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Lo-Tech TRS-80 IDE interface Rev 2. Model 4 non gate array setup and questions

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waltermixxx

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2015
Messages
132
Location
Canada
Hi there I thought i would start a new thread on this because i am using a Model 4 with 2 disk drives and it is a non gate array model. This currently has nothing to do with C/PM but just getting it up and running. Here we go:

Hi there I purchased and built a Lo-Tech TRS-80 IDE interface Rev. 2.

I have a 50 pin cable from the TRS-80 to the TRS-80 IDE interface board, currently no hard drive attached. The cable is connected with Pin1 to Pin 1 etc, so it's not reversed.

I noticed that the power led indicator goes on, and I measured 3.36 volts on the power terminals of the TRS-80 IDE Interface card (referred to as the Interface going forward). This happens without additional power being supplied to the board via usb or otherwise. Is this normal?

Before I plug power into this, i just wanted to see if this was normal. :)

IMG_0172.jpg

Thanks by the way to those that made this board possible, the designers of the circuit and James who made the board available. :)
 
Here is a picture of the Interface along with my adapter cable from 44 pin to 40 pin, with the power leads of the drive, broken out. 41 and 42 are both tied to 5 volts+ and 43 is tied to ground. 44 I did not connect to anything. I have not plugged any of this in yet, as I want to make sure it's first ok to apply 5 volts to the usb connector even though i appear to be getting 3.36 volts from the TRS-80?

IMG_0173.jpg
 
@waltermixxx

The blue power connector on the Lo-Tech adapter is to add power to the adapter and must be connected to the system 5 volt.
Your harddisk must be connected to the 5 volt too.
There is NO power line in the 50 pin flatcable.
 
Hi Hans01, thank you for your quick reply :)

Yup I realize that the blue connector is for feeding power into the board, but i can also use it to power the hard drive, (once I plug in a usb cable to a suitable power source.) I just found it very strange that even without power connected to the board, there is power coming from the TRS-80 50 pin cable. I'm thinking it may be coming through the pull up resisters? So it's stray Voltage from the circuit. if that is the case I should just ignore the fact that the power light is on, and carry on and power up the unit via USB or the blue power connector.... ( I am using the power connector to feed power to the 44 pin 2.5" hard drive ) i will use the usb to get power to the board. :)

i was just wondering if anyone with this board has seen this behavior with the power light being on even though no power is being applied... ( as indicated most likely through pull up resisters or something along those lines?) Perhaps I am just being extra careful? I will get it all powered up, via usb, and see how it behaves. :)

Cheers. :)
 
@waltermixxx

You are right, this is normal that you have about 3.3 volt over the termination resistores. This is normal behavior.
 
ok so I have the laptop hard drive connected, the Jumper set ( for 40-47h) and i have downloaded an got the files from the Lo-Tech wiki and saved them onto a 5 1/4" disk.

the files I put on a disk are:

from the IDE.DSK:

HDDVR6/DCT
HDFORM6/CMD

From the Driverd.dsk:

HDDVR5/CMD
HDFORM5/CMD

i put my created floppy disk in drive 1, booted from my LS DOS 6.03.00 disk, and typed the following:

System(drive=4,disable,driver=”hddvr6/dct”)
Answer questions:


Drive = 1
Heads = 8
Tracks = 80
Heads for this partition = 8

after i did this, nothing after pressing enter on the "heads for this Partition = 8" I entered 8 and press return.
cursor moved to the next line, and continue to flash, however no action on the interface, no activity led,
nothing...

i am using a 2.5" Toshiba HDD2164 or MK2018GAP drive. 20 GIG.

wondering what I might be doing wrong?

i have a samsung hard drive a SV2044D drive in an enclosure.
I was going to keep the unit plugged into the enclusre for power,
and power the interface from the same power as the enclosure,
and run an ide cable to the interface.

wondering if I will have any luck that way... :) I will let you guys know.



HDform6
Answer questions:


Drive to be used 4
Disk pack name <you pick>
Master password <you pick>
Format Y
Lockout N
 
Tried another hard drive and that one worked. :)
i was able to format the drive :)

Thanks folks...

I may go back to the small drive and try it again :)

very very cool :)

hmmmm i wonder if I can put additional partitions on it.

not sure what i would use as the command line to add an additional partition.
can I only add the one partition? currently it's "only" 5 megs, how would I make it larger?
and how would I add additional partitions? :)

Cheers.
 
Last edited:
waltermixxx said:
can I only add the one partition? currently it's "only" 5 megs, how would I make it larger?
and how would I add additional partitions? :)
Click to expand...
A summary of common LDOS and LS-DOS partitioning schemes are given here:
SETTING UP TRS-80 MODEL III AND 4 HARD DRIVE PARTITIONS by Ian Mavric (Page 26 of TRS8BIT, the 7th years
newsletters): http://www.fabsitesuk.com/tandy/trs8bit_year07.pdf

-Rainer
 
The board is great. It works well with my 3.5" hard drive. I ordered some CF2IDE adapters to try it with. My hope is to mount this inside the model 4. I tried a number of small 2.5" hard drives with no luck, I'm guessing the problem could be my 44-to-40 pin cable. I have +5 volts on pins 41 and 42, ground on 43, just not sure what to do with pin 44. It's just floating, wondering if I should be grounding it. The pin is called Type (0=ATA).

At any rate, I booted up with an LS-DOS 6.03 disk, ran the following command:

System(drive=4,disable,driver="hddvr6/dct")

Entered the following when prompted:

Drive <1-4>: 1
Number of heads <1-8>: 8
Tracks: 80
Heads for this partition: 8

This time it worked and I was able to DIR :4

Then I typed sysgen, and my configuration was saved,
I shut off the computer, booted up again and I was able to DIR :4 right away.


Now to get additional partitions working.

Cheers.
 
You can setup 4 drives Drive 1 = :4; drive 2 = :5; drive 3 = :6 and drive 4 = :7
Use a 128 Mb DOM and not a 2.5 hdd. You can mount the DOM outside the model 4 case with a male / female flatcable, see the exampels on this forum.
 
HDDVR6 is based on an older driver and is not very versatile compared to later drivers like RSHARD.
You can have up to 404 cylinders * 8 heads, giving a max size of under 26megs.
Unlike RSHARD, with HDDVR6 you have to assign a complete surface to a partition, so it's best to assign 404 cylinders to a partition, how many heads you assign to each partition I'll leave to you but it's a good idea to have at least 4 partitions, more is better unless you also want to run Model 3 LDOS off the same drive as well.

When you get the system files copied to the first hard drive partition, swap the drive slots around so that the hard drive is now drive 0 and sysgen to floppy. Now when the computer boots you can remove the floppy and run off the hard drive.
cheers
Gazza
 
"When you get the system files copied to the first hard drive partition, swap the drive slots around so that the hard drive is now drive 0 and sysgen to floppy. Now when the computer boots you can remove the floppy and run off the hard drive.
cheers
Gazza"


good thinking, i have lots to learn, i did end up setting up 2 partitions on the hard drive, and I'm starting to figure out more and more...(trs-80 virgin). :)
i have to figure out how to swap the drive slots around. ( i will google this.. ) or see if Ian's artical covers it in the link above... :) thanks again for the help everyone,
this is a lot of fun :) Cheers. :)
 
A neat trick if you're using a hard drive is to group the system files around the directory. Otherwise the head runs around like an out of control sheepdog everytime it needs a system file.
Saves time and wear and tear on the drive.
MEMORY (A="A",B=x)

After you format the drive use FREE :4 (or whatever is the drive number of the partition) to see what track the directory is on and set 'x' 2 or 3 cylinders below this, maybe more depending on the layout of the partition. Experiment.

All this command does is to tell the operation system to start looking for free space starting at track 'x'. Possibly not a good idea to sysgen with this command active.
reboot.

Good luck and welcome to the fun and sometimes crazy world of TRS-80s:toast:
cheers
Gazza
 
So Interestingly enough, after I got my hard drive partitioned and working, i "sysgened" my disk, so i would not have to go through the settings etc. and write protected my disk....
when i went to do another one, i got a parity error on my drive, and continue to get one... it's very odd... I did not seem to have any issues at all and the disks are "brand new" from a sealed
box of Double Sided Double Density disks... not sure what is up.... glad I got the one disk done... i will try and back it up in M4 on my Pentium 75 dos box. :) is there a utility, or command I can use
to boot from drive 1 instead of drive 0? or do i have to open up the Model 4 and swap the drives, :)
 
So I finally received the compact flash to ide interfaces from eBay, and want to configure for those. Is there a way to boot the model 4 so it does not load the sysgen? I want to set it up for the CF and then format it. :0). I will google it and post my findings incase someone else needs to. He he.
 
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