Today I Received...

[MikeDHalliday]

Not really received today, per se, but I have got this very shonky DAC that I made from recently received components.

Unfortunately, I still do not have the PD Music discs that will allow me to use it. I guess I am going to have to program something in basic to try and get some sounds out of it!!

This was constructed from the instructions in Einstein Monthly, Volume 2 issue 3 (October 1988) so I am only shy of 32 years late with this!

If anyone has UKEUG PD discs 192 and 193, I would love to have a copy of them so I can furckle with this board. If it works, I have a shed load of spare components so can make another 7 or so (I think) If anyone is interested (If it works!!!)?

Regards
Mike.

[Lardo Boffin]

A TC01, TK02 (sadly minus its case) and monitor.

It appears to have the ‘Matrix’ setting enabled…

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Both discs work fine and after unplugging and refitting the Pipe connector a few times so does the 80 column card! Pity, the Matrix effect was quite cool.


The screen quality is really good but doesn’t come across so well in the photos.

[vanpeebles]

Always a bonus seeing double drives too

[Lardo Boffin]

Always a bonus seeing double drives too

Sadly both drives have stopped reading discs.

I had a disc in drive 1 and typed 0: having forgotten to put a disc into 0, so it came up with the usual try again message. I took the disc out of 1 and put it in 0. Now neither read discs. They both either complain about track 0 or say bad data.

Doh!

My external gotek works fine both connected to the external connector and the internal one so I’m thinking its not the computer itself.

Will try one of the drives in my other tatty when I get chance.

[vanpeebles]

Head clean needed?

[retrogamer]

Seems odd that both drives have stopped working at the same time. Sounds like disc corruption that can happen because of age or when a disc is removed while the access light is illuminated.

You may have tried this already, but as the gotek is working you could try reformatting and verifying a (different) physical disc with BACKUP.COM.

If that fails to rectify the issue, it'd be worth using a Disc Editor to see if other tracks are accessible. That'll confirm if it's the drive or the disc!

The Einstein drives seem really resilient and deal well with discs that are now inevitably starting to fail. I have discs that my Amstrad CPC 6128 has failed to format that quite happily format and verify in the Einstein. The Amstrad has a formatting program that can mark 'dead' sectors so a failed disc can still be used. Anyone know if such a program exists for the Einstein?

Richard

[Lardo Boffin]

Cheers both. I have cleaned the heads and tried other known good discs none of which read but I will try and format one and see how that goes.

Edit - magic!

I tried a disc that I had not tried before and it would not read.
I launched BACKUP from the gotek and set it to format 1.
It said it was formatted but I continued anyway.
It formatted and verified ok.
I can now read that disc fine.
So I tried the BBC BASIC disc that would not read after it stopped working and that now reads as well!
As do the other discs that would not read before.

Strange. Does it do any sort of reset when it formats? I seem to remember that some early drive used to effectively recalibrate themselves against track 0 (some by bashing into the drive case, I’m talking to you Commodore 1541) when formatting?

[retrogamer]

Great news! Glad it's working now.

Been reading up on the TEAC-FD30A, the drive fitted to the TC01. It appears that:

* The drive has no mechanical sensors (write protect, index, and track 00 sensing are effected by LED/photo-sensor systems)
* There are no brushes in the motor (so no interference from electrical discharge noise)
* There is no positioning solenoid (the head is positioned by a simple screw mechanism that translates rotary motion into linear motion)
* The drive has no belt (as it has a direct-drive system)

Seems to be cleverly engineered with an expected long service life (over 8000 hours).

Richard

[MikeDHalliday]

I have now had a very quick look through the boxes I received on Tuesday 31st August - See the Market place post!

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The whole bundle consists of ...

Hardware:
Twin drive Einstein TC01 s/no 6030168 - with spare blanking plate
Philips monochrome computer monitor 80, Type BM7522/05G NR.TV 08850011930
Einstein 80 column card 1635336
Uncased Teac 5 1/4 drive FD-55FV-30-U s/no 1804597
Box of 16 assorted 3 inch disks - originals and backups
Box of 15 assorted 3 inch disks - originals and backups
Box assorted 5 1/4 inch disks - originals and backups
Assorted leads (centronics etc)
9 pin Atari compatible Joystick with home made adapter - This is something I will reverse engineer and try to reproduce!
Home made video switch box - This is something I will reverse engineer and try to reproduce!

Manuals:
Einstein DOS/MOS introduction
Einstein An Introduction
Einstien BASIC Reference manual
Einstein BBC (Z80) Reference manual
Einstein Hardware Manual

Books:
Einstein Compendium Smallman & Bettany UKEUG
Mastering CP/M Miller Sybex
CP/M Bible Waite & Angermeyer Sams

Games:
H2G2
Elite
Scrabble
Cluedo

Additional:
Various prinouts
Various magazines
Green wallet file- Misc docs
Green wallet file- 19 Einstein User mags
Yellow wallet file- Misc PD Software printout
Yellow wallet file- Misc PD software printout
Pink wallet file- 14 Disk User mags
Loose 37 Einstein Monthly/ All Micro News mags

It is gonna take me a while to test all this and check which duplicates I have! :O

Happy days!

[retrogamer]

Wow! I can see you're going to be busy, Mike

Interested in any duplicates of the books, games and the Einstein User mags. I'll be in touch.

Richard