JGroth Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Hi everyone, My SDrive-MAX arrived and works well. I can boot Dos 2.5 and store files on another SSDD (or is SSSD, I don't know) image I made in RespeQT (is it QT based I wonder). There is also an option in RespeQT to create a hard drive image so I did that and it created a 16MB ATR file. However Dos 2.5 can't format it, can't access it. In fact I get error 160 (Drive number error) trying to access it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I have read/heard somewhere that SpartaDos can build a directory structure on such an image and that you can copy over the OS and boot from it. Have I dreamt that? If I didn't dream it, where can I find a SpartaDos image that SDrive-MAX will boot so I can format the HD drive image? Yeah, I know, more newbie questions. Regards, JGroth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs80065xe Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 I've read SpartaDos X won't boot from SDrive-Max. Need cartridge device for that. But SpartaDos 3.2 will. But you need to lower the speed of your SDrive-Max to 57.6K or lower. I'll post a link where to get SpartaDos 3.2 as soon as I find it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs80065xe Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) Here's a link to SpartaDos 3.2 ATR files. https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=SpartaDOS Edited April 4, 2020 by gs80065xe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) 47 minutes ago, JGroth said: Hi everyone, My SDrive-MAX arrived and works well. I can boot Dos 2.5 and store files on another SSDD (or is SSSD, I don't know) image I made in RespeQT (is it QT based I wonder). There is also an option in RespeQT to create a hard drive image so I did that and it created a 16MB ATR file. However Dos 2.5 can't format it, can't access it. In fact I get error 160 (Drive number error) trying to access it. Correct me if I'm wrong but I have read/heard somewhere that SpartaDos can build a directory structure on such an image and that you can copy over the OS and boot from it. Have I dreamt that? If I didn't dream it, where can I find a SpartaDos image that SDrive-MAX will boot so I can format the HD drive image? Yeah, I know, more newbie questions. Regards, JGroth SDX is designed to operate from what it calls a "ROM-disk" storage / access model, from the ground-up (hosted on Cartridge). That means, there will not be OS-centric code to boot from SIO or virtual .ATR media, except local configuration files (like CONFIG.SYS, AUTOEXEC.BAT, user-selected drivers, or the SPARTA.DOS directory on root, with multiple configs. to choose during boot). These files can be stored on an SDX "formatted" 16MByte image. If you would like a regular DOS to take care of that 16 MBytes image, consider MYDOS. If you would like SDX to format that 16MBytes .ATR image, just boot SDX wherever you have it, attach your 16MB .ATR as D1:, and issue "FORMAT" command from SDX prompt. Then select drive 1 or A. Keep an eye on DOS-mode and optimization parameters offered by format utility, before formatting or writing directory structure. Edited April 4, 2020 by Faicuai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGroth Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 35 minutes ago, gs80065xe said: I've read SpartaDos X won't boot from SDrive-Max. Need cartridge device for that. But SpartaDos 3.2 will. But you need to lower the speed of your SDrive-Max to 57.6K or lower. I'll post a link where to get SpartaDos 3.2 as soon as I find it again. Thanks a lot. I found the ATR images but I can't find a way to set the 57.6K though. I got 1050 emulation whatever speed that is. Nothing in the documentation mentions anything about speed settings. If it can be done from the UI the great, otherwise I think I'll live with disk images for now until I get a U1MB and SIDE2 from Lotharek's Lair. Anyway thanks a lot for the link to SpartaDos ATR images. Regards, JGroth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs80065xe Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Boot from D0. And use the commands from the page below. Scroll to the "Controlling SDrive-Max from the Atari section". As you toggle with Ctrl+U you'll see the speeds cycle in the lower right. https://atari8bit.net/everything-sdrive-max/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGroth Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 16 minutes ago, JGroth said: Thanks a lot. I found the ATR images but I can't find a way to set the 57.6K though. I got 1050 emulation whatever speed that is. Nothing in the documentation mentions anything about speed settings. If it can be done from the UI the great, otherwise I think I'll live with disk images for now until I get a U1MB and SIDE2 from Lotharek's Lair. Anyway thanks a lot for the link to SpartaDos ATR images. Regards, JGroth Sadly none of the images boot from SDrive-MAX. Regards, JGroth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGroth Posted April 4, 2020 Author Share Posted April 4, 2020 32 minutes ago, gs80065xe said: Boot from D0. And use the commands from the page below. Scroll to the "Controlling SDrive-Max from the Atari section". As you toggle with Ctrl+U you'll see the speeds cycle in the lower right. https://atari8bit.net/everything-sdrive-max/ Aha, Control-U sets the speed. So I wonder how I save that config. When I press Control-w I get 'Unknown cfg". Q/Y/Reset booted SpartaDos 3.2g though. Master disk loaded as well. A lot of commands to learn I can tell. So I wonder if 3.2g has the 'build directory structure' command or if that is SpartaDos X 4.4x something? Regards, JGroth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gs80065xe Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) Just got one of these myself. I thought it saved when you made the change. But I fried mine shortly after. Just got it back from repair. What ever you do, do not flip that switch to computer power if you have external power connected. It will fry the Arduino. As for SpartaDos 3.2, it does support directories. If you go to archive.org and search for SpartaDos toolkit, you'll find some documentation from 3.2's day. I'm waiting for an AVG cart. And will use SpartaDos X. It's commands are closer to DOS that v3.2. Edited April 4, 2020 by gs80065xe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 (edited) because that switch should be of a type to disconnect external power when using internal and vice versa... it's a switch! there are many types to choose from and the modification is easy to do correctly.... what more can you say... Edited April 4, 2020 by _The Doctor__ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 When I built my own SDrive-Max, I built it on the premise that I would never power it from the Atari, so no switch/connection to the 8bit power pin, I just power the Arduino from it's USB connection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 I power mine from a 9V Arduino wall PSU. That said, there *are* some issues with SDX and the SDrive-MAX. The current firmware does not play very well with double-density disk images. From memory, the last time I messed around with it a year or so ago, I determined you could create and format double density ATRs using a tool on the computer or an emulator and then copy them to your SD card, and the SDrive-MAX could read and write them fine using SDX. But if you try to use the SDrive-MAX’s >NEW< command and then use SDX’s FORMAT tool to write a file system to the ATR, it won’t work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TGB1718 Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 I asked this question some time ago and I think it may have been @flashjazzcat said you can't format a floppy with SDX on an SDrive-Max, what I do is boot from D1: with SDX 3.2 to create and format disks and not use SDX on the U1M Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Formatting a disk is not a rocket science, the device first has to accept the new density/disk geometry (the PERCOM block is sent to the device), then, when asked, reply with the density which it selected, and, finally, accept and execute the SIO format command in the density selected. If this procedure does not work, then the device's firmware should get fixed, I would guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 4/5/2020 at 10:47 AM, TGB1718 said: I asked this question some time ago and I think it may have been @flashjazzcat said you can't format a floppy with SDX on an SDrive-Max, what I do is boot from D1: with SDX 3.2 to create and format disks and not use SDX on the U1M So even booting SpartaDOS 3.2g, I can't successfully create and format double-density ATRs on my SDrive-MAX. Even with the SIO speed of the device dropped all the way down to bog-standard 19.2, the XINIT command eventually times out and I end up an an ATR that SpartaDOS reports as having 000 free sectors, cannot be written to or reformatted. Single-density formatting works fine, even at higher speeds. The options I'm using for XINIT are 40 sectors, single-sided; double-density; and Ultraspeed Skew No. Just your garden-variety double-density disk that should give 180K more or less. But no dice. EDIT: If I use Altirra to create a double-density ATR and have Altirra put a SpartaDOS file system onto it, I can at least copy files to it from SpartaDOS 3.2g, though I had to slow the SIO speed down to 39 kpbs to avoid timeout errors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 I just saw a Github notification this afternoon of a new beta version with fixes for DD and “QD” (*) disk images. Looking forward to trying this out soon. *Presumably quad-density. Unclear exactly whether this means 512 byte sectors, 80 track disk images, or something else. I’ll leave it to those smarter about disk formats than me to explain/figure it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) On 4/5/2020 at 8:47 AM, TGB1718 said: I asked this question some time ago and I think it may have been @flashjazzcat said you can't format a floppy with SDX on an SDrive-Max, what I do is boot from D1: with SDX 3.2 to create and format disks and not use SDX on the U1M You may not be able to format an ATR with the SpartaDOS Formatter uitility, but it does give the Build Directory option which writes a blank directory structure. I don't have an Sdrive MAX but tested successfully with my Sdrive NUXX. Edited April 7, 2020 by BillC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 (edited) I flashed my SDrive-MAX to the new 1.2 final release. I booted SpartaDOS 3.2g and was able to successfully create, format and write to a new double-density ATR image in my device. I then booted SDX 4.49c and was able to use the SDX FORMAT command to format a brand new double-density ATR. Edited April 7, 2020 by DrVenkman typo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 7, 2020 Share Posted April 7, 2020 whoomp there it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillC Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 2 hours ago, DrVenkman said: I then booted SDX 4.49c You haven't updated to the new SDX 4.49 release version yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 4 minutes ago, BillC said: You haven't updated to the new SDX 4.49 release version yet! Not yet. I noted on the SDX Project release page that the U1MB and Incognito versions do not indicate that they have Jon's APT FDISK tool. Since my two main A8's right now are my 1088XLD and an Incognito 800, I would rather prefer to have FDISK tool built into the CAR: SDX image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drac030 Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 (edited) IDE+ build does not indicate that either, but I can see FDISK files on the CAR:, and I can see in the respository that the building scripts for the Incognito/Ultimate are told to include FDISK when building *.rom files. So this is most probably an omission on the website to be fixed tomorrow... Edited April 8, 2020 by drac030 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DrVenkman Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 1 minute ago, drac030 said: IDE+ build does not indicate that either, but I can see FDISK files on the CAR:, and I can see in the respository that the building scripts for the Incognito/Ultimate are told to include FDISK when building *.rom files. So this is most probably an omission on the website to be fixed tomorrow... Thank you! I will be updating tomorrow evening after work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 I think we are wearing our peoples out, what can we do to restore and revitalize our heroes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted April 8, 2020 Share Posted April 8, 2020 14 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said: I think we are wearing our peoples out, what can we do to restore and revitalize our heroes? A virtual Atari party (via streaming video service) would be awesome if it weren't for the pesky timezones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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