11:32:13 AM8/18/21
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Great! Once I find it, I will send you a PayPal invoice, just for shipping. The board and components are free of charge.

 

Thanks,

Norberto

Mitchell Smith

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Aug 21, 2021, 11:32:00 AM8/21/21
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Hello Norberto.
Just a reminder about the board.
And for the record...You are too kind.

Mitch

norberto.collado koyado.com

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Aug 21, 2021, 5:16:48 PM8/21/21
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Thank you! I'm at the dealer right now performing car maintenance. Once I get home, I will start looking for it to ship out on Monday.

Norby


From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mitchell Smith <kb3...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2021 8:32 AM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [sebhc] SVD III/H8D Utility crash

Norberto Collado

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Aug 22, 2021, 5:01:03 PM8/22/21
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Hello Mitch,

 

It took a while to find the board. I will ship out tomorrow and this board is fully functional.

 

Here is the documentation link as you will need to change the Dip switch settings depending on your configuration.

 

https://sebhc.github.io/sebhc/storage/hsfe.pdf

 

Have fun!

 

Norberto (Norby).

 

Mitchell Smith

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Aug 22, 2021, 6:20:16 PM8/22/21
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Thanks very much Norberto  !!!
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