OMNI 4 - a Kaypro 2x Logic Analyzer

the laptop floppy didn't need anything other than a different belt.

The default settings in imagedisk worked

The floppy drive I picked for the first try in the kaypro was beat up but had clearly marked and easily accessible jumpers. (Need to change to DS0, at the very least). 

Booted right up.

Oddities certainly abounded... but nothing particularly relevant to preventing getting it going quite easily.

(Disk formatted and loaded with files in linux. Formatting in DOS then loading files in linux worked fine)

(Original belt surrounding unsuccessful replacement. Successful replacement was even smaller and required more force to stretch. also thicker material.)

(The workbench and something on the two screens I forget. Oh... the linux formatting commands used, and DOS's interpretation... oddly DOS said the newly-formatted 720k disk had 360k free... did a doubletake).

Bwamo. Lohic analyzer setup screen.

so now... trying to decide what to do for longish-term so's I don't gotta open the case all the time. Obvious choice: pull out the 5.25... but am hesitant to let it get lost. There's also just enough space it could be mounted internally... but then no swapping floppies (for what?).

Prepping to run some samples soon!

Use IMD117 (118 doesn't extract properly)

Settings, Attempt 1:

Cyl: 40

Double-Step: Disabled

(Presumably: Since a 1.44MB drive can work with 720KB floppies in an IBM/PC configured for a 360K drive: the 720KB "notch" indicates to the drive to double-step. I'm using a 1.44MB disk, with the notch covered)

---- Write Disk From File ----

LOTS of notes in disk image... too many to see on-screen.

(Isn't there a viewer utility that came with imagedisk????)

"Written with R/W Gap=20, Format Gap=23"

...

ImageDisk reports, while writing:

"A: 250k DD" (250kbps?)

"G1:7" "G2:14" (???)

"21/1: Write error <19> NoData" ???

"33/0: Write error <8> NoData" ???

"800 sectors (100 Compressed)

 Write complete..."

The scrollbar at the top shows only half the disk written (?)

Did the drive not double-step automatically? Or...?

Also... I thought 360K drives were 300kbps, but then they wouldn't be interchangeable...?

Note that I used "Calculated" for gaps rather than entering the aforementioned values.

Disk wrote, despite odd gap-lengths necessary for fitting 10 sectors... so... maybe a go.

Time to throw the 3.5in drive in the KayPro.

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Oh, obviously managed to get the 486 laptop's floppy drive working... Tried another belt. This one smaller (both require quite a bit of stretching) in diameter, but thicker material. Stretch was harder... Thought: The other might've been too stretchy while spinning? Who knows.

Odd effects using disks made in linux under win95... "mkfs.vfat -I /dev/sdb" may have some issues... as formatting under windows (DOS) then using on the linux machine seems to be fine. Odd effects include: disks showing less available space than they should, files written to disk appearing *very* strange when 'dir'ed... including one 'directory entry' which appeared to be the contents of a file? Oddly, these disks work fine under linux.

phone entries... wee!

Logic analyzer board has chips labelled letter number. E1 is at the low right M21 at the upper left. Letter is col. Number row ish.

The big three are intel peripheral ios and an intel timer.

Some of the chips are darn near but not impossible to read. Others I couldnt get. Nat semi seems to have used ink soluble in the clear coat... cleaning off that also cleans off the remaining label :(

Some thoughts for plausible deduction...

The logic analyzee board has traces cut off atrhe edges...dunno. maybe trying to fet away with multiple designs on a single panel purchas... done that myself... but I was 15 and in an era where fab houses were likely quite a bitdifferent than the early 80s aimed at large runs...

the kaypro board has a fallen off sticker "k2x char"... these are the crystals

Oddly no 20mhz... 18 though and 16

The copper tape on the eproms was my doing... wouldja believe they left the windows open?

the 486 laptop has had floppy issues as long as I can remember... today was the first time I really looked into it. Turns out they use a belt for the spindle, and it was definitely slipping. Replaced, now, and spinning, but still not reading/writing.

Not many ideas. The only belt long ennough but not too long had to be stretched pretty tight... so maybe slowing it down.BUT the motor is a stepper, and the spindle has sensors.

Tired.

/Omni4/KayPro/DiskTransfer/

--- Use IMD117, not 118, there's something funky about 118's extracting to a bunch of symlinks.

/Omni4/KayPro/Softwares/

--- A bunch of downloaded KayPro software. Not sorted (maybe different versions of KP)

/Omni4/fdrawcmdExperiments.txt

--- Contains Info For using KP floppy in a PC (Jumper changes)

maybe do a 'find' for *.txt... as I made a lot of notes...

*** Sectors are numbered 0-9 on head 0 and 10-19 on physical head 1 BUT *named* as sectors 10-19 on "head 0"

reassembled. Fixed many things. Broken wire to reset button, tabs shorted to case... no wonder it was wonky. Keyboard connector was broken. Countless screws missing.

And the logic analyzer parts... holy moly.

Either this was a prototype or someone was doing some hacking. The IDC cable connecting it to the motherboard wasn't crimped with pin 1's on the same wire... nor matching the pin 1's on the boards. There's an intermediate board, too... which has a 74F00... so determining the proper orientation of the cable meant plugging it in in four different ways and verifying which connected grounds bettween boards properly while also connecting to the 7400... And checking that its 5v was coming from whichever board it was supposed to be connected to. Oy! (Because apparently the ribbon cable doesn't connect the two boards' 5v... a friggin jigsaw puzzle.

Then the cables to the "pods"... they have two different branded IDC connectors.

And the final indicator (that I recall) that it was either a prototype or a hack job is the interboard cable is excessively long and written on: "CABLE FOR LOGIC ANALYSER BOARD TESTING"

Oh, right, also the power cable had an unnecessary extension.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.

Oh yeah, it's crammed in there so tight that even though it *looks* like you should be able to remove the mobo with only its attached screws... nope. The modem jack hits the pod connectors... meaning you have to remove the mobo and logic analyzer boards to remove either. Similar elsewhere... you have to remove all floppy drives as a unit to remove one. Despite the fact they look like they could just slide right outthe front. Oy! Did I mention the absurd keyboard cable?! But I hear that's the case for all kaypros. Weird.

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Laking my entire toolbox... Used some tricks learnt around HaD. Bottoms of pop bottles are indeed quite handy for storing screws. Also heatshrink via soldering iron works surprisingly well.

This one was my own idea, born of trying to contain solder flecks and desoldered parts... now leaving my "workbench" in a state I'd feel only slightly uncomfortable eating dropped peas off of when it's in dinner-table mode (mostly because it's bare wood with a grippy-mat).

Do all the solderin' in a shallow cardboard box. Keep everything solder-related inside. Store for later.

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In my earlier endeavors with this thing I spent quite a bit of time running the original diskette round in circles and sliding the read/write heads of drive a: back n forth over it, trying to get a good read on every sector... months. Plugged into an old 486. After finally acquiring what I think to be all the sectors *with matching CRCs* I used that same drive to make duplicate disks...

Oh yeah... remember *way back* at the start of this project I was shocked that I turned it on for what might well have been the first time in twenty years... ten unused in my possession. .. and found that it booted right up and ran the programs... despite the fact the disk was clamped between those heads all that time (nevermind transports!)...

Well now that drive... that same drive... is damaging every disk I put in it. Don't see anything wrong with it... and it boots fine the first time, only causing problems after a track-seek is necessary... thankfully CP/M (?) Is small enough to boot from a single track, and i figured that out soon enough that I still have one bootable disk. But Not a disk with the logic analyzer software.

So... you see my workbench/dinner table... I ain't bouts to cram a desktop PC, monitor, and keyboard in this space just to make some disks while also battling whatever's causing my drive to make coasters... nevermind having to use that same drive in both systems (or fix both drives?). Nevermind a limited supply of 5.25in disks, questionable in their remaining quality in the first place.

I've a few plans of attack. The best solution, probably, and likely easiest, is to invest in one of those SD card floppy drive emulators.

Barring that on account of... what...? Keeping it original as possible? Money? Making do with what i've got? I dunno... barring that...

There's a weird thing i read that 1.44mb 3.5in floppy drives can be put in place of 360k 5.25in drives in PC's whose bioses only support 360k drives... they can only be used with 720k disks (and can access the full 720k! Apparently it's not about size, but about baud rate), but ive done it and much to my surprise it works. *plausibly* the same is true in the kaypro, which has a different controller, but uses compatible "360k" drives.

Then: I won't likely be able to use a 3.5in USB floppy drive with my laptop to make the disks because writing 400k to a "360k" disk requires low level controller commands that are usually accessed via the ISA bus... so am pretty sure that utilities for disk imaging like this require direct access to the controller.

Thought: I've a couple "ancient" laptops with 3.5in drives... often their bioses even allowed choosing the drive type. (I remember since it seemed weird, when the drives were built in and certainly there was no room to replace it with a 5.25). So maybe I could even hook the 360k drive in-place. Some did it via the parallel port... not sure i have one like that... or just use the 3.5in drive, if that works... though kinda spoils the vintage.

I thought I had another course of action, but I forget.

???

Bought denatured alcohol to remove the lacquer... but reading up... it's not what I thought.

 I guess I thought it essentially like isopropyl from the pharmacy, but at a higher percentage. Instead it seems to be an entirely different type of alcohhol... and mixed with another... so really its effects are unknown to me.

Then there's the discussion all over the web... denatured leaves behind residue that needs to be rinsed... or the board cant just be soaked but needs to be flushed because of plausibly conductive dirt which may already be on the lacquer finish and will mix with the alcohol then be replaced on the biard once the lacquer is removed. Oy!

So maybe it's best just to leave it alone... white powder and all.

Besides, dunno what else id use this jug of denatured for... and don't really have a place to store it. At least rubbing alcohol is good for general purpose things... this, maybe, could be used for cooking... but I haven't the stove and no idea how much will be left after the clean.

Oh and denatured can remive markings on chips...?.

Dunno.

it's been months since I jammed its innards in the case, holding it all together with a few screws and tape labelled "VERY FRAGILE". 

I opened it up yesterday to find.... that it seems to have survived transport!

I was pretty certain the neck of the CRT woulda broken off with all that stuff rattling around in there... but no visible damage!

Still with the white powder. .. I'd completely forgot about that.

I think it's lacquer. .. and theoretically that can be removed by soaking in a bath of alcohol.

Cause... I tried to wipe off the powder with some water and the result is a dip on the DIP's surface... as though the alcohol that powderized it ate the coating right off.

So maybe I'll try that... or maybe I'll just reassemble it as-is... 

But, importantly,  I put the innards back in much more securely... so now it's only "very fragile" (lower-case).

Maybe my posting this will somehow magically fix my current dilemma with regards to this project...

You see... Shit's Hit The Fan, recently... (check out the latest logs at #"From Nerd to Criminal in Seven Easy Years")

And the ol' Omni4 has been sprawled out on a plank on my couch for months, now...

Guts everywhere.

The logic-analyzer board is covered in white powder (see previous logs)...

The way this thing was assembled... well... as I recall, most of the guts had to be removed to access the other guts.

So, there's some intricate reassembly necessary... and my brain hasn't been capable of wrapping around it.

But I *have to* get this thing reassembled, and soon, at least so all its guts remain with the system itself... and not flopping-around so as to damage itself. I could put a friggin' note on it saying "this thing works last I tried, it just needs to be cleaned and rewired" or something. As long as I can get all its guts in there soon.

Don't want to see this wind-up in the trash... nevermind its seemingly being amongst the last of its species, there's the TWO DANGED MONTHS I spent backing up its stupid floppy-disk just so it *wouldn't* become extinct... And here I am in a situation which could so-render it.

So, guts returned, but maybe not cleaned, maybe not wired... can I do this?

Seems the sorta thing I've done most of my life. It shouldn't be difficult. It should be a matter of just doing it. But Brain Ain't Functioning On That Level these days. Too much going on.

So maybe my posting this will get me going...