PCW 9512 - Gotek A + Drive B

[Alpha]

Hello,

Recently acquired 2 PCW 9512, done maintenance to the drives ( new belts ) and both computers and all drives working fine.

Decide to have one with 1 gotek as A and 1 drive as B,  but struggling a lot to get it working and so far could not find nothing to put it up and running as I want.

I have 2 drives EME-232, one working as drive 0/A and the other working as 1/B, think that somehow they are harware defined so that drive 0 only works as A and drive 1 only works as B, for example I cannot use drive 1 alone working as A, it just does not boot to OS nor can I use drive 0 as B.

Since I want to use one gotek as A and one phisical drive as B, same as I done for my PCW 8512, I thought I could do it with no problem ( oh boy, how wrong I was... ).

So, this is what I have and what I can accomplish so far.

Hardware used

   
• 2 PCW 9512
• 2 drives EME-232 (tested and working)
• 2 gotek SFRC922D (tested and working, with FlashFloppy firmware)

Working scenarios

   
• 2 drives - drive 0 as A and drive 1 as B
• 2 gotek - One DS0+MO as A and other as DS1 as B
• 1 drive 0 as A and 1 goteck as B

Format, copy, verify or any read/write operations works just fine with no problems at all on each of above drives/scenarios.

Not working

   
• 1 goteck as A and 1 drive 1 as B

Boot from gotek A goes normal, both detected and presented as 2 drives connected and no error or whatsoever during boot.

Format, verify or any read/write operations works just fine with gotek set as A.

Now the "bad" symptoms:

When trying to access drive B, for example, "dir b:" the following message is presented and cannot do whatever with drive B.

"B: Track 0, sector 0 missing address mark - Retry, Ignore, Cancel?"

I also try using B35.FIB, it loads at boot since I get the message "3.5 inch Drive B: (3ms)", but think it does nothing at all, I do have same results with or without it.

I knew that it should have nothing to do with the PCW itself but even so I did make the same tests on both with same results.

I do suspect that's something CPM related or maybe some special .fib drivers required ? Or does it not even possible to do it with PCW 9512 ?!...

I'm total and completely stuck and no idea what else I can do, any help is much appreciated, I would love to have it working without making any "fussy" physical changes to hardware.

[PCWPIP]

I think you are in a similar situation to me.  I want to add my 180K A: drive as a B: drive along with my flashfloppy gotek.
Long story short, the gotek needs a hardware hack to emulate drive motor signals.
See here:
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/nc100-nc200-pcw-pda600/pcw-8512-b-drive-differences/
I don't have the skills to create the circuit shown in the Italian page linked in that thread.  I wish I did.

[GeoffB17]

Hello,

As far as I understand it, the EME-232 is a DS 730k drive, but this should be OK as either A or B on the 9512.

However, where have you got the boot images/files etc from?  You don't say anything about this.

An image for a 8xxx machine will be expecting a SS drive, and  will be unhappy with a DS drive.   Depending on the disk, there might be problems with BOTH or EITHER of the code in the boot sector on the disk, and the code in the system file JxxCPM3.EM?

Please give more details about the disks, images, system file that you're using.

Get everything consistent with a 9512 and you may start getting somewhere.

Geoff

[Alpha]

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback.

My B drive only works as second drive, no matter if I put it on edge connector or not, if I use it as only drive it will not boot, but works just fine as B with all kind of read/write operations.

I think I also did try 2 other drives ( that are in use as A ) and could not have them working as A and B, will look into it again just to be sure.

I do have working original PCW discs and made the images using CPCDiskXP and been happy using it all the time with gotek as only drive A.

I went for another image files when I got stuck in not having succes in puting gotek as A and drive DS as B.

Downloaded several other images from sites in internet but right now using the attached one, maybe got this one from this foruns some time ago, honestly do not remember.

The *.xxx files are the .fib ones I have used.

I do not have this kind of issue with PCW 8512 and yes with PCW 8512 do have gotek as A loadingd CPM from SS image file and drive DS as B.

[GeoffB17]

Hello,

Just for the record, I have looked at the .DSK file you attach, and YES, this is a 9512 system.  The system file is J25CPM3.EMT, which is version 2.15 of the system, and it should be happy with the 9512.

As far as I know, you should not need to use any .FI? files for B: as it should default to a 720k type anyway.   You certainly should not be using the B35.FIB, this would be relevant only if you use a 3.5" drive.

The only other thing I can think of relates to the disk/format.   Again, just to rule things out.   Have you reformatted the disk for 80T?  I assume so.   Was the disk 'virgin', or had it been used before?   If it had been used before, did you wipe it, as in use a magnet on it to ensure any previous format was removed?   1 possible reason for the error message you report is that a (even very small) residue of a previous (inappropriate ?) format is still there, the alignment between your present disk and the one the disk was previously formatted with are slightly different, and this is causing problems.  This could include if the disk had been previously formatted as a 40t disk, say for a CPC or a a: drive on a 8xxx machine, and a sliver of the old format might be creeping in.

I cannot think of any reason why the gotek as A: would lead to problems with a standard disk as B:.   Even if you were using an SS image in the gotek, with the B: disk as B:, that setup is normal even for an 8512, and should not upset a 9512 in the way you describe.   I don't think it's the system, which should be OK for a 9512 with any config.   The error message suggests that the drive reading the disk is expecting to find a sector marked ??, and it is not.

Geoff

[P5ychoFox]

I've got a Gotek working as an A drive in my 9512 (jumper on MO). It runs fine except that when loading CP/M it shows 2 drives - when only the Gotek is installed. Also, if you type B: the B> prompt appears and DIR lists the contents of the CP/M .dsk image (on the Gotek in drive A). I think just having the jumper on MO (motor) is confusing the computer...just done some further research and having the jumper on MO is the only way to boot a Gotek in drive A on a 9512.