Validated Amiga Disks, but "no flux reversal found"

[molloch]

Hi all,

I have validated 3,5" Amiga DOS Disks, and no matter what I do, all I get is the "No flux reversal found" error - can anyone help? (Please note: I already posted a similar request a few weeks ago, but since I now have more detailed information about the setup including pictures and dumps, I decided to open a new thread.)

All Disks were successfully tested a few days ago on original hardware (Commodore Amiga 500, internal drive), and all worked fine without any read-errors.

Here's my setup:

• Kryoflux board bought beginning of November '18, including data cable

• NEC 3,5" disk-drive, model FD 1231 H (built 2005, refurbished, looks & sounds "new")

• Tested on Win 10 and MacOS Sierra

• (Also tested with 2 other NEC FD 1231 H, and a different data cable. So I assume the error is somewhere else.)

The attached pictures are valid for the MacOS test environment (DTC v2.62_OSX_x86-64), the dumps were produced on MacOS as well.

Test-Sequence:

• (Main power of drive plugged off)

• Connecting Kryoflux board with Mac: Red LED is permanently on

• Connecting disk-drive with main power

• command "dtc -c2" returns "CM: maxtrack=81"

• Starting the GUI

• Setting "Density Line High" (note: I also tried it with "Low", same result)

• Setting the drive as "Drive 0"

• First try is reading as Amiga DOS sector image (*.adf)

• During disk operations, the green LED is blinking

• Stipped after a few tracks, all came up as "red" with "no flux reversal found"

Excerpt from .log:

Code: Select all

/usr/local/bin/dtc -l15 -f/xxxxx/testoutput/track -i0 -i2 -d0 -p -e81 -dd1
000407c5: status=0
000407d9: reset=0
00040c2a: info=1, name=KryoFlux DiskSystem, version=2.20s, date=Jan  8 2015, time=13:49:26
00040c3e: info=2, hwid=1, hwrv=1, sck=24027428.5714285, ick=3003428.5714285625, wb=32768, wa=64, wq=8, wt=65535, wm=26
00040c52: device=0
00040c66: density=1
00040c7a: min_track=0
00040c8e: max_track=83
KryoFlux DiskTool Console, v2.62_OSX_x86-64, uiv.1, May 29 2016, 00:18:27
(c) 2009-2016 KryoFlux Products & Services Ltd.
Developed by The Software Preservation Society, www.softpres.org
Licensed for private, non-commercial use only.
00040ca2: motor=1
00041023: side=0
00041037: track=0
0004104b: stream=1
0004152c: stream=0
00.0    : frev: 0, drift: 0.000 us, tfer: 0 B/s, rpm: 299.120
00.0    : No flux reversal found
00041540: motor=1
00041554: side=0
00041568: track=1
000415d4: motor=1
000415e8: side=0
000415fc: track=0
00041668: stream=1
00041ac2: stream=0
00.0    : frev: 0, drift: 0.000 us, tfer: 0 B/s, rpm: 299.103
00.0    : No flux reversal found
...

I also repeated with the profile "KryoFlux stream files, preservation", same bad result, see attached some *.raw-files packed as ZIP.

At this moment, when doing "nothing", the board shows alternating green/yellow LED lights fading in/out.

I'm at a loss - I'm not a hardware expert, but I'm pretty sure disk drive and data cable are alright, and I confirmed that the disks are also still working as 30 years ago.

So what am I doing wrong? Did I somehow connect the cables wrong? (Can't think how, the noses don't give much room for errors) I didn't change any of the jumpers, and they seem to be as shown in the manual. Is there any way to confirm that the board is working as expected?

Anyway - Has anyone an idea? I'm willing to take the blame for doing some foolish mistakes, as long as I get this board to work. I'm of course willing to give more details & pictures if it helps.

Is anyone from Munich/ Germany reading this who has a working setup and who is willing to help me? (Doesn't have to be for free, I just want my old disks transferred.)

Best regards & thank you in advance

[SomeGuy]

That is very strange. You should be getting SOMETHING. The attached files are completely empty. You should at least be getting some noise. The log you posted shows an RPM value, so that seems to indicate the disk is spinning.

Basically it sounds like the drive is going but no data is getting back to the kryoflux. The usual suspect would be the cable or the drive, but you have already tried different ones.

The only thing I can really suggest is at this point focusing on the "preservation" dump rather than decoding a disk image. Once you get anything at all from a preservation dump then proceed to try and decode it.

What are you using to power the drive with? I am a little confused by your "test sequence" I think the preferred method is to only to plug the kryoflux and drive in before the computer is turned on. It reads like you are not doing that? I have seen my Kryoflux get confused a few times when power was inadvertently interrupted, seemingly requiring a reboot before things returned to normal. So it seems like the order is sometimes important.

[ZrX]

This does sound like the KryoFlux somehow doesn't see anything from the read line suggesting the on board buffering chip might've become faulty. Atleast a multimeter would be handy for checking if the chip is passing data through.

[molloch]

This does sound like the KryoFlux somehow doesn't see anything from the read line suggesting the on board buffering chip might've become faulty. Atleast a multimeter would be handy for checking if the chip is passing data through.

Since in the meantime I tried out different combinations of disk drives, data cables and USB-ports without any turn for the better, I see only two possibilities:

1) I'm doing something completely wrong.
2) Something with the board is not working as expected. (I'm starting to lean in this direction.)

Unfortunately I'm not equipped with a multimeter or other tools, nor do I have experience in using them.

Is there any way to check via software whether the board is faulty or not? Can I make a visual check?

Best regards

[ZrX]

I'll try to come up with some solutions to try.

[ZrX]

Here's a custom firmware to test your board.

KFReadTestfw.zip

(11.95 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

Rename the firmware.bin file from where you installed the KryoFlux software. Then unpack firmware.bin from this archive to the same location so this version gets loaded on the board instead of the original file.

Disconnect drive(s) from your KryoFlux, but keep the drive cable connected to the KryoFlux.

Connect KryoFlux to your computer, start the software and try to calibrate a drive.

The firmware should get loaded and the software time out without the drive. Only the yellow LED should now be flashing on the board. If both yellow and green LEDs are flashing the original firmware got loaded. If neither LEDs are flashing something is wrong.

When only the yellow LED is flashing, you need to find a piece of wire to short out two connections from the drive cable:

The drive cable has the red stripe indicating where pin 1 is on the cable. Take the connector that would plug into the drive and find pin 30 by looking and the connector holes while the red stripe is on top:

pin 2 > . . < pin 1 ---red stripe---
pin 4 > . . < pin 3
pin 6 > . . < pin 5
pin 8 > . . < pin 7
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
pin 28 > . . < pin 27
pin 30 > . . < pin 29
pin 32 > . . < pin 31
pin 34 > . . < pin 33

Push one end of the wire to the hole number 30 (third from the bottom left when the red stripe is up), and the other end of the wire to one of the odd numbered holes such as 27 (don't use 33 as that's a signal line on KryoFlux).

By (dis)connecting the wire the green LED on your KryoFlux should go on and off if the read signal is working correctly. If only the yellow LED is flashing but the green LED does nothing then there is a hardware fault on your KryoFlux.

You can also further test by disconnecting also the drive cable and use for example the disabled TEST jumper block from your board by connecting pins 29 and 30 (third row from the reset button side) together to confirm cable fault.

[molloch]

Thank you very much, this is a very, very outstanding effort of you to support me!

I read & understood your description and I will give it a try in the next days, when I'm not too tired in the evening after work!

Best regards!

[molloch]

I think I followed your description to the letter, and while I don't have experience with multimeters, I am a longtime model railway builder, so I think I also got the part with the wiring right.

- I downloaded the firmware, renamed it and stored it to the correct folder
- I disconnected the drive but kept the cable connected to board
- I connected the board, started the Software, tried to calibrate the (not attached) drive, see screenshot for the expected "error" message
- Only the yellow LED was Fading in/out (as expected)
- Connected pin 30 to different odd pins (but NOT to 33)
- green LED was NEVER flashing, regardless of odd pin number, regardless of connecting/ disconnecting the wire


I then also disconnected the cable itself and connected pins 29 and 30 (third row from the reset button side) - this time the green LED DID flash.

So what does this tell me? Faulty board?

Thank you again for your help!

[ZrX]

The greed LED flashing when you short the pins on the board connector but not when you short them from the cable would mean the cable is faulty and has no connection all the way through to the pin on the KryoFlyx.

[molloch]

OK, then I have two faulty cables... one of which was the one that came with the kryoflux board - what are the chances of that to happen?

I will repeat the same test with the 2nd cable as well, and if there are the same results, I will buy a 3rd cable... somehow I will get this Thing to work