Just finished restoring a Cromemco Z-2D

[Aron Hoekstra]

Hello, thanks for adding me to the group. Still have a bit of work to do, but I have restored a Z-2D with the help of some very kind people on the VCF Forums.. my journey was documented here: https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/genres/s-100/1227548-trying-to-get-a-cromemco-2-zd-4fdc-talking

Pretty bare bones system right now - has the ZPU, 4FDC and RAM board. But I was able to use a few disks that I got with the system to create 3 new bootable CDOS disks with BASIC, Fortan, and Relocatable ASM.

When I got it, it had two half-height drives which were not playing well, and also just looked horrible (IMHO) in the case. I replaced them with 2 full-height Tandon TM100-2A's, as nature intended it. 

Because of this, I am in need of an internal mounting bracket for the 2nd drive. Just that metal part that encases the drive and attaches it to the front plate... long shot, but would anyone happen to have a spare?

Also, in the GitHub file area, I see the software folder but it's mostly just pdfs/manuals. Is there a repository somewhere of disk images?

-Aron

[Tim Radde]

Congratulations.

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[David Roberts]

Hi,

Nice to see it in the flesh!

Yes, the Github repository does have disk images. I will hunt the root down for you later - not a lot of time just now.

Dave

[Mike Arnold]

Nice work - looks just how I remember them. Do you have diagnostics? If you cannot get them from the site then let me know and I'll write you a disk.

Can't help you with the mounting bracket so you may have to fabricate something yourself. I presume that you have done something to replace the regulator board that sits at the back of the bracket.

[David Roberts]

We started off by writing some very low level diagnostics that replaced the RDOS ROM on the 4FDC. This helped us diagnose that the RAM was faulty. We couldn’t get anything out of the machine to start with (as some RAM in the form of a stack is required). I initialised the UART and printed a simple message to start with. This didn’t require RAM at all, as I held everything in Z80 registers. This demonstrated that the ZPU and the UART on the 4FDC were working.

A swap of the RAM card then seemed to do the trick. That enabled us to get RDOS running and then we could work on the disk controller and drive issues.

Happy to share the link to the diagnostic ROM image if you like. I will double check to see if it compatible with the 16FDC first. I also want to add a MARCH-C DRAM memory test to it.

Dave

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cromemco/d26045b1-9440-443d-a2dc-932f643e1639n%40googlegroups.com.

[cro memcos]

Hi Aron,    Nice restoration.   The Z2 just goes on forever!!

In my case I managed to make an additional metal plate from a piece of sheet metal

Regarding software,  please check   m/cromemco/code/disks/  in the github and start with the catalog.txt file

This might lead to a discussion on disk formats of course.   I personally favour the use of the HxC disk emulator and you can configure this for use concurrently in a system so you can download a digital HxC image, then convert it to a real flopppy, in the case of cdos by literally init.com the physical floppy disk the xcopy.com the files over then wrtsys.com the OS over.

Of course the 4FDC was a bit of a stranger beast so off the top of my head not sure about compatibility with HxC

Can I refer you to this article for HxC if you are not familar  https://smpl.fyi/2021/06/hxc-floppy-emulator-for-cromemco/

regards marcus

[Aron Hoekstra]

On Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 2:33:58 AM UTC-6 Mike Arnold wrote:

Nice work - looks just how I remember them. Do you have diagnostics? If you cannot get them from the site then let me know and I'll write you a disk.

Thanks! What do you mean about diagnostics? Is this a separate disk with a set of utilities on it? If so, I don't have anything like that. A couple of disks had a memtest app, but it was developed for a Cromemco-branded RAM board which I don't have.

[Aron Hoekstra]

On Wednesday, December 1, 2021 at 3:37:02 AM UTC-6 cro memcos wrote:

Hi Aron,    Nice restoration.   The Z2 just goes on forever!!

In my case I managed to make an additional metal plate from a piece of sheet metal

This might lead to a discussion on disk formats of course.   I personally favour the use of the HxC disk emulator and you can configure this for use concurrently in a system so you can download a digital HxC image, then convert it to a real flopppy, in the case of cdos by literally init.com the physical floppy disk the xcopy.com the files over then wrtsys.com the OS over.

Making one myself out of sheet metal may be my only option.

Thanks for the links to the disk images & HxC article. I am familiar with it, though for other (PC-based) projects I've used the GoTek with the FlashFloppy firmware. I'm pretty sure the HxC firmware is capable of running on the GoTek hardware now.

  

[Mike Arnold]

Aron, if you plan to use CP/M then I cannot help - there are real CP/M wizzkids on the forum. If you plan to run CDOS then I am interested and I could supply you with diagnostics (memory tests, floppy disks, alignment software etc). I recommend that you run CDOS 2.36 rather than the bloated later versions. Again could provide you with a CDOS disk if you cannot get one elsewhere. One question is what VDU are you using? I have modified software for non-Cromemco terminals but only the LSI/Televideo/Wyse family.

[Aron Hoekstra]

I do plan on running CDOS and also want to give Cromix a try. I am using a ViewPoint 3A+ terminal. Though I am not particularly picky about terminal emulation, I could always connect it up to a PC..

[Mike Arnold]

Let me know if you need those two floppies - I would, of course, need your address. I guess you're in the States so postage from UK might take a week or so. 

Is you RAM board a full 64k? 

Also, if you want to run Cromix you really need another 64k RAM board. You will need genuine Cromemco RAM or fully compatible to allow Cromix to bank switch. Finally, with a 4FDC you only have around 190k of capacity on a 5.25in floppy so you will really struggle with Cromix. If you can get a 16FDC or 64FDC then life becomes a bit easier.

Finally, although I have heard of the ADDS Viewpoint I have never used one. If you have a table of its escape sequences I can see if my software is likely to work with it.

Happy computing!

[Aron Hoekstra]

Thanks for the offer! I'll let you know. I'm going to try the GoTek/HxC route first. And thanks for that information - I knew the 4FDC would be a limiting factor. I'll keep an eye out for a 16/64FDC. Oh, to answer your earlier question about the regulator... While this system originally had 2 drive, it only had a single power supply/regulator board that had been modified to power both drives. It turned out it clearly wasn't enough juice for both - the power supply would brown out after a few minutes of use. Fortunately that week one turned up on eBay for a good price so I jumped on it. Right now I have the whole 2nd drive held in with painter's tape, I think if I shared a picture of my temporary solution you'd kick me out of the group. :)

[MikeS]

Hello,

 

Do you still need that bracket? I've scrapped a couple of Z-2Ds and think I've seen one or two of those brackets in the junk pile.

 

I'm in Toronto, if it matters for shipping cost.

 

mike

----- Original Message -----

From: Aron Hoekstra

To: crom...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2021 10:03 PM

Subject: Just finished restoring a Cromemco Z-2D

Hello, thanks for adding me to the group. Still have a bit of work to do, but I have restored a Z-2D with the help of some very kind people on the VCF Forums.. my journey was documented here: https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/genres/s-100/1227548-trying-to-get-a-cromemco-2-zd-4fdc-talking

Pretty bare bones system right now - has the ZPU, 4FDC and RAM board. But I was able to use a few disks that I got with the system to create 3 new bootable CDOS disks with BASIC, Fortan, and Relocatable ASM.

When I got it, it had two half-height drives which were not playing well, and also just looked horrible (IMHO) in the case. I replaced them with 2 full-height Tandon TM100-2A's, as nature intended it. 

Because of this, I am in need of an internal mounting bracket for the 2nd drive. Just that metal part that encases the drive and attaches it to the front plate... long shot, but would anyone happen to have a spare?

 

Also, in the GitHub file area, I see the software folder but it's mostly just pdfs/manuals. Is there a repository somewhere of disk images?

-Aron

[Jeff Kesner]

Hey I'm in Toronto too.  I programmed my Z2D from 1977 to 1982.  It sat in an attic for about 20 years and then got scrapped because of all the non-standard hardware I had hooked up to it and couldn't get parts for.  I'm using the z80pack Cromemco emulator to restore some of my old programs to a running state.

- Jeff Kesner

[Aron Hoekstra]

yes I would be interested, thank you! please email me directly and we'll see what shipping comes to...

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cromemco/B5999645168D4F46A6496EE899B250DD%40310e2.

[MikeS]

Sorry, couldn't find it at a fast look through the chaos; hope I didn't throw it out. I'll keep looking though.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cromemco/CAD9iBDKECANyLb7CCQ6zeXAJoaR6_aKNn1-FyQ0uo8TqNMp5bA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Aron Hoekstra]

Appreciate it! Let me know if it turns up.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cromemco/5BFDCFE95F5B44EAB6777FAB53DEB8D8%40310e2.