steveg@SAIC.COM (Stephen Harold Goldstein) (10/24/89)
Here's a quick update on the Spectre GCR. I had an enlightening conversation
yesterday with Doug Wheeler, who informed me that a run of the Mac format PD
disks distributed with the GCR have problems around tracks 1 thru 5. Thus the
'known good' disk is bad, but you should be able to read 95% of the disk.
Thus before you go off and start adjusting the pot in the GCR, try reading and
writing to some other disks. You may find that you're calibrated fine.
For those who do need to tweak the beast, there is a 'problem' with the
imbedded GCR test software in that some test functions will only operate on
drive B:. Doug explained that basically the code was for internal testing, and
that they had debated whether or not to let people have access to it. In this
light, I can understand the limitation, but be forewarned, the "t", "T", "c",
and "C" test commands go straight to drive B:, and try to format IMMEDIATELY!.
If you have only one floppy, the code will report errors and get caught in an
infinite loop. There are other test options available that will work fine
on a single floppy system (or in my case, where the 2nd floppy is 5-1/4").
Please don't take the above out of context. The GCR is a good product.
And based on my conversation yesterday, the support is outstanding - taking
the time to explain not only what the problem was but WHY things work that
way - seems their test machine is a two floppy 520 - test program in drive A:,
disk to format in drive B:.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Dave Small or Gadgets by Small,
except as a satisfied Magic Sac/Translator One/Spectre 128/
Spectre GCR owner.
P.S. Translator One for sale - any offers?