emulatorII-list

I thought of a single module that fits in place of any disk drive. The
SD holds many single raw disk images, one file for each disk. Filename
is displayname. You just insert the SD card, press Load and scroll
through the list of disk images. Press Select and use the highlighted
disk image the same way as you would do with a real disk you insert in a
real drive.

If such a device should exist already, tell me please.
Anybody with knowledge is welcome, too.

  It could look like this, size the same as a disk drive:
  [frontbezel]

Greetings,
Hoschi


--- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "magmusic75" <john-m-junk@...>
wrote:
>
>
>   [:)] Yes Floppy emulation does seem like a more practical solution.
> Like I said at a minimum it would be great just to be able to boot and
> load the OS from some kind of rom or ram instead of floppy disks. And
it
> would AWSOME if not only could you boot from rom or ram but if it were
> possible to save the banks to the SD card WOW! I suppose you would
have
> to make the EII think it's an EII-HD model so it thinks the memory
> card is a hard disk, then you would be able to scroll through the
banks
> on the card, select the one you want then load. Imagine how many banks
> you could store on a modern memory card!
>
> Thanks again.
>
> John
>
> ====================================================
>
>
> --- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "hoschi1103" totti@ wrote:
> >
> > It could be done by a flash or eprom, but that would need at least
> > some extra circuits for chip/address multiplexing and severe code
> > rewriting. Using a fpga pretending to be a disk drive and
interfacing
> > to a SD card is much easier, I think.
> >
> > For any serial control, it is in already, I only have to get the
right
> > command sequences. I did some logging on the serial port with a
> > converter to RS-232, and my God, it's full of numbers!™
> >
> > About paying, if this project should ever come to an alpha state and
I
> > put parts of it online, please feel free to donate any money to a
> > charity project you like to support. The most probable things to see
> > the light of the world are in fact some disk backup utility using
the
> > Catweasel MK4, something with serial communication and more stuff
that
> > can be done by reverse engineering. Any new or reused code altering
> > the function or behaviour of the EII depends on the permissions of
the
> > copyright owners if it should be for more than my private fun.
> >
> > Greetings,
> > Hoschi
> >
> > --- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "magmusic75" john-m-junk@
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Hello I fully support your effort. I think that somehow getting
the
> > > floppy OS (Disk Overlay) onto an EPROM and then having it
programmed
> > > so the EII looks for the OS on the EPROM or some kind of flash
> memory
> > > would be great. Then add one new feature to the (SPECIAL) command
> set
> > > called "Serial Control". Now in this feature you would hand over
> > > control of the EII to a PC or Mac Running some custom software
> > > control application. This app should have the standard EIl
features
> > > such as "Disk, Voice Definition Ect... but at a minimum it would
> just
> > > be great to be able to power up the EII right from rom.
> > > Anyway as I said I fully support this effort and would be glad to
> > > pay for these new features! As would many other I suspect.
> > >
> > > John
> > >
> > >
> ======================================================================
> > >
> > > --- In emulatorII-list@yahoogroups.com, "hoschi1103" <totti@>
> > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi all,
> > > >
> > > > there were no news from me for a long time, as I'm always busy
> doing
> > > > other things.
> > > >
> > > > Disassembling of both ROM nearly finished. Main ROM does contain
> > > > memory and peripherial init, disk I/O, some serial port stuff
(see
> > > 1st
> > > > request below) and a really big (for ancient times) table of
> initial
> > > > data for all devices in the system. Scanner ROM holds all I/O
> stuff
> > > as
> > > > described in the service manual and some system init, too.
> > > > Interesting solution for system init: Main CPU and Scanner CPU
> start
> > > > async, Scanner CPU turns LEDs on and waits for Main CPU. Only if
> > > Main
> > > > CPU passes the peripherial init, it signals Scanner CPU. Scanner
> CPU
> > > > then turns off LEDs and just displays "Insert diskette". That's
> how
> > > > the system assumes everything is ok, a reason for defect memory
> not
> > > > detected, as the main CPU only fills memory with 00 without
really
> > > > checking.
> > > >
> > > > As the ROM holds only basic functions, everything else is done
via
> > > the
> > > > overlays from any diskette. That leaves some perspective to play
> > > > around :D. I finally received my Catweasel board, so next thing
> > > > is to write a char reader to dump the disks to PC and start
> > > analyzing
> > > > them.
> > > >
> > > > After that: Proof that external device or software in fact is
> taking
> > > > full control over EII and controls everything like EII itself
> would
> > > > do, by dumping communication on the serial port. If it does like
> > > this,
> > > > as I assume from the code I've seen so far, the EII can be
> > > controlled
> > > > by any device with a serial port interface :-) (Assuming you
have
> > > all
> > > > neccessary port interfaces and some code to come...). I always
> > > thought
> > > > that it must do so, because that's the only explanation why SDII
> and
> > > > the external CD-ROM (on the other port) did work at all.
> > > >
> > > > Now for my requests:
> > > > 1. Does anybody have ROM images earlier than the ones available
> > > here?
> > > > Please provide them, it could help a lot. The main ROM still
> > > contains
> > > > the remains of the serial monitor mentioned in the service
manual,
> > > > only some bytes at the beginning are NOPed out and it will RET
> > > > immediately. I suppose it was used by setting the NMI to it to
> debug
> > > > the system.
> > > >
> > > > 2. Can anybody make a portlist from the schematics? I tried
> myself,
> > > > but my knowledge (and my rooms walls) is not big enough to draw
it
> > > out.
> > > >
> > > > 3. Does anybody know a serial port monitor for PC (Linux or Win)
> > > that
> > > > only records signals coming in, without caring for any protocol?
I
> > > > used to do it with my old NEC serial linemodem analyzer, but it
> only
> > > > outputs to its CRT, which does not help much.
> > > >
> > > > That's all for now,
> > > > Hoschi
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



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