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A project log for OMNI 4 - a Kaypro 2x Logic Analyzer

A while back I acquired a rare logic-analyzer, whose lone system-diskette needed backing-up. Now this page is all things OMNI 4

eric-hertzEric Hertz 03/27/2017 at 23:537 Comments

another

one of those things where I coulda sworn it'd be done in a few hours... and...

All the sectors have allegedly been extracted, without CRC error.

Each is in its own file on my computer, named to match their sector-IDs.

(800 files!)

So, now I've merged them all into a single file using 'cat sector >> binaryImage'

--Yes, I verified 'cat' works correctly with binary files--

Then I used image-disk's "bin2imd" utility to rewrite that binary image into an ImageDisk format (containing sector ID information, etc.)

Then I set the format-gap to 23 (which is how many 0x4e's, on average, that I read between each sector)

And the write-gap to 12 (because...?)

Then I wrote the disk using ImageDisk with nary a complaint.

Then just to be safe I read-back the disk, with nary a complaint (so no data-overlap despite the tiny gaps, otherwise there'd be CRC errors, right? Maybe I should check that file).

And... plopped the disk (and drive) into the Omni4

And... nada.

Just sits there spinning the disk... Which is apparently what it does until it finds the boot-disk.

-------

alright, minor break, then I'll verify that file was read-back with no errors (might even be able to diff 'em?)

Discussions

Dr. Cockroach wrote 03/28/2017 at 00:20 point

came across this web page that might help, 

http://www.retroarchive.org/maslin/disks/kaypro/

Then again perhaps not but you might want to take a look :-)

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Eric Hertz wrote 03/28/2017 at 00:38 point

Had a heart-stopping moment fearing you'd linked to the disk I'd worked so hard to extract ;)

But, actually, that's a great idea, to write a disk that's known to work and make sure my write-setup is correct. Thanks!

Willpower... well, that's a mixed-bag, it's mostly that I've been strung along so far with this project that giving up is no longer an option. Not unlike addiction, at this point.

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Yann Guidon / YGDES wrote 03/28/2017 at 00:40 point

There are worse addictions than this.

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Eric Hertz wrote 03/28/2017 at 00:51 point

@Yann Guidon / YGDES, I might have a few of those, as well ;p

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Dr. Cockroach wrote 03/28/2017 at 06:45 point

Yea, the problem of walking away at this point is that someday while walking down the street or in a shop, you will stop and think " I wonder if,,, " So keep  at it and win this war :-) It will perhaps help when someone else comes across a vintage machine and has the same issue and we do need to save those older vintage machines. They are working history :-)

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Eric Hertz wrote 03/28/2017 at 09:38 point

hah, @Mark Nesselhaus... indeed... I've so many walked-away-froms to prompt "I wonder if"s... Gotta do at least *some* clearing-out! And... I need my couch back. Since I thought this was going to be a one-day, then a two-day, then a week... a plank streched across the couch-arms seemed a more-than-reasonable temporary workbench.

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Dr. Cockroach wrote 03/28/2017 at 00:11 point

You have more will power than I ever will have :-)

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