I’ve been using this for a while now, and i’m really impressed by it. It just connects to the Serial Din of your C64, draws power from the Cassette port. … And even looks like a mini drive!
I’ve been converting Disks to images as well as runnig previously converted D64 images on a real C64 again.
Also the internet provides loads of images to run again.
Converting and running:
For real floppy to image i used a empty image file. Made my real original drive device number 9, and used Dracopy (also below)
Image running on your real C64, just put a D64 disk image on your SDcard.
There is a disk selector and run program you can use. (See below) Also you can use the buttons for disk swap/change.
Running a little program to read dipswitches and displaying them using leds.
0000 CE 8020 ; LDX #$8020
0003 6A 01 ; DEC 1,X
0005 86 04 ; LDA A A
0007 A7 02 ; STA A 2,X
0009 A7 03 ; STA A 3,X
000B A6 00 ; LDA A 0,X
000D A7 01 ; STA A 1,X
000F 20 FA ; BRA
For my amiga i started to build a floppy disk reader/writer using a arduino. I found a superb project by rob smith. It uses only a arduino pro and a FTDI USB to serial breakout board, to raw read and write disks. I wanted to convert my own created amiga disks to PC image to use in a emulator like vice.
Many years ago i started segmenting my network using vlans.
In 2022 i started to reconfigure my lab and using a lot more Mikrotik switches. So how many … is to many, because i always overdo stuff.
Well .. is 9 to many for home environments?
default vlan – did’t bother to configure
old DMZ .. to be migrated
DMZ – my servers live here
Wifi personal workstations – Mobiles and laptops .. macaddress limited
IOT – only arduino’s, raspberries and other hardware live here
Personal workstations – UTP connected workstations with less networking limitations
LAB – My lab environment, Ovirt virtualisation for fun and manage access to servers in dmz
Storage – my SFP enabled all-flash storage
Management – really tight restricted access to management interfaces (switches/routers/storage/ILO)
Hard to manage? All those vlan’s? .. Sure, but i learn a lot! (Not really .. when you got the basics down, more of the same. Hardest part? .. not cutting-off connections/switchports you are using!)
Got a working amiga again. \o/ woot Needed to replace Paula chip, cleaning and some TLC.
Modulator
Chip donor
Scart cable i’ve got is one without the resistors, so my monitor isn’t detecting the signal. Using a A520 modulator works. At least RF, don’t know why RCA/composite video isn’t working.
Even a memory expansion and second drive (5.24 inch) are working.
One of the first disks i tested
To do:
Fix something to get disk images from and to my pc.
(My old catweasel card only fits in a ISA slot which i don’t have any more)
I was wrong .. i’ve got a IV Catweasel .. PCI it is
Fix scart
Fix my Action Replay, which i soldered into a non working state apparently .. 🙂
Get a better mouse!
Catweasel IV
Kickstart selectorAction Replay
Disks to convert:
Personal text files from ages ago
My first seka demo
My oscillator drawing program
Other assembly source files
Got another one running today also:
Olivetti M21 machine you could carry with you. 9″ screen, 640K memory, 8086 Cpu
A long time ago i took a book about doing funny stuff in dos, and wrote own additions in the sidelines of the book. Or used the empty pages.
It contains jokes using autoexec.bat and config.sys. Additions by me are most of the time things you could do with debug.com, a little program which existed on any pc at that time.
A little program which created static on a CGA or Hercules monitor. Yes, that long ago. CGA provided 16 colors in 80×25 or 40×25 text modes, but only four colors at 320×200 resolution and two colors at 640×200. Hercules was only monochrome and a max resolution of 720×348. It was on a hercules card i made my first copperbar. ( Before the effect was named copperbar ). Due to difference in timing on every machine, you had to get the copperbar timing right by using two keys i’d assigned the timing to.
MOV AL,00 # Fill AL register with 0
MOV DX,0x03D8 (cga) 03B8 (herc)# DX with address
OUT DX,AL # Set address with AL
MOV AL,[0101] # Reg AL with contents
INC AL # Increment AL
MOV [0101],AL # Address fill with AL
JMP 100 # Jump to start
The opcodes for the program :
b0 00
66 ba d8 03
ee
a0 41 00 00 00
fe c0
a2 41 00 00 00
e9 60 00 00 00
Sometimes i put these little programs in autoexec.bat, so at next restart of the pc, it would do something weird. My little BOFH jokes. Friends and computerstores where not safe.
Another example:
Two drives in a PC ? (Wie A: zegt moet ook B: zeggen) Use with care, below will f*ck up your drives. (And makes a lot of noise while doing so.)
MOV DX,0x03F2
MOV AL,71
OUT DX,AL
MOV AL,74
OUT DX,AL
JMP 100