OqtaDrive Formating

[Pepperm]

I hate to be asking more questions of you all about OqtaDrive, especially as the documentation appears to be very comprehensive (well until it comes to my issues it would seem ). But, can you actually format a "virtual" microdrive with it? I have made all the diode updates to the microdrive that I have left in my Issue 5 board (hope that the diode is in the right way, matching the issue 5 schematic) but when I say "format mdv1_" I just get "format failed" as a response. I have inserted a virtual drive from the OqtaDrive GUI with format, but can't seem to format from the QL.

Any suggestions?

[xelalex]

Set the log level to debug, run the format command and get the log once it stopped. We can then analyze the issue further.

Edit: Also try putting a cartridge with write protect tab present (i.e. cartridge is not write protected) in your h/w drive and see whether that makes any difference.

[Pepperm]

Tried putting in the unprotected cartridge and that made no difference. Which way around should the diode go? I have the cathode connected to the resistor as per the issue 5 schematic. Is this right?

Where, again, will I find the logs please?

[xelalex]

Tried putting in the unprotected cartridge and that made no difference. Which way around should the diode go? I have the cathode connected to the resistor as per the issue 5 schematic. Is this right?

Yes, that's correct.

Where, again, will I find the logs please?

See my previous explanation

[Pepperm]

Isn’t that the setup log and config file? Is that what you are after? Please excuse my ignorance…

[xelalex]

Isn’t that the setup log and config file? Is that what you are after?

No. Please read the last paragraph of that post.

[Pepperm]

Here is the log set to Trace and captured after a format mdv2_ was issued at the QL keyboard. The output tells me nothing.

To be honest, some very odd things are happening now. If I dir mdv1_ I get files that don't appear in the web interface, I can format the hardware microdrive (mdv3_) and even copy files too it from mdv4_ but afterwards I can't see any files on mdv4_ it seems to list the mdv2_ drive name and sectors as the contents. I can see the files in mdv4_ from the web interface from the web interface. I have refreshed the browser window, Ill reboot the pi to see how that gets on...

format issue log.zip

(720 Bytes) Downloaded 27 times

Oh and both the LEDs are on now, only the built in QL flashes and after a reboot of the pi (sudo reboot from the SSH session) everything described above seems to be the same.

I'm loosing faith that this all works.

[xelalex]

It looks like automatic drive offset detection is not working reliably, which can cause all sorts of misbehavior. Since your OqtaDrive is built into your QL as first drive in chain, and will never be anywhere else, we can simply fix the offset to 0 in the config. To do that, ssh into the Pi and edit /home/pi/oqtadrive/config.h again, changing DRIVE_OFFSET_QL from -1 to 0. Flash the firmware afterwards and test.

[xelalex]

I'm loosing faith that this all works.

It works for many users in many different setups, no faith required

[Pepperm]

Thanks for that, things do now seem to be better. I have even formatted mdv2_ and copied a file from mdv1_ to it. The web interface only caught up with the format and file copy from the QL once I went to the web interface and gave the drive a name. I had refreshed the web interface with little effect to what was displayed. Is this as expected?

I'm getting my faith back again... Just hope that this all works the same tomorrow.

Is there any way that this could all be done with an interface based on thr Pico-W instead of a Pi as having to wait for the Pi to boot and having to shut it down at the end of a QL session if painful. I know that the PicoMd does it for the Spectrum but has a display that I can't see fitting into the QL, non destructively.