11-14-2016, 10:30 AM
I'm using SuperCard Pro software v1.91, hardware v1.1, firmware v1.0. PC running Windows 10 1511 x86-64.
I've been having trouble getting good dumps using a Citizen Z1DE drive and am wondering whether it's a hardware or software problem. I posted about that on the EAB forum but maybe it's more appropriate here. :)
I've uploaded an archive of sample dumps made from original Amiga game disks to: https://www.mediafire.com/?b3k1c1amkc1cx9e
If someone could take a look and suggest what I might be doing wrong, or if the drive I'm using could be bad, that would be great. The Citizen drive probably needs 18ms for settle delay, by the way.
I have some bug reports and suggestions...
Bug: Run SCP. In Analyzer/Editor, set mode to Flux, device to image file. Click Read Image and select an Amiga .scp file.
Click Flux Display to open the Flux Bitcell Timing Visualization window.
In the main window click the right arrow in Media Controls. The image in the flux timing window changes to show the next track, but SCP crashes with this dialog:
Run-time error '9':
Subscript out of range.
Clicking OK causes SCP to exit.
Bug: Start reading a disk. Click on the menu strip. The program pauses with drive motor staying on. You can actually get out of that state by pressing Esc or clicking Stop, but it probably shouldn't pause when you do that click in the menu strip.
Bug: Create a disk image file. Once that's done, SCP software seems to keep a lock on the .scp file's directory, because trying to rename the containing directory in file explorer fails. Renaming it does work OK after quitting SCP.
Bug? Amiga Pinball Dreams disk 1, Zool Pack version. Reading 5 revolutions. At track 32 head 1, get dialog saying "Read length > RAM capacity!". Same problem on track 69 head 1 of disk 2. Should that ever happen when reading a double-density Amiga disk? Is it possible to automatically save fewer revolutions-worth of data for those "problem" tracks?
When that dialog has been open for a few seconds, I hear the drive head seek (back to track 0?) and the motor turns off. Once that happens clicking Retry just gives an error dialog: "No drive is selected!".
Some suggestions now:
- Add the ability to specify detailed drive timings: motor-on delay, step delay, settle delay. Could be useful for flaky drives? And 40-track drives typically need a longer step delay than 80-track ones. Currently I don't think the SCP software offers any way to do that.
- Add option to play a sound when dumping/writing has finished.
- Add option to not show the "please insert disk..." dialog box after clicking Make Image and entering a filename. Or, only show it if there is no disk in the drive.
- Add option to double-step heads (for 40-track disks in 80-track drive)
- Add option to select 300rpm or 360rpm mode for 3-mode floppy drives
- More/better verification of number of accessible tracks. For example have user insert a write-enabled disk, then write different data to tracks 82 and 83, then confirm that you can read back the correct data from each track. Perhaps some drives might step to track 82-and-a-half as its inner position limit???
I've been having trouble getting good dumps using a Citizen Z1DE drive and am wondering whether it's a hardware or software problem. I posted about that on the EAB forum but maybe it's more appropriate here. :)
I've uploaded an archive of sample dumps made from original Amiga game disks to: https://www.mediafire.com/?b3k1c1amkc1cx9e
If someone could take a look and suggest what I might be doing wrong, or if the drive I'm using could be bad, that would be great. The Citizen drive probably needs 18ms for settle delay, by the way.
I have some bug reports and suggestions...
Bug: Run SCP. In Analyzer/Editor, set mode to Flux, device to image file. Click Read Image and select an Amiga .scp file.
Click Flux Display to open the Flux Bitcell Timing Visualization window.
In the main window click the right arrow in Media Controls. The image in the flux timing window changes to show the next track, but SCP crashes with this dialog:
Run-time error '9':
Subscript out of range.
Clicking OK causes SCP to exit.
Bug: Start reading a disk. Click on the menu strip. The program pauses with drive motor staying on. You can actually get out of that state by pressing Esc or clicking Stop, but it probably shouldn't pause when you do that click in the menu strip.
Bug: Create a disk image file. Once that's done, SCP software seems to keep a lock on the .scp file's directory, because trying to rename the containing directory in file explorer fails. Renaming it does work OK after quitting SCP.
Bug? Amiga Pinball Dreams disk 1, Zool Pack version. Reading 5 revolutions. At track 32 head 1, get dialog saying "Read length > RAM capacity!". Same problem on track 69 head 1 of disk 2. Should that ever happen when reading a double-density Amiga disk? Is it possible to automatically save fewer revolutions-worth of data for those "problem" tracks?
When that dialog has been open for a few seconds, I hear the drive head seek (back to track 0?) and the motor turns off. Once that happens clicking Retry just gives an error dialog: "No drive is selected!".
Some suggestions now:
- Add the ability to specify detailed drive timings: motor-on delay, step delay, settle delay. Could be useful for flaky drives? And 40-track drives typically need a longer step delay than 80-track ones. Currently I don't think the SCP software offers any way to do that.
- Add option to play a sound when dumping/writing has finished.
- Add option to not show the "please insert disk..." dialog box after clicking Make Image and entering a filename. Or, only show it if there is no disk in the drive.
- Add option to double-step heads (for 40-track disks in 80-track drive)
- Add option to select 300rpm or 360rpm mode for 3-mode floppy drives
- More/better verification of number of accessible tracks. For example have user insert a write-enabled disk, then write different data to tracks 82 and 83, then confirm that you can read back the correct data from each track. Perhaps some drives might step to track 82-and-a-half as its inner position limit???