uBee512 - Accessing a B: Drive?

[mjelic]

I can't seem to find much documentation on uBee... I'm able to to boot it up to a particular disk drive (by setting the -a parameter, or renaming a disk to BOOT.DSK) so for example, I am loading up 128k_premium_master_86_07_ss80.dsk and all works fine.

But from there, how do I "load" a different disk or "insert" another disk into Drive B:?  For example, I would like to load EDASM, after I boot.

And, once I have a B: diskette "inserted", will I be able to say copy EDASM from the B: to the A: and then just have a "Blank" B: for saving files to?

Or am I expecting too much out of the uBee emulator?

[Ernest]

Just define what you want for a second drive or third or forth.

A suitable command line is below.

ubee512 --model=128k --rom1=bn5443.rom --format=ds40 -a standard_128_master_ds40.dsk -b (whatever other ds40 image name you want to load).dsk

You can even specify different image types, it's all detailed in the readme.txt file in the DOC directory.

Ernest

[ChickenMan]

Have a read of README.TXT in your UBEE512\doc folder. Use -b filenane.dsk after the -a 128k_premium_master_86_07_ss80.dsk

But there is a problem here, our EDASM disk is a 5.25" disk and the 128k disk is a 3.5" disk and neither will see the other and there is no program or facilities on the 128k disk to tell it B: drive is a 5.25" drive. So the quickest and simplest fix would for me to put a 3.5" image of EDASM in the Repository, so check for it shortly.

[ChickenMan]

Okay have put up a double sided 3.5" disk image of EDASM in the Repo, that will give you lot more disk space for files. Its also bootable and I have included CPM2HOST.COM and HOST2CPM.COM to allow you to copy files from the image to you Hard Drive or the the other way round. COPY.COM is there also to copy to and from a drive to drive or use Transfer.com So use

ubee512 -a 128k_premium_master_86_07_ss80.dsk -b edasm_v42_ds80.dsk

I would copy any necessary from A: to B: and then boot the EDASM disk in A: drive. There is 660k free on the EDASM disk. If you want a blank disk, just make a copy of the
edasm_v42_ds80.dsk on the your HD but with a different name (such as edasm_files_ds80.dsk), boot the original edasm disk with the new disk as B: , move to the B: drive and type in DEL *.* and hit return. You now have a 776k blank disk.

[Under4Mhz]

As others have mentioned ubee512 with the -a and -b options will insert disks into a and b drive.

When you boot up the standard_128_master_ds40 disk that cool little menu appears.

If you type in "b:" (letter "b" and a colon) and press enter, this will show the contents of the other disk in the list.

If you press 7, this will take you to the transfer menu. Press 1 to copy. Page Up selects files, and you can select multiple files. You can set the destination as b: or a: depending on the disk shown.

If you press 0, that will take you to the CP/M prompt, and you can use cp to copy files from b: to a:

You can also use cpmtools on your PC, if you download the patched version from the repository. This has the command cpmcp that will copy files to and from a disk.

Code:

cpmcp -f ss80 -T dsk disk_ss80.dsk edasm.com 0:edasm.com

As an aside, if you're looking to do debugging for the Microbee, I've found the mame debugger to be useful. "mame -debug" starts mame with a separate debugger window. To set a break point, type "bpset address" in the little one line edit box at the bottom, and hit F5 to run.

[mjelic]

Thanks to both of you!
That README file really need to have a file extension!
Man is that packed full of info!! Going through is slowly but I probably don't need half of it! And who is this Peter Broughton dude? What's his story? Did he manage to get Microbees to run at 6+ Mhz? Nice one! That must have been the fastest Z80 machine at the time!

I actually managed to get it going by using the bn56.rom, the premium_128_getting_to_know_your_microbee_ds40.dsk and the edasm_v42_ds40.dsk.
But man... Is EDASM hard work! Holy moly.

Thanks, ChickenMan... I'll get those disk images and try them out.

What I ideally want to get to try is that CF card mod you did. If I can get a Microbee that is just the main keyboard (so thus portable) and be able to run EDASM (maybe Wordbee as well since EDASM is such hard work for editing) and be able to save files easily rather than using a Tape, then that is my dream setup.

Oh and random comment: Man, there are sooooo many different models of Microbee!! How the hell did software developer pick a platform to develop to?? Like, what was the most common Bee out there and what would be considered a "base" model that you could be sure the majority of machines could be targeted for your code?

[ChickenMan]

Peter Broughton produced an updated boot disk with many new features, I personally use it all the time. He even produced a new disk format for the bee, referred to as a DS84 with a capacity of 784k. It was intended to be used for the Prem 128k thats been updated to a 512k Premium or a 64k CIAB thats been updated to 256k. There are a number of mods that can double the speed of the original 3.375mhz to 6.75mhz but you need to upgrade to a Z80B, though generally a Zilog Z80A can handle the increased speed. You may also need to use a higher speed PIO. My PP+ has had the mod done (originally done back in 1990 to the base board) and running the PB system, I just use SPEED F for Fast and SPEED S for normal.

I would not recommend Wordbee for writing your text but to use WordStar in Non-Document mode as it saves files in pure txt format, unlike Wordbee. EDASM was made run from a ROM on the early based bee's and the disk version runs much the same also. You know you can run a CF system in ubee512 and turn the speed up using, say -x 10 and it would run at 10khz. I do all my Turbo Pascal, Bascom and C via ubee512 using a CF image, like

ubee512.exe --video-type=hw --rom1=bn56cf8_059.rom --ide-a0=cfboot_0_59_cf8_128k_1p_CHS_490_4_32.hdd-76-4-32

with the ROM and CF image in repository. That image only has 1 partition (drive) but another 3 x 5mb partitions can be added. You can also have a floppy image attached, in the above case adding at the end -a turbo_pascal_ds80.dsk would actually add it as dive B:. If you had 4 partitions on the CF it would be added as E:, that can be a bit confusing.

As for Z80 assembly, I do it all via Windows using Z80ASM.COM ( https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fi...16866.html ) and then transfer the file to a 'bee disk image for testing.

Yes there were quite a few different Microbee models but the BASIC that runs on them all is basically the same (there was a few minor exceptions) be it ROM or disk version. So most arcade games for example run out of BASIC but as Z80 assembled files (*.BEE) rather than as a Basic (*.MWB) file. Disk based Microbees all run CP/M (well updated ZCPR versions) so all the *.COM files just conform to the requirements of CP/M but things like Screen addy, keyboard access, sound, colour etc all Microbee specific. So producing a *.BEE file with an ORG of 0900h should run on all Microbees, with maybe the exception of the 256TC as it has a very different keyboard access.

[mjelic]

>Okay have put up a double sided 3.5" disk image of EDASM in the Repo,

What location did you put it in?

>As for Z80 assembly, I do it all via Windows using Z80ASM.COM ( https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fi...16866.html ) and then transfer the file to a 'bee disk image for testing.

Cheers... And what's the quickest way of transferring a file to a Bee drive? Even the Gotek doesn't make that any easier.
I think this CF mod might be the go.

[ChickenMan]

It in the Microbee\Software\Applications folder where the DS40 image is also.

If you boot the edasm_v42_ds80.dsk in A: via ubee512, then use HOST2CPM d:\temp\filename.xxx A: with d:\filename.xxx being the drive, folder and filename that you want to transfer to the edasm image. You can use *.* , *.??? FILE*.*, etc etc for the files, the same as you would use on MS-DOS or CP/M.

[mjelic]

>then use HOST2CPM

Sorry mate, you'll have to help me out here. I can't find that in the Repo