Difference between revisions of "Vortex Disc Drives"

Revision as of 07:46, 26 May 2022

A series of 3.5" and 5.25" floppy disc drives from Vortex providing up to 720K capacity (704K available).

S- and D-Drives (720K)

These are the very first generation of floppy disc drives from Vortex. They came in variants having either a single ("S" variant) or two ("D" variant) DS/DD 80-track drives installed (BASF 6138).

• Vortex Floppy Disk Station F1 für den Schneider CPC 464 - Benutzerhandbuch (manual)

Variants

• F1 - S Single 5.25" drive with power supply connected via ribbon cable to interface with NEC765 and VDOS 1.0 or 2.11
• F1 - D Double 5.25" drive with power supply connected via ribbon cable to interface with NEC765 and VDOS 1.0 or 2.11
• M1 - S Single 3.5" drive with power supply connected via ribbon cable to interface with NEC765 and VDOS 1.0 or 2.11
• M1 - D Double 3.5" drive with power supply connected via ribbon cable to interface with NEC765 and VDOS 1.0 or 2.11

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  Vortex F1-D with CPC 6128 Interface

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  An anonymous box housing the controller board

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  Look inside the controller, a NEC 765 chip and VDOS upgraded to v2.0

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  Controller with mounted VDOS chip

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  F1-D Interface (CPC 664)

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  F1-D Interface Board (CPC 664)

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  F1-D Interface Board (CPC 664)

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  F1-D Interface Board (CPC 6128)

FD-1 Drive Adapter

This adapter allowed to use an Amstrad 3" drive on Vortex F1/M1-D setups connected to a CPC 464. Since only two drives can be used simultaneously, the 3" drive had to be manually mounted first using a RSX command:

• |S,1 to use 3" drive as drive A, upper Vortex drive is disabled,
• |S,2 to use 3" drive as drive B, lower Vortex drive is disabled,
• |S,0 to disable the 3" drive (default)

• 3" Adapter zur VORTEX-Diskettenstation (manual)

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  Adapter to connect an additional 3" disc drive in between a CPC 464 and a F1/M1

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  Inside the adapter box

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  Inside the adapter box (closeup)

Second Drive Upgrade

Vortex offered an upgrade option that allowed an F1/M1-S single drive to be upgraded to an F1/M1-D dual drive. To do this, one simply had to install an additional drive in the free drive slot of the S-drive housing.

Z-Drives (180K)

These are basic and less expensive low-capacity drives and were meant to be directly connected to a CPC 664/6128 or CPC 464 with DDI-1 (ie. on computers that already provide a floppy controller). Since these drives do not ship with a special controller, they do rely fully on AMSDOS and thus only 40 tracks can be accessed.

Variants

• F1 - Z Single 5.25" drive with power supply with ribbon cable (does not come with interface containing FDC or VDOS)
• M1 - Z Single 3.5" drive with power supply with ribbon cable (does not come with interface containing FDC or VDOS)

X-Drives (720K)

These are the latest drives from Vortex for use on CPC 664/6128 or CPC 464 with DDI-1 (ie. on computers that already have a FDC). Only single-drive variants were available. The |S command (for accessing a third drive) is no longer used, the new |X command allows to swap drive A and B (same as X-DDOS from Dobbertin). These drives are well designed and strong. They are housed in a metal case with power supply (which has good protection with fuses) and have good quality drive mechanisms. The drive has jumpers on it that can be configured as needed.

• Vortex X-Laufwerke (manual)
• Manual de las Unidades Vortex (manual)
• NEC drive inside Vortex M1-X NEC drive inside Vortex M1-X

Variants

• F1 - X Single 80 track, Double Sided, 5.25" drive with power supply
• M1 - X Single 80 Track, Double Sided, 3.5" drive with power supply
• F1 - XRS same as F1-X, upgraded with RS232-C interface
• M1 - XRS same as M1-X, upgraded with RS232-C interface

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  F1-X

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  F1-X backside

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  F1-X inside view

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  F1-X/M1-X manual and utility disk

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  M1-X

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  M1-X backside

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  M1-X backside, showing IDC connection

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  M1-X underside

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  M1-X inside view, showing the drive and power

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  M1-X inside view, close-up of the drive from above

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  M1-X inside view, close-up from the backside

X(RS)-Modul

The X-drives for the CPC 664/6128 are connected directly to the floppy port. To provide VDOS, a "X-Modul" had to be installed. This was a single-ROM board with VDOS 2.0-X and came in two versions, one of which providing an additional RS232-C interface ("XRS-Modul"). The version for the CPC 464 came with a chunky housing in which both the X(RS)-Modul and the DDI-1 had to be installed.

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  F1-XRS Interface (CPC 464)

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  F1-XRS Interface with DDI-1 installed (CPC 464)

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  X-Modul (CPC 6128)

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  X-Modul (CPC 6128) board

RS232 I/O Ports

The RS232-C interface of the -XRS modules are suspected to be at least partially compatible with Amstrad/Pace interfaces.

• Vortex RS232-C Manual (pdf)

VDOS

• Benutzerhandbuch für das Diskettenbetriebssystem VDOS 2.0 (VDOS 2.0 user manual)

Vortex Disk Format

See VDOS: Vortex Disc Format

Drive Interface I/O Ports

The drives interfacing with their own FDC can be used with the CPC 6128 to use different I/O ports (see below).

Standard addresses (same as used by AMSDOS)

FB7Eh 765 FDC (internal) Status Register (R) FB7Fh 765 FDC (internal) Data Register (R/W) FA7Eh Floppy Motor On/Off Flipflop

Special addresses (secondary FDC)

The special addresses are mentioned in the manual for the Vortex -X drives, but apparently they are referring to other/older Vortex drives, not the -X drives. The special addresses are used only on CPC 664/6128 and only if the Vortex drive includes an FDC chip.

FBF6h 765 FDC (Vortex,ext) Status Register (Read) FBF7h 765 FDC (Vortex,ext) Data Register (R/W) FA7Eh Floppy Motor On/Off Flipflop (nearly same as normal, bit precise)

The X drive has a different PCB than the PCB for the S, the manual describes connecting the DDI-1 interface to the X drive interface and a 'decoder-ROM' which defines the I/O decoding?

• Note1: The -Z and -X drives do not include FDC chips.

So, not sure if/when the Special addresses are used at all?