Tom was kind enough to sell me one of the piggyback Z8 chips, and I tracked down some 4k EPROMs. Time for some adventures with Profile formatting!
Here's what I've got:
- Lisa 2/5, 2/10, 2 port card
- BLU 0.90
- Piggyback 4k Z8, M2732A EPROMs
- TL866A USB programmer
- 2x working 5M Profile assys
- 1x working 10M Profile assy
- 1x non working Profile assy (used with an Apple ///, was able to extract an image, has many bad sectors)
- 1x PC Seagate ST506 mechanism (unknown condition, but quiet bearings. An early mechanism, from 1982)
Here's what I tried:
- Wrote the 2k 5mb profile formatting .BIN file from Patrick's archive(found here: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/apple/disk/profile/firmware/ ) to the EPROM. I copied all the data from x0000 to x07FF and pasted it at x0800, which filled to x0FFF
- Installed on the socketed Z8. Upon power up the head seeks to track 0
- Attempted low level format in BLU. The LLF proceeds normally.
- After removing the jumper when prompted, the spare table scan starts.
- When the spare scan gets to the last track, it bombs out with status 00000003, 00000002, or 00000001.
- Using the built in port on the 2/5 and a port on the 2 port card in the 2/5 didn't make a change
- Swapping the disk mechanism into a known working 5M Profile didn't make a change
- Using the PC disk mechanism - which had the same part number stepper motor as the Apple disk mechanism - gave the same results
- Moving the track 0 sensor would make the status error come up as 00000001 more frequently. I elongated the mounting holes for the sensor and moved it a fair bit in both directions.
- For giggles I tried the 10mb formatter software with the 5mb disk mechanism. Of course the stepper hits the end stop before it finishes formatting. BLU did give a counter for the track it was working on, which it didn't do with the 5mb firmware.
Any suggestions for what I should try next? I suppose it's possible I have 2 bad 506 mechanisms, but I'm reluctant to try formatting one of the working profile 506s and have that fail too.
I wonder if it's time to build a UsbWidEx...
Thanks!
-Jason