Is there a way to set external Lotharek HxC as DSK1?

[Diecrusher]

Hi All,

 

You've probably seen my previous post regarding hooking my Lotharek HxC externally to my TI FDC but I thought this question might warrant a new topic post. I hope that I am correct, if not I apologize to the community!

 

Basically I am wondering what would be the best way, if possible, to set this external drive as DSK1. I see that most disk images, etc. want to refer to DSK1 for XB Autoload, etc. and this seems to be the easiest route.

 

I hate to have to add my HxC internally into the PEB since I want the option of using it with other systems that I have (TRS-80, Amiga, etc.).

 

I am guessing that there may also be termination issues, etc. here that I am not sure about but would an option be to hack a switch-box of some sort to accomplish this? I currently have 2 internal drives, a Teac 55B 5.25" & 720K 3.5" currently set as DSK1 and DSK2, respectively. I was going to add a toggle switch to swap these 2 back-and-forth between DSK1 & DSK2 but I am guessing that this would complicate the addition of the external Lotharek HxC even greater!

 

Any ideas would be appreciated - I am kinda lost here as to the best route to take.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Diecrusher

[+arcadeshopper]

The disk controller doesn't care where you plug in DSK1 its just the drive select on your devices that matters.. so set the hxc to device 0 and your physical drives need to be dsk2 and dsk3 (I assume based on your other post) just change the selectors on the drives themselves and you are good to go..

 

I have mine set up as dsk1, dsk3 in the pbox, dsk2 is a 3.5 external and dsk4 is my hxc also external.. Can't remember why I wanted the 3.5" as dsk2. probably for some program that only has 1 and 2 in it's drive routines..

 

Greg

[+Schmitzi]

The TI´s PHP-1240er manual tells somethng about "First external drive is DSK2",

but I do not believe that this is mandatory at all..... but I did it in mosts configs

 

Also the question is about the sense, having a terminator on the internal floppycable, but none on the external cable...

 

 

[Shift838]

it's all about the drive selector. a standard drive with straight through connectors is set to DSK2. The drive select switch is what changes the drive number for what line the request goes down.

 

I have always had DSK1 and 2 in the PEB and DSK3 outside on TI disk controllers.

[Diecrusher]

The disk controller doesn't care where you plug in DSK1 its just the drive select on your devices that matters.. so set the hxc to device 0 and your physical drives need to be dsk2 and dsk3 (I assume based on your other post) just change the selectors on the drives themselves and you are good to go..

 

I have mine set up as dsk1, dsk3 in the pbox, dsk2 is a 3.5 external and dsk4 is my hxc also external.. Can't remember why I wanted the 3.5" as dsk2. probably for some program that only has 1 and 2 in it's drive routines..

 

Greg

Thanks Greg and everyone!

 

So what would you do to run a XB autoboot disk from your HxC on DSK4? Would you have to copy the disk image contents to a physical disk on DKS1? I will try your previous suggestion of launching through DM2K as I have never tried that.

 

I may try to add a couple dpdt switches to the internal cable to switch DSK1 & DSK2 to DSK2 & DSK3. Wonder if that is possible.

[Shift838]

Thanks Greg and everyone!

 

So what would you do to run a XB autoboot disk from your HxC on DSK4? Would you have to copy the disk image contents to a physical disk on DKS1? I will try your previous suggestion of launching through DM2K as I have never tried that.

 

I may try to add a couple dpdt switches to the internal cable to switch DSK1 & DSK2 to DSK2 & DSK3. Wonder if that is possible.

There are people that have added the switches as you talk about. I have seen one personally for DSK3, where a 5.25 was DSK3 and if the switch was turned on a 3.5 became DSk3. Also, I have seen one that switches 2 different drives from DSK1 to DSK2 and vice versa.

 

So yes, it's possible.

[+arcadeshopper]

Easy to do since most drive select are jumpers except for some 3.5" they are soldered (bleah)

 

Copy it to DSK1 if you want it to autoload in xbasic. It's hard coded in the rom/grom of xbasic..

 

If you are using RXB you just hit 3 and it'll load the load program on that drive.

 

Greg

[+acadiel]

My old HxC (the 1st get one with the LCD - can no longer write due to the firmware and not having an SRAM chip) has some jumpers on it that let me jump it as DSK1. I then stuck a 3.5" PC floppy inline after that (those always are jumped as DSK2).

[ralphb]

For some reason my Lotharek only works when connected to the internal FDC connector, but on the external connector the drive is simply ignored (Disk Manager 2 reports ERROR 16 when trying to catalog a disk).

 

Internal drives are configured as DSK1 and DSK2, and the Lotharek as DSK3. Do I need to remove the termination from the DSK2 drive? I always thought that the last internal drive needs termination, and external drives are added on top of that. (Removing the termination will be a pain, so I though I'll ask before I try.)

[+Schmitzi]

ERROR 16 means "Drive not present or not ready"

 

Normally the internal drives are considered DSK1 and DSK3, the one at the end of the internal cable IS terminated (DSK3)

 

External is DSK2 and NOT terminated. Don´t ask me why

 

And I remember Roli had/has the problem that he could NOT configure his HxC as DSK2... (but worx for me)

 

The manual sounds a bit strange to me, as they talk about a "special cable" for external drives,

and about only one internal drive. I think at this time (1979) half-hight drives did not exist

 

It starts here on page 8:

 

TI-PHP1240-Manual-Clear.pdf

 

(thx to Dexter for work on that PDF)

[+Schmitzi]

So your you Ralph, I would try to set the internal DSK2 to DSK3,

and the Lotharek externally and DSK2.

 

First try this with (new) DSK3i terminated, on error without (any) terminator pack