Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post Reply
User avatar
carlsson
Posts: 507
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:39 am
Location: Västerås, Sweden

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by carlsson » Fri Sep 13, 2013 7:48 pm

Yes, it looks like a floppy drive controller in the expansion port. How it affects Basic, I don't have a clue. Also, I don't know if it formats to a reasonably readable MFM format, but I would suppose it does.

By the way, I checked the box to my Laser 2001 and got reminded it originally came with both user's manual and Basic reference manual. Whether those two were integrated into one booklet or separate is hard to say. The German manual linked to from the Creativemu site is the Basic programmierhandbuch, so obviously the latter of the two. The Salora Manager manual rather might be a combination of both books, although it appears odd that the user's manual would contain more technical details than the Basic reference manual does.
User avatar
Mobsie
Posts: 708
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:38 am
Location: Weinheim, Germany

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by Mobsie » Tue Dec 10, 2013 5:09 pm

The Laser 2001 was planed to use the FD-100 Disk Drive. The same as the Laser-128 use. You know the Laser 128 is an Apple II clone, so the drive is Apple compatible.
And in the FD-100 Manual from vetch is written that is the drive for use with the Laser and the Apple II.
For the Laser 2001 there was the DI-200 Disk Controller to attach the FD 100 Drive.
User avatar
MADrigal
Site Admin
Posts: 1189
Joined: Sun Sep 15, 2013 1:00 pm
Contact:

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by MADrigal » Tue Dec 10, 2013 6:16 pm

From my memory, the guys from the Finnish museum (Pelikopojenoit) have a few Salora Manager units, the floppy interface, the floppy disk drives, and even a few pieces of software on floppy disk.
User avatar
carlsson
Posts: 507
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:39 am
Location: Västerås, Sweden

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by carlsson » Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:05 am

Interesting! The Laser 128 is said to use FD-100C while the FD-100A was used with the Z80 model Laser 500 (probably also 700). As the latter can be used to run CP/M, I would imagine the disk format (MFM, GCR etc) depends on the disk controller (e.g. DI-200) rather than the floppy drive itself that tends to be a "dumb" device. Perhaps the suffix A, B, C specifies the type of connector, so C specifically means it is pin compatible with Apple ][ floppy drive controller boards?

I also saw that the Laser 310 used a drive called DD-20 with its own interface.

On the Pelikonepeijoonit site, I noticed (again?) that there is a Finnish word processing software on disk for the Manager. I wonder how many more there were, both Laser 2001 labeled and ones by Salora or 3rd party publishers. Technically, I suppose if anyone gets ahold of a floppy disk setup, one could format a blank floppy and then see if either of the different hardware archiving expansions for PC (Catweasel, Kryoflux, Disc Ferret etc) could make anything useful of it, even raw data. If the floppy disks indeed would be Apple ][ compatible, it would probably be relatively easy to read them but I'm unsure that is the case.
User avatar
@username@
Posts: 320
Joined: Tue Oct 22, 2013 6:59 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by @username@ » Sat Dec 14, 2013 6:54 pm

I took a quick look at the posted Laser 2001 BASIC Learning Typing Tape, and here's what I got.

It uses a 4k null leadin and leadout - with the payload packed in the middle as one block - unlike the CV with it's little 64byte packets.

The sync marker is 0x1A5995A01. This is the same for Sonic Invaders tape.

Hope this makes sense to someone :)

A good copy of a Sonic Invaders tape would be good, as the one posted has too many dropouts to accurately recover each byte.

You'll need a hex editor to view the attachment.

Although my German is non existant, this looks like a general BASIC intro to me.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
Mobsie
Posts: 708
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:38 am
Location: Weinheim, Germany

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by Mobsie » Sun Dec 15, 2013 7:48 pm

from the Laser-2001 and the basic files are in german.
User avatar
carlsson
Posts: 507
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:39 am
Location: Västerås, Sweden

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by carlsson » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:21 pm

I can't recall if it was mentioned before, but I just noticed that when inserting CreatiVision cartridges into the Laser 2001, the startup screen only displays the year, it omits the CreatiVision logo. I don't know if the graphic definitions still are in the ROM, just not displayed by the BIOS routine.

Also, the following keys register with CreatiVision BASIC:

Key "O" gives a minus sign
Key "L" gives a repeated @ sign with zero delay, i.e. one keypress yields at least 2-3 @ signs. The upper row of the sign is blank though.
The keys ";" and cursor right/up yield the same @ sign.
The space bar gives a space character, so it is the only key that matches the CreatiVision keyboard

All other keys on the Laser 2001 are "dead" when used with CreatiVision BASIC.
User avatar
Mobsie
Posts: 708
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:38 am
Location: Weinheim, Germany

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by Mobsie » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:25 pm

the logo graphic definitions are in the CV bios. I have copied the startup routine in my ask code to display "2013" , and i use the graphic definitions from the bios also.
User avatar
carlsson
Posts: 507
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:39 am
Location: Västerås, Sweden

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by carlsson » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:28 pm

Do your programs work in the same way on your Manager? Of course if you copied the graphics from BIOS into your own ROM and use your own routine (like I've planned to do as well when time permits), it would display no matter what the host machine has in its BIOS.
User avatar
Mobsie
Posts: 708
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:38 am
Location: Weinheim, Germany

Re: Laser 2001 & Salora Manager - official thread

Post by Mobsie » Thu Dec 19, 2013 8:53 pm

i have not test this. I only have copy the ASM code and modify to 2013, the graphic i have not copied, i display from the bios rom.
Post Reply