RE: [N8VEM: 2441] Re: Disk I/O IDE Session Log

["Andrew Lynch" <lyn...@yahoo.com>]

Hi Rich!  Thanks!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: n8...@googlegroups.com [mailto:n8...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of
> Rich Camarda
> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 4:34 PM
> To: N8VEM
> Subject: [N8VEM: 2441] Re: Disk I/O IDE Session Log
> 
> 
> Rich, and All
> 
> I am having the same experience, and I have tried about 4 different
> drives from an older Conner CP3201 to a new Seagate ST3106, as well as
> a CF IDE card. I also connected a drive to my P112 with GIDE and
> formatted it with all E5's using Terry's IDEINIT program. Still the
> same problem. I am suspecting that either the BIOS may have a problem,
> or maybe the board layout. Andrew have you tried the new board, and
> can you still access your IDE drive ok as with your prototype. Not
> quite sure where to look yet and maybe you can point us in the right
> direction.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
> 
> 
> On Feb 8, 1:20 pm, "Richard A. Cini" <rc...@optonline.net> wrote:
> > All:
> >
> >     I found an IBM-labeled 258mb IDE drive (989 cylinders, 151 tracks,
> 34
> > SPT) in my box-o-parts. I connected it to a bare-bones PC and used FDISK
> to
> > remove any partition information in preparation for connecting it to the
> > N8VEM.
> >
> >     Here is a log of my session. My experiences seem to be in line with
> > Hans¹ and others. I uploaded a few key utilities to the A drive using
> XMODEM
> > (one reason why I think we should make the B: drive configurable for
> larger
> > sizes).
> >
> > A>DIR
> >
> > A: FMPART2  COM : STAT     COM : SURVEY   COM : PIP      COM:TP-IDE  COM
> >
> > A>STAT
> >
> > A: R/W, Space: 428k
> > B: R/W, Space: 25k
> > C: R/W, Space: 8048k
> >
> > A>DIR C:
> > NO FILE
> >
> > A>TP-IDE
> > START IDE TEST PROGRAM
> > END IDE TEST PROGRAM
> >
> > CP/M V2.2C
> >

[AJL>] 
When you run this program above (TP-IDE.asm) it should be getting the
identify command metadata from the drive and passing it to the Disk IO
board.  Can you use your RAM monitor to inspect what it is passing?  Just go
to where the sector is in memory and do a dump.  There should be some stuff
there.

You may need to experiment with various drive jumper settings as well.  Try
setting the drive as master, single, slave, cable select or whatever.  The
state of CSEL varies from one IDE drive to another too.  In the Disk IO,
CSEL is pulled high but might need to be jumpered low.

It all depends on the drive you are using and its characteristics.  There
are a lot of variations in IDE hard drives and Disk IO only supports the one
drive I used for testing.

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/if/ide/confCS-c.html


Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch





> > A>FMPART2
> > START IDE TEST PROGRAM
> > ERROR
> > END IDE TEST PROGRAM
> >
> > CP/M V2.2C
> >
> > A>C:
> > C>SAVE 123.    FILE.TXT
> > NO SPACE
> >
> > C>ERA C:*.*
> > ALL (Y/N)?Y
> > C>SAVE 123 FILE.TXT
> > NO SPACE
> >
> > C>A:
> >
> > A>PIP C:=A:STAT.COM
> >
> > NO DIRECTORY SPACE: =A:STAT.COM
> >
> > CP/M V2.2C
> >
> > A>
> >
> > So, I would have to say that overall, the IDE interface works but is in
> dire
> > need of a real formatting program that prepares it for use. If I can get
> the
> > IDE working and a 1mb-sized B: drive that contains the standard CP/M
> > distribution, I can probably scrap the floppy (although I¹ll test it and
> > such).
> >
> > Rich
> >
> > --
> > Rich Cini
> > Collector of Classic Computers
> > Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32
> Emulatorhttp://www.altair32.comhttp://www.classiccmp.org/cini
>