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Mindset schematics

Al Kossow said:
There is a schematic of the host interface in the pile.
I'm furious right now. The package got as far as my local zip code on Monday
then for some unknown reason went back to Oakland and is just sitting there
since 2pm yesterday according to tracking.
Click to expand...

Unbelievable!!!
 
and... they sent it back to the seller, apparently airmail since it got there in a day
the same seller that I got another package from two days ago

I sent him a message to ask him to send it fedex 2nd day air, assuming they didn't destroy the package

now I'm wondering if he did something stupid like sending it media mail
 
Al Kossow said:
Does anyone have a hard disk image browser to see if the disk dump makes sense?
Click to expand...
I don't, but I wonder if the xebec low level format is the same as an IBM PC XT controller? Perhaps I could write it to a similar geometry drive, like an ST225, and then read it in an XT?
 
Just for laughs I was looking at the hard disk contents with a binary editor, and... asking this because I honestly don't know: Is the Mindset compatible enough with a normal PC compatible that'll run generic versions of MS-DOS? According to the boot sector and various other strings the drive has MS-DOS 4.0 on it, which seems a little odd.

Code: 
MS DOS Version 4.00 (C)Copyright 1988 Microsoft CorpLicensed Material - Property of Microsoft

Here's the root directory:

Code: 
IO      SYS'9
MSDOS   SYS'
MINDSET_20M
(N!123        !)
COMM       J!*
DESIGNER   »!+
DOS        !'
GAMES      !.
PBRUSH     !0
MAC        ü!1
TITLER     '!2
UTILS      7!&
WS         !5
TMP        qÏ7
AUTOEXECBAK 8!¦l
CONFIG  SYS =!§F
COMMAND COM 8µ
CONFIG  BAK 6!¨H
AUTOEXECBAT !!©p
SD      INI #!ªÁ   
CARL    BAT P,¬
TEST    BAT %    !6&   
TEST    BAK    !5

Disklabel for the volume is "MINDSET_20M".

If there isn't a Mindset-specific version of DOS 4 then it may well be possible to just patch this image up to be mounted on anything that can handle normal DOS filesystems.
 
Sectors are out of proper order. Some Xebec formats the data follows one sector after the header. In my code the Xebec_104527_512B format assumed the data directly followed the sector header. Don't know any way my code can determine if the data is skewed. Will need to add a manual command line flag to unscrable.

Code: 
mdir -i /dev/mapper/loop0p1 ::
 Volume in drive : is MINDSET_20M
 Volume Serial Number is 124A-07C4
Directory for ::/

123          <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:08
COMM         <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:18
DESIGNER     <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:21
DOS          <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:00
GAMES        <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:08
PBRUSH       <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:20
MAC          <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:15
TITLER       <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:17
UTILS        <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:09
WS           <DIR>     1980-01-01   0:08
TMP          <DIR>     1991-06-15  17:03
AUTOEXEC BAK       108 1980-01-01   0:09
CONFIG   SYS        70 1980-01-01   0:01
COMMAND  COM     37557 1988-12-19   0:00
CONFIG   BAK        72 1980-01-01   0:01
AUTOEXEC BAT       112 1980-01-01   1:41
SD       INI      2497 1980-01-01   1:17
CARL     BAT        26 1991-09-12  10:00
TEST     BAT      2342 1980-01-01   1:09
TEST     BAK       782 1980-01-01   1:08
       20 files              43 566 bytes
                         14 280 704 bytes free
Code: 
// Remap sectors for Mindset. No error handling
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
int main()
{
   unsigned char b1[512*17];
   unsigned char b2[512*17];
   int sn[] = {13, 14, 15, 16, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12};
   int rc;
   int i;

   while (1) {
      rc = read(STDIN_FILENO, b1, sizeof(b1));
      if (rc < sizeof(b1)) {
         break;
      }
      for (i = 0; i < 17; i++) {
         memcpy(&b2[i*512], &b1[sn[i]*512], 512);
      }
     write(STDOUT_FILENO, b2, sizeof(b2));
   }
}
 
the journey is in previous messages. we've taken USPS out of the equation and they will be
making their next cross-country trip Fed-Ex
 
joeventura said:
Can you please ZIP up the whole drive?
Click to expand...

@Al Kossow has already posted the "scrambled" disk images on bitsavers; to straighten out those images just grab @djg's source code above, compile it on any unix-ish system with a C compiler, and "filter" the dump through it. Like this:

Code: 
$ gcc unscramble.c -o unscramble
$ ./unscramble < mind.try1.img > mind.img 
# Testing the unscrambled image with QEMU
$ qemu-system-i386 -boot acd -m 16 -cpu 486  -drive file="mind.img"

I don't think it'd really be kosher for me to upload a 5mb-ish ZIP to the forum...
 
@Al Kossow has already posted the "scrambled" disk images on bitsavers; to straighten out those images just grab @djg's source code above, compile it on any unix-ish system with a C compiler, and "filter" the dump through it. Like this:

Sorry don't have a Unix like system, nor a C-Compiler, just want to transfer some files via floppy to my Mindset

I'll happily send you my email address which can take a 25MB email attachement.

Please.
 
I bought the Mindset Telecom cartridge that had "Hard Disk ROM" written on it on eBay (noted in this thread). As it turns out, it's different than the @Al Kossow cartridge posted on Bitsavers in both construction and firmware. My cartridge is a ROM/NVRAM (4K) cartridge. Yes, there is a battery and I will remove it. That's how the static RAM keeps it's contents. The Telecom cartridge was this type of card but I think the EPROMs were re-written with the Hard Disk ROM firmware.

The firmware I have IS different than the Bitsavers ROM so here are some pictures and the ROM contents.

Front: Mindset Hard Disk ROM-NVRAM cart front.JPG

Rear:
Mindset Hard Disk ROM-NVRAM cart rear.JPG

Firmware attached.

@Al Kossow If you need bigger pictures for Bitsavers, let me know.
 

Attachments

snuci said:
I bought the Mindset Telecom cartridge that had "Hard Disk ROM" written on it on eBay (noted in this thread). As it turns out, it's different than the @Al Kossow cartridge posted on Bitsavers in both construction and firmware. My cartridge is a ROM/NVRAM (4K) cartridge. Yes, there is a battery and I will remove it. That's how the static RAM keeps it's contents. The Telecom cartridge was this type of card but I think the EPROMs were re-written with the Hard Disk ROM firmware.

The firmware I have IS different than the Bitsavers ROM so here are some pictures and the ROM contents.

Front: View attachment 1288979

Rear:
View attachment 1288980

Firmware attached.

@Al Kossow If you need bigger pictures for Bitsavers, let me know.
Click to expand...

BRAVO!!!!
 
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