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Author Topic: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek (Read 2890 times)

Offline trixster

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Hi,

Can you guys help a complete beginner to the Enterprise world? :)

I’ve recently added an Enterprise 128 to my collection. I have an IS-Basic cartridge and one of Pear’s EXDOS floppy interface cards for the expansion bus. I can power the Enterprise and the EXDOS board from a suitable 9v 2a psu; the machine boots fine, runs a few initial tests and then enters IS-Basic. I can enter the Word Processor and I can exit back to IS-Basic.

I can’t get anything else to work though, and I can’t access the EXDOS interface.

If I type :help I get something like ***not understood.

The problem is I can’t find online a beginners guide to get my head around what EXOS commands should work.

Is there a way I can test the EXDOS interface? :EXDOS also returns ***not understood

Should the EXDOS interface be tested during the boot process? Does it have to have a floppy drove or Gotek (or similar) interface to become active? The problem is I don’t know if the machine is faulty or the floppy interface card, or both! Or just me!

Can someone provide a quick tutorial or link to getting started with the Enterprise? I have a Gotek on the way so I hope to add some disk images to that if I can get things running.

Thanks!

Offline BruceTanner

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Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #1 on: 2019.June.10. 21:16:35 »
Without the EXDOS card connected :help should print IS-BASIC and WP versions.

Then with the EXDOS card connected :help should also include EXDOS. You won't see anything extra on the screen during boot up but a disk drive light should come on for a bit.

If EXDOS isn't working, the first thing I would look at is the edge connector on the EP - don't forget it could have 30-odd years of tarnish. I like Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) for cleaning. Or just wiggling the EXDOS card on its connector a bit can help.

Good luck! Let us know how you get on!

Offline Zozosoft

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    • http://enterprise.iko.hu/
Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #2 on: 2019.June.10. 21:36:03 »
Do you really enter the command with colon? Not a semicolon, or anything else.
If you enter a not existing command then *** Unrecognised command string is the error message. If you type other character than colon, then you get the not understood.
:help is a built-in EXOS function, it should work :oops:

EXDOS accesses the drives before the ENTERPRISE screen (to check if it's a single or dual drive system). When you press a key, then it also accesses the drive, looking for EXDOS.INI file.
EXDOS User Manual
« Last Edit: 2019.June.15. 09:59:18 by szipucsu »

Offline trixster

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  • Posts: 5
Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #3 on: 2019.June.10. 22:50:03 »
You are correct! User error!!!

I had not been typing a colon, instead I had been using a character that looks suspiciously like a colon! The problem is my keycaps are not standard English, so combinations of shift and a key do not produce what the keycap would suggest - example - shift-ö produces a + and alt-ö produces a ;

My trial and error was flawed and I thought shift-< produces a colon. Not so, I need to just press Ä

So I have ISDOS 1.0, EXDOS 1.4, BASIC 2.0 and WP 2.1

I can get into EXDOS but my gotek is a SFRC922, and with either an 800k IMG on it or normal files (like thesprcery files) I just get a Disk is unformatted error.

Do I need a SFRM72 gotek?

Offline trixster

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Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #4 on: 2019.June.10. 23:48:32 »
Ok, great success.

I remembered I have a usb to ttl serial interface, so I flashed my gotek with the flashfloppy firmware. I put it into indexed mode, loaded the config files, added a games .img file and it bloody works!!!

Offline Zozosoft

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Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #5 on: 2019.June.11. 08:14:13 »
Great new! :ds_icon_cheesygrin:

It is seems you have a German EP128 with English EP64 cartridge. Do you have a EPROM programer? Is possible to replace the cartridge ROM to BASIC 2.1 + German expansion, then the keyboard layout will be match with the machine. (But the error messages also will be German :oops: )

Can I ask your machine S/N to a bug Enterprise statistics?

Offline gflorez

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Re: Help for a beginner! EXOS, EXDOS interface and a Gotek
« Reply #6 on: 2019.June.12. 11:49:10 »
It would be great to write an app to customize the keyboard on the language Roms. The changes are very easy from one to other, but the memory positions aren't the same.

Also, as we said, the next EXOS version will have the keyboard fixed, so it will double the number of versions....