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PEB Flex Card Woes (and FDC TI/Myarc possibly)


CantStopClicking

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I'm working with a gentleman who's trying to get his PEB up and running. He just acquired a Myarc FDC card with 80-track upgrade. I'm trying to build a floppy cable for him, but it seems his Flex card went out before he was able to even get started. He also has a TI FDC, and I have no reason to believe that either of the FDC's are the problem.

 

I did some initial trouble-shooting with him, and it seems like the Flex is locking up his system, with or without other cards in the PEB. I suspect the 74LS245's, but doesn't really matter because he doesn't have anyway to do the repair (if it is the flex).

 

I have a Flex card I can offer him, possible trade (I can repair it).

 

However, I don't have a Myarc 80-track ROM set. I do have a Myarc FDC. Is there a known good set of 80-track ROM's for it, so I can test his scenario on my system? Last place I knew to get those was from Richard Bell, but I don't remember if he's on here or still providing. (My apologies if you here and I have forgotten your screen name).

 

And possibly the documentation as to what the new ROM's provide. I gather it's a more elegant 80-track solution than the TI one.

 

In addition, Is anyone else helping someone with this problem? Speak up if so... Trying to communicate via the other service is driving me f'ing insane.

 

TIA

 

-Dano

 

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Hi Dano,

 

I bought my 80-ttracker from Barry Boone some years ago, so here is what I got from the chip.

I never tested it, and I think there are more "common" files for that, so maybe wait a little bit here.

 

It also would be interesting to see if Barry made some changes on that.... ? ;)

Maybe one can compare the files ? (if posted here)

 

Ralf

 

PS Find the type of Eproms that I have in the filename.

 

MyArc-FDC-80-Track-Schmitzi.zip

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However, I don't have a Myarc 80-track ROM set. I do have a Myarc FDC. Is there a known good set of 80-track ROM's for it, so I can test his scenario on my system? Last place I knew to get those was from Richard Bell, but I don't remember if he's on here or still providing. (My apologies if you here and I have forgotten your screen name).

 

Richard is @Swim, I believe.

 

...lee

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The replacement Flex Cable interface works just fine :)

 

Still working with MyArc... Turns out I had the switches backwards. It double steps just fine for 40 track disks :) Still working on getting a 5.25" drive that will work right. Seriously considering trying one of the QD drives I've found.

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OK, got in the Mitsubishi M4853 (which is listed as working fine.) However, it doesn't want to work either. Ton of jumpers, and I've been reading up on them, without much luck on getting the drive to work. One thing I noticed, and this may be just the way the TI does things, the heads never move. Motor spins, lights come on (it's looking for the file,) but the head just sits there. After a while, get I/O error 6. In the hopes it's the jumper settings, anyone have a M4853 running & can tell me the jumper settings?

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Well, several days of testing & pushing, and it's working just great :) All formats on both drives: 90k, 180k (x3,) 360k (x3,) & 720k, all work fine. Items I still want to get for the PEB... An RS232 card (with the HCX mod.) Would like to move my Speech Synthesizer into the box as well (reduce daisy chain size a bit.) Would still like to install an HDD as well, but getting a controller card seems to be rather iffy. Also, and this is mainly just curiosity, the PEB pin outs I've found show that enough voltage is provided (can't speak to current right now,) so that if a correct regulating circuit is provided a card could be designed to mount an HDD inside the box, getting power from the buss itself. Run a connector from the HDD to the LED (if the HDD has a LED header,) and power from the board to the drive, and you could have a drive installed into the slot. Just put mount points onto the card to mount the drive, plug in the LED & Power, then run the cable from the HDCC to the drive & good to go :) I'm wondering if anyone ever designed something like that. With a HDD mounting card, that leaves only 1 slot left open, which I cannot think what to put there. A second HDD "would" be a possibility, except I cannot see the need for more than one.

 

All that being said, the RS232 is currently my next target :) And I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this flex cable. CantStopClicking informs me it is likely an easy fix, but I would probably need rather steady hands to do that (Parkinson's prevents my hands from being all that steady most of the time.) If I'm ever in a position to do so, I'll try installing replacements for the chips & caps and see if that fixes it. Not likely in the foreseeable future, though :( I'l likely end up putting it up for sale somewhere. Maybe not at the Marketplace here, put some stuff up there, and as of today, 0 views. Nobody being interested is one thing, but nobody even looking?

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Yeah, but I can't build it (and probably can't even install it,) myself :( Hands aren't steady enough for the soldering work. Well, most of the time they aren't. Even when they are, a few minutes in, they would stop being steady. Not sure I could handle building and installing something like that in 5-10 minute intervals, every few days :(

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