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Re: The Infamous Bad Data Problem
There are a number of ways to run DOS:
1) A dual boot PC. A partition for Win98 and a partition
for DOS. You choose which runs at boot time by using a
fancy boot loader. When you boot Win98 the DOS partition
is the D: drive. SO you'd boot DOS to collect data and
the re-boot Win98 to look at the data.
2) DOS running under VMware in a virtual machine. This is
very robust but I'm not sure about using it in a real time
environment. VMware runs under either Windows or Linux.
(VMware is also a good way to run Win98 under Linux.)
4) Run DOS inside "dosemu" under Linux. I know first hand
that your QBASIC code runs this way. but the setup is not
100% simple. It took a couple attempts.
5) Use a network and multiple PCs. TOM1, ... TOMn all
run some OS be it DOS or whatever but save the FITS images
to a PC that runs Win98 and DS9. If you don't want to pull
cables go wireless. Wireless LAN cards are now cheap and
run at 11Mbps for a hundred feet or more.
6) some combination of above. For example run DOS under
dosemu under Linux while collecting data then in the morning
fire up Windows inside VMware so you can run DS9 and look
at the data. (This is the same as #1 but you save all the
re-boots.)
Tom Droege wrote:
>
> Chris and all,
>
> I think I have a fool proof reset function built into the card. This is
> why it has taken me so long to figure out this problem.
>
> I think that Windows saves a byte somewhere. Or possibly you are
> correct. We use the space normally used by the game board? We are using
> 300H-303H as I recall. We need 4 spaces anywhere from 200H to
> 3FFH. Anyone know what space would be safe?
>
> Hmmmm! Were I to switch to dos, how do I do it and what dos? I think with
> Windows 98 you have windows whether you like it or not??? Also is there a
> dos that knows about large disk space? It is now an operational
> convenience to have Windows available as the tools I use to look at data
> run under windows.
>
> But I have sworn a sacred oath to learn something else now that Bill has
> escaped justice.
>
> Tom Droege
>
> At 09:14 PM 11/5/01 -0800, you wrote:
>
> >Pure guess but I notice you picked an I/O space location
> >for your register that is commonly used on network cards.
> >I forgot the address (hex three hundred and something?)
> >
> >It's not random.
> >Windows will poke around and try to find hardware by stuffing
> >bytes into registers and reading them back out. This could
> >be the cause and it could also be why I don't see it on
> >my card. But I only used either Linux or just plain DOS,
> >never Windows. What you need is a fool proof reset function
> >built into the card. Either that or give up on using
> >Windows :)
> >
> >Tom Droege wrote:
> > >
> > > As you all know, I have been plagued with a "bad data" problem. It is most
> > > likely caused by the data from the memory card being one byte off. That is
> > > what it looks like.
> > >
> > > Whenever it happens I take care to note what might have happened. This
> > > evening while testing TOM2, the bad data appeared suddenly. It happened
> > > just after I interrupted the program while it was in the middle of running
> > > Rob's Download program. After that, it read consistently bad data.
> > >
> > > I then shut down windows properly. It shut down as if it was doing it
> > > properly. I turned off power, and when I turned it back on, it said that I
> > > had not turned off the computer properly and did the memory scan
> > > thing. Now it read out the memory card properly.
> > >
> > > OK, it looks to me like Windows is stashing an odd byte
> > > somewhere. Possibly it is a random thing on turn on and it thinks that
> > > there is an odd byte to read and does so. The result is that sometimes
> > > when I turn on the system reads out the bytes in correct sequence and
> > > sometimes it is one byte off.
> > >
> > > OK, I accuse my hardware first. But I have tried everything. It is
> > > beginning to really look like there is something in Windows that gets one
> > > byte off on the I/O port, and then often remembers that on turn
> > > on. Barf! This may be hard to believe.
> > >
> > > Now that several of you are trying to run Mark IVs and with different
> > > operating systems, it will be interesting if you see this problem. The
> > > symptom is an image with -32k to +32k range and a sigma of large. The data
> > > looks like big time noise. It suddenly comes and is hard to get rid
> > > of. Usually a few restarts of Windows will do it. Sometimes it takes all
> > > night.
> > >
> > > Tom Droege
> >
> >--
> >
> >--
> > Chris Albertson
> > Redondo Beach, California
> > home: 310-376-1029 chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
> > cell: 310-990-7550
> > office: 310-336-5189 Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org
--
--
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California
home: 310-376-1029 chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
cell: 310-990-7550
office: 310-336-5189 Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org