Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!oddjob!gargoyle!ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen From: knudsen@ihwpt.ATT.COM (mike knudsen) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809 Subject: SARDIS Disk Controller -- got mine, DOA Message-ID: <1991@ihwpt.ATT.COM> Date: Thu, 10-Sep-87 14:48:21 EDT Article-I.D.: ihwpt.1991 Posted: Thu Sep 10 14:48:21 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Sep-87 10:02:54 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 55 Keywords: Stone cold dead, software mini-review I got my Sardis "no-halt" disk controller by UPS yesterday, and it is Dead On Arrival. Maybe the controller portion works, but I can't tell since the Coco can't even read the DOS ROM in it. That's right, I tried to save $15 by ordering it without the stock Tandy RSDOS 1.1 ROM (I have several of these, with 6ms step rate patches). Anyway, some ROMs at least let the Coco power up in Extended Basic. Others keep it from coming up at all -- screen stays blank, and cassette relay clicks after a few seconds. I've tried both with MultiPak and direct into Coco, no difference. I buzzed out the socket and it is powered and grounded only for 28-pin ROMs, which I have tried using. Pin 22 (Output Enable) goes straight to the SCS- port lead, but pin 20 (or is it 18) (Chip Select) is wired to the controller's logic somehow. My only hope is the seven or so jumper areas surrounding the ROM socket. There are no wires or jumpers installed. Those of you with working controllers, could you please look inside and tell me how big the ROM chip is, is it Tandy's stock item (hard to be if 28 pins?), and are there any jumpers installed? Also mine has a test lead or some such thing soldered to pin 11 (direction control) of a '245 chip. Do you have that? What's it for? Thanks in advance.... OTHER COMMENTS The board is very well made, with sockets for WD controller chip, the 8Kx8 RAM, a 20-pin PAL, and the !@#$%^&* DOS ROM. Metal case, gold contacts, easy to take apart and reassemble. The software diskette includes a NEAT utility for re-configuring boots. You tell it which modules to leave out and which new ones to put in, and it writes a new bootfile. Also included are Kevin Darling's DMOD utility and such SDISK standbys as DESCGEN. You need these to convert your /d0, /d1, etc. so they point to SDISK3 instead of CC3DISK (hmmm, should be able to zap the strings in place...). Another utility lets you change time delays for the disk motors on and off, head settling, etc. The installation process also has to zap the OS9 Kernel in a few places -- sounds a little scary, will need to be updated for future versions of Level 2. Future software upgrades are promised, including allowing other procs to share timeslices during disk accesses-- currently only keyboard and clock interrupts keep running. Meanwhile, rumor on Delphi has it that Radio Shack may start taking special orders for the competing DISTO unit. But probably not without an RSDOS ROM....! -- Mike J Knudsen ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen Bell Labs(AT&T) Delphi: RAGTIMER CIS: "Just say NO to MS-DOS!"