Re: 8250 disk drive "exerciser"

From: Francesco Messineo <francesco.messineo_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2022 18:06:23 +0100
Message-ID: <CAESs-_ya1u4i+W6gCi+PSrG6zapj-MUAdKANS1DPo5cgWOqobw_at_mail.gmail.com>
On Sun, Dec 25, 2022 at 5:32 PM Bill Degnan <billdegnan_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I believe you need to load on a IEEE 8050 and or 8250 (sfd-1001), but I am not sure if it works on both.  Less likely on a 4040 1541.  But, it's not a disk image so maybe there is something wrong with the PRG file.  If anyone else tries It I'd like to know so I can fix the image.

I've just written the program to a 4040 disk since that's all I have
and cbmlink can't write a program directly to tape. I haven't tried to
add the load address yet as I decided first to check both the drive
mechanisms.
I think the program will ask for a drive number to be tested. I've
found an 8050 diagnostic too and it loads some machine code into the
drive then executes it and that seem to indicate a bad DOS ROM, but it
seems to me that 8050 ROM code is different from the 8250LP's one.
These ROMs also have active-high chip selects so I can't read them on
a regular EPROM programmer to verify the content unless I make an
active adapter with an inverter gate. I think the ROM content can be
read by M-R commands, right?
I have dismantled the 8250LP's drive 0 to change capacitors and repair
the traces damaged from the leakage. I've also noticed that probably
some sockets on the digital PCB need to be changed. The "drive
controller" 6502's didn't seem to work well, so I've substituted it
and the behaviour changed. However the original 6502 worked fine in my
PET, so it must be a socket issue.
These things need a lot of time...

Frank
Received on 2022-12-25 19:00:02

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