Iron - On the drives and multiloader'ah .... "Say what you like ... three drive will not add your skills!"

<b>Iron</b> - On the drives and multiloader'ah ....

                  IRON MADE IN-II


(C) UnBEL! EVER ^ x7m


          On the drives and multiloader'ah ....


    Being a true enemy of any kind and upgrade'a
basic configuration of a true patriot sceners (Pentagon 128 +
5'25 FDD), I suddenly felt myself for once recently, cravings 
for Upgrade your home iron. More precisely, to bring

computer to some less ordered state. Those
lucky few that were in my house, can attest to -
Spectrum UnBEL! EVER'a can hardly be called such, even when
closer examination.


    It all began with the arrival in our city D-Man'a of 
Eternity Industry. This person, though present in Samara, only 
10 hours, time to than buying A1200 please me a certain amount 
of fresh soft'a. Due to the global shortage of time, we do not 
even copy these discs - D-Man I just left them ... On

Next morning I decided to send to college (where dostupayu
to I-net'a) otrestorit FUT'om disks for later reading
an emulator (around Kovrov probably will not find this
controller, which would format the drives suitable for
reading of an emulator).


    My drive suddenly started to fail in its best traditions -
contact power connector from the sharp movements drive heads
began to sparkle as a result, fire protection unit
power and, accordingly, "reset" itself Spectrum. Such
"Bayda", repeated several times in a row, pretty spoiled
my already shattered nerves. Cover a lot of obscenities, I
rushed to the gathering dust in a corner of the troika, and 
after a long struggle with a screwdriver and screws, extracted 
from its depths white, 5'25, 1.2Mb corpse, which had a tag on 
the big toe of his left leg. Tag read - Mitsumi. Drive was 
quickly rose to the place of my 5313 military who served 
faithfully and with as much 1993'ego year. However, this system 
does not work like ... : ( 


    Intuition quickly prompted that device is obviously
device B, which immediately confirmed by performing
Team TR-DOS A> * "b" - a fun drive blinks green
light bulb ... but drives to read still do not like. And that's 
what hence, again, the intuition! Literally 2 minutes, with the 
second attempts has been found that very bridge that was 
responsible for disc rotation speed, or as they say in the 
people - for density of the DD / HD. In short, the unit earned 
in the full power of his white body.



    Already in the evening, on vozvrashenii of VUZ'a I 
appreciated all radically new acquisitions. Japanese creation 
not only quieter than the drive home, but also show

amazing love to the question of reading discs - Mitsumi read
almost anything that did not have severe physical damage
magnetic layer. Plus, the 85 tracks (based on ADS) and
worm gear unit heads ...


    In fact upgrade'a, as we know, the main thing - it's Kindle
appetite. A few days later I started to connect 3'5
drive, which also was present in the depths of my "three". Why
started? Yes, because even such a simple task as the tattooed
connector on the cable, is for my delicate fingers difficult
test ... And connecting this device was preceded by
moving my body from Pentagon'a BK-0010 (where he
was since birth) in a large box,
kindly given me in October last year ALK'om have kotorgo
at work a lot like "unnecessary".


    Drive connects easily and produced an even more shocking
impression on me. First, it immediately became the Drive B, 
although As far as I can remember stories connecting 3'5 FDD 
all my Friends, these drives tend to become Drive A, which gives

a fair amount of problems in the future (particularly with the 
corporate and secure software that only works on Drive A and 
Comes at 5'25 diskettes). Secondly, this particular drive was 
able to perform read / write operations on an HD floppy without 
sealing box density on the diskette.



    Moreover, he could even format the disk half
(Lanes 80 to 40 in the RDS) without sealing up the hole. Well, 
with sealed window density floppy drive, of course, could have a

easily perform all operations. Plus, the full
silence and the presence of a huge number of bridges throughout 
the area corpse. In short, I finally believed in effect at 3'5 
FDD Speccy ... (Incidentally, the first floppy 3'5 what I 
experienced was ADVENTURER # 9 on the corporate spread disk, 
many thanks CPU'shnikam).



    The third drive also appeared with ALK'a. They became
five inch black man from the family ROBOTRON'ov, but with guts
TEAC'a. In ALK'a was even one instance of elements of Russian
logic on TEAC'ovskih boards:) but I give it up ...
This pathology was familiar stepper motor, and in principle,
work was different from my old 5313. However, he worked on
order quieter than and deserved the installation of inside my 
Speccy at P - Drive C.



    So actually what this article? Well, if we assume that I
wanted to write a short essay about everyday upgrade'ra, I have 
already happened. If I tried to convey to the reader a useful

information on connecting a floppy drive, then nothing like as
new to say yet was not.


    I will begin with a description of an interesting problem. 
Attaching drives, I just checked on each one and the same thing 
- REFRESH, or rather multiloader from it. So, if my

5313 is an old demo worked just fine (as pixel'naya
and chunk'ovaya animations that are loaded directly from disk), 
then Mitsumi (like 3'5 or 5'25), this was not observed. That 
pre- refurbished drive that the disk is treated utility ReFormat

directly on the new drive to behave the same way. First
animation slows down slightly, while the second specifically 
hampered. 


    Any problems with the floppy drive controller is completely
excluded, because earlier in the Soviet drive everything worked
excellent! Hence, the root of evil lies in the mechanics 
themselves new FDD. AND Indeed, as soon as I connect the third 
5.25''(the one that Robotron / Teac) and it Refresh earned just 
as well, as before in 5313.



    The conclusion came to mind quickly. Both were Mitsumi worm
drives, while the Robotron was a standard design with
multi-pole step motor for the drive head assembly
(And 5313). Turia was instantly confirmed at home
ALK'a. He also REFRESH worked fine on the drive with
"Classical" drive and the buggy onto the worm, although the 
"worm" drive him the other model (CHINON).


- [Digression ]-----------------------------------------

    What can be noted here .... Multiloader'y always been
will remain sick theme. They do not work, then loaded into
hour on a teaspoon, then hinder adaptation of software for a 
variety of burzhuinskie system. But there is no peace at home 
coders - they continued and continue to use these procedures 
heaped in his works, especially in the demo. And now not only a 
problem small number of ticks or multicolor discrepancy arises

to the user. An even more global problem - as
generally get a new creation koderskoy thoughts into a 
computer?? 


    Want to remind about the existence of our Western friends
spektrumistov. They also want to contemplate the work done in
ex-USSR. And, as we are with you, they want to watch demoz,
gamez and other stuff is not an emulator, but on the actual 
local Spectrum.



    The only acceptable solution for them is soft with
BASIC loader, which is easy to adapt under
local disk system. Another option - TARE format. Of course,
there are some advanced adaptatory (X-agon ^ PHT for example)
which on the shoulder to remake not only # 3D13, but # 3D2F
loaders. However, even these people are brutally break off at
demoz with MultiLoader'ami where the music plays when loading 
or goes any FX.



    And do not shy away from "burzhuinov" as from a nightmare!
They are also full members of Speccy Community, as we
you. Once I learned that there are about a dozen
Western readers BORN DEAD'a, I am ashamed that our newspaper is 
not can be altered under TAPE or another disk system: (

Moreover, if you think that the coolest of Beta Disk
Interface'om, something deeply wrong.


    In the west now have a huge amount soft'a,
that never we will not be available. It's like a whole range of
old games for disk-based Spectrum +3, and a
number of new projects related to interfaces and MB02
D40/D80.


    We all know perfectly well that can be shipped bytes and 
parallel FX show or play music. We've all seen the animation,

realtime'e read in from a floppy disk at speeds of up to 6-7
fps. Enough! Nothing new here have not already done ... Let us
finally releases new programs so that they can
for all, not just those elected who have the configuration
Computer coincides with the configuration of the authors of the 
software. 

-------------------------------------[ Return to the topic 
]------ 

    The second problem, which I learned when new
drive is the problem of standards. Here it would seem, than
may differ so radically from the Soviet drive
Western?? Like almost anything ... Is that a latch
our right and left of the bourgeoisie, but the color of the 
photodiode patriotic - red, while the world adopted a green

gamma. But there is one major difference that can play with
you a bad joke when you connect the second drive'a ....


    Connector, which is put on the train, as is known, is
a drive somewhere behind. Here are just a domestic units
and drive'ov country sots.lagerya this connector is placed on 
one, and y burzhuinov differently (upside down). That is, if 
you look at drive from above, our key is to the right, while

enemy, he left. It would seem that the problem? You just need to
turn the cable connector when equipped! Yes, of course you 
need. But here only if you install two drives in raznoporodnyh

one body, then stick the connectors on the cable must be a 
serious reserve to be able to deploy this 34-pin white

body at 180 degrees. :)


    That is, in general, is all about what I wanted to tell. 
Brad of course, mad maybe, but it seems to me something useful 
from this can be removed. Importantly - to understand the 
following: 


   "Say what you like ... three drive will not add your skills!"