Cumana Reborn DSK support

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Dbug
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

Indeed, if I understand the note it means we can now convert back HFE to DSK, so you could use a Cumana Reborn to dump tapes by loading same into memory, save to the USB disk, then convert back to DSK where you can use Oric DSK Manager for example :)
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

Sounds great! Will try asap if I have time (but also here time is major bottleneck with work and kids at home as schools are closed. Very limited time for any 8 bit ventures further than a quick test alas).
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

Hmm. If somebody can get this to work, please tell, as I still get the exact same non working result as before as I convert an HFE adapted on the real Oric back to DSK and open in Oricutron. See screenshot below, same as before.
Schermafbeelding 2021-01-22 114911.png
Schermafbeelding 2021-01-22 114911.png (9.23 KiB) Viewed 5464 times
So is this really a new DSK writer compared to the beta discussed above? Or is it just that this beta that was not yet fully functional has made it to the stable release now?
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

Have you selected MFM DISK as output format?
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xahmol
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

Dbug wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 2:01 pm Have you selected MFM DISK as output format?
Somewhat confused now... I selected Oric DSK file (*.dsk) to give the result above.
The only option called MFM gives a file with the .mfm extension. This option does nowhere mention Oric. And do not know of any Oric utils (Oricutron, Oric Explorer) that do anything with a *.mfm file. Neither can also not do anything with it if I rename to *.dsk to force them to swallow it.

Am I missing something obvious?
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Chema »

I don't think you made anything wrong. The disk format and some content is recognized. Only the files are wrong. Does this happen only with Sedoric 4 disks? Have you tried with a Sedoric 3 disk? (Space 1999 and 1337 are both Sedoric 3, I think)
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

With a Sedoric 3 disk adapted on the Oric via the Cumana I get this (used the standard Sedoric 3 utility disk from https://www.oric.org/software/sedoric_v3_0-741.html):
Schermafbeelding 2021-01-22 232455.png
Schermafbeelding 2021-01-22 232455.png (7.51 KiB) Viewed 5430 times
To clarify: as before in this thread stated, on the PC converting DSK to HFE and back to DSK works fine. But if I adapt the HFE image on my Oric Atmos via the Cumana Reborn I can not convert it back to DSK anymore on the PC.

Which is a pity, because that makes the PC to original hardware conversion of disk images one way only. Luckily, PC to Oric covers 99% of my use case, so no big issue, but would have been nice to see save games for example on the original Atmos back on the PC side for bug hunting. Also, even if I would be masochistic enough to do actual coding/dev work on the Atmos itself, no way to get it back to the PC now.
Bummer, as also for now the Twilighte card does not seem to work with my Atmos, so also that route is not yet possible (altough Jede still has some hope of helping me here to make it work on my machine).
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

I guess we will have to do the simplest of the tests:
  1. Take a DSK file
  2. Convert it to HFE
  3. Convert it back to DSK
  4. Compare the binary content of 1 with 3
Maybe it's just something stupid like a difference in sector interleave, crc, etc...
Maybe the DSK is different, but still valid, and it's just Oricutron which fails on it :D
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

So I did a quick check with Pushing The Envelope (https://www.oric.org/software/pushing_t ... -2249.html), because it has its own loader, it's packed to the brim with data, it's all compressed, which makes it an ideal candidate to check for data corruption... and it does work fine when converted from DSK to HFE and then back to DSK with the tool version 2.5.6.6.

Now, the binary content is vastly different, the size is the same, mostly some 22 22 22 that became 4E 4E 4E at the beginning.
dsk_differences.png
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

Dbug wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:04 am I guess we will have to do the simplest of the tests:
  1. Take a DSK file
  2. Convert it to HFE
  3. Convert it back to DSK
  4. Compare the binary content of 1 with 3
Maybe it's just something stupid like a difference in sector interleave, crc, etc...
Maybe the DSK is different, but still valid, and it's just Oricutron which fails on it :D
Those conversions work for me if done on the PC. It goes wrong if I adapt anything to the image on the Cumana Reborn via my Atmos.
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

xahmol wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:05 pm Those conversions work for me if done on the PC. It goes wrong if I adapt anything to the image on the Cumana Reborn via my Atmos.
So, if you convert a DSK to HFE, put it on the Cumana Reborn, add or delete a file on the mounted HFE, then put the usb stick back on the PC and convert back to DSK, then it's corrupted and not working at all?

Could it be a problem with the FlashFloppy firmware somewhat corrupting stuff when writing, or is the HFE still perfectly usable on the Oric?
Say, you write or delete something, then you switch off everything, and start again, is the modified HFE still working?
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by xahmol »

Dbug wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:19 pm So, if you convert a DSK to HFE, put it on the Cumana Reborn, add or delete a file on the mounted HFE, then put the usb stick back on the PC and convert back to DSK, then it's corrupted and not working at all?
Correct. None of the images adapted on the original hardware still work converting back.
Could it be a problem with the FlashFloppy firmware somewhat corrupting stuff when writing, or is the HFE still perfectly usable on the Oric?
Say, you write or delete something, then you switch off everything, and start again, is the modified HFE still working?
The adapted HFE images continue to work fine on the Oric itself. Save games, saved programs, never encountered any issue. So purely on the Oric, the HFE images are working flawlessly for writing and reading back. Also after switching of.

Of course, by far the best solution would be native Oric DSK support in FlashFloppy firmware itself. Then no conversion would be needed that might corrupt things.
But as I certainly can not write that myself, looking for the next best thing as I can imagine supporting Oric probably is not the highest priority for FlashFloppy considering the size of the user base.

Other alternative would be if Oricutron, OSDK, Oric Explorer etc would also support HFE disks. But again, can not write/do that myself.
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Bieno »

I don't know if it's the right place. If not, I create a new topic.
A few days ago I received my Cumana Reborn
The cumana can be powered with the same PSU of the Atmos if it has 2 Amp with the split cable that it incorporates. My first problem was that the Atmos would not turn on because it shared the PSUs with the Cumana. The solution was to power the Cumana with its own transformer since my video cable is also powered from the PSU and I think the PSU could not handle everything.
Having fixed this, it now turns out that most software doesn't work. I have the memory stick with 4 things and it doesn't load any. The only one that loads is the Blakes7 game.
The Memory stick is originally formatted to FAT32, I use the files that originally came in this memory stick, all with an HFE extension and nothing works. I myself have also converted more games to HFE and nothing.
This is one of the screens that appear when I try to load a file.

Image

What do I do wrong ? :?
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Dbug »

I'm not quite sure.
Myself I started to use the Cumana Reborn when I was testing my Modem, because I needed to add a connector on the cable, and unfortunately the Cumulus has a custom cable... so well, I added the connector on the cable of the Cumana, plugged the RS232, and it mostly worked fine, except not all HFE files work, and I don't know why, the crazy thing is that I copied/renamed the same HFE file three times, one of them load fine and the other two don't even boot at all (and yes, they are exactly binary identical).

Same problem with the Oric Tech that came on the provided usb stick, it does not even boot.

Among other things I noticed, is that with the Cumulus I can load from tape without any problem, while with the Cumana Reborn, most tapes fail to load.

If someone has an idea, feel free to share :)
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Re: Cumana Reborn DSK support

Post by Symoon »

Dbug wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 8:22 pm Among other things I noticed, is that with the Cumulus I can load from tape without any problem, while with the Cumana Reborn, most tapes fail to load.

If someone has an idea, feel free to share :)
This is a classic, tapes load on very few machines when a disk drive is plugged. I'm no tech expert but IIRC there was a signal going too weak with the controler card plugged. I think a bus amplifier was supposed to help there but I never tried.
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