ToToTEK.COM

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

I'm going to work on building an FDSloader cable within the next 2 weeks, so I should be able to dump everything I have. If not, I'll probably send the stuff over to Rob and he can dump it. I'll try to take pictures of the games I suspect to be HK originals and write up on whether or not they load without the GD hooked up. This probably won't be until tomorrow as my girlfriend has the TV occupied with Animal Crossing.

I also came across another car game that I suspect is an HK original...the controls are so absolutely horrible that there's no way it was officially licensed. Basically you are a car and there's 3 different levels of platforms with breaks in the platforms and enemies that you have to either jump over or shoot (if I recall). You hit the jump button and about 2 seconds later the car actually jumps. Total garbage.

rbudrick · Joined: 26 Mar 2004 Posts: 373

Sweet, dude, good luck with the cable. If you need any help, be sure to let me know. Also, make sure you use blank disk images. I can send them to you if you want (I made 128k and 64k images).

-Rob

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

What do I need the blank disk images for?

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

Alright, here's tonight's update. I took another one of the FDS systems apart, turns out it had a 7201 controller board, but only loaded about 50% of the games. So I put it in w/a modified FDS power board, tuned the motor to speed=0 on copy master and now it loads everything like a charm. I also did some other swapping and motor tuning and now have 3 fully working FDS systems. One of which is still unopened, it may have a 7201, it may not.

As for the HK originals. The car one I mentioned with the platforms is a hacked version of City Connection. An absolutely horrible game. The others are as follows. The first I've seen on a famicom multicart, I'll try to dig it out and take pics, but these are screens from the FDS:

This is the game which is labelled "Cars" on the disk, in English writing:

ChimyFolkButter · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 50

It looks like my methodology worked. You turned the speed all the way down. Most of the drives I have repaired, I had to adjust the speed all the way down.

-CFB

rbudrick · Joined: 26 Mar 2004 Posts: 373

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

OK, so I took apart the 7201 drive today to look at it, put the belt back on, put it together, etc and it wouldn't work. Checked the belt, looked fine. I did the adjustment of the spindle that jfgoods mentions on his page as the "head adjustment" and now it seems to work again. I don't really see why, as it's not the head he's adjusting in those pictures, it's the motor spindle which spins the disk. I guess I'm still confused on exactly what people are doing when they say they are calibrating the head. I then recalibrated the drive speed, a very minor turn of the head takes it from a drive speed 8 to a 3. If you have a good belt and you are still getting disk 22 errors, it's probably your drive speed. I'm going to play around a little more and see if there's a more scientific method that can be used that doesn't require copy master.

ChimyFolkButter · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 50

Tomy · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 414

madman/rob,

In Hong Kong, all shop will set speed to 5 (with disk inside). You both say speed 0 is good. I wonder when you do speed test, disk is inside ? or no disk in the drive ?

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

Tomy · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 414

Madman,

Yes, 5 is the best speed as many people prefer and also BUNG mention 5 is the middle speed and should set to. As I remember, no disk inside, speed = 0/1, with disk inside is 5.
Before you change the belt, have you clean up the things with melted belt ? Error 22 mean FDS drive read nothing, no any data. You should adjust head position to fix it. Not the speed problem if you already set to 0 or 5.
And for the MGD1 <-> PC cable, you can put all resistor with 1K is ok.

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

Tomy, do you have a document on adjusting head position?

I made the MGD1 to PC cable (using 4 1k resistor and 1 220), but the only communication I get is the "-" symbol moving from the bottom of the LED display to the top. I always get Time Out Error when trying to read a disk. I tried both ECP and EPP parallel modes on 2 computers, doesn't work.

Tomy · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 414

madman/rob,

Give me a few more days, I will make a new software that you can set the delay time. Then it should work on all pc.

madman,

You're sure you fully understand MGD1 <-> PC circuit, and make it right ?

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

Tomy, I got it to work! I didn't connect GND between MGD1 and PC. Connected those and it works!

What format are the dumped images in? I can't get anything to recognize it as an FDS file, but it appears OK when viewing it through a hex editor. I will compare to known FDS images and see if there's a header or something.

madman · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 598

I am able to get a disk image and re-write that image and have it work. However, giving the raw padded image to an emulator, or a image with an FDS header gives errors in the emulator. Running a diff between a known good dump of a game and my dump also shows differences. I will keep investigating. Next step is to take a FDS image, remove the 16 byte header, write to disk.