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Trak upgrade rom


MrMartian

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Hello again! I've been away a long time, moved twice since the last time I was around here, but I'm settled again and have the old 8-bits out... Finally got around to finishing up some of my work from before...

 

So, this is an upgrade ROM for the Trak series of drives. It adds: Ultraspeed at 57600 (speed byte $08), support for custom skew formatting, and enhanced density thrown in.

 

I don't have a parallel printer, or anything to test it with, so I didn't write any code to support it. If people ask for it, and someone is willing to go through the test phases for me, I can look into adding it.

 

Let me know how it goes for you! Next task, the Rana!

Trak US.bin

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Hi-

 

Good to see you back, and "bearing gifts" at that! Good for you, and good for the folks who have a Trak.

 

I think the Rana is a very good choice -- there were a lot of them sold. Presume you have a typical 8040? (not 6502) Rana to work with?

 

-Larry

 

 

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  • 6 years later...
On 8/11/2013 at 8:34 PM, MrMartian said:

Hello again! I've been away a long time, moved twice since the last time I was around here, but I'm settled again and have the old 8-bits out... Finally got around to finishing up some of my work from before...

 

So, this is an upgrade ROM for the Trak series of drives. It adds: Ultraspeed at 57600 (speed byte $08), support for custom skew formatting, and enhanced density thrown in.

 

I don't have a parallel printer, or anything to test it with, so I didn't write any code to support it. If people ask for it, and someone is willing to go through the test phases for me, I can look into adding it.

 

Let me know how it goes for you! Next task, the Rana!

Trak US.bin 4 kB · 85 downloads

Well, I got my Trak ATD4 today, got it working pretty quick (head pressure pad worn to a nub - replaced), and the motor was spinning at just 278 RPM, so it would read it's own disks but no others.  Fixed that too.  Then I broke it good.  I broke the wiring harness connecting the control panel board with the main board.  So I desoldered the connections at both ends, installed IDC headers, and plugged in a 14 wire Dupont ribbon to them.  Back online.  I'd already cleaned and lubed the mech.  What a crazy assembly this drive is.  The elctroncis are really good, the mechanism is a TEAC!, and the case is just weird beyond belief.  Everything is mounted with flathead screws with a thread no one ever used, EXCEPT the guy who made the cases for the Rana and the Indus.  HE used those.  I bet this is the same guy, but on some harder drug.

 

Anyway, after that adventure I decided to try your US DOubler rom.  It works!  I've not wrung it out yet, but am doing so at double-density right now and it is doing just peachy.  Bravo!  I tried it first with the standard drivers from SDX 4.49 and got a perfect disk.  Now I'm trying the hsio drivers.  Then I will try Enhanced density ultraspeed.  I'll try all the combinations and let you know, but at first blush this is a win brother.  You are amazing.

 

Oh, I just tested and one thing is does not do is pretty sad to lose.  It won't run slaves.  I tried.  It doesn't respond to any other id than the one on the drive's switch.  Can you fix this?  I know, I'm the only one in the world who cares, but a four drive controller with just one drive? And double-sided slaves at that.  Sigh.Oh, double-sigh.  I just tested double-sided with the original rom and it runs the slave, but only single-sided.  Sigh.  (My original rom is version 1.11.)

 

Jeff

Edited by Jeffrey Worley
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I had a couple of Traks quite a few years ago, and yes, they have an unusual layout inside.  A lower board and an upper board, I think. Does yours have the 2K (IIRC) track buffer?  I remember that you could get an upgrade for the track buffer, but I got mine after they had already closed down. Do you have the manual?  I've probably still have one around here.

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On 7/23/2020 at 10:23 PM, Jeffrey Worley said:

Oh, I just tested and one thing is does not do is pretty sad to lose.  It won't run slaves.  I tried.  It doesn't respond to any other id than the one on the drive's switch.  Can you fix this?  I know, I'm the only one in the world who cares, but a four drive controller with just one drive? And double-sided slaves at that.  Sigh.Oh, double-sigh.  I just tested double-sided with the original rom and it runs the slave, but only single-sided.  Sigh.  (My original rom is version 1.11.)

 

Jeff

I can look into putting the printer port and other drives back in. Double sided will never work without hardware modifications, as there is no IO pin hooked up to the side select pin....

 

For the other drives, how would that work? Does it just respond on selected drive +? So if DIP switch is drive 1, it responds on 1,2,3,4, and if the switch is at 3 it does 3,4,5,6?

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4 hours ago, MrMartian said:

I can look into putting the printer port and other drives back in. Double sided will never work without hardware modifications, as there is no IO pin hooked up to the side select pin....

 

For the other drives, how would that work? Does it just respond on selected drive +? So if DIP switch is drive 1, it responds on 1,2,3,4, and if the switch is at 3 it does 3,4,5,6?

That's a good question.  I put a drive on as id1 and it was addressible as D2: from Spartados, so the controller doesn't care about drives other than the first one addressed by the dip switch.  Percom drives don't have a dip switch and neither do ATR drives, they rely on the shunt block on each drive to id them.  I would think that when you flip the dip switch to another drive id on the Track, it automatically maps the d1 (mechanism id0) to that drive number, so I wouldn't play with it.  I suspect, for example, if I shunted the drive inside the track to some other drive id, and then flipped that dip switch, it would not affect the actual id of that drive since it is not shunted as id0 any longer.

 

best,

 

Jeff

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