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Floppy drives for an 11/73 with an RQDX3.

And with winchester
Code: 
.R MSCPCK

.dir du:

SWAP  .SYS    28P 31-Oct-1998    RT11SB.SYS    99P 02-Oct-2020
RT11FB.SYS   107P 02-Oct-2020    RK    .SYS     3P 02-Oct-2020
.....
DD    .MAC    67  02-Apr-2022    DD    .OBJ     6  02-Apr-2022
DD    .SYS     5  02-Apr-2022    DDX   .SYS     5  03-Apr-2022
SPEED2.SAV     3  01-Aug-2020    SPEED3.SAV     9  16-Mar-2022
 160 Files, 4177 Blocks
 17355 Free blocks

.dir du1:


 0 Files, 0 Blocks
 2362 Free blocks

.
 
shevett said:
I'm working on bringing an 11/73 up. It came with an RD52 and a TK50. The TK50 I'm pretty much giving up on. They're not worth the hassle.

It does not have an RX50 though - while that's obviously the 'proper' drive, I know you can use Teac FD55's as RX33's.

I have a Matsushita / Panasonic JU-455 1.2meg drive. Would that work?

I've read else-thread I'll need a no-twist floppy cable for it, that should be doable.

(Also, any advice on writing RT11 images to the floppies on a PCDOS machine would be appreciated.)

Thanks!
Click to expand...
We are currently restoring an 11/73 and 11/83 so I understand the challenges.

I don’t think it matters too much you don’t have the RX50 drives because no one seems to have the images for the OS installs for them available for imaging - I’ve struggled and asking here has lead to no further responses

The RX33 is probably a good idea, I think people have been able to use GOTeks with special firmware for this- weirdly I have not seen a single RX33 in our collection as yet, just a ton of RX50s,,, everywhere!

I’ve just spent the day fixing a TK70 (the later version of the TK50) - robust drives but the tapes are a bit of a pain at this age. I’ll be posting a how to repair them on the Australian Computer Museum sometime soon after 8 hours and a full despooling and respooling of a TK50 tape lead to it booting and working on a micro 11/83 for an RSTS/E 9.7 boot install - only to find all of our spare RD and RQ drives are bad - even after unlocking spindles and heads that had long ago locked up. They all need a LLF but 🤷🏻‍♂️ how one does that on a PDP is beyond me. Probably factory only to get track 0 rewritten
 

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Main problem with TK50 and TK70's is that the bearings on the two capstains have long since had their oil dry up. As a result they drag on the tapes and since the rear one is also the main tachometer of tape speed hilarity ensues when it slips.

Take the bolts off MARKING THEM AND COUNTING THE TURNS CAREFULLY FOR EACH ONE and remove the capstains. The rear one may need to have the tach assembly removed as well I think. Oil the bearings both sides with a watch oiler, get them working nicely, then put them back on using the same number of turns for the bolts.

Works every time. I have a pair of TK70's I use for backups and testing of M+ images. Work fine.

As for the Gotek, yes it's shugart when used with a Pro/350, ibmPC when used with an RQDX3. As to why, I have no clue. You can use RX50 images with any RQDX3 (and probably RQDX1 and 2) but you have to have the latest ROMs on the RQDX3 in order to use RX33 images. I have booted both with no problems.

C
 
So @Hunta 's information helped. The magic sauce was changing my FF.CFG to say 'interace = ibmpc' - which is definitely helping. I'm getting the drive recognized, and it ticks along a bit, but then crashes out to the monitor. I'm guessing this is now a hardware fault somewhere.

Current FF.CFG (note the other stuff like fonts and stuff is there because I wanted ot make sure the gotek was reading the FF.CFG. It is)
Code: 
host = dec
interface = ibmpc
old-font = 8x16
two-button-action = eject
nav-loop = no

Using DISK0001 from @czunit 's download (thank you!) - this is what I get:

Code: 
Trying DU0

Starting system from DU0

000002
@

Using DISK0000 it just wedges after 'Starting System'

Using DISK0029 it gets to track 6 and just hangs

Note if I use anything else, I get "Non bootable media in drive" - so i guess that's good? :)

I'm beginning to suspect a hardware fault. I did recently get a spare RQDX3 at VCF, and I just popped that in, but I get the exact same errors.

Some things I can think of trying. I pulled out the TK50 controller, the two DLV11J's, and the DHV11 card to see if they were mucking up the bus. So the stack is simplified (I understand the 'serpentine' layout of cards in QBUS, I think this is right - at least it's doing the exact same thing it was doing before)

KDJ11 (slots 1-2
M7551 (slots 4-3)
RQDX# (slot 5)


The RD53 isn't even cabled in anymore.

I'm down to grasping at straws here. Is my GoTek flaky? (I don't think so, but it's possible. I have another one, but I'd need to put flashfloppy on it). Having this die after 6 tracks of read data off the image doesn't appear to be a problem with the floppy. CPU board? I'm running one that was fully tested by a known VCF person, it passes diagnostics, but maybe there was something weird here, I dunno. Memory tests pass cleanly, so it's not a RAM issue.

I'm honeslty up for a Zoom call if anyone wants to hang out and I can power this stuff up and down a few times and see what the heck I'm doing wrong.
 
Yesterday I didn’t manage to get to the stand (housework), but today I seem to have time - and I’ll try - connect two Goteks to the controller and look at the laid out images (although I don’t think there is any problem with them).
 
Winchester, two goteks (one S0, the other S1) - direct cable and IBMC interface - as expected - no problems.
Code: 
.sho dev:du:

Device    Status                   CSR     Vector(s)
------    ------                   ---     ---------
  DU      Installed               172150   154

          DU0: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  0
          DU1: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  1, PART =  0
          DU2: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  2, PART =  0
          DU3: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  3
          DU4: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  4
          DU5: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  5
          DU6: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  6
          DU7: is set PORT =  0, UNIT =  0, PART =  7

.ini du:
DU0:/Initialize; Are you sure? Y
Volume contains protected files; Are you sure? Y

.ini du1:
DU1:/Initialize; Are you sure? Y
Volume contains protected files; Are you sure? Y

.ini du2:
DU2:/Initialize; Are you sure? Y

.cop/ver swap.sys du:swap0.sys

.cop/ver swap.sys du1:swap1.sys

.cop/ver swap.sys du2:swap2.sys

.dir du:

SWAP0 .SYS    28P 31-Oct-1998
 1 Files, 28 Blocks
 21504 Free blocks

.dir du1:

SWAP1 .SYS    28P 31-Oct-1998
 1 Files, 28 Blocks
 2334 Free blocks

.dir du2:

SWAP2 .SYS    28P 31-Oct-1998
 1 Files, 28 Blocks
 2334 Free blocks

.
 
Disk 0010 - booted without problems. And on it RT-11 version 5.4G :)
Code: 
Type a command then press the RETURN key: BOO DU2:


Trying DU2

Starting system from DU2


RT-11XM  V05.04 G

.

.SET TT QUIET

Date [dd-mmm-yy]? 17-apr-99
Time [hh:mm:ss]? 17:07
Startup file [filnam.typ]?

        RT-11 Extended Memory Monitor, volume ID RT11A
        Booted on 17-Apr-99 at 17:07:03 from file DU2:RT11XM.

@ <EOF>


                        RT11/Version 5.4G



.
Disk 0000 and 0001
Code: 
Type a command then press the RETURN key: BOO DU2


Trying DU2

Starting system from DU2




BOOTING UP XXDP-XM EXTENDED MONITOR


XXDP-XM EXTENDED MONITOR - XXDP V2.5
REVISION: F0
BOOTED FROM DU2
124KW OF MEMORY
NON-UNIBUS SYSTEM

RESTART ADDRESS: 152000
TYPE "H" FOR HELP !

.
 
@Hunta can you share your FF.CFG and what your jumpers on the gotek are set to? (a pic would be great). I know the FlashFloppy can override much of the Gotek jumpers, but I'm just trying to get everything aligned here.
 
I'll go and dig into the source codes of the firmware. First you need to install the necessary programs so that you can assemble the firmware. Once I already did this - but after that I reinstalled Windows ...
 
FF.CFG
This config file is an example from distribution version 3.39, in which I changed exactly two lines - interface = ibmpc and host = dec
 

Attachments

  • FF.CFG.TXT
    10.3 KB · Views: 9
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