techtravels.org

inital results on error correction

While I have yet to actually implement the full-scale error correction as I want to, I did some manual tests today. I basically took a track that I was erroring out on, and swapped in 1-bit away values for the bad bytes.  In some cases, it appeared...

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memory chip mounted

Welp, I got impatient, and went to Radio Shack to buy their soldering station. I still have mine coming in the mail, but its ground from Arizona, which may as well be ground from Alaska. I soldered the header pins onto...

Success!@#

I hestitate to jump to conclusions, but I think I just passed a crucial first step in getting this to work!@#!# After adjusting some timing on my new code on the SX, I’ve found my first 0x4489 0x4489 pattern. This...

SX software progress

Welp, since I fine tuned the PC to very reasonable numbers, I figure a small overhaul of the SX code is in order too. I had somewhat of an epiphany working the on the SX, which I haven’t *really* looked at in...

new design on SX software

Welp, I’m having trouble tweaking my existing SX code. If I modify the timing of the current code, I’m getting all garbage output — even adjusting small amounts to one side or the other, produces much...

more SX to PC tests

Although I think I’ve long had this working good, I did some more tests just to verify. Latest numbers: Each cycle is about 15.8us, 2us per bit, 8 bits, this sounds fine. This does confirm, however, what I...

will put up sample files

I’m going to put up a sample file or two, but I wanted to get the smallest complete group of bytes that I can…. ie like one full sector, etc. So far, I’m just basically streaming bytes, via disk copy...

java client preview

I’ve put up a preview of the java client in action. It’s a 2 minute video with narration. You’ll need a DivX codec installed in order to view it. I probably could have messed with compressing this...

adding more commands

Now that I *think* I’ve got a handle on the reading portion, I’ve been adding a couple more commands. I added support so that the SX knows what cylinder number it is on.  The F and B commands increase and...

Good news. Floppy now under SX control

OK, so I finally bit the bullet and have the floppy drive under direct SX control. I have my amiga power supply, which is a modified PC supply with harddrive leads powering the drive directly with +12v and +5v.  I also...

writing merged USB comm code

Now that I have USB receive working in the main PC code, its time to merge the USB transmit(and receive for commands) into the main SX code. I have two pseudo-code versions written. 1> First version uses the ISR to...