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------------ ************ Topic 10 Wed Jan 14, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 04:11 EST Sub: Fiscal Info: Lt. Kernal Hard Drive Fiscal Information brings us yet another Hard Drive for our CBM's! 24 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 1 Wed Jan 14, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 04:11 EST To read the archived messages, spec sheets, and conferences, please see files: 3172 LT. KERNAL SPEC SHEET 2603 FISCAL/XETEC CONFERENCE ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 2 Wed Jan 14, 1987 GARYW at 21:04 CST I will say one thing about the Lt. Kernal drive from Fiscal. It does what they say it will and they were the only ones to show at CES. I am ordering one next month. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 3 Thu Mar 12, 1987 JBMOORE [- Jim -] at 00:58 EST Just wondered if anyone else is using the Lt. Kernal 20 Meg drive yet? I received mine on 12 February and am very pleased with it. I run a Punter BBS64 and had to make NO modifications to the software to begin using the hard drive. The speed must be seen to be believed. I don have a friend that ordered one to run his C-Net BBS on and so far he hasn't been able to get it to work properly. Anyone else have any experience with this drive? I think it is a real quality piece of equipment! --- Jim Moore --- SysOp-FWB Commodore Exchange BBS 904-651-8908 ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 4 Thu Mar 12, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 03:19 EST Jim- We received our 20 megger the 4th, and are running the same board you are! We did notice a few things, one being the speed tradeoffs. For example, the speed increases moving from the main BBS to the download banks, but speed decreases reading REL and SEQ files. Another problem we have is with our Xmodem <Yea, we added Xmodem to our Punter Board <GRIN>> Right now, we are having one heck of a time getting the timing of the drive <?> to cooperate with the user's upload. The user has numerous block resends and the upload takes SO long, usually we just give up and use Punter <choke>... Anyways, other than that, the drive looks REAL nice on the desk...and does make the board look real impressive when you go to the DL area, and see 15K+ blocks ready and willing to be filled... now if we get the Xmodem to work! I guess we could take this down time <the board isnt down, just the xmodem> to add CRC Xmodem to the board... but ever have a nightmare about these NEW things!? <Smile> Hoping to hear from you soon! -<* Gayle, Node 28 Sacramento! The Breakfast Club! ------------ ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 10 Mon Mar 23, 1987 GS at 22:56 EST Well did you read RUN Mags rundown on the hard drives? Lt. Kernal puts them all to shame. The way I look at it the load times on the other drives are worthless. ; no faster than a 1541. It 's nice to have capacity but spp eed is important. I suspect the other manufacturers will quicklyuy come around or else they'll be left a the t the starting gate. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 12 Mon Apr 13, 1987 SIR.ARTHUR at 22:45 CDT OK, I finally had the time and $$$ to purchase one! I am running an ICE-Net Board. This one works perfect with the Hard Drive. There are a few boards in Houston running with the same software. This software is more sophisticated than the C-Net Software that is out on the market! Believe me, I ran a C-net board for 2.5 years. I really like this one. Does anyone know when Lloyd is going to have the FASTCOPY out? I am getting tired of using copy-all.64L. It is very slow and the TXA doesn't work great either! OH, the board number is (318)/984-9530 (The Geneva Connection!). I LOVE MY Lt. KERNAL! ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 13 Tue Apr 14, 1987 MICHAEL.M [-:SysOp:-] at 00:03 EDT Art - You might want to contact Lloyd and ask him if he knows of any other BBS systems which use the LT KERNAL. SysOps usually write a lot of their own software specifically for the hard drives, and they may let you grab some of it. Many COLOR-64 BBS's are using the ICT Data Chief's and support files for it float amongst them freely. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 14 Wed Apr 22, 1987 DAZED at 20:07 EDT Does anybody know how the Lt. Kernal drive works-if at all yet- with the Vision BBS software. I'm presently setting up a Vision BBBS and hope in a couple of months after I know what I am doing hope to get a Lt Kernal for the board. I have heard that C-Net is somewhat similiar to perhaps Vision which also has Networking now. Thanks..... ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 15 Wed Apr 22, 1987 DAZED at 22:58 EDT If anybody is interested the following might save you a couple of bucks on getting a Lt. Kernal drive. If I remember correctly they run around $900.00. The source I got where I live can get them If I didn't forget the price for around $760.00. If you want the phone number of the source leave me mail and I will get the number to you so you can find out more about it. Hope this helps. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 16 Wed Apr 22, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 23:27 EDT As to a previous question, NO, the Lt. Kernal will NOT work with the current versions of the Vision BBS. Visions will only run on the 9060/9090, and they also claim to work with the Data Chief drives, but no one around here has one that we can test it out on. -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 17 Fri Apr 24, 1987 DAZED at 20:00 EDT I called up the President of Vision Software today-Danny Dillulio and Danny assured me that with the Lt. Kernal as being sold by Xetic as of now that the newest version 11.0 of Vision software does indeed work fine on the Lt. Kernal. Hope this helps. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 18 Mon May 04, 1987 B.GRAY [Brent] at 23:17 MDT Do any of you Lt. Kernal users out there have any info on your new drives and their compatibility with SuperBase? I talked with Fiscal Information at CES in Las Vegas and they were concerned that (at that time) SuperBase could not properly be saved onto the hard drive, nor could the hard drive be used properly for SuperBase data storage. Fiscal said they were negotiating with Precision Software about the possibility of including SB on the hard drive. Anybody heard more about that?? In my opinion, data base management is one of the most notable applications where a hard drive would come in handy and I would appreciate any further info on this subject. Thanks... Brent Gray ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 19 Tue May 05, 1987 MICHAEL.M [-:SysOp:-] at 20:06 EDT When we had the Fiscal-folks here for a conference, they said they had conquered the problems with SuperBase. Dunno if it was ever released *with* the drive. Anyone?? ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 20 Tue May 05, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 20:33 EDT As far as I know, and we talk to those folks *daily* anymore, SB was never put on the drive itself. I do not even think it will run on the drive yet! But, FI does have a new DOS update, so maybe then it will work! :Sigh: -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 21 Wed May 13, 1987 EPUKANE [Avatar] at 05:35 PDT Just got a handy-dandy package from the folks at Prestige that made no mention of the SuperBase inclusion, so... Guess not. For anyone who's interested, Prestige International is one of the distributors of the Lt. Kernal and also C- Net BBS. There was some question as to the compat of the two (like completely INcompatible.) A new version of C-Net is due out real soon (this month) and they claim that it will run fine of the LK. We'll see.. Meantime, dueto the expense of buying a C= compat hard drive, our BBS has migrated to an IBM XT (BOO!! *hiss*) But my heart belongs to Commodore... Just not my checking account! ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 22 Fri May 15, 1987 WGREGORY [will] at 22:43 EDT The people at C-Net have announced an updated version to work with the Lt Kernal. It should be available shortly, and you can order it within the next couple of mths or so. Hope it helps. ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 23 Fri Aug 28, 1987 DAZED at 20:14 EDT I heard the other day from the Vision BBS HeadQuarters guru that within the last 3-4 weeks that the Lt. Kernal DOS has been screwed up by the manufacture and will not work with the Vision BBS software now. And also that the C-NET BBS people have dropped the Lt. Kernal like a hot potato because of this DOS problem. From Bob Who Is trying to find a workable hard drive.... ------------ Category 17, Topic 10 Message 24 Mon Sep 07, 1987 C.MCEWEN [Small Change] at 19:22 EDT From what I've heard about the C-Net vs Lt. Kernal problem, Ken P. uses an interrupt for the cursor that interferes with the original DOS for the Lt. Kernal. If I'm not mistaken, Fiscal Info has fixed this. Anyway, even if there is still a problem with C-Net, there is a newer bbs program out that looks very much like C-Net, but has capacity of several hundred sub-boards and UD directories (to take advantage of all that space). It runs with a much improved ML, and will soon be supporting 2400 baud. To see it in action, give a call to Data*West (904-262-9629). This is the BBS program that Fiscal Information uses for their product support bbs. ------------ ************ Topic 11 Wed Feb 22, 1989 C128.CPM [Bill] at 02:41 EST Sub: Lt. Kernal Conference Questions This is a temporary Topic for those people that can not make Sunday Night's Lt Kernal Conference. Just before the conference starts, we will ask these questions for you, and post the answers after the conf. 20 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 1 Wed Feb 22, 1989 C128.CPM [Bill] at 02:47 EST I'll start the ball rolling.......... How do I get my Lt. Kernal repaired, if it ever broke? Would someone attempt to save the information from the hard drive for me, if the repair should possibly damage the information already on the drive? ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 2 Thu Feb 23, 1989 THX1138 at 21:23 EST Are there ever going to be copy protected versions of programs that will install on the Lt.? ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 3 Thu Feb 23, 1989 C128.CPM [Bill] at 23:43 EST I guess the same question could be posed for the '81 drive. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 4 Fri Feb 24, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 10:07 EST The Lt. Kernal has a built in 'ICQUB' (Image Capturing Quick Utility Backup) feature, which allows you to 'capture' running images of C64 software, much like many cartridges do. Similar constraints apply, such as the program having to be RAM resident (no disk access during the application), etc. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 5 Fri Feb 24, 1989 D.SCHMOLDT [Dave/SysOp] at 22:51 EST We bought a Lt Kernal 20 megger close to two years ago to use on our club BBS. Had a bad drive, had some correspondence with the company, shipped the drive back, and got a replacement. Since then we've never gotten any DOS upgrades, though I've heard they have had several. What do we need to do to get an upgrade. Since it can't be used without the drive, is it something that can be posted here on GEnie? Dave ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 6 Fri Feb 24, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 23:59 EST Dave, I received the notification for the upgrade to DOS 7.1 in the mail. I believe it was $30, and I ordered it by calling Xetec and giving a credit card number. Arrived in about a week. (Did you send in your postcard??) There have been 3 patches to v7.1, which included a couple of minor bug fixes and some nifty enhancements. I've posted them all in the FlagShip library here. (note that they must be used in order). By the way, the $30 for v7.1 included a whole new manual. You may want to check with Xetec and make sure they have your correct address. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 7 Sat Feb 25, 1989 MARTY.A at 01:12 EST In regards to the repair of a drive, we recently had ours crash as we were installing the new DOS (before 7.1). We sent it back in, and it cost us a whopping $200.00 to have it repaired. Quite a chunck for a hard drive repair. But, my questions are: Will quiet mode ever be finished? And, will we ever get any utilities to be able to use the 1581 in high speed mode to copy and back up files? Thanks much! ...Marty... ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 8 Sat Feb 25, 1989 DEBS-GUEST [LSponenburgh] at 22:10 EST Whew!! First night in, and WHAM!! Ok.. here goes $200 (!!??) for a repair? You must have been BOTH out of warantee, AND in a fix where the whole HDA (head-disk-assembly) had to be replaced. Normally, Xetec will repair drives very inexpensivly, even if they are out of warantee. Of course, the drive component itself is the most expensive part, and if that goes, that means big bucks (for them as well as you). Addressing the question of where you can get repairs: Xetec and we (FII) have given thought to the 'depot' approach to repair, enlisting dealers to do the work, but that entails educating the dealers to a degree not feasible in the details of Lt. Kernal theory. So, for now, you still have to send the unit to Xetec in Salina KS. On the positive side, they really turn repairs around quickly, and do an excellent job. Will copy-protected software ever appear FOR the Lt. Kernal? I don't know for sure. I have talked with several software vendors who are entertaining the idea. Even a MAJOR (unnamed) gameware outfit bought a Lt. Kernal, and asked numerous questions about DOS internals. Upgrades? MAN!! You just got back from temporary duty in the Siberian wastes, huh? <GRIN> There have been TWO complete FREE DOS's released, one 'for-fee' DOS (7.1, latest), and four FREE upgrades to that version. The newest DOS is available from Xetec, and the upgrades to it are FREE on the two support BBS's in Florida and Kansas. The old 'quiet-mode' was abandoned when we found LOTS of speed to gain in the older operating philosophy. The newer DOS is much faster than the old, and obviated most of the need for the quiet mode. The FASTCOPY for the 1581 will have to wait until that drive gets a little better reception from the REST of the CBM community, or until a really eager user writes one himself. I tinker with it in my spare time, so maybe I'll be that eager user. Lloyd Sponenburgh ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 9 Mon Feb 27, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 15:28 EST Well, the conference was great! Thanks to Lloyd and all who participated. The transcript of the conference is available for download in the FlagShip library, as file 6632. Lloyd has advised me that he will continue to monitor our Bulletin Board here for the next few days, so feel free to post any Late questions here. We will eventually combine this topic with the existing Lt. Kernal topic, for permanent reference. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 10 Tue Feb 28, 1989 MARTY.A at 20:20 EST Lloyd, Thank you for the answers. I'm still unsure about what they repaired, when we sent it in, so I couldn't tell you what we paid for! There was no where in town here that would even look at it for us. And, of course, it ran perfectly til 12 days out of warranty, when it died on us in the DOS upgrade. Seems to me, someone at Xetec told us they had to rewrite a special sector on the drive, and that is what cost us $200.00. Who knows, but it works fine now :heh: At this point in time, the 20 megs is really not enough, so we are going to have to look into upgrades for more space. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 11 Thu Mar 02, 1989 DEBS-GUEST [LSponenburgh] at 09:15 EST OK! I understand now. The drive has its OWN little 'mini-dos' onboard in what the manufacturer calls 'negative tracks'. That DOS controls how the controller itself works, and maps defects, etc. Those negative tracks are not accessible by ANY normal technique avail- able to OEMs, so Xetec had to send the drive to the manufacturer for repair. At that point, the cost is no longer controllable by them, so they had no choice but to pass on to you whatever bill they received. Sorry, but Descartes said it best... "All things mechanical must eventually stop". Lloyd ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 12 Thu Mar 02, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 16:28 EST Lloyd, if you're still around, I have a problem: I just acquired a (used) copy of Vizastar 128 ... A truly wonderful program (no Lt. Kernal, due to direct t/s access, I understand) -- It has a dongle for the Expansion port. I already have an Aprotek, so I popped it into a free slot. Here's the problem: The dongle and the Host Adaptor can't be running at the same time. Using LKOFF doesn't help, because if I flip on the dongle slot after the LK turns itself off, the system locks up. I've been disconnecting the ribbon cable, turning the LK slot off, turning the dongle slot on, and then powering up, and that is fine, (although a pain in the neck), but when I reconnect the ribbon cable and return the Aprotek slots to the settings to use the LK (all switches flipped and cable changes made with all power off, by the way), I frequently can't get the LK back online. Usually, the LK 'hits' briefly, then the system does a normal boot from floppy 8. The only way I can usually rectify the problem is to disconnect the Aprotek, hook the host adaptor directly to the expansion slot, and then boot the LK. It's usually OK after that, even when I re-hook the Aprotek. I've checked, and all connections are good, and all cables/ devices are well seated in their slots. Any ideas around this? I'd like to be able to keep the LK from coming up without having to do any cable swapping (an on/off switch for the ribbon cable comes to mind) .... Help!! ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 13 Fri Mar 03, 1989 J.RIVERA6 [Jumpin' Jack] at 02:21 EST Have you looked into ways of busting the da*n protection? ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 14 Fri Mar 03, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 14:45 EST No, Jumpin' Jack, I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where to start---Now I'm having trouble getting access to the hard drive at all -- I think there may be a short in the 'ribbon' cable, cause when I wiggle it gently while the hd is active, it does a 'break' to the monitor, along with other assorted wierdness. I already opened up the 'puter, and that end is securely fastened. Is the ribbon cable available from, say, Radio Shack, or only from Xetec?? ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 15 Fri Mar 03, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 20:49 EST OK, the problem *was* the ribbon cable ... I scrounged up a replacement (bought 10 conductor ribbon cable at Radio Shack, and scarfed the connectors off the end of the cable provided with the LK). All appears well now. LK/C128/Aprospand owners, take note: The ribbon cable comes out of the machine directly in line with the Aprospand's fuse holder, which has sharp edges. I believe this is what cut my cable, so be sure to route the ribbon cable around the fuse holder. ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 16 Mon Mar 06, 1989 DEBS-GUEST [LSponenburgh] at 09:28 EST The incompatibility you're talking about probably is due to both devices residing in the same I/O page: Try changing the I/O location of the Lt. Kernal cartridge by moving the small jumper on the front end of the cart.. Lloyd ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 17 Mon Mar 06, 1989 D.SCHMOLDT [Dave/SysOp] at 22:46 EST Now I'm confused... If we send our original DOS disk to Xetec, can we get a free upgrade or will it cost $30.00? We don't really need the manual. If the DOS is available on two support BBSs, is it possible to make it available on GEnie? The drive was bought by our user group, and nobody can remember if the warranty card was sent in or not. But the drive did go bad under warrany, and Xetec replaced it free, so we assumed at that point we were registered. Maybe not. Dave ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 18 Fri Mar 10, 1989 DEBS-GUEST [LSponenburgh] at 09:28 EST I really have to say that you DO need the manual. In fact, we've just recently had some VERY negative press from a person who 'reviewed' the product for a major magazine, and who apparently never opened the book! I don't want to appear curt, but anyone who'd ASSUME they know enough about a product as complex as the Lt. Kernal to think that they didn't need the manual is about to get themselves in deep trouble with the system. HECK! WE even use the manual often. You can get the package from XETEC, and we will consider posting the free DOS's here. Note that the UPDATE PATCHES are available here, now. Lloyd ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 19 Fri Mar 10, 1989 HORO [-SysOp-] at 18:53 EST Dave, the new DOS versions include new commands and sometimes changes in old ones ... ------------ Category 17, Topic 11 Message 20 Fri Mar 10, 1989 D.SCHMOLDT [Dave/SysOp] at 21:23 EST Yeah, I meant "we have the old manual, not sure we need the new one." If there are major changes, looks like we do. Actually, we just use the drive to run a BBS on. I doubt we've even tapped much of the DOS, at least compared to a regular user. ------------ ************ Topic 19 Mon May 11, 1987 LGBRYAN [R F MAN] at 19:47 MDT Sub: LT KERNAL HARD DRIVE RUNNING BTPRO 128 WANT TO HEAR FROM ANYONE WHO HAS A LT KERNAL HARD DRIVE TO SEE IF THEY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GET BTPRO 128 TO RUN ON IT.................... 11 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 1 Mon May 11, 1987 LGBRYAN [R F MAN] at 19:55 MDT I WANTED TO START THIS TOPIC TO SEE IF ANYONE OUT THERE THAT HAS THE LT KERNAL HARD DRIVE FROM "XETEC" AND ALSO HAS BTPRO 128 HAS BEEN ABLE TO GET IT TO RUN ON THE HARD DRIVE. I HAVE TRIED TO DO EVERYTHING THAT I KNOW OF OF COURSE WITHOUT DOING ANYHTING TO THE PROGRAM TO GET IT TO RUN,WITHOUT ANY SUCCESS YET. IF ANYONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO GET IT TO RUN FROM THE HARD DRIVE PLEASE LET ME KNOW OR POST ANY INFO YOU HAVE THAT MOGHT BE HELPFUL. LET ME SAY THAT SINCE I AM USING A HARD DRIVE I AM TRYING TO RUN THE WHOLE PRG. AND PHONE FILES PLUS THE MACRO FILES FROM THE HARD DRIVE FOR THE FASTEST SPEED AND ACESS TIME............................. ANYONE WITH ANY IDEAS PLEASE SHARE YOUR INFO... THANKS....... ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 2 Mon May 11, 1987 DEB [*SysOp*] at 23:50 EDT Hiya LG...can you tell us what seems to be going wrong when you run BTPro on your Lt. Kernal?! I use BTPro 128 with a QuickSilver 128 and IEEE drives all the time without any troubles, but I don't have a Lt. Kernal...we'll see what exactly *is* and is not running right. *deb!* ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 3 Tue May 12, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 03:07 EDT LG, OKie, to get BTP 128 ONTO the Lt. Kernal, you run IQCUB and then the image copier. It *should* (note the word SHOULD) copy the disk over to whatever LU you allocated. Now, this does not work all the time, since Icecube seems to want to crash a lot in the transfer. But, we DID get ours over to the LK (in under 4 days! hehe) I have -no- idea about the macros and the phone files, since I do nothing more than boot the main program from it. But, since the LK is *almost* 1541/1571, I see no reason why the Macro/Phone files would NOT work! All I can say is create the files, and see what happens!! Let me know if I can help ya any more ok!! -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 4 Tue May 12, 1987 LGBRYAN [R F MAN] at 19:17 MDT ILL TRY TO COVER BOTH DEBS MSG AND GAYLE'S. AS FOR DEBS WHEN I COPY ALL THE FILES FOR BTPRO TO THE HARD DISK AND THEN TRY TO BOOT IT, IT SEEMS TO LOAD A COUPLE OF FILES FAST BUT THEN IT RESETS TO THE C-128 STARTUP SCREEN JUST AS IF YOU RESET THE COMPUTER. I DO NOT EVEN GET THE TITLE SCREEN FOR THE PRG. AS FOR GAYLE'S THE INFO IN THE BOOK THAT CAME WITH THE HARD DRIVE STATED THAT "ICQUB" ONLY WORKED IN C-64 MODE AT THIS TIME. THE INFO IN THE BOOK LACKS A LOT TO BE DESIRED AS TO WHAT PROCEDURE TO FOLLOW TO "ICQUB" A PRG. THAT HAS SEVERAL FILES ON DISK. IF I COULD "ICQUB" IT I AM NOT SURE WHICH PART TO "ICQUB" IN ORDER TO GET IT TO RUN NORMALLY. IT SOUNDS LIKE GAYLE HAS HAD A LITTLE EXPERIANCE WITH THE HARD DRIVE. YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO GIVE ME SOME MORE HINTS ON WHAT TO DO, IF YOU DON'T MIND BECAUSE I REALLY NEED TO SEE IF I CAN GET BTPRO TO WORK ON THE HARD DRIVE.............. THANKS AGAIN............... P.S. -- I ALSO USE "FONTMASTER 128" A LOT BUT NOT TO FEAR; THE LAST TIME I TALKED TO STEVE AT XETEC THEY WERE DEVELOPING A BOOT PRG. SO THAT "FONTMASTER" WOULD BOOT UP AND RUN GOOD ON THE HARD DRIVE. MAYBE BY THEN I WILL HAVE THE "FASTCOPY" UTILITY THAT WAS TO COME WITH THE HARD DRIVE. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FINISHED IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS I WAS TOLD, HA HA , MAYBE IT WON'T BE VAPOR WARE!!!!! ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 5 Tue May 12, 1987 MICHAEL.M [-:SysOp:-] at 21:45 EDT Isn't copy-protection a wonderful idea? ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 6 Tue May 12, 1987 DEB [*SysOp*] at 23:15 EDT What autoboot program/file/whatever are you trying to use with BTP 128?! It will ONLY boot/work if its all done/setup right...sounds really like its not booting correctly. ** ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 7 Tue May 12, 1987 GARYW at 23:07 CDT Thsi may be dumb on mypart, but it sounds like you are not using the dongel. ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 8 Wed May 13, 1987 CHARRINGTON [Courtney] at 06:21 PDT I can't give any information (cause I didn't ask...) but a friend is running BT Pro off his hard disk, but he removed the copy pro- tection first. It isn't too difficult to do. It took me maybe 20 minutes to do it. (I lose dongles) Courtney ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 9 Sat Jun 27, 1987 MX-1005 at 19:27 PDT To ALL: I have figured out the problem with btpro.128. It will not load off the hard drive mainly becuse of the screen, but even if it did load all the serial inputs and outputs are not addressed correctly for the LT. Kernal. If anyone tells you that they have a version running on there Lt. Kerna it is not a fact. It is impossiable to do unless they do a massive code change. ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 10 Sun Jun 28, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 00:47 EDT All I know is MINE runs on the Lt K without any problems or crashing of any type. (I lead a charmed life...) -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 19 Message 11 Sun Jun 28, 1987 DEB [*SysOp*] at 21:33 EDT I'm pretty confused here...! Whats wrong with BTPro 128's screen that the Lt. Kernal conflicts with? Custom characters are used, but they are used in the appropriate manner. Now, if you are saying that the Lt. Kernal requires so much memory for overhead and does not recognize standard I/O kernal calls for opens, closes, reads/writes, then that could be a problem. Have you contacted the author on his BBS?! The phone number is listed in the inside of the BTPro manual. I happen to KNOW that BTPro uses nothing but standard KERNAL I/O calls for all disk activity. The 80 column SCREEN calls don't use the Kernal routines, tho, they are swapped out for custom code so that your BTPro 128 could do 2400 or 4800 baud. As many of you already know, the 80 col screen is almost too slow to even do 1200 baud without enhancements. BUT...what has a custom screen driver got to do with disk activity?! *deb!* ------------ ************ Topic 21 Fri Mar 06, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 23:03 EST Sub: ICT Mini Chief Hard Disk! InConTrol just announced the release a new line of lower cost hard disk drives for the C64/128 systems today... 8 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 1 Fri Mar 06, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 23:06 EST ICT MINI CHIEF Hard Disk Drives: 10 MB lists for $595 20 MB lists for $695 These units include a 1571 5.25" floppy disk drive along with an internal 3.5" hard disk drive. Everything is housed in a 1571 case with fan cooling and an external power supply. They support Burst Mode in 1571 and CP/M modes, plus faster access in 64 dual sided mode. Features standard serial peripherial bus interface (with 2 ports), device number selection switches, and the ICT Turbo Fast Load support for C64 mode. DATA CHIEF REDUCED to $795 The Data Chief is still available, and now at a reduced price of only $795. In addition, the Data Chief now includes the 1571 floppy disk drive instead of a 1541 drive. The Data Chief is housed in an IBM PC style cabinet with an internal 150 watt power supply. The Data Chief offers future expansion capabilities with room for additional drives, etc. Stay tuned for further details folks! -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 2 Sat Mar 07, 1987 MAYSMITCHELL [SounDesign] at 00:00 EST gayle!!!! does the new hard drive have the new chips in it for the 1571 mode drive or does it use the old chips?!? ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 3 Sat Mar 07, 1987 TIGLON.G [*SysOp*] at 01:31 EST <looking> Doesn't say Ken, but my bet is NO, they are still using the old ones! I'll add that to my list of questions for Monday!! <grin> -<* Gayle ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 4 Mon Mar 16, 1987 POGREN at 00:50 EST I am interested in getting in contact with anyone interested in one of the new lower priced ICT hard disk systems. I beleive a discount can be arranged off the already new LOWER prices! Please let me know either here, GEnie mail, or on the BBS or TC roundtable. Thanks. POGREN ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 5 Mon May 11, 1987 M.NEIL at 18:57 EDT The Mini Chief will be using presently available 1571 drives so when the new chipset for the 1571 is available in general release drives the mini chief will have them. This if from a talk I had with a Sales Rep from ICT last month. Marc<tm> ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 6 Thu Dec 29, 1988 DO.RAE.MI at 20:38 EST Requiem in Pacem. inConTrol is out o business. The Computer Bar (PO Box 436 Hagerstown Md. 21741) has obtained manufacturing rights to the MiniChief hard drive. They do not honor warrantees. They can & will repair drives. They'll also convert existing 1571s Ted ------------ Category 17, Topic 21 Message 7 Fri Dec 30, 1988 C128.CPM [Bill] at 17:46 EST Yes, Ted!! 100% on the MARK! (as usual) Their phone number is 301-293-7005, ask for Scott Wishard, who is also here, on GEnie. There have been a few minor changes to the MINICHIEF, no par. support, 150 Watt power supply, more compatibility, 2 week turn around, and more reliability. About $670 with a working '71 drive. Scott has agreed to join us in several RTC conferences for discussions. He also is a repair center (authorized) that we can actually get answers from!! Enjoy!! ------------ ************ Topic 22 Thu Mar 12, 1987 C.HOGAN at 19:43 EST Sub: Cheap but good hard drive I need a cheep but good hard drive. 6 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 1 Thu Mar 12, 1987 C.HOGAN at 19:45 EST I need a hard drive, just a small one (5 meg), to use with my BBS. Can I get a cheap one anywere? Also, will it be considerd a device and have a drive number? (8,9,10,11) Please let me know. -Chris ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 2 Thu Mar 12, 1987 DEB [*SysOp*] at 19:54 EST CHeap and hard drive are almost mutually exclusive! You can watch for old used PET/IEEE hard drives to come up for sale, but they will require IEEE interfaces, and will be *old*...! For around $200 each, and many times less, you can pick up SFD 1001, the 1 MEG Floppy IEEE drives. Its the poor sysop's alternative to hard drives. *deb!* ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 3 Thu Mar 12, 1987 KEVIN.S [*Sysop*] at 20:44 EST Just as a pricing guide, CBM 9060's were going for $425 at the Commodore Show, without the interface. KeS ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 4 Sat Mar 14, 1987 RICHARDL at 10:42 MST Kevin, do you have an address for the 9060? I know a sysop that is considering one. ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 5 Tue Mar 17, 1987 KEVIN.S [*Sysop*] at 01:30 EST Well, I didn't think I would be able to find this flyer, but from the dim recesses of my room it called out to me! Missing Link Computer (415) 582-2160 Voice (415) 581-9452 Telecom Commodore 9060 Hard Disk Drive 5 meg storage $425.00 (Show Special Price) Limited number of 7.5 meg 9090's also available. Hope this helps! KeS ------------ Category 17, Topic 22 Message 6 Tue Mar 17, 1987 RICHARDL at 18:28 MST thanks...... ------------ ************ Topic 34 Tue Oct 13, 1987 B.MCAULIFFE (Forwarded) Sub: Hard Drive Interfaces Question on why there can't be an interface to link IBM hard drives to Commodores 8 message(s) total. ************ ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 1 Tue Oct 13, 1987 B.MCAULIFFE (Forwarded) As I understand it, at least one, if not all of the Commodore hard drives above 10 meg are IBM drives with Commodore controllers..If that's true, why isn't there an interface which allows us to utilize the IBM drives directly?? Are there any technical reasons that prevent this?? Brian McAuliffe ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 2 Tue Oct 13, 1987 CHARRINGTON [Courtney] (Forwarded) Maybe Commodore is trying to keep that a secret. Would be nice... if true and we could mickey-mouse something cheap. Courtney ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 3 Fri Oct 23, 1987 DEB (Forwarded) Our CBM Operating system expects to find a "smart" Commodore DOS at the end of the serial bus. Since we have *nothing* built in our computer to handle any other kind of I/O, we are severely limited in what we can use. This is why the interfaces are needed. More than just the wiring, juice and data bus, tho, the interfaces also serve as a "smart" link which the Operating System can depend upon for specific responses and tasks. To do away with the interface, you'd need to write a device driver and wedge it invisibly into the computer...of course, you'd also want to keep it compatible with existing kernal calls...we don't have the kind of RAM that would take....! And then, too, you'd also end up making your system incompatible with lots of software. Fun, fun, huh?! *deb!* ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 4 Fri Oct 23, 1987 S.LEWIS at 06:37 MDT Brian: When Dan Williamson's 9090 died, Ed Fatsinger replaced the mechanism and associated board with either a SASI or SCSI (dunno which) replacement... Now if we could get the artwork and chips from Commodore and build the IEEE/DOS board ourselves... hmmmmm.... Steve Lewis ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 5 Sat Oct 24, 1987 SPARROW.J at 02:01 EDT I do know that such a board has been developed, at least partially at CBM. I don't know how far the project got, but from what I have been told the marketing folks felt at the time that hard drives were so expensive that it would be a very low volume item. I also suspect that they sat back in their plush offices and mused, "Besides nobody that uses our machines have any real intensive data storage needs anyway..." Of course now that hard drives in the PC world are a time a dozen we all know better...it is a pity they don't. Of course these days they would rather take more of your money for something else than help you get more use out of something you already paid for, even if it means paying them to do so. Such is marketing once the new model year begins...perhaps CBM should move its headquarters to Detroit. --Sparrow James ------------ Category 17, Topic 34 Message 8 Sun Oct 02, 1988 J.M.DOWLEN at 23:21 CDT I AM WORKING ON A PROJECT TO DEVELOP A HARD DISK DRIVE FOR THE C64/128. THIS HARD DRIVE WOULD CONSIST OF A SMART DISK CONTROLLER THAT WOULD INTERFACE THE COMMODORE SERIAL PORT TO A STANDARD SCSI HARD DRIVE CONTROLLER. THE DESIGN UPON COMPLETION WOULD BE REALEASED INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN SO THAT ALL INTERESTED PARTIES COULD CONSTRUCT THEIR OWN HARD DRIVE FOR A REASONABLE PRICE. I WILL WORK THE HARDWARE END OF THE PROJECT IF WE CAN COME UP WITH SOME PROGRAMMERS TO PROGRAM THIS SMART CARD. INTERESTED PROGRAMMERS SHOULD HAVE A GOOD WORKING KNOWELDGE OF THE COMMODORE DOS, THE 'C' PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE OR PROGRAMMING IN MACHINE LANGUAGE WITH A INTEL 8051 MICRO- CONTROLLER CHIP. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN EXPERT IN ALL THREE OF THESE AS THE PROJECT WILL BE SPLIT UP BETWEEN PROGRAMMERS. PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING WITH THIS PROJECT SHOULD CONTACT ME DIRECTLY BY MAIL OR PHONE. J. M. DOWLEN RT 5 BOX 44-Z DUNCAN, OK 73533 (405) 255-7410 VOICE 7:30 AM TO 10:00 PM BBS 10:00 PM TO 7:30 AM ------------ Kevin, do you have an address for the 9060? I know a sysop that is considering one. ----------