Easy way to test H17? How to create hard-sector floppies?

[cole erskine]

Hi guys,

My H17 is in excellent condition, but I've never tested it. Ideally I would have an HDOS floppy as in this Timothy Colegrove Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhR8OhwY4XU

In lieu of that, what's an easy way to test my H17? Load HDOS via  a cassette image and talk to the H17 that way?

And for that matter, do I need to plan on punching holes in soft-sectored floppies to create hard-sector floppies? Is Kenneth Owen's "Revised Floppy Disk Punch" from 2016 still available?

Thanks!

-Cole

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

Cole: you may want to look at these newsletters I started a while back. Mostly oriented toward people starting out

REMarks Newsletters (sebhc.github.io)

 

Somehow I’ve never found the time to continue with these.  Maybe someday…

 

This issue discusses how to get started with HDOS

REMarks Issue 3 - 1 January 2021 (sebhc.github.io)

 

You could try using the Virtual Sector Generator to simulate the hole pulses, allowing you to use soft sectored media

VSG (deramp.com)

 

I have no personal experience with this though some have said that the older 5.25” drives don’t have reliable enough speed control to work reliable with virtual sector generation?

 

There’s also the Hard-Sectored Floppy Emulator built into many of Norberto’s board designs. Those boards are sometimes used with more modern drives with steadier speed control, and even work with 3.5” drives.

 

Not sure the disk punches are available, though last I knew (some time ago) Ken still had some.  Do I recall that he sent these to Norberto???  I had mixed success with the punch. Often the holes would not be clean and the rough edges would abrade with the disk liner.

 

There is a TEST17.ABS program in HDOS.  Unfortunately I’m not aware of this ever being ported to a stand-alone piece of code, though I’ve often toyed with that idea. It’s pretty silly that you have to boot HDOS to test the drives!  Your idea of using the cassette interface to load an H17 test program is a good one, I just don’t think anyone’s done that yet.

 

Finally, the first issue of Sextant included an article on how to use the ROM-based routines to access the H17.  If you’re up to some coding  you could write some code to do this.  That could be challenging though if you don’t have a bootable system! (I guess you’d have to use the cassette-based OS).

 

 

• Glenn

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[Tim R]

Cole,

I'm glad you asked this as I was about to make the same post.  I'm probably jumping the gun a bit since I haven't even completed testing of the base H8 system.  I acquired the H8, H17, and H9 terminal all at the same time. I'm not sure of the operating condition of any of these, but could already see that getting ahold of the proper hard sectored disks would be a future challenge.

Tim  

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

I began writing some newsletters I called “REMarks” oriented toward getting started with an old H8 (and to some extend  H89).  That effort has been on hiaitus for quite a while but who knows, I may get the energy to pick it up again. Take a look:

 

REMarks Newsletters (sebhc.github.io)

 

Give some thought to your goals.  If you want to be able to do an occasional demonstration (e.g. at a vintage festival) I believe you can get a working H8/H9/H17 setup. I’ve had very good luck cleaning and lubricating the old Siemens FDD100-5 drives.  I also have a fairly large collection of old hard sectored disks, many (most?) of which fail media testing, however I’ve found that often the issue is with a warped case.  If I take a more modern DS/DD floppy disk and slit open the case, swap out the media I’ve had some luck getting these old disks to work. You can then either re-seal the edge somehow or do what I’ve done which is to just leave it open and be careful.  Perhaps when the cooler weather comes I can take a look at some of these and see if I can get them to be reliable enough for use, then I’ll make them available.

 

If you want to make more regular use of the machine consider getting a hard sector floppy emulator (HSFE) or VSG (VSG (deramp.com))

 

The most reliable approach, of course, is to use solid state media with something like the dual-CF board (Todd has blank boards for $12, see boardinventory [RetroBrew Computers Wiki])

 

I’d be interested in more information on your system, its components, their condition and what testing  you’ve done so far. You’ll need a solid working H8 and H9 before you even look to the H17… if you’ve got the original tape/serial board (H-8-5) you can load and run software digitally from a PC. Or you could build such a board (see Todd’s inventory…)

 

• Glenn

 

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Tim R

Sent: Monday, August 12, 2024 8:10 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

And for that matter, do I need to plan on punching holes in soft-sectored floppies to create hard-sector floppies? Is Kenneth Owen's "Revised Floppy Disk Punch" from 2016 still available?

 

Yes, it is available. Ken, send me all available floppy puncher. He was selling them at $100.00. Rather than keeping them getting dust, I can send them out for the cost of shipping, around $15.00.

 

Norberto

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/011e01daed1b%24abd1bc40%24037534c0%24%40gmail.com.

[Joseph Travis]

Norberto,

I would be interested in buying one if available.  Thank you.

BR,

Joe

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/SA3PR01MB7918A997250B39D816377784F7862%40SA3PR01MB7918.prod.exchangelabs.com.

[Tim R]

Glenn,

I been reading through the REMarks newsletters, and I think they will be very helpful. Also, I did make a quick YouTube video so I could share more information about my H8 system. I have not done any testing so far.  I'm planning on the slow and methodical approach.

video:  https://youtu.be/-qqppazy-IA?si=pZNNYlw1Ac-BRDpO

Tim

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

Enjoyed the video very much. Thanks! I should do some of these.  Somewhere on the bucket list…

 

Random thoughts, comments:

 

• I’ve found the old 64K DRAM boards to be somewhat unreliable. Will be interesting to see your results. If you can’t get the computer to come up first thing I’d suspect is the RAM
• Do you have any other boards?  The H9 was designed to work with the H-8-5 serial board. I see you still have the connector in the H8 chassis for that, but not the board.  You can rig up a serial cable to use with the H-8-4 of course, but I recommend not trying to push the terminal past 600 BAUD.
• I restored an H9 using the original Heath instructions. It was fun. Just like 1978! Pix here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/c35iwjgdYuwrbzVRA
• The Wangco drives are built like a tank. I’ve had very good success restoring them. I meant to write this up but haven’t gotten around to it yet, but I do have pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/kuANXjEqk6eefXXW7
• I have some hard sectored media. I hope to be able to create more using a punch. Perhaps I can make some of these available to the group. I know there’s interest.
• Last winter I restored a 3-drive H17 with Siemens FDD100-5 drives. They all work perfectly (at least at the moment 😊 ) https://photos.app.goo.gl/toxtKMXSnmaCznRs7
• I see your H8 and H17 are missing the orange identifier stickers. I’ve had good success printing those with a Brother PTouch printer. I’ve even 3-d printed the plastic badge holders: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fLYunYnoQq4AFcua6
• Though you have 64K of RAM I don’t see the HA-8-8 extended configuration board. You’d need that to utilize all 64K, otherwise the first 8K will be ROM.
• I know it makes me an idiot but I’ve never used a variac on these systems and never had an issue powering them up. You are wise of course to bring up slowly with a variac, but I expect you will have good results on these. I guess Heath used very good quality capacitors in their power supplies.
• The drive controller that you have is indeed the H17 controller.
• Once you’ve reformed the capacitor and tested the voltages I suggest installing just the CPU and RAM to start. With luck it’ll come up first time. If you don’t see activity on the 7-segment LEDs the first thing I’d suspect is the RAM.  There has to be RAM starting at the second 8K bank (040.000 in split octal).  If you can’t get a response you could try switching RAM banks around.
• If you do have an H-8-5 (or purchase one) you could load software that way via PC download (essentially simulating a cassette player).  This is a way to load and play some of the old programs without having to have a working disk drive.
• When you get to the point where you have all the components restored we can help you get going with software.
• Feel free to pick the brains of the SEBHC community – there are some very smart and experienced Heathkit “computerists” here!

 

Good luck and will be interesting to follow along with your restoration!

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/60794fef-3df6-4ba7-b5dd-fe139eb24a14n%40googlegroups.com.

[Tim R]

Glenn,

Thanks for all of the info, and photos.  I'm glad to hear that you've have had good luck with powering up the H8. I have other Heathkit products, such as my 1500a stereo receiver which has not required re-capping. They do seem to have used good components for the era.

I was a bit concerned seeing that it had the 64K board. Not that I have any personal experience with this board, but there are a lot of chips there, and I don't expect them all to be good (though I can hope).

Unfortunately, the only cards I have are those in the video.  I would have preferred the original I/O card so that I could use its tape interface.

I expect the H9 to be a project, but who knows?  I might get lucky. Step one is to see what is rattling around in the bottom of the case.

I'll post updates as I make progress. I'll be extremely happy to even get the base unit running.  I'm thinking H8, H9, and then H17 as far as order. Then I'll have all of the great community mods and projects to look forward to.

Thanks again,

Tim

[DNK 9999]

Norberto,

    I would love to get one also.

    I have been using a 3d printed one with hit or miss success.

    Let me know how to get you the money and shipping address. 

On Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 4:31 PM norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/SA3PR01MB7918A997250B39D816377784F7862%40SA3PR01MB7918.prod.exchangelabs.com.

[Alex - K3CIM]

will he need a "zero-Org" card ??

[Glenn Roberts]

I don’t know much about the 64K DRAM board but presume he can lock out banks? So lock out the bottom 8K and have a 56k machine. It looks like the h17 controller has not had the modification to block out the ROM select. I’m guessing this machine just ran HDOS in a 56k configuration.

But yes if and when he wants to run CP/M he will need zero org board…

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 16, 2024, at 4:14 PM, Alex - K3CIM <ka3...@gmail.com> wrote:

will he need a "zero-Org" card ??

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/61ecf019-b0fc-403f-9f2e-88aaaf8614ebn%40googlegroups.com.

[Joseph Travis]

If wants to run CP/M or HDOS3 he'll need a ORG-zero board.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/60AB863E-5034-4F1F-8043-A1F22608030A%40gmail.com.

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

All,

 

Sorry for the late reply on this request. I found that I only received 6 kits from Ken’ for the H17 floppy puncher and 7 requests for such device. I will leave Glenn out as he has a kit and needs to sharpen the puncher.

 

I opened one of the boxes and includes the puncher and detailed instructions on how to use it.

 

Requests:

 

1. John S mdnt...@gmail.com

2. Darrell Pelan pel...@gmail.com

3. DNK 9999 dnk...@gmail.com

4. Joseph Travis jtravi...@gmail.com

5. Mark Garlanger garl...@gmail.com

6. cole erskine cers...@gmail.com

7. glenn.f...@gmail.com glenn.f...@gmail.com

 

Picture of kits available:

 

 

Price.

 

I will send PayPal invoices per your email to only pay for shipping for $15.00. I will work on this this week.

 

Thanks,

Norberto

 

 

[Joseph Travis]

Thank you Norberto!

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[Glenn Roberts]

This is great! So glad you were able to get these into the hands of people who need them. I will be interested to hear from people on how well these work. I have one of the first generation punches but it has a “hanging chad” problem so the holes it punches are not clean, which leads to an abrasion problem with the liner. 

I will at some point take inventory of the hard sectored disks I have. I’m hoping to be able to free up some reliable disks to share with the group…

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 19, 2024, at 5:09 PM, norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com> wrote:



All,

 

Sorry for the late reply on this request. I found that I only received 6 kits from Ken’ for the H17 floppy puncher and 7 requests for such device. I will leave Glenn out as he has a kit and needs to sharpen the puncher.

 

I opened one of the boxes and includes the puncher and detailed instructions on how to use it.

 

Requests:

 

1. John S mdnt...@gmail.com

2. Darrell Pelan pel...@gmail.com

3. DNK 9999 dnk...@gmail.com

4. Joseph Travis jtravi...@gmail.com

5. Mark Garlanger garl...@gmail.com

6. cole erskine cers...@gmail.com

7. glenn.f...@gmail.com glenn.f...@gmail.com

 

Picture of kits available:

 

<image001.jpg>

 

Price.

 

I will send PayPal invoices per your email to only pay for shipping for $15.00. I will work on this this week.

 

Thanks,

Norberto

 

 

--

[Darrell Pelan]

Thanks, Norberto!

  Darrell

[Steven Hirsch]

On 8/19/24 17:09, norberto.collado koyado.com wrote:
> All,
>
> Sorry for the late reply on this request. I found that I only received 6 kits
> from Ken’ for the H17 floppy puncher and 7 requests for such device. I will
> leave Glenn out as he has a kit and needs to sharpen the puncher.

You have caught my attention! How does one sharpen the puncher? Mine could
use it.

[Glenn Roberts]

I don’t know if/how that can be done. I suppose if I looked very closely I could better understand. First thought is to gently hammer the metal plate with the hole. Second thought is to sand down the punch. Haven’t tried these ideas…

Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 20, 2024, at 8:36 PM, Steven Hirsch <snhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[steve shumaker]

a common suggestion for hole punches on the net involves punching several layers of aluminum foil

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Sending remaining invoices as Joe’ provided feedback on his findings. Please review his feedback.

 

😊

 

On Mon, Aug 19, 2024 at 4:09 PM norberto.collado koyado.com <norberto...@koyado.com> wrote:

All,

 

Sorry for the late reply on this request. I found that I only received 6 kits from Ken’ for the H17 floppy puncher and 7 requests for such device. I will leave Glenn out as he has a kit and needs to sharpen the puncher.

 

I opened one of the boxes and includes the puncher and detailed instructions on how to use it.

 

Requests:

 

1. John S mdnt...@gmail.com

2. Darrell Pelan pel...@gmail.com

3. DNK 9999 dnk...@gmail.com

4. Joseph Travis jtravi...@gmail.com - shipped

5. Mark Garlanger garl...@gmail.com

6. cole erskine cers...@gmail.com - shipped

7. glenn.f...@gmail.com glenn.f...@gmail.com

 

Picture of kits available:

 

 

Price.

 

I will send PayPal invoices per your email to only pay for shipping for $15.00. I will work on this this week.

 

Thanks,

Norberto

 

 

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Glen,,

 

I have a new spare puncher that Ken gave me as a spare. Let me try finding it. 😊

 

 

Norberto

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Glenn Roberts <glenn.f...@gmail.com>

Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at 7:03 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>

On 8/19/24 17:09, norberto.collado koyado.com wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/7123DCD3-C8BD-4605-A059-6B099FF8627F%40gmail.com.

[Steven Hirsch]

On 8/20/24 22:03, Glenn Roberts wrote:
> I don’t know if/how that can be done. I suppose if I looked very closely I could better understand. First thought is to gently hammer the metal plate with the hole. Second thought is to sand down the punch. Haven’t tried these ideas…
>
>

>> You have caught my attention! How does one sharpen the puncher? Mine could use it.

I've already tried tapping them to "neck down" the hole. Didn't help, but
perhaps I need to be more aggressive. Sanding down the punch would make
matters worse. If I access to a machine shop I'd grind a bevel on the cutting
end of the punch.

[Glenn Roberts]

Agree. The punches on 3-hole paper punches are slightly concave for this reason.

Somewhere I think I heard of an attempt to use a laser to make holes, or did I just dream that? 😀


Sent from my iPad

> On Aug 25, 2024, at 6:14 PM, Steven Hirsch <snhi...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[DNK 9999]

For PayPal you will need to use dn...@comcast.net as my email vs dnk...@gmail.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/11113878-877D-43E2-A951-1521A8169782%40gmail.com.

[Joseph Travis]

Beveling any part will not improve the cut.  The punch is performing as a shear.  It needs to have sharp cutting edges.  Beveling a hole or shaft is a method used to help guide and center, not cut.

 

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[Steven Hirsch]

On 8/25/24 18:53, Joseph Travis wrote:
> Beveling any part will not improve the cut.  The punch is performing as a
> shear.  It needs to have sharp cutting edges.  Beveling a hole or shaft is a
> method used to help guide and center, not cut.
>

Then I guess it's hammer time. Maybe if use something like a 1/4" steel rod I
can form the hole in enough to make clean cuts. It's only one or two out of
the 11 that cause problems.

[Joseph Travis]

I'm thinking of trying a 1/16" punch made from tool steel.

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[Steven Hirsch]

On 8/25/24 20:48, Joseph Travis wrote:
> I'm thinking of trying a 1/16" punch made from tool steel.

How would that be different from the one that comes with it?

[Joseph Travis]

It has a higher carbon content that will keep its edge better than the milder steel used.  It might not do any better but, I have it to try.

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[Steven Hirsch]

On 8/25/24 21:05, Joseph Travis wrote:
> It has a higher carbon content that will keep its edge better than the milder
> steel used.  It might not do any better but, I have it to try.

Oh, interesting. I guess I assumed the punch was hardened steel.

[Joseph Travis]

The punch that came with it looks to be a grade of stainless.  It has a higher nickel content which increases the hardness and improved lubricity.

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[norberto.collado koyado.com]

Did try both emails and no response. Not sure what to do next… ☹

 

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of DNK 9999 <dnk...@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 3:27 PM
To: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Re: Easy way to test H17? How to create hard-sector floppies?

[cole erskine]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd give a quick update. 

Re: H17 testing, I started by RTFM, there are a few good H17 test programs right in the H17 Operation Manual!    ;-)

Another user sold me a few hard-sector floppies. And thanks to Norberto and Ken, I can punch more when I run out.

Dwight and Les's H8D loader software worked great. It was a relief to finally receive the "Client is ready" message!

Glenn's REMarks #3 was quite helpful.

With my dual-floppy H17 working nicely, I was able to create a disk image from 885-1010_ADVENTURE.H8D

Colossal Cave, here I come !

-Cole

[dwight]

While I'd kind of looked down on doing this, if you have a direct drive disk drive, you can recreate the sector pulses with a simple program on something like a "blue pill".

Belt drives could be done but you'd almost have run with out envelopes in many cases. Depending on how tight the envelope is, your luck may very.

The blue pills are cheap, really cheap.

We are talking about just wires, manybe two resistors and the blue pill to generate the pulses.

With a belt, I'd think the code on the blue pill could tune itself to a particular drive by timing the index pulses.

While one can use the Arduino tools to load such a program, the blue pills can be loaded with a 5V serial dongle, directly, without the Arduino loader on the blue pill.

Punching holes is a pain.

Just a thought.

Dwight

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

What is a blue pill?

Get Outlook for iOS

---

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of dwight <dke...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 9:31:50 AM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [sebhc] Re: Easy way to test H17? How to create hard-sector floppies?

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[geneb]

On Mon, 16 Sep 2024, norberto.collado koyado.com wrote:

> What is a blue pill?
>

It's an STM32 development board. ARM CPU. The problem is finding a
genuine Blue Pill - most of them are fakes. :(

g.

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[dwight]

What is a Blue Pill?

I did a search on ebay with just "blue pill" Don't do that!!!!!!!! Sorry about that

I did "st32 blue pill arm" , on ebay. Better.

You don't need the JTAG loader if you have a 5V serail interface.

The protocol is not the web, in their manuals. I've done it on my old laptop with such a connection and a rs232 USB.

It is a 32 bit computer. It has timers and a number of TTL compatible outputs. ( I use them with 1K pullups ).

It has both flash and E^2 memory.

The processor is the same as what is used in those floppy replacement boxes ( yet to see one work for read and write of hard sectored ). I think they've got them kind of working.

Ebay is supposed to deal with fakes so I think you can get them. I don't use the Arduino tool so I don't know how to use it with their IDE. They expect their loader to be installed on the BluePill first then one can write C and load it.

I write stuff in Forth and not C. I did a little bit of coding with an Arduino but just can't get into coding in C.

When I found out how to load the blue pill, I got a version of Forth to load on the Blue Pill and do coding that way.

I compile directly using the Blue Pill with a serial terminal on the PC. I've not made code for this usage though but it shouldn't be much more than watching a port and recording the time and then divide the time by ten and setup a couple timers. One for the width and one for the delays.

Maybe not for everyone, though.

Dwight

 

[Peter Higgins]

Mentioned earlier in this discussion but worth mentioning again.... Rather than re-inventing a solution using the "blue pill" there already is a solution to the problem of not being able to get real hard sectored floppy disks using an inexpensive product called the "Virtual Sector Generator":

https://deramp.com/vsg.html

I have one of these and it works perfectly, eliminating the need for "real" hard sector floppy disks.

[glenn.f...@gmail.com]

There has been some discussion that the belt-driven (vs. direct) drives do not have reliable enough speed for a virtual sector approach (either VSG or HSFE).  What has been your experience? Have you found VSG to work reliably even with the old belt-driven drives (e.g. Siemens FDD100-5)?  I don’t think I’ve heard testimony one way or the other from anyone with hands-on experience…

 

 

 

From: se...@googlegroups.com <se...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Peter Higgins
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2024 4:05 PM
To: SEBHC <se...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [sebhc] Re: Easy way to test H17? How to create hard-sector floppies?

 

Mentioned earlier in this discussion but worth mentioning again.... Rather than re-inventing a solution using the "blue pill" there already is a solution to the problem of not being able to get real hard sectored floppy disks using an inexpensive product called the "Virtual Sector Generator":

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[deramp]

Glenn,

Belt driven drives can have significant variation in rotation time on consecutive revolutions (Instantaneous Speed Variation, ISV). Even though the VSG syncs to the average speed of the drive, a given revolution will vary from nominal by an amount that cannot be predicted by the VSG. If the ISV exceeds 1ms or so, drive operation will not be reliable with soft sectored media.

Almost all of the belt driven drives I have tested work well with the VSG (several each of Shugart SA-400, SA-460, Tandon TM-100-x, Micropolis 1015-x, Wangco 82, Pertec FD-200). Drives that don't work reliably with the VSG cannot be linked to a particular brand or model of drive. Instead, if a given drive has acceptable ISV, it will tend to stay that way and work well with soft sectored media. Similarly, if a given drive has excessive ISV, it will tend to remain problematic with soft sectored media and the VSG.

Mike D

[Peter Higgins]

My experience with use of the VSG is primarily with newer direct-drive 5.25" floppy drives from a variety of different manufacturers, and with those drives the VSG works perfectly.

I have also tried the VSG with several Tandon TM-100 drives (as used with the first IBMPCs) and they too seem to work fine.

I have not tried the VSG with the Siemens FDD100s originally supplied by Heathkit but that is only because I have yet to find one that works from among the half dozen I have removed from a variety of Heathkit external drive enclosures.

[Glenn Roberts]

If you ever want to get those Siemens drives working I may be able to help. I’ve had a pretty good track record repairing these. Mostly mechanical issues in my experience…

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 16, 2024, at 6:18 PM, Peter Higgins <higgin...@gmail.com> wrote:

My experience with use of the VSG is primarily with newer direct-drive 5.25" floppy drives from a variety of different manufacturers, and with those drives the VSG works perfectly.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sebhc/d03babec-ee27-4c4e-977e-d1519368daben%40googlegroups.com.

[norberto.collado koyado.com]

It is in my to-do-list to convert the Z67-IDE+ to emulate a "real" H-17 hard sector floppy disk. I took traces of the sector pulses on my scope. I think it is better to create the sector pulses using HW rather than software to be precise. Any ideas on a circuitry that will create such sector pulses aa a real H17 Floppy drive will do?

 

Thanks,

Norberto