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Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-03 by graham.hunter@...

My new Emax SE Rack arrived this week, Rev A motherboard. When I turn it on it goes directly to "Loading Software" and doesn't show any sort of "Insert Disk" message. I opened it up and reseated the two cables going into the floppy drive, but that didn't change anything.

Even when I put in an OS disk (I have two different versions) it does the same thing. The drive seems to spin up when I insert the 3.2 version though this doesn't result in anything other than the "Loading Software" message.

It also looks like the floppy took some sort a physical blow at some time as the front panel was split in two. It does show the red LED in the front when the Emax is turned on, so it's not completely dead to the world.

What would the next step be to troubleshoot this issue?

Re: [emax] Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-03 by Ted Summers

Reseat the IC’s on the board.

-T

On Aug 2, 2015, at 6:28 PM, graham.hunter@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:


My new Emax SE Rack arrived this week, Rev A motherboard. When I turn it on it goes directly to "Loading Software" and doesn't show any sort of "Insert Disk" message. I opened it up and reseated the two cables going into the floppy drive, but that didn't change anything.
Even when I put in an OS disk (I have two different versions) it does the same thing.  The drive seems to spin up when I insert the 3.2 version though this doesn't result in anything other than the "Loading Software" message.
It also looks like the floppy took some sort a physical blow at some time as the front panel was split in two. It does show the red LED in the front when the Emax is turned on, so it's not completely dead to the world.
What would the next step be to troubleshoot this issue?

Re: [emax] Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by graham.hunter@...

A friend in Germany pointed me to the LED status, and the bottom two were lit. That indicates:

Preset Definition LED:
Wrote command to 1772 Floppy Disk Controller to restore head on
the drive, but the drive never reached track 0, or the 1772 never
responded.
Analog Processing LED:
Unable to load software from disk.

He also pointed me to this site which gives instructions on how to modify 1.44 MB floppy drives to work like 720 KB drives. I'd rather save the money on this as I'm building an EmUser for an RS-422 to USB connection:

Modifikation von 1.44 MB PC Laufwerken

View on honi.hucki.net

Preview by Yahoo

Re: [emax] Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by djtbs1@...

If they are new (or "new old stock") drives you will replace with, that's not a bad idea.

But if you are getting used drives, that's just playing a swapping game and you could just end up wasting your time for the following reasons:

1) You don't know how good the heads are on the "replacement" drive

2) You don't know if the head alignment is good - it may or may not read existing disks

If you have a version 1 Emax board (meaning you can't add SCSI), I think the HXC is a better solution.... while the EmuSer does work- you do realize the transfer is slow, right?

Some people have also had problems getting the EmuSer working with their Emax- there was a whole thread on here about that last year.... and building an EmuSer isn't that cheap...(assuming you have the electronics skill to build it)

...but that's just my opinion.

-T

Re: Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by johnnygadgetband@...

I've just ordered some Mitsumi Slim Floppy D353F3's and some adapters. everything should arrive here by next week. I plan to mod the adapters and prepare the drives so they can just be installed on emax's with minimal effort.

I'll be listing them on ebay, it's just easier and more secure to sell things that way. I'll post here again when I have everything ready.

Re: Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by johnnygadgetband@...

bah... sry, scratch that. the drives aren't coming. the seller gave me a refund. i may try to find more though. the only problem is how much are emax users willing to pay for a new floppy drive? when you add the cost of a drive, with the cost of an adapter, plus shipping, idk if there's enough room for any profit. How much could I expect to get for a nos floppy that's already modded and ready for install?

Re: [emax] Re: Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by Ted Summers

Which is exactly why I stopped selling the adapters...... people weren't willing to pay. It took me >6months to clear out the few I had.

There is no money to be made there. It takes a good 20 mins to mod and test each adapter....

-T

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On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 11:57 AM, johnnygadgetband@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

bah... sry, scratch that. the drives aren't coming. the seller gave me a refund. i may try to find more though. the only problem is how much are emax users willing to pay for a new floppy drive? when you add the cost of a drive, with the cost of an adapter, plus shipping, idk if there's enough room for any profit. How much could I expect to get for a nos floppy that';s already modded and ready for install?

Re: [emax] Re: Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-04 by Ted Summers

So instead I just shared the details and whomever wants to mod a JM215A may do so....

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On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 12:14 PM, Ted Summers <djtbs1@...> wrote:

Which is exactly why I stopped selling the adapters...... people weren't willing to pay. It took me >6months to clear out the few I had.

There is no money to be made there. It takes a good 20 mins to mod and test each adapter....

-T

On Tue, Aug 4, 2015 at 11:57 AM, johnnygadgetband@... [emax] <emax@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

bah... sry, scratch that. the drives aren't coming. the seller gave me a refund. i may try to find more though. the only problem is how much are emax users willing to pay for a new floppy drive? when you add the cost of a drive, with the cost of an adapter, plus shipping, idk if there's enough room for any profit. How much could I expect to get for a nos floppy that's already modded and ready for install?

Re: [emax] Troubleshooting Emax SE

2015-08-07 by graham.hunter@...

I just got the drives, and they are NOS. Not quite the same as on the Amiga mod site, but I think I can put it together. I'm not a soldering expert but this doesn't look too difficult.

I also have all the parts for the EmUser, just need some time to put them together. I know it's slow, but I'm a patient guy :)

Thanks!