Playing with the KryoFlux
Once you start playing with the KryoFlux, you don't want to stop. Of course, you can copy disks with the KryoFlux, but that is actually boring. It is much more fun to explore special disks. And there the so called alignment disks „come into play“.
My floppy disk drives for testing are:
- 48 tpi: Toshiba FDD 5401A0K01 (from a Kaypro 10)
- 96 tpi: Mitsubishi M4854-342
BASF CE-Diskette
I bought a brand new (NOS) BASF CE-Diskette for floppy disk drive alignment. This is a German product. The companies Dysan and Dymek were also known to the American market for their alignment disks.
CE = Cats Eye
You can use this alignment disk for single and double sided 5.25 inch disk drives in 48 tpi and 96 tpi format. Ingenious! What more could you want.
48 tpi
The alignment patterns are prerecorded as follows:
- track 00 - side 0/1 - Index alignment
- track 14 - side 0/1 - Azimuth control 0'
- track 20 - side 0/1 - Track adjustment
- track 34 - side 0/1 - Index alignment
In addition to the above-mentioned tracks 00, 14, 20 and 34, you can also recognise clear patterns on track 23. These are probably the patterns for the 96 tpi drive at track 44 or 45! You remember, the R/W head of a 48 tpi drive is almost twice as wide as a 96 tpi R/W head. One step on a 48 tpi drive is equivalent to a double step on a 96 tpi drive.
If you compare the 48 tpi tracks with the 96 tpi tracks, you will see this; track 34/68 and track 20/40!
96 tpi
The alignment patterns are prerecorded as follows:
- track 00 - side 0/1 - Index alignment
- track 40 - side 0/1 - Track adjustment
- track 45 - side 0/1 - Azimuth control 31'
- track 48 - side 0/1 - Azimuth control 0'
- track 68 - side 0/1 - Index alignment
Track 00 - side 0 - Index alignment
Track 40 - side 0 - Track adjustment
Track 45 - side 0 - Azimuth control 31'
This pattern and the following one are special in that they have regular unformatted areas (pink colour). Have a look at the KryoFlux manual, page 31 onwards, „Example graphs“. Some copy protection mechanisms also use unformatted areas within a track.
Track 48 - side 0 - Azimuth control 0'
As a non-expert, I cannot see the difference to the previous pattern.
A comparison of track 20/48 tpi and track 40/96 tpi
20-1/48 ----- 40-1/96