Do you have an Epson TF20/TF15/PF10 and a logic analyzer?

[alank2]

This is probably a long shot, but I'd like to see how it responds to a disk read without a disk in the drive.

In the case of px8vfs, it sends back an entire sector of 0xE5 with a return code of 0xFC (drive select error).

I'd like to see if this is what the real drive does too?

What does a write, format, or copydisk look like without a floppy present if you can see that too.

 

[Martin Hepperle]

Instead of setting up a logic analyzer you can also use a simple RS232 pass-through cable with a tap (so to say a T-cable).
This allows you to record the data flow with a terminal program like Teraterm, Realterm or similar. You don't have to use a logic analyzer for this simple problem - but yes, you can.

 

[alank2]

Hi Martin - that is a good idea, but you would probably only get one side of the conversation unless you had two USB to RS232 cables and connected the RX of each one so you could monitor both lines. They do also sell cheap logic analyzers like this on eBay for about $10 - I don't know this seller but this is an example - there are tons of them.

https://tinyurl.com/y6d9f5mv

 

[mk2s]

I realize this is a 10 year old conversation, but it's kind of related to what I'm doing now. I'm in a position(will be soon I think) to capture the data for the original question. Would you like me to?

....maki....

 

[alank2]

Thanks for the offer maki, I finally ended up getting a TF20, but I don't recall if I tested it or not. Been a long time since I worked on that project!

 

[mk2s]

If when you're interested in tinkering with the TF20, let me know. I'd like to reverse engineer enough to produce replica's of those maybe. If anyone sees this and willing to trade a TF20 with a PF-10 I have extra of those.

 

[fjkraan]

There is enough TF-20 documentation to produce replica's without reverse engineering here: https://electrickery.nl/comp/tf20/ and https://electrickery.nl/comp/tf20/doc/. My TF-20 became less reliable, so I opted for a complete simulator using an SD-card as medium: https://electrickery.nl/comp/tf20/pxdisk/

Greetings,
Fred Jan

 

[mk2s]

recently I also saw that Hey Birt! on youtube did a maintenance video on the TF20 drives

He goes into some good details.

 

[mk2s]

So I was just reading about TF-15 today. The manual suggests it's very similar to PF-10. Has anyone dumped the roms? Were they the same as PF-10 roms? Does anyone have images of the pcb?