tregare Posted February 26, 2010 Share Posted February 26, 2010 Opened a 1050 I got off ebay it was an as-is drive and I didn't expect it to work, imagine my lack of surprise when it didn't go through it's POST. (this is my first drive with the COPAL mechanism. looking at it now that I have pulled the RF shield, it's rom is labeled.. A.W.C. P/N: 540004 Rev: 5 any ideas what the heck that rom is? it is not the same label as the eproms in my other drives. it also has 2 wires run on the bottom, one from one of the voltage rectifier diodes to pin4 of the LM311N and the other between a couple resistors. CR15 and 16 have bad (as in burnt/carbonized) solder joints. and looking there are a bunch of other bad solder joints. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tregare Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 Opened a 1050 I got off ebay it was an as-is drive and I didn't expect it to work, imagine my lack of surprise when it didn't go through it's POST. (this is my first drive with the COPAL mechanism. looking at it now that I have pulled the RF shield, it's rom is labeled.. A.W.C. P/N: 540004 Rev: 5 any ideas what the heck that rom is? it is not the same label as the eproms in my other drives. it also has 2 wires run on the bottom, one from one of the voltage rectifier diodes to pin4 of the LM311N and the other between a couple resistors. CR15 and 16 have bad (as in burnt/carbonized) solder joints. and looking there are a bunch of other bad solder joints. if anyone is interested, after cleaning up about a dozen bad solder joints, and replacing the blown diodes, the drive lives again. I'm going to pull an image of the EPROM on this drive. haven't decided if it is going to get a USD, a Happy, an archiver or which other DD mod. although that mod that candle is working on looks interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted February 28, 2010 Share Posted February 28, 2010 I have not seen a Copal mechanism in a 1050 -- believe I've seen them in Rana's. Do they look like the regular Tandon mechs? -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tregare Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 I have not seen a Copal mechanism in a 1050 -- believe I've seen them in Rana's. Do they look like the regular Tandon mechs? -Larry it's a re-badged Copal I found the added label in the bottom of the box. the added label says it is a "world storage technology" but it looks like the Copal drives I've found in old commodore and other equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianoid Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 I found a ROM same as in the first post- A.W.C. P/N 540004 Rev 5 Anyone now the significance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Compared to the (at least 3) known ROM's for Tandon mech 1050's (Rev J,K,L) The WST ROM was modified to take advantage of the faster stepper rate the World Storage Technologies mechs are (officially) capable of. 1050's with this ROM are usually 2732 EPROM's. there's a few previous threads discussing the changes found comparing the 4 known 1050 ROMs. And even a recently posted US Doubler ROM which incorporates the faster stepper changes for WST mechs. So in summary, the ROM you found sounds like the stock ROM from a WST mech 1050. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 Confirmed.. stock WST 1050 Mech and ROM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted August 16, 2018 Share Posted August 16, 2018 I'm going to pull an image of the EPROM on this drive. haven't decided if it is going to get a USD, a Happy, an archiver or which other DD mod. although that mod that candle is working on looks interesting. Your drive is a WST mech, so if you go the US Doubler route, check out the WST specific version of the firmware by slaker, which incorporates the faster stepping rates used in the stock ROM for made in Hong Kong WST drives: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/156462-1050-roms/page-2?do=findComment&comment=4060813 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 I am working on a couple of 1050's. The rom in each is the same, a USDoubler. Why I'm posting it is that it does not match my other roms and has a much faster step rate than a standard 1050. I swapped my standard USDoubler rom into the drive and got normal behavior with a regular step rate. Swap this one back in and it steps a heck of a lot faster. Any reason why they didn't do this more often? This is the first such rom I've seen for the 1050. While I'm at it, one of the drives came with the mounting screws missing from the stepper motor. I robbed a couple from the top of the mech and secured the stepper. It will turn on and initialize for a second, but after a few seconds goes dead and won't initialize again until it has sat for a long time. I've swapped all the cardinal chips with known-good ones, so it isn't anything really smart. Any ideas? Best, Jeff EDIT: ROM removed (see below) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 it may be out of alignment of course, it may also have a bad track zero detector... double whammy... can't find proper data, can't find a track.... so it stops. Replacing track zero sensor (or hacking your of replacement) and then aligning the drive should get you going again... test the theory, with no power on, move the head halfway of it's travel... then turn the power on... what happens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 9 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said: it may be out of alignment of course, it may also have a bad track zero detector... double whammy... can't find proper data, can't find a track.... so it stops. Replacing track zero sensor (or hacking your of replacement) and then aligning the drive should get you going again... test the theory, with no power on, move the head halfway of it's travel... then turn the power on... what happens? It is a US Doubler, so it seeks to zero on startup no matter the head position at startup. After the first power-on it acts like a dead drive, as though the rom or ram were not present. No motor spin, no nothing. And it doesn't nak on the sio bus even, so there's something sick on the board but I don't know what. I will swap a known-good mech in and see what I get. Perhaps the stepper is pulling too much juice or something. How bout' that rom that steps quick? Isn't that RAD? I always wanted this and now I just bumped into it. I'm gonna swap one into my 1050 and see if the mech will tolerate it. Best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Wow. I put the new rom in my old US Doubler 1050 and it is super-quiet and tracks fast now. I'm running it through its paces now, but it looks like a real winner. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 It's seems you might have left out if it is the actual ICD ROM or one of the projects previously done to speed and touch up the ICD US doubler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 2 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said: It's seems you might have left out if it is the actual ICD ROM or one of the projects previously done to speed and touch up the ICD US doubler. Definitely NOT ICD. I don't think FTE either. It just had a handwritten sticker on the rom that said "US". The ram stack is well-done, much neater than FTE's work, but identical in all respects, fine shielded wire between the two chips, not on top like mine (grin). Good quality soldering. Don't have any idea who did this, but it does work. I comped the rom to the standard ones I have and it differs from all by several thousands bytes, but that isn't hard to do while actually being just a couple of bytes different. I don't know the code so I can't evaluate that part. Best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 @Jeffrey Worley - your ROM dump has CRC32 4C53A1A8 - Ditch it. I've come across this ROM previously, see this thread: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/283132-1050-is-that-an-icd-in-your-socket-or-are-you-happy-to-see-me/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-4120404 In summary: The CRC32 4C53A1A8 hack is of unknown origin, and through disassembly has been found to have issues that could cause data corruption (backwards write precompensation), and should not be used. It's unfortunate, because it provides a faster stepper rate of 5ms instead of 10ms for Tandon mechs. Maybe the read PERCOM block is yet another thing someone tried to 'fix' on this one, but broke other things... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Nezgar said: @Jeffrey Worley - your ROM dump has CRC32 4C53A1A8 - Ditch it. I've come across this ROM previously, see this thread: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/283132-1050-is-that-an-icd-in-your-socket-or-are-you-happy-to-see-me/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-4120404 In summary: The CRC32 4C53A1A8 hack is of unknown origin, and through disassembly has been found to have issues that could cause data corruption (backwards write precompensation), and should not be used. It's unfortunate, because it provides a faster stepper rate of 5ms instead of 10ms for Tandon mechs. Maybe the read PERCOM block is yet another thing someone tried to 'fix' on this one, but broke other things... This is heartbreaking. Why has no one made a good version of the USD that halved the steprate? Gosh darn it. I was having fun with my new rom and now I gotta swap it out for a slow one again. Best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 5 minutes ago, Jeffrey Worley said: This is heartbreaking. Why has no one made a good version of the USD that halved the steprate? Gosh darn it. I was having fun with my new rom and now I gotta swap it out for a slow one again. I know... I got excited about that ROM initially too! One day I hope to tackle this if someone doesn't beat me to it. But until then, a consolation - there *IS* a trustworthy USD ROM for made in Hong Kong / World storage mech 1050's patched with the with matching faster stepping as found in the stock ROM's for those drives: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/156462-1050-roms/?do=findComment&comment=4061547 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Nezgar said: I know... I got excited about that ROM initially too! One day I hope to tackle this if someone doesn't beat me to it. But until then, a consolation - there *IS* a trustworthy USD ROM for made in Hong Kong / World storage mech 1050's patched with the with matching faster stepping as found in the stock ROM's for those drives: https://atariage.com/forums/topic/156462-1050-roms/?do=findComment&comment=4061547 I don't have WST mechs. Are they compatible? Can I just use the rom and hope for the best? Best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nezgar Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 Its too fast for tandon mechs. It also removes the double half step forward, half step back needed by tandon mechs, and uses a different stepper phase encoding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 While the rom may not be perfect, I can say that all three drives I tried it on, with Tandon mechs (well one has no stickers at all on it but is a tandon for all intents and purposes) I tried it on work very well at the fast step rate. This is encouraging. I have five drives to test with, so if you guys want to play with the rom, I'll be happy to be a guinea pig. Best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ijor Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, Jeffrey Worley said: This is heartbreaking. Why has no one made a good version of the USD that halved the steprate? Gosh darn it. It is trivial. At least in the USD ROM version I have, the step rate is determined by the byte at offset $198: Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 00000190 AD 95 02 10 FB 98 60 A9 A0 8D 9E 02 8A 48 18 65 As you see, the original value is $A0, or decimal 160. This produces a ~10ms (half) step rate because the value is used to start a /64 timer. The math is 0.001ms*64*160 = 10.24ms. Remember that the 1050 steps in half track units. So the total step time for a full track is twice as much, or approx ~20ms. Load the ROM into an hex editor and change the byte at that location to the value you want. If you change it to the half, $50 (decimal 80), step time would be halved. Didn't try it and no idea if it would work. Edited June 1, 2020 by ijor 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 24 minutes ago, ijor said: It is trivial. At least in the USD ROM version I have, the step rate is determined by the byte at offset $198: Offset 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 00000190 AD 95 02 10 FB 98 60 A9 A0 8D 9E 02 8A 48 18 65 As you see, the original value is $A0, or decimal 160. This produces a ~10ms (half) step rate because the value is used to start a /64 timer. The math is 0.001ms*64*160 = 10.24ms. Remember that the 1050 steps in half track units. So the total step time for a full track is twice as much, or approx ~20ms. Load the ROM into an hex editor and change the byte at that location to the value you want. If you change it to the half, $50 (decimal 80), step time would be halved. Didn't try it and no idea if it would work. I followed your directions and am testing the rom now. I programmed for $50 and it seems to be working ok. I will run it through its paces and see what we get. Thanks a lot! Jeff 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 10 hours ago, Jeffrey Worley said: I followed your directions and am testing the rom now. I programmed for $50 and it seems to be working ok. I will run it through its paces and see what we get. Thanks a lot! Jeff Update: This mod works just fine. The step rate is doubled, just as advertised, and there are no untoward complications from doing this. The mech I tried it on is a real beater, so if it works here it will work on your's too. I'll upload the modified rom when I get home this evening. best, jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 You tried reading disks formatted on another drive just fine and disks formatted on this faster drive on a non-faster-step USD? I believe there was speculation earlier on that the step rates could be tied to the stepper motor versions/brands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Worley Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 Just now, kheller2 said: You tried reading disks formatted on another drive just fine and disks formatted on this faster drive on a non-faster-step USD? I believe there was speculation earlier on that the step rates could be tied to the stepper motor versions/brands. I tested disk interchangeability between my Percom, my Rana, and a standard USDoubler 1050. All good. That was nice as I had just aligned the drive I was using to test. It had come to me with no screws mounting the stepper in place. I ran the drive for some hours continuously copying files from it to ram and back from ram to disk and it just worked beautifully. Not a single burp. I also read the disks created on this drive on other drives without fault. best, Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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