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TRS-80 Model 3 Disk Drive Issues

oh wow, this is all fantastic!
Thanks so much Larry. I don't have time to work on this this weekend, but maybe early next week. I actually thought I had gotten both of my drives aligned, but then after I put the case back together and put all the screws back in, i did another test, and while I could read my known good disks on either drive, I couldn't write from one and then read from another... So next week I'm going to go through the stuff you've provided and hit this hard.
thanks again for all the help. I should've started collecting Tandy stuff a long time ago. I had no idea the community was so supportive!
 
Kilgoreroot,
I finally got the IMD files created,and they are on my PCloud account. You should be
able to write them to a floppy with a DOS computer using Imagedisk ver 1.18.
I included a document with the method of finding Track 16, and getting the hub fine
tuned, then checking Track 0.

Larry
 
ldkraemer said:
I've created three Double Density, 40 Track, 18 sectors per track, 256 bytes per sector images
with the 0x2F pattern at Track 3 and 16.
Click to expand...
What's the method for writing these to a physical disk in a way that doesn't inherit the writing drive's misalignment?
 
You should know what Floppy Disk can read and write other floppy's created on another drive.
If your floppy drive reads and writes floppy's that other floppy drives can read/write it should be
good enough to write the test pattern.

Larry
 
ldkraemer said:
I've created three Double Density, 40 Track, 18 sectors per track, 256 bytes per sector images
with the 0x2F pattern at Track 3 and 16.

The t3dt16.dsk image is TRSDOS Ver 1.3 for TRS-80 Model 3. It has 40 Tracks, Double Density,
18 Sectors per track and 256 bytes per sector.

The n3dt16.dsk image is NEWDOS-80 V2 for TRS-80 Model 3. It has 40 Tracks, Double Density,
18 Sectors per track and 256 bytes per sector.

The l3d5316.dsk image is LDOS V5.31 for TRS-80 Model 3. It has 40 Tracks, Double Density,
18 Sectors per track and 512 bytes per sector.

Tracks 3 and 16 are filled with 0x2F.

Track 3 is where the Track 0 Detector starts changing state and has changed state
after the head carriage assembly is heading for track 0.

Track 16 is where the typical "CATS-EYE Pattern" is positioned on the Dysan Alignment floppy.

Larry
Click to expand...
Larry, thanks for the advice the other day on writing floppies from Debian. I have an old 5.25" floppy drive, but I do not (at the moment) have an old PC or a floppy controller.

I was looking at the Kryoflux before, but now just learned about the Greaseweazle. Seems like almost a no-brainer purchase at first blush.

If I hook a Greaseweazle to a Debian (or Windows) system, would it be able to write a copy of your test diskette, either using the Greaseweazle tools or IMAGEDISK? I saw another post where you said "You can always try using Keir Frazier's Utilitity to create an .IPF file and write that to floppy. I've done that on TRSDOS & NEWDOS and it works (or it did
on the version I tried back then.)" Keir Frazer its the Greaseweazle creator, correct, so I have some hope that this is possible?

I read where Tim Mann says that his Catweasel Tools can do the job if you have a Catweasel. I surmise that the Greaseweazle is not just randomly named but can do Catweasel-y things like writing disks. I just haven't seen the answer to my exact case written down in black and white. I can aldo imagine that perhaps Greaseweazle would let me create a disk just the way you did, not necessarily going through the TRS-80 .DSK format. Am I on the right track with any of this?

Thanks,
Brad
 
Brad,
Yes, you can write the t3dt16_dsk.img directly to floppy just by using the "dd" command in
Debian Linux. It is a *.RAW Image (Sector Dump) and HxC or the Imagedisk utilities (IMDA,
and IMDU) can easily extract the .RAW file from the *.IMD file. I typically use a batch
file in DOSBOX to do the extraction.

Assume File name is "T3DT16.IMD"

A.BAT contains:
IMDA T3DT16.IMD > T3DT16.TXT
IMDU T3DT16.IMD T3DT16.RAW /B /E /D >> T3DT16.TXT

At this point you can read the TEXT file to look at the Floppy Format and Information that
was extracted with the Imagedisk utilities.

From DOSBOX I mount the /path/to/the/IMD/file as C:
I have previously copied IMDA and IMDU to the path where the *.IMD file exists.

WITHIN DOSBOX:
mount C: ~/path/to/IMD/file/T3DT16.IMD<ENTER>
C:<ENTER>
A.BAT<ENTER>

When Done I EXIT DOSBOX:
z:<ENTER>
mount -u c<ENTER>
exit<ENTER>

From a COMMAND WINDOW (TERMINAL) I write the .RAW file to a 360K floppy with dd.
The floppy is /dev/fd0 in Debian

larry@debian:~$
larry@debian:~$dd if=/home/larry/path/to/TRSDOS/T3DT16.RAW bs=1 of=/dev/fd0 conv=notrunc

That will write the RAW (Sector Dump) to floppy.
Or, I could have used the IMD file on my DOS Computer to write the file with IMAGEDISK.

I also have a Greaseweazle F1 & V4, Catweasle, and my Brothers Kryoflux.


Larry
 
Last edited:
ldkraemer said:
Brad,
Yes, you can write the t3dt16_dsk.img directly to floppy just by using the "dd" command in
Debian Linux. It is a *.RAW Image (Sector Dump) and HxC or the Imagedisk utilities (IMDA,
and IMDU) can easily extract the .RAW file from the *.IMD file. I typically use a batch
file in DOSBOX to do the extraction.

Assume File name is "T3DT16.IMD"

A.BAT contains:
IMDA T3DT16.IMD > T3DT16.TXT
IMDU T3DT16.IMD T3DT16.RAW /B /E /D >> T3DT16.TXT

At this point you can read the TEXT file to look at the Floppy Format and Information that
was extracted with the Imagedisk utilities.

From DOSBOX I mount the /path/to/the/IMD/file as C:
I have previously copied IMDA and IMDU to the path where the *.IMD file exists.

WITHIN DOSBOX:
mount C: ~/path/to/IMD/file/T3DT16.IMD<ENTER>
C:<ENTER>
A.BAT<ENTER>

When Done I EXIT DOSBOX:
z:<ENTER>
mount -u c<ENTER>
exit<ENTER>

From a COMMAND WINDOW (TERMINAL) I write the .RAW file to a 360K floppy with dd.
The floppy is /dev/fd0 in Debian

larry@debian:~$
larry@debian:~$dd if=/home/larry/path/to/TRSDOS/T3DT16.RAW bs=1 of=/dev/fd0 conv=notrunc

That will write the RAW (Sector Dump) to floppy.
Or, I could have used the IMD file on my DOS Computer to write the file with IMAGEDISK.

I also have a Greaseweazle F1 & V4, Catweasle, and my Brothers Kryoflux.


Larry
Click to expand...

Awesome, thanks Larry! Okay, I'll order a GreaseWeazle. Sounds like it will just show up as /dev/fd0 in Linux then.


I am enjoying trying to restore this old "not tested" floppy drive I bought. The head motor was completely seized when I got it, but following instructions here on the forum I put in a couple of drops of oil and let it rest overnight one night, and it's working now, steps to all 40 tracks, and the Track 0 sensor seems to work.

Last night I was able to verify the spindle speed. Turns out that it's hard to find an old-school fluorescent lamp anymore. The one on my lab bench apparently has an electronic ballast and did not freeze the stripe pattern. I ended up hooking a green LED to a signal generator and it worked like a charm - the spindle speed turns out to be still dead-nuts on after all these years.

From here I'm just working my way through the service manual and some of the online guides. I don't have any working TRS-80 drives for reference, so I am hopeful that writing a test disk with my old PC drive (a half-height Teac) and Greaseweazle will help provide the necessary visibility.

I much appreciate all the expert resources people have compiled, and the great advice available here.

Brad
 
Brad,
I'll order a GreaseWeazle. Sounds like it will just show up as /dev/fd0 in Linux then.
Click to expand...

Nope, the Floppy's show up in Debian Linux as /def/fd0 and /dev/fd1. Debian communicates
to the GreaseWeazle via a USB Cable as Device /dev/ttyACM0.

A read command in Terminal is:

$ ./gw read --tracks c=0-79:h=0-1 --device /dev/ttyACM0 --rate 250 A2-80.SCP


Larry
 
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