Re: IMSAI and Cromemco 16FDC

Barry, just looked over the manual for the 16FDC. I seems like a neat
FDC board that's a bit too complicted for its own good! Having a UART
and timer on boadr is nice however.

Anyway, my question is what is the problem. Does it hang the system
with or without being accessed. Can you see the ports, talk to the
UART etc. It uses a 1793 and since it runs with the Z80 block I/O
commands and not DMA etc it is fairly easy send simple type I, II, III
etc commands to the chip and see if it responds. Can it select the
drive for example, restore, seek etc. (Remember the 1793 uses non-
inverted data lines unlike the 1791 ot 1795) if you are using a logic
probe.

For what it is worth I wrote a diagnost program for the Versafloppy II
recently to do these things.

http://s100computers.com/Software%20Folder/VF/VD%20Diagnostic.htm

The source should be fairly easy to modify for the WD chip on the
16FDC.

Good luck
John

On Jul 31, 7:51 am, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOS...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Some years ago I tried to get a Cromemco 16FDC working in an IMSAI (with
the CP-A front panel) and it simply would not work.  I recall
discovering that there was a "known problem" with that combination, but
I never encountered what it was (or the fix).  I have reason to want to
create such a configuration again, does anyone here have more specific
information on the nature of that incompatibility?

.

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