• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

VG Vector 1++ floppy drive power connector

The Monitor listing will be in a Vector Graphic manual (i.e., not Micropolis). If the listing is present, it will be in the same manual that details all the Monitor commands.

Mike
 
deramp5113 said:
Drive select for drive 0 is on connector pin 10. When this asserts, the light on the front of the drive should come on and you should hear the head load (if a floppy is inserted). Check this signal before you boot and verify it's high, then verify the signal goes to ground when you issue the GOTO command to boot. Verify this at the controller end and at the drive end.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I will try that. To be a little more clear (I hope):

- When I turn on the drive, there is no sound and nothing moves
- the drives have a number digitally displayed as "0" for the top drive and "1" for the bottom
- when I put in a disk in drive 0, the "0" digit disappears and then comes back. There is also an extra dot to the right of the 0.
- The drive spins and keeps doing so
- the top felt pad does not clamp down so the little flap that controls it doesn't move
- the head also does not move
- when I "G F800", nothing happens but the drive keeps spinning.
- On screen I see see "G F800 " (a space like it's waiting for another command line parameter) and then it's frozen there.
- I have to hit reset to get the cursor back.

I will try putting two disks in and trying. Maybe I flipped a couple of wires when I attached them to the new board but I marked them very well. The 1035-II and 1053-II are definitely different but the connectors are the same.

Here's a couple of pics:

Micropolis 1035-II (beige case)
1035-II.jpg

Micropolis 1053-II (blue case)
1053-II.jpg
 
Looking at your pictures, the 1035-II does not have the terminator pack installed. The 1053-II looks like discrete terminating resistors are permanently installed. I'd work with the 1053-II for now unless you have a terminator pack available.

The slide switch swaps drives 0 and 1. The failure to select a drive could be because the contacts on the switch are oxidized and the drive select signal is not getting through (wouldn't be unusual). You might want to spray in some contact cleaner and flip the switch back and forth a whole bunch of times.

Mike
 
With a few minor patches, I have MZOS 1.52 working well with your MZOS 1.4 ROM. However, it looks like several application programs assume the older version of the VG monitor will be used (e.g., your 2.0 monitor) and make calls directly to routines in the ROM. These aren't defined entry points or a vector table, they just assume a particular monitor ROM.

So... I'd like to get a dump of your monitor ROM. I'll patch a copy to work with Bitstreamer serial in and out. This will allow proper operation with the Simh emulator, for example.

When you have the time, could you dump the monitor ROM for me?

In the monitor, use the "P"rogram command at address zero to type in the following program (this is slightly different than for the MZOS ROM):

21 00 C0 DB 03 0F D2 03
00 7E D3 02 23 7C E6 04
CA 03 00 76

Start a log file in TeraTerm under File->Log. Enter a file name (e.g. MON2.BIN), check the "Binary" box, uncheck the "Append" box and click "Save." You'll notice a new tile shows up on your taskbar for the log task.

In the monitor, type "G"oto 0000 to dump the ROM out the serial port. It will be done in a split second and halt the machine.

Click on the log task tile on the task bar to restore the dialog box and click the "Close" button (NOT right click and close). That should give us a .bin file. Email it to me at (spam reduction): deramp5113 followed by ASCII 0x40 followed by the yahoo domain name.

Reset your machine to get control back.

Thanks!!
 
The source listing AND the binary dump together will make my life almost as easy as having the source in text file format!

When I open the source code file link, it has numerous blank pages that skip sections of code. Does it look that way when you open it?

Mike
 
Try again to download the PDF. I tried OCR on the PDF. It wasn't pretty :)

Turns out my scanner feeder has issues with single sided paper but works great with double sided. Weird, huh?

EDIT: You got mail.
 
Last edited:
Couldn't have done it without your help. Thanks for indirectly starting a new project for me! Hoping someone pops up with a 1.5 MZOS ROM or a 1.4 MZOS disk.

I would also love to see some applications that people ran under MZOS. It may be that running Northstar DOS apps was the most common scenario since it was upward compatible from Northstar DOS. I have a Northstar controller that I'm going to get up and running on my Sol-20 soon. Maybe then I'll find out more about what people ran under Northstar DOS.

Mike
 
I did get further. One of my to drives works. The other drive motor appears jammed. I have parts so I should be okay.

I can now attempt to boot. When I do an G F800 or even an E with the jumper, it tries and tries and tries... With MZOS I get a CRC error and it retries. I am certain both of my disks are bad but I do have a punch to try to make new ones. All of my other hard sector disks are 10 sector.

If you can let me know how to proceed for tomorrow (got to run out for the day), I will try to make a couple of diskettes and see what I can do.

I just wish those disks worked but that's life. Maybe if I can boot from a new disk I can try to read those.

Thanks for all your help Mike.
 
Based on the hardware that came in the system, I'm guessing the previous owner was running Lifeboat CP/M 1.4 for Micropolis. Do you want to try and get that up and running?

As far as your drives go, remove the belt and then turn the hub pulley with your hand. Does the pulley spin freely? The hub bearings are often bad in these drives. The bearings can also be difficult to get out. If You work that far on them, let me know, I gave a few hints for you.

Mike
 
I definitely want to get CP/M going and have done a little reading about the Disk Image Transfer utility for Vector Graphic and found the disk images. My issue now is:

1. I need some 16 sector floppies so I'll have to try to make some (I have a punch).
2. I'm not exactly sure how I transfer the PC2FLOP utilities or the disk images using Teraterm.

I have a couple of other projects on the go but will dig into this soon. If there is a web page that explains this process better or of there is a different method, I'd be very happy to hear about it.

I do need to service my drives but I need disks to test first and images to try to write so if I know how to do this disk image transfer, I think I can get everything going.

Much appreciated.
 
Email me when you're ready, I can send a few disks with CP/M 1.4 for your system already on them if you want.

You'll want to clean the head on your good drive before using the disks.

Mike
 
@deramp5113 I will absolutely take you up on that offer but I dug into some docs and may have found the source code to an unnumbered VG Monitor. Maybe 1.0?

I'll scan them in and post either tonight or tomorrow.
 
After all this time, Mike helped me figure this out and I am proud to show this picture:

MZOS Booted on VG 1++.jpg

The MZOS heading has some inverse characters and a pipe symbol at the end of the line but it works!

I do have to fill in the internal drives with an external drive mechanism but it's time to take this off the bench for now. That's a project for a later date.

Thanks again Mike. I really appreciate it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top