Brufnus

Indeed. In many ways, it was way ahead of it's time. I believe the Ramdisks are also quite unique, and even today I'm pretty amazed about these cards. Truly innovative ideas these guys had back then.

Okay, so that's why. There are so much to learn about that Geneve, the HFDC and so on, and it's pretty fun. By the way; I like that port number you have at the Heatwave BBS.... port 9640, ha ha

Yep, it boots like expected from a 720 KB disk, too. Apparently it's only the 1.44 MB format it can't handle during booting, for some reason... but I can live with that; this revelation gives me so many more options than I had before! c",)

Perhaps I should start a new thread, since this is not-so-related anymore. Anyway, many years ago I upgraded the floppy IC on the HFDC and gave it the 32K upgrade, which allowed me to use 3.5" 1.44 MB floppies. The number of sectors on these "giant" floppies are mindblowing! I've never had any success with booting from them, though. It's configured as DSK2. since I prefer to have a "proper" 5 1/4" drive as #1. After meddling with some way to transfer .DSK files to 3.5" disks with Linux (with no luck yet, but I've found and old ISA floppy controller, which might do the job), I started considering that perhaps my boot problems were not so much related to the disk size and type, but rather it's capacity. Thus, I've finally managed to boot off DSK2. from the HFDC, after having formatted the disk as 360 KB only (18 sectors, 40 tracks). Wheeeyyy! Now I'll push it a little and see if I can be as lucky with a 720 KB / 80 tracks version. Since 5 1/4" disks become more and more scarce, and 3.5" are quite a lot more reliable, I think this revelation will help me (and perhaps others) in the future, now that I've finally allowed myself the time for our beloved Geneve once again. c",)

That's a good idea. Perhaps I should do the same. c",) No need to expend the RAM unless it's actually being used.

I frequently use different programs from the GPL mode, which may not be necessary since the introduction of the EXEC utility, but I prefer that way... old habit, I guess. c",) I also have 1.5M available on the Geneve, so I think I can spare the memory. It's possible I'll remove it in the future, though. Oh, and... I think 7.30 behaves as the previous versions; after all they added the TIMODE2 to avoid using the 64K reserved for TI Writer... or something like that.

Okay, I see... that's probably what has happened. It's a good way to learn such things though; if merely told so it may slip your mind again, but when you actually experience it, it's so much easier to remember in the future, I think. Thanks for the explanation! Here's my AUTOEXEC: TIMODE VIDEO FAST REMAP 1J REMAP 2K etc, E: ASSIGN H=DSK6: ASSIGN I=DSK7: It did stop echoing after I created a new AUTOEXEC from scratch from the command prompt, but when I added the ASSIGN statements, it started echoing again.

I did, but it echoes nonetheless...

Oh, by the way... MDOS 7.30 echoes the AUTOEXEC commands, no matter what I do...?

There... after remapping MDOS7.30 with the correct settings, I can access both floppies and both Horizon's. The flow of all this tells me that the 6.50 version for some reason were mapped incorrectly, even before I applied these settings to 7.30. I can't tell how that happened, but apparently I did something wrong at some point, ha ha But I've definitely learned a lot about our Geneve in the last couple of days; frankly before all of this I didn't even know in detail what ROMPAGE actually did... but after learning about this, it all makes a lot more sense to me. c",)

Yes of course... it seems I've been away from the Geneve for far too long. You were right about J,K,L and M; it wasn't mapped to the HFDC floppy controller. After setting this correctly with CYA I can read both floppies from MDOS once again. It's still a riddle, why the h*** the former copies of SYSTEM/SYS did the same, but never mind - problem solved! Thanks for your help, and for your patience with me. I think I'll do some more reading and testing with the 7.30; I also look forward to see what happens with the CYA... if it's updated or something else takes it's place. It never fails to amaze me how you guys manage to keep the Geneve and TI alive, thanks for all your efforts! Oh, by the way... am I correct the ROS chip on the 8-bit Horizons is the single one at the end of the print, near the LED's?

There, that's better! I got an idea - when everything else fail, GPL comes to your aid! Thus, after a ROMPAGE run, it turns out I can access DSK1 from the GPL menu. So it definitely has something to do with the MDOS mapping, regardless of my attempts to reset the problem with another SYSTEM/SYS. Anyway, my config is as follows: - Geneve with MEMEX, totalling 1.5 MEG - One HFDC with 32K upgrade and 1.44M floppy chip (96xxB or whatever it's called) - One Horizon 8-bit 184K ramdisk with Hoddie EPROM (which should be set as DSK6./H:) - One Horizon 8-bit 250K ramdisk with std. ROS (which should be set as DSK7./I:) - One RS232 card, orig. TI - One 360K floppy drive, 5 1/4 inch (should be DSK1./A:) - One 1.44M floppy drive, 3 1/2 inch (should be DSK2./B:) Anyway, at least I can access my floppies for now. I was afraid something serious had happened to the HFDC for some reason... c".)

No, I checked the config with CYA in 6.50 only. Well, it doesn't respond to anything. Shouldn't the remappings be reset to their previous settings when I load a different SYSTEM/SYS? Luckily I do have another HFDC I can test with, if everything else fails... or perhaps even install my inherited Atronics disk controller.

Okay, I see! Well, no... I've solved the initial problems, but it turns out I've just encountered a new one. For some reason, after these changes, I can't access my floppy drives anymore; not even with MDOS 6.50. c".) I've checked the config with CYA and even tried overwriting the Horizon's SYSTEM/SYS with a backup copy, but the HFDC simply won't read the floppies anymore... weird. c".)

MDOS 6.50 works fine with both Horizons, the Hoddie-modded is at >1400 and the other one is at >1600, respectively H:/DSK6. and I:/DSK7. When I type REMAP with no parameters in 6.50, it says USAGE: REMAP 5N / Current: 1A 2B 3C 4D 5E 6F 7G 8N 90 And, voila! When I enter the same parameters in MDOS 7.30, I can dir both drives!! I can see it doesn't remember this after a reboot/power cycle, but now I've added those values to AUTOEXEC, and everything's fine. Thanks a lot for your help!

Yes, good idea...thanks! c",)

Okay, I see. Yes indeed; it's quite a lot easier and faster to make a backup that way. For my own part, I've really had to dig deep in the not so often accessed brain cells, which contains the Geneve memory... when I wanted to transfer the new MDOS with Gentri, I simply couldn't remember how to use it... but finally I made it work. I do have some issues with MDOS 7.30, though - the most pressing matter is the fact that I can't access any of the Horizons. I've tried to REMAP, SCSMAP and ASSIGN, but to no avail. Perhaps I should set the non-Hoddie EPROM one to >1400 instead of >1600 which it is now.

Ah, emulator, of course... that's the name! c",) It definitely looks interesting with that DREM, although a bit pricey... but then again, when you see what they want for their MFM drives at, say, ebay, it's not really that much. Impressive that the old MFM drives are still sold at these prices. I happen to have 14 of these, so I guess I could earn a fortune if I sell them in 15-20 years from now, ha ha. I can imagine the speed... the difference is probably pretty much like comparing an old ATA drive with an SSD drive. Perhaps this option is even better than a SCSI controller. It does seem to offer some possibilities you don't get with the SCSI solution.

Yes I'm not surprised; he was one of the most enthusiastic back then. My job rarely allow me to do much of that sort of things (I'm a train driver), but perhaps I can attend whenever there's another gathering in, say, Germany. Even the Southern part is not that far from Denmark, anyway.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean... I broke down with my old motorbike many years ago and couldn't obtain the spare parts anymore, so I ended up with buying three bikes from Switzerland (and later one more from the same guy as well as one without engine from Germany), so I probably have spare parts for the rest of my life now. It did consume quite a lot of space though; especially when I started dismantling them... c".) Ok, I've never been in the U.S. but I have an idea that Kentucky is a nice place? Anyway, the HFDC thing sounds pretty interesting. I guess it works like with the HRD - that it pretends to be a floppy drive, and the SD cards fools the HFDC into believing they're actually hard drives, am I right? I remember when talks started about the SCSI controller, but things have obviously come a long way since then. Is it possible to buy that TIPI stuff from somewhere, and if so, what's the price? I'll look into that DREM stuff, that's for sure. It's probably not the best season for such things, but I do have some holiday right now, and the spring weather here in Denmark is awful, to say the least... rain most of the time, argh...! c".)

From Denmark, even? c".) I haven't been in touch with any for several years... we used to meet once every month, only 6 or so... but then people started drifting away, until we were only a few left. And, eventually, it died completely. One from Northern Germany I can think of, is Jens-Eike Hartwig. He used to attend to our meetings, but I haven't seen or heard from him in a long time, either. Hopefully I'll get in touch with some of them.

Oh, it's you, Tim... River Patroller? Of course, had I thought about the "InsaneMultitasker"... c",) Once again, thanks a lot for your efforts; I haven't had much time for any Geneve business since then, but I did get the initial setup in place and started backing up some of our old club archives, which I inherited many years ago. I really feel like getting started again, however! Yep, i think that's it... I don't recall the details, but it does have a non-standard config - the Peter Hoddie EPROM sounds correct. It adds a couple of commands to BASIC, namely CALL HDSZ(), which formats the drive, and CALL HDDN(), which assigns a drive number to it. It's merely 184 K in size, but it just manages to hold the SYSTEM/SYS along with a few system files, such as GPL, etc. It hasn't given any problems in relation to the MDOS 6.50, except for that ROMPAGE issue... but, as mentioned, a reconfig and a reformat of the HRD you sent me, and it worked flawlessly again. Anyway, I had some dead batteries on the Hoddie one, but now I finally got a proper 3-piece holder and brand new batteries installed. The other one had some corrosion between the terminals, so I cleaned this up and installed new batteries in that one as well, and now both HRD's are as healthy as ever! The Geneve clock didn't remember it's settings, but it turned out to be just a matter of replacing the battery. Except for an unstable power supply for the hard drives - on my todo list - I should be good to go on the hardware side now. I think I'm ready for the MDOS 7.30, too - I don't seem to have anything that conflicts with that version, and my HRD is already designed as DSK6, so that should be fine, as well. Once again, thank you very much for all your help! Our tiny club was tiny enough back in the good ol' days, but now it consists of only me... so it's hard to get any support here in Denmark nowadays, ha ha

Yes, I thought so... Hi, Beery - there are a couple of names in this context, which I regard as being quite famous! Indeed; the Raspberry/TIPI has crossed my eyes a few times during the last few days, and it really sounds like something I should try and get my hands on. Yes, it's the HFDC - I have had relatively few expansion cards since my first encounter with the TI, the first being the original TI controller when I purchased the PEB; later on I got a HFDC and a GRAM card, and finally the Geneve (which rendered the GRAM card obsolete, of course). Then I purchased a 2 MEG MEMEX but never got it to work with the GENMOD, so it was shipped to the U.S. and then I never saw it again... frankly, I had given up ever receiving it back, but then Tim Tesch stepped in, sent me an overhauled Geneve and my MEMEX, which gave me a total of 1.5 MEG - not the full 2 MEG, but still quite an improvement (and he also sent me that 2nd HRD as a compensation for the waiting time, even though he had nothing to do with it...) it's a 250K disk, not much but well worth installing alongside the old 184K disk.

Hi, Beery! (Miller, is that you?) Yes, I've only learned about the 7.30 a few hours ago, when I looked for any interesting stuff here. Anyway, I've been using the Rompage for TI emulation (WDS, etc.) and not done anything specifically with respect to the HRD, but it definitely does seem to affect the behaviour. I just reformatted the 2nd HRD with FORM3MEG, and everything works again. Anyway, I look forward to witness the new MDOS in action. I also happen to have an Atronic disk controller at hand; I think I'll experiment a little with that on my other Geneve/PEB and, hopefully, make it work with the PC Transfer program. As of this moment, my only option for transferring from PC is by RS232-interface... not very efficiient, I think. c".)

Thanks, I'll do that! c",)