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Re: Northstar Advantage floppys

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On Friday, September 16, 2016 at 7:27:58 PM UTC-4, Manuel Teira wrote:
> On 2016-09-16 20:04:36 +0000, David Jones said:
> 
> > On Thursday, September 15, 2016 at 5:02:22 PM UTC-4, Manuel Teira wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >> 
> >> I've finally been able to mostly bring back my Nortstar Advantage to> 
> >> life. It has a Shugart floppy drive unit that seems to work (I've> 
> >> tested it on a PC controller), but unfortunately I have no working> 
> >> hard-sectored 5.25 floppy disks.
> >> 
> >> Do you have some advice to give me, regarding such disks. I've seen> 
> >> somebody commented time ago about a punching tool, but I've also found> 
> >> references about the unreliability of such mechanical tools.> 
> >> Furthermore, how could I write an image to such a disk, in case I 
> >> could> get them?
> >> 
> >> Any other posibility to load some real program on the advantage? Maybe> 
> >> using the serial port?
> >> 
> >> Do you know if there's any Nortstar Advantage simulator available?
> >> 
> >> Thanks a lot for your time and best regards!
> >> Manuel
> > 
> > Well this week I'm working on a serial loading utility that uses the 
> > serial port in slot 1.  It is based on the Northstar loader from 
> > deramp.com.  Mostly just a matter of changing it to init the port, set 
> > the baud rate, etc and move the address it loads things to where the 
> > Advantage has memory mapped on boot.  I haven't had a chance to test it 
> > but it looks good.  Next I plan on trying to get the Deramp.com PC2Flop 
> > modified to work on the advantage.  If it helps, I've dumped the boot 
> > ROM, disassembled it, and have partially commented it.
> > Also, I have a punch jigg that can be printed with a 3d printer.  I 
> > think it works but haven't tested it.  Sort of a chicken and eggs 
> > thing.  Need something working so I can test the other.
> > A simulator would be really nice.  So far I haven't found one.
> > Let me know if anyone wants any of this.
> > David
> 
> Really interesting David! Looking forward to hear about how it turns out. :-)
> 
> I've also tried some dissassembly of the Advantage boot ROM. It was 
> useful for me to find that the video RAM was not working (due to a 
> failing flip-flop in charge of generating the Write Enable signal) by 
> comparing the dissassembly with the address bus timeline in an 
> analyzer. In case it can be useful:
> 
> https://github.com/teiram/northstar-advantage-boot/blob/master/src/boot_eprom.asm 
> 
> 
> I was also wondering if one of those Gotek floppy emulators could work 
> with the enhanced HxC firmware. I've seen that there was some 
> discussion in its support forum about making it work with CP/M based 
> computers. I don't know if it emulates hard-sectores floppies, but 
> maybe it can be combined with the deramp.com VSG solution to simulate 
> sector pulses.
> 
> When you talk about the PC2Flop from deramp.com are you talking about 
> the Virtual Sector Generator? Why does it need to be modified to work 
> on the Advantage?
> I have a PIC somewhere and would like to experiment with this kind of 
> solution too. :-)
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Manuel

Ok.  I've put things up in a git repository.
https://github.com/djones60/North-Star-Advantage

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Thread

Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-15 23:02 +0200
  Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 13:02 -0700
  Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 13:04 -0700
    Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 01:27 +0200
      Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 18:08 -0700
      Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 18:27 -0700
        Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-16 18:34 -0700
          Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 19:24 +0200
        Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 18:17 +0200
        Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 19:24 +0200
          Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 11:52 -0700
            Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 11:56 -0700
              Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 21:06 +0200
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 12:20 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 17:15 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 17:32 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-18 10:25 +0200
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-18 10:29 +0200
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2016-09-19 06:33 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-19 17:26 +0200
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys ingmar.meins@gmail.com - 2018-09-30 05:52 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2018-10-01 08:40 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys ingmar.meins@gmail.com - 2018-10-01 20:59 -0700
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys ka3jgg@gmail.com - 2019-11-26 15:12 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Robert Stek <robert.stek@gmail.com> - 2019-11-27 05:26 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2019-12-04 12:10 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys ka3jgg@gmail.com - 2019-12-20 17:53 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys wcbright@gmail.com - 2020-01-06 12:42 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys David Jones <djones60@gmail.com> - 2020-01-08 10:17 -0800
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-18 10:24 +0200
            Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel Teira <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-09-17 21:05 +0200
              Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Manuel <manuel.teira@gmail.com> - 2016-10-04 14:30 +0200
                Re: Northstar Advantage floppys Happy Oyster <-*-*.@.*-*-> - 2016-10-13 01:43 +0400
  Re: Northstar Advantage floppys jackstrangio@gmail.com - 2017-09-20 22:35 -0700

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