• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Vector Graphic Vector 4 restoration

B

braids

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
44
Hi All,
I
I had buyed a Vector Graphic Vector 4 computer for restoration.

It needs a repair of one of the drives (missing drive door rod, separated metal/plastic chassis) and cosmetic repairs on the housing.
The machine works, but the main problem is a missing keyboard.
I will try to get an original keyboard but this can go longer. Is there a trick to temporarely use of the keyboard of another computer
e.g. with an adapter?

Thank you,

Braids
 
Hi All,

Now i've prepared a VT320 over a MAX232 adapter as a temporary keyboard replacement. I try to get an original keyboard.
I've also bought empty hard sector diskettes to build a set of boot disks. Is there a debugging monitor in the rom of the Vector4 and how to invoke it
or does i need another machine to prepare them?
Or does everyone have original boot disks to sell?


Thank you,

Braids.
 
There's no debugging monitor in the Vector 4 ROM. Do you have the dual-FDD model?

When purchased, the machine came with system disks. I have a machine that can write the disks, but I have... *checks*... zero spare 16 sector disks easily accessible. I've been mostly focused on preserving the disks I have and using Goteks for day-to-day usage. I can work to find a disk or we could both use VSG.

If you have a Gotek already, that would be an easy way to bootstrap. If not and you like the idea, you could consider getting an AT32F435 version. Just searching "at32f435" on ebay shows them either side of 50 USD.

FluxEngine would be a more distant possibility. FluxEngine works great, but the CY8CKIT-059 for the FluxEngine hardware is unavailable, so this would require teaching the Greaseweazle firmware how to handle hard-sectored disks. I don't know how involved that would be. The FluxEngine software can use the Greaseweazle hardware.

Two curiosities I have: Which ROM version you have? Either the version reported when you turn it on or the label on U35 (upper-right of motherboard). Does your Vector 4 have any S-100 boards other than the floppy board?
 
I have hard sector disks bought, and i have a greaseweazle, but installation is forthcoming. The machine have two drives from Tandon and the floppy controller from vector graphic.
A gotek is a good idea, i will buy one.

Thank you,

Braids.
 
There's also a SABERNET CONTROLLER board 3699-0400-0? in the cage. Floppy controller is assy. no. 3565 0004-03
Because of the rom version i shall go to the machine and switch them on over the weekend. the rom stickers are missing / felt down, but there are 3 roms with 4k each.
The fiberglass hood also needs a little rework because of a missing brass dowel.

Braids
 
The Machine is a Vector 4/20
With SBC EXECUTIVE Rev. 2.10 (AA)

Braids
 
braids said:
There's also a SABERNET CONTROLLER board 3699-0400-0? in the cage.
Click to expand...
Excellent! I've got two of those, but in different locations and I don't yet know expected wiring to connect them. But they provide "networked" disk access, even for booting. One of mine is 3699-0400-02. I've not found any information about them. The only online reference I found is in the DSL Wikipedia talk page.

braids said:
Floppy controller is assy. no. 3565 0004-03
Click to expand...
I've got one of the same. "FD CONTROLLER". It is documented as the Dual-Mode Disk Controller, but is a stripped-down single-mode version with its own PCB. Schematics in the 7200-0001 Vector 4 Technical Information call it "V4 5¼ FD CONTROLLER".

braids said:
the rom stickers are missing / felt down, but there are 3 roms with 4k each.
Click to expand...
U79 and U80 are character ROMs, with mine labeled CGST 60L/R. They do not appear to have changed over time.

braids said:
The Machine is a Vector 4/20
With SBC EXECUTIVE Rev. 2.10 (AA)
Click to expand...
Exciting. That's a new ROM. I've got Vector 4/40 Rev 2.00 and 1.1, and I've seen 1.11 (bitsavers). When working on emulation, I noticed the 2.00 ROM expects there to be a HDD and boots slowly without one. Yours may have updates to work faster as floppy-only. The 2.x ROM seemed to add Sabernet card support. The 1.x ROMs expect a different motherboard jumpering for the location of the screen buffer, so it's annoying to swap between the major versions.

If you haven't already, cover the window with something opaque so the ROM doesn't accidentally get cleared.
 
I have a V4 as well that I'm restoring. It says VSG on the front and has two drives and the same FDC as described above.
I'm trying to get the dead power supply and CRT going. Does anybody know if the drives and controller would work in a Vector 1 system?
 
I' received a gotek SFRKC30.AT4.35 today.
Which firm- and/or software does it need to deal with the hard-sector controller?

Thank you,

Braids
 
Take a look at the FlashFloppy Hard Sector Testing thread. The summary is "use FlashFloppy v4 and HFE." On that thread I attached a Python script that can convert VGI files to HFEv3 files. I have some images and DeRamp.com has some images. Vector-archive also has some at /Simulator/vgidisks.zip, but you need to use the XLS file in "CPT & CWVG disk images" as a decoder ring to know what the disks are. I recommend starting with my 6000-0022 image to get a booting system.

My images include the on-disk ECC information at the end of the sectors, if you look at the hex in the file, just before 0xAA. Each sector starts with 0xFF, so you'll see 0xAA 0xFF. Images from other sources may have 0xAA at the end of the sector but an ECC of 0x000000. For those images, you should pass --strip-ecc to vgi2hfe.py, which replaces the 0xAA with 0x00 to denote "there is no ECC." DeRamp's "Original distribution disks/Vector 4 Extended CPM.vgi" is an example of an image that needs the flag. Those images work fine for emulation, but for our purpose need the modification.
 
ejona said:
Take a look at the FlashFloppy Hard Sector Testing thread. The summary is "use FlashFloppy v4 and HFE." On that thread I attached a Python script that can convert VGI files to HFEv3 files. I have some images and DeRamp.com has some images. Vector-archive also has some at /Simulator/vgidisks.zip, but you need to use the XLS file in "CPT & CWVG disk images" as a decoder ring to know what the disks are. I recommend starting with my 6000-0022 image to get a booting system.

My images include the on-disk ECC information at the end of the sectors, if you look at the hex in the file, just before 0xAA. Each sector starts with 0xFF, so you'll see 0xAA 0xFF. Images from other sources may have 0xAA at the end of the sector but an ECC of 0x000000. For those images, you should pass --strip-ecc to vgi2hfe.py, which replaces the 0xAA with 0x00 to denote "there is no ECC." DeRamp's "Original distribution disks/Vector 4 Extended CPM.vgi" is an example of an image that needs the flag. Those images work fine for emulation, but for our purpose need the modification.
Click to expand...
I'm going to try your method too. I have a few original hard sector floppies with CP/m and Demo but I am curious about some of these other disks, like DOS, Wordstar and the games.

BTW, did your Tandons fail? My A drive works fine, but B keeps throwing a drive not ready message.
 
jon1967us said:
I have a few original hard sector floppies with CP/m and Demo
Click to expand...

I've got some floppies containing Demo, but an original floppy image would be valuable to me. Also, each Demo I've seen has been a different version.

jon1967us said:
BTW, did your Tandons fail? My A drive works fine, but B keeps throwing a drive not ready message.
Click to expand...

I've got six Tandons, with four I'm confident of their state. Two are good, one has bad alignment, and one has horribly eaten wires. The other two of the six are more recent acquisitions and have cracked door hinge plastic which prevents them from staying closed. The machines they are in have other problems and I've not spent the time to know whether they are otherwise functional.
 
ejona said:
I've got some floppies containing Demo, but an original floppy image would be valuable to me. Also, each Demo I've seen has been a different version.



I've got six Tandons, with four I'm confident of their state. Two are good, one has bad alignment, and one has horribly eaten wires. The other two of the six are more recent acquisitions and have cracked door hinge plastic which prevents them from staying closed. The machines they are in have other problems and I've not spent the time to know whether they are otherwise functional.
Click to expand...
So I recorded the demo the other day here if it's something you're interested in getting the image of, I'm happy to give it to you. We need to figure out how to do that though, since there's no kermit or Flop2PC on the disk. I have a Gotek on the way. I was planning on it being the sole drive, and I don't know if it's possible to connect it in tandem with the other drive in order to PIP the image.
 
@ejona Just wanted to say thanks for the helpful hints and the Python script. I successfully converted a few VGIs with it and dropped them on to a 4.7 flashed Gotek which worked beautifully on my V4. Looking forward to playing with the new software and games!
 
jon1967us said:
Does anybody know if the drives and controller would work in a Vector 1 system?
Click to expand...
I know nothing about Vector 1, but the Vector 4 is a "modified" S-100 with a regulated 5V bus. So at the very least you'd need to modify the board to add linear regulators. The board does have pads for the regulators, and it seems it was sold sometimes for non-Vector 4 systems. But I'd expect the software would need adjustment. The controller worked differently than earlier controllers they used.

jon1967us said:
So I recorded the demo the other day here if it's something you're interested in getting the image of, I'm happy to give it to you. We need to figure out how to do that though, since there's no kermit or Flop2PC on the disk.
Click to expand...
That looks like a version I've seen, including the directory listing. Did it have a part number and all?

You can have four floppy disks with the floppy-only controller. A diskcopy to the Gotek and sharing the HFE would probably be the easiest option for you. But serial transfer should be fine; I'd expect you could start things like flop2pc and then swap out which floppy is in the drive. Can't say I've done it with kermit/flop2pc though.

jon1967us said:
I successfully converted a few VGIs with it and dropped them on to a 4.7 flashed Gotek which worked beautifully on my V4.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear it worked!
 
Hi All,

Does anybody know the brand and the number of the power keyswitch on the vector 4?
Were the keyswitches same or different from machine to machine?
My computer cames with key missing; The luck: the switch is in the On-position.

Thank you,

Braids
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top