On 07/17/2010 11:23 AM, Steven Hirsch wrote:
I put the card in one of my IIe machines and it actually booted. Once. After I shut down the box to attach a floppy for copying off the system software it naturally would not boot again :-(. I think the media is quite worn. Looks like it was running a Vista-patched DOS 3.3. Perhaps this thing uses the same software tools as the A800 8" system? If that's the case, I think I have docs and software somewhere for that.
And, the Uber Pack Rat triumphs! One of the support diskettes that came with my original A800 8" disk system (the pride of my computer room in 1984!) had a version of FID (VFID) that recognized the V1200. It maps as five drives on the controller slot (S5,D1 through S5,D5) - one for each physical floppy.
Once I gained access, I copied off the modified DOS image and the formatter program. Diskettes 4 and 5 were blank, so I tried reformatting them.
The physical format is... odd. The formatter goes through 77 tracks of 30 sectors, then reseeks and writes another 77 tracks. Strange part is that the unit has a single head. There must be some remapping going on, since Amlyn's patent has language implying a 154 track format. At 154 x 30 x 256 we have 1155KB on a diskette.
When all was said and done, I was able to transfer that diskette to the first position in the cartridge and boot from it! Not too shabby.
If anyone who owns one of these wants the support files, please let me know? The interface card is a Vista A800 8" drive controller with a slightly different boot ROM. I plan to grab a copy of the firmware.
Steve