PEB Help/Advise Please

[+arcadeshopper]

59 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Yep. Tried the dm2k, after a faltering start, and that plus other tests/checks suggest the drive is no good (and beyond my ability to try and repair)

 

Have ordered a couple of working half height drives to check if the controller is ok

Drives need regular maintenance and most of them haven't had any.. clean the heads, clean and lubricate the moving parts/rails 

[+Atari2600PAL]

40 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

Drives need regular maintenance and most of them haven't had any.. clean the heads, clean and lubricate the moving parts/rails 

The problem is, nothings moving but nothing is seized up either

 

And theres not the slightest noise from the drive (just the light comes on) when accessed

 

will see what happens with the replacement drives when they arrive early next week and take it from there 

 

thanks 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Atari2600PAL
Edited to use seized instead of ceased (though ceased may be more appropriate)

[+OLD CS1]

6 hours ago, mizapf said:

I still have a 1541 on the shelf, and one day I'll try to sample the sounds of that drive to be included in MAME (for the C64, of course). There's nothing like the head hammering of a 1541. 🙂

Need sounds from both Mitsumi and ALPS 1541 assemblies, then a 1541-II, a 1571, and a 1581.  The 1581 sounds are going to be a lot like the Amiga drive sounds (same mechanisms in the A500 as the 1581.)  I can get you Indus GT and Enhancer 2000 sounds, as well.  I mean, why not go over-board?  Also, you should get sounds on each track step, as each track sounds different -- on the Commodore drives you can almost tell the exact position of the head by the stepping sound.

 

2 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Yep. Tried the dm2k, after a faltering start, and that plus other tests/checks suggest the drive is no good (and beyond my ability to try and repair)

 

Have ordered a couple of working half height drives to check if the controller is ok

This seems to be the unfortunate bane of us real media users, though I cannot say I ever had to deal with an actual failed drive.  Others have sent me failed drives to look at, and they have been beyond my repair abilities, as well.  My problems have been bad, wrong, or mis-positioned cable, a bad jumper setting, or bad power.

[+mizapf]

3 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Need sounds from both Mitsumi and ALPS 1541 assemblies, then a 1541-II, a 1571, and a 1581.  The 1581 sounds are going to be a lot like the Amiga drive sounds (same mechanisms in the A500 as the 1581.)  I can get you Indus GT and Enhancer 2000 sounds, as well.  I mean, why not go over-board?  Also, you should get sounds on each track step, as each track sounds different -- on the Commodore drives you can almost tell the exact position of the head by the stepping sound.

Originally I actually planned a collection of sounds that map to certain regions of the disk, not for each track, but maybe for each group of 5. This was a bit too ambitious for the beginning, when I was glad enough to get a believable step sound and the seek sound.

 

In the end, it would be nice if we could have a kind of "sound font" for each drive so everyone may install the sounds of drive as desired. MAME currently does not support something like this, although I could imagine to set up a kind of archive file with all required sounds in a standardized format, and then you just drop that file into the samples folder.

[+Ksarul]

On the disk drives--are the proper drive selection bridges in place and is the last disk in the chain properly terminated? These things can also cause problems if not right. . .

[+Atari2600PAL]

2 hours ago, Ksarul said:

On the disk drives--are the proper drive selection bridges in place and is the last disk in the chain properly terminated? These things can also cause problems if not right. . .

I found the manual for the drive on-line and all looks correct for single drive operation as far as I can tell

[+FALCOR4]

Have you checked to make sure there is +12v on your drive connector coming out of the PEB?  The drive light coming on suggests that there is +5v from the connector.

[+Atari2600PAL]

1 hour ago, FALCOR4 said:

Have you checked to make sure there is +12v on your drive connector coming out of the PEB?  The drive light coming on suggests that there is +5v from the connector.

Hi. Just double-checked and yes there's 12v on the drive connector. Thanks.

[+Atari2600PAL]

The drives I ordered turned out to be 80 track when I obviously needed 40, but have hard wired them to 40 track (they came in a case with switched 40/80 but I've removed them from the case for internal fitting with the kit I've ordered from @arcadeshopper, though I only intend to have one physically connected as I suspect the 2 drives may draw too much power but not sure how to check that)

 

I can format a DS/DD floppy without any errors using DM2K and I can also view the directory of my Tunnel of Doom floppy

 

And was also able to run the tunnel of doom cart and load from the disk

 

But I was wondering if anyone could tell me if the values reported in the attached images is consistent with a DS/DD floppy please? (its a corcomp 9900 controller)

 

Many thanks

 

 

[atrax27407]

Yep. DSDD formats to 1440 sectors (2 reserved for the directory). The TOD disk is SSSD or 360 sectors. If the drives are half-height, the PEB will easily power two of them.

[+Atari2600PAL]

42 minutes ago, atrax27407 said:

Yep. DSDD formats to 1440 sectors (2 reserved for the directory). The TOD disk is SSSD or 360 sectors. If the drives are half-height, the PEB will easily power two of them.

Many thanks. Have managed to load a program off another disk I forgot I had, so all looking good so far.

 

Am not sure if I'll be able to get 2 into the PEB as the floppy cable I have to use is very long compared to the one that was in the PEB originally. I have to use it as the 40 track override taps into a line on the floppy cable (though if I can find a new end for the controller end maybe I can cut it down) and also there's a small circuit board that has to squeeze in as well (though I could extend the cables a bit and put that just inside the PEB card bay I guess). Won't try until I have the fitting kit to split the power and mounting plate so I know exactly what I'm up against.

 

This pair of drives was a 3rd the cost of the only others I'd seen, so worth the trouble I guess. Can always use a blanking plate and keep the other drive as a spare.

 

At least it turned out to be a drive problem and not the controller

 

Thanks again

 

EDIT: Just tried pushing the other drive in next to the first and it just about fits, so looks like I'll probably be ok

[+Atari2600PAL]

Should I be concerned about how the cards are laid out in my PEB, from a heat point of view please?

 

Currently I have:

1. TI Flex card

2. TI RS232 card

3. TI 32kb Memory card

4. Empty

5. TIPI PEB & mounted 3B+ Pi

6. Empty

7. 838-Speech Card & synth card

8. CorComp 9900 Floppy disk controller card

 

It has the lower back plate

 

Many Thanks (hopefully my last PEB question!)

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

1 hour ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Should I be concerned about how the cards are laid out in my PEB, from a heat point of view please?

 

Currently I have:

1. TI Flex card

2. TI RS232 card

3. TI 32kb Memory card

4. Empty

5. TIPI PEB & mounted 3B+ Pi

6. Empty

7. 838-Speech Card & synth card

8. CorComp 9900 Floppy disk controller card

 

It has the lower back plate

 

Many Thanks (hopefully my last PEB question!)

 

 

NOPE nothing matters except the flex cable slot.  The rest are interchangeable based on preference or access to the drive bay. I tend to put the disk controller in 7 for instance so i can reach the cable.. and put something small in 8 that doesn't interfere 

[+Atari2600PAL]

16 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

NOPE nothing matters except the flex cable slot.  The rest are interchangeable based on preference or access to the drive bay. I tend to put the disk controller in 7 for instance so i can reach the cable.. and put something small in 8 that doesn't interfere 

That's great thanks

 

That just leaves me to sort the broken power switch (though I can live with that as I'm not using it anyway) and getting the 2nd floppy drive working (just hope I've understood how the mod to make the 80 track drives work as 40 track works for the 2nd drive, else it'll just be fitted to fill the hole!)

 

One other thing I'd like to do is the quite fan mod from your website, but not sure what fan I need

 

Many Thanks

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

On 5/9/2023 at 8:46 PM, Shift838 said:

i would suggest replacing the stock CC9900 EPROMS with the updated Millers Graphics EPROMS for the CC9900.  It addresses bugs and other things as well as brings back the regular TI boot screen.  I believe @arcadeshopper sells them.

Hi. I'm unsure which EPROMS I should order, could you point me in the right direction please? (it's a 9900 DS/DD card)

 

I have some orders with @arcadeshopper at the moment so thought it would be a good idea to add them rather than wish I'd done it later on

 

Many thanks

 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

2 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Hi. I'm unsure which EPROMS I should order, could you point me in the right direction please? (it's a 9900 DS/DD card)

 

I have some orders with @arcadeshopper at the moment so thought it would be a good idea to add them rather than wish I'd done it later on

 

Many thanks

 

 

the Corcomp FDC (MG Bank1 & MG Bank 2) $14

 

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

1 minute ago, arcadeshopper said:

the Corcomp FDC (MG Bank1 & MG Bank 2) $14

 

 

Many thanks. Order incoming...

[+Atari2600PAL]

Have just done the quite fan modification. When I put it back together and turned it on I thought I'd broken it for a few seconds, then remembered the whole point was to make it quite...

 

I normally like to keep things as original as possible, but I don't have any connection to the loud fan noise as I never had a PEB back in the day and much prefer the quite fan.

 

I took @arcadeshopper's advice and put the FDC in slot 7 as that gave me space to tuck the long floppy cable within the PEB rather than crushing it in the floppy compartment

 

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

Thanks to @arcadeshopper's dual drive kit I've managed to fit both drives into the PEB

 

And they are both working (at least I can do a DIR on both drives and copied some test files between them)

 

Given I'm unlikely to get a replacement switch the only thing left to do, that I can think of, will be fitting the new EEProms for the CorComp FDC when I have them

 

Many thanks to everyone for your advice

[+Atari2600PAL]

Fitted the new ROMS from @arcadeshopper in my CC9900 FDC

 

Loaded up Force Command and it couldn't see either floppy drive (and no light on the FDC)

 

Have put back the original ROMS and it's working again

 

Is there something I should of done other than just fitting the ROMS please?

 

Many thanks

[+Atari2600PAL]

Given the images I've found online (like mainbyte) I'm wondering if my card could be an early version (or not even original?) that may be incompatible?

 

[+Ksarul]

It is an original board--from one of the very early board runs. The WD2793 controller chip was used on them, but there was a serious problem with factory QC on them back in late 1984 and a lot of bad chips made it off the line and into the retail channel. About one chip in ten worked as advertised. CorComp received their first major batch of chips during the window of bad, tested all of the chips they had to find and use the good ones, and then built a daughter board to plug into the WD2793 socket to adapt the card to use a WD1773 instead. Later revisions of the board were designed for the WD1773, as they didn't trust the WD1793 enough for further production use. The REV C boards were the earliest boards to make it to customer hands. I have schematics for REV E (also a WD2793 board), the daughter board, and the later WD1773 boards.

[+Atari2600PAL]

Thanks for the info @Ksarul

 

Does that mean the replacement Eeproms are unlikely to, or won’t, work with this board do you think please?

 

I wondered if the bank 1/2 chips on my board were possibly mislabelled, but didn’t want to swap the new eeproms around in case I damaged the board. 

 

Many thanks

[+Atari2600PAL]

Decided to just try swapping the eeproms around anyway and still non-functional

 

Have put the original roms back in and will live with the disk manager menu until I can find a newer card to put the eeproms in

 

This is an image of the back of the card in case anyone is interested in how it looks

 

[+Ksarul]

Thanks for the pictures @Atari2600PAL--I have added them to my hardware reference folder for CorComp FDCs. One the DSRs, I have a sneaking suspicion that that DSR on your board may be an older revision specific to the Rev C boards. If @atrax27407 doesn't have it in his DSR archive, it might be a good idea to read them out and put the BIN files up here for preservation purposes.