FDS Stick writing - Error 22

[milkmanv1]

Hey guys,

I'll make this quick, but I'd really appreciate some help from anyone whose successfully written a disk with their FDS stick!

I have a FD7201P drive board, and a revision 5 power board. I did the write mod that is shown on the site here with removing the 2 factory wires, soldering in 2 jumpers, and cutting 2 traces. Last night I soldered up an FDS Stick adapter cable using the connectors recommended by loopy by joining the appropriate pins. The first thing I did after "write modding" my power board was to toss in a disk and make sure I didn't fry my properly calibrated FDS. Mission success on that end atleast!

So once I realized my disk system was still in proper order, I decided to test out "reading a disk" first - the game I really want to re-write Arumana no Kiseki, which is sadly overwritten with a GARBAGE poker game. Anyway, the junky poker game that was on there did load up in my FDS no problem. I kept getting read errors, which are as follows "HIDAPI error (The semaphore timeout perioid has expired)" well I figured screw it, it was a re-written disk anyway. I went over to the "write disk" and threw Arumana no Kiseki FDS image at it. It went through writing side 1 then prompting me to write side 2. After stating it was done, I went back over to my Famicom + Ram Adapter and wound up with an error 22. I attempted to write a few different FDS images, but all to the same error 22. The darn thing wont even give an A+B side error when trying to load side B first.

So, my thoughts. I doubt it could be the cable, because the FDS stick is communicating with the drive unit, getting it to spin at the appropriate times and all that jazz. Could it be that my traces aren't cut deep enough with the "write mod" causing some copy protection to still come through? A short with the wires? Or possibly the FDS image I am using is not the proper one to write onto a disk? These FDS images I am trying to write are tested/working on my FDS stick connected to the RAM adapter...

Any experience/help/troubleshooting/thoughts/ideas is appreciated.

Thanks peeps.
-Joe

[EdGe7x]

Joe,

Try a "No Intro" image. I'm wondering since most of the images out there are for emulator playing, they have a 16 byte header that is not needed on the physical media. Make sure your game is 65500 kb only. Not 65516 kb.
Post Merge: February 28, 2017, 07:27:53 pm
Hey Joe,

Turns out this shouldn't matter. I loaded an image with the header and it loads up fine.

My guess is that when writing the actual image to the disk, the software likely leaves the header out.

[milkmanv1]

Yeah last night I tried a No Header disk image, once again didn't make the cut. My next guess was not cutting the traces deep enough, which of course, I didn't. I was hopeful that would be my fix, but alas, same issues, not reading or writing. I'm currently doublechecking that I do in fact have a 7201 Drive... if I do (like I think) then I really don't know what the problem is other than my cable. I doublechecked my jumper wires and made sure my traces were cut deep enough...a mystery....

Edit: 7201P confirmed (aka doublechecked) I knew I'm not thaaat stupid haha. Anyway, no clue, once again any assistance from anyone who has hit any roadbumps and got past them appreciated. I don't think theres a short in my cable, but I did use really thick wire (Like....10 guage from a car that I was working on and the wiring harness was already cut, so I just chopped chunks of wire off to use for soldering projects) I may wind up "remaking" my cables once I get something in the 24-28 gauge range. But again, if the cable is telling the system WHEN to read write, and believing it is writing properly, I'm not sure what the problem is....

[P]

Turns out this shouldn't matter. I loaded an image with the header and it loads up fine.

My guess is that when writing the actual image to the disk, the software likely leaves the header out.

Yes the FDSStick recognize but doesn't require the 16-bit "fwNES header". When transfering the disk images into the FDS stick, it converts them to a format that is similar to the format on real disks, including the gaps between each block and the block CRCs.

[EdGe7x]

So the problem is obviously that the image is not being written to the disk correctly since we can rule out the drive as being the point of the 'reading' error. That does't mean that the drive is free and clear in this issue. It could still be that the mod is not fully functional.

So the next question, can you read the contents of any disk? If you can't read any disk you may have an issue that was discussed in the main thread over at NesDev where Loopy announces the FDSstick and works through some of the initial issues. At first, many people had problems reading... it was suggested that some try adding a 10k ohm resister to pin 9. Give that a shot. http://www.fdsstick.com/101-2/

I believe getting your cable to at least properly read a disk is the first step to move towards actually having a good transfer cable. Oh, it has been my experience... albeit short... that a disk that shows error 22 cannot be read from FDSstick or FDSLoadr properly. It has to be a disk that boots up. That said, you should take caution to chose a disk that you can potentially risk corrupting even though are are just trying to read it. I'm fairly certain if you tried to read the disk you are trying to re-image you will get an error and FDSstick will not create a file.

Another thing mentioned in that thread was to use different computers. Some reported that some computers work better than others but admittedly that was early in development and his program could have gotten to the point where that was not needed anymore. It never hurts to try though.

I'm also new to the FDS hobby and I'm having problems of my own but at least I am able to write to disks... just can't save in-game data. (so freaking frustrating)
Post Merge: March 01, 2017, 11:16:09 am

Turns out this shouldn't matter. I loaded an image with the header and it loads up fine.

My guess is that when writing the actual image to the disk, the software likely leaves the header out.

Yes the FDSStick recognize but doesn't require the 16-bit "fwNES header". When transfering the disk images into the FDS stick, it converts them to a format that is similar to the format on real disks, including the gaps between each block and the block CRCs.

Thank you for confirming this...

Interestingly enough, when you read a disk it adds the header automatically. I suppose this was done to maintain compatibility with emulators. Very well thought out.

[milkmanv1]

I'm also new to the FDS hobby and I'm having problems of my own but at least I am able to write to disks... just can't save in-game data. (so freaking frustrating)

Well thats an awkward and unforseen issue. I hope that doesn't happen on my end if I can get this sorted, but I'm now prepared if it does. Thats a royal pain, atleast arumana no kiseki isn't a saving game.

Anyway, I'll try the resistor this weekend. As I detailed in my first post I cannot read any disks either. I do have 2 copies of Esper dream, one with the paper insert, and one just in the plastic case. Got the 2nd copy for like....3$ shipped from someone who advertised the game as "translated" but they were really just advertising that you could download a translation patch. My hope is that if I can get Arumana no Kiseki working that I can write up an "english copy" of Esper Dream....which hopefully will save.

So long story long, I do have a spare disk which if it was corrupted during the read process, aint no big thing.

I'll post back once I get a chance to hit a local radio shack and snag a 10kohm resistor

[EdGe7x]

Well thats an awkward and unforseen issue. I hope that doesn't happen on my end if I can get this sorted, but I'm now prepared if it does. Thats a royal pain, atleast arumana no kiseki isn't a saving game.

I can't even necessarily blame the power board mod because I have removed the power mod and put everything back to original and I still can't save in-game. I think this issue is specific to me. I may have received a bad FDS with this problem. I've determined that the only way to overcome this issue is to order a first gen power board and a 3206 drive so I can rule stuff out through the process of elimination. I already have Tomy's V3 Modchip so I will be able to write mod the drive. But first thing's first. As soon as I get the new parts, I am going to make sure I can save in-game. You can view my troubles in the thread below... Tomy's been trying to help me out but I had a good idea of what the problem was from the very beginning and knew much wasn't going to work. I just think I was unlucky. The strange part is that the FDS and the RAM adapter look almost brand new! I mean, they are flawless... the inside is also pristine. It's almost like these sat in a warehouse unused but they must have been in a sealed bag or something because it just looks so damn good.

http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=15588
Post Merge: March 03, 2017, 07:16:29 pm
I figured out my problem... check the thread. May be something you could look into as well.

[P]

So it was a power problem. I should thought of that. It's a very common problem when you get weird errors and stuff. For the FDS it's especially common that people use cheap batteries that won't do. Normally the FDS should give battery error if the power supply is a problem but it evidently doesn't always do that.

Turns out this shouldn't matter. I loaded an image with the header and it loads up fine.

My guess is that when writing the actual image to the disk, the software likely leaves the header out.

Yes the FDSStick recognize but doesn't require the 16-bit "fwNES header". When transfering the disk images into the FDS stick, it converts them to a format that is similar to the format on real disks, including the gaps between each block and the block CRCs.

Thank you for confirming this...

Interestingly enough, when you read a disk it adds the header automatically. I suppose this was done to maintain compatibility with emulators. Very well thought out.

Adding the header is just one part of converting the disk to the .fds file format. I think the header is actually a standard part of the format, it's just that some emulators doesn't require it as it really doesn't contain any necessary information, unlike the iNES header for the .nes file format which is essential for emulators and flashcarts.

[milkmanv1]

Hey guys,

No solutions at the moment, but touching base for a moment.

EdGe7x - I did read your thread, but interestingly enough it seems like your game saving issue was across the board no? I'm not sure if you have any other original famicom disk games, or if you were (at the time of that thread) simply testing the one disk you were using for writing when you were coming across all these issues. Regardless, my fds is fully functional with/without the power board mod. I saved on my Castlevania disk last night (not sure if I'm outta practice or the JP version is harder than the NES, but damn I was struggling on level 4) I do however, agree with your final post. The disk system is extremely susceptible to weird power issues. I read here some guy's power adapter was going bad, and after maybe 30 minutes of play with the cable split between his FDS and Fami that it would just power itself off. I also was getting error 2 with duracell batteries and I think one of them was dead. I also tried with a sega genesis mk1 power adapter, but didn't wanna play around with that too heavily for fear of frying something I wound up getting Rayovac batteries (Definitely medium-to-high quality) for around 6$ on sale for a set of 6 and they power the disk system quite well.

P - I did read on a blog post which was reviewing loopy's product and the author stated that (which is pretty awesome) that when Loopy's software reads data and pulls it onto the computer that it automatically puts a header and removes the bytes that are spaced out across the disk that the disk system uses to load, which emulators don't need. And it reverses the process too, when writing it will remove any headers, and then automatically space the "security bytes" or read points, or whatever the disk system uses those "gaps" or spacings for while writing. So, pretty neat fully automated process. It seems that if a rom is tested working on your FDS Stick you should have no problem writing it to a disk.

As for me.... I went to radioshack while running some errands yesterday, post office & autoparts store... and the rep there who was selling phones said the girl who does the cashier was in an important conference and it would be a long time before she was back to ring me up....So I just walked out. I guess when you sell phones at radioshack you can't use the register.....

[EdGe7x]

I only have the one disk(more are on their way). It was originally Exciting Soccer and I never thought of trying to save before making the mods or re-writing the disk. Not like I would have been able to since it's not a game I'm familiar with enough to go through the Japanese menus. Anyway, it was across the board... I tried many games that allow for in-game saving and they all failed.

I'm just glad it's working... that was a frustrating issue to have.

What terrible customer service. I bet if you were to buy a phone she would have got off the phone right away. Ridiculous!

[milkmanv1]

Bad news bears disk writing friends. The 10kohm resistor didn;'t do jack. Since I used something along the lines of 10 gauge wire to make my cable, which is still as a board - I suppose the next/final/only other step is to either buy a cable from tototek, or make a new one with much smaller and more flexible wires. I have a slight feeling that the wires may be so thick that the amount of flexing I've done has stressed a solder point enough to cause a solder joint to have broken.

Once again, Ii get the error posted in the original post up there about async postback when reading, and writing does not work.

[JohnnyPhantom]

Hate to bring back a old thread. But I'm having this same exact issue and have the same exact drive and power board. Was this ever resolved?

[JohnnyPhantom]

Not sure if this helps anyone in the future, but I "think" I solved the issue. it could have been a few things. Things I changed was I ran the compatibility wizard on my windows 10 machine to run the FDSStick program as a admin and with the Windows 7 settings. I also noticed that sometimes just flipping the cable I made helps. (not the connector, but the ends plugged into which device, for example. If I had end A plugged into the FDSStick and end B plugged into the FDS drive, it may not write, I then could plug end A into the FDS Drive and end B into the FDSStick and could write.) could be a bad solder connection in the wire I made? not sure, but it's working

[Tomy]

I made many cables using different wires, different length. I found that you can not make the cable too long. Some PC can not use USB extension cable between FDSStick and PC.So, most important thing is keep the cable short and direct connect FDSStick to PC.

[Peppe]

Has anyone even solved this problem? I got a 7201 drive and power board 5, did everything and the stick gives me error 22 like you guys