You need to format the drive to prep it for copying the system software over. This took a while to figure out, the earlier versions of the service disks do have format utilities, but they only list specific hard disks and interfaces that the 9100 was fitted with. They do not cater for any scsi disks, so none of the service disks on flippers ftp would work.
With help and big thanks to Al Sacco, i got the v1.4 service disk . Shortly after, Corey Stup sent me the same disk image, just a matter of timing and emails, a big thanks to both :) This disk allows you to format a 512bytes/sector SCSI drive, or a 256bytes/sector drive. Most drives are 512bytes/sector, so select that, and you are away... once done and verified, do task 4.

task 7
Installing software in the right order!

errors:
- 'pod name does not match data base name'
- 'POD selftest failure code = 38'
- 'INTERNAL ERROR 5243: Trying to copy a file over a directory'

I got the first error message when I hooked up a 6502 pod and I had only copied system and programmer disks to the fresh hdr... the second message is when I ran the selftest on the pod from the main menu. After copying a master/user disk 2 over successfully, the error went away and the pod worked. Upon using an 8080 pod, I got the same error, but my system fails to copy the master/user disk 1 over without failing on a 'file not accessible' error. I have tried both 4.1 and v6 user disks.

I decided to install system 4.1 and copy the user disks over again and see if the problem was the same... and it at least confirmed what I thought, its not actually a floppy fault, its something on the hard disk. With the system 4.1 I got 'INTERNAL ERROR 5243: Trying to copy a file over a directory'.

I managed to fix this problem, but only by formatting the hard drive, and installing the disks in the following order, it appears that this is very important to follow the order or you get errors like I did! :

- System disks in the order 1-2-3
- master/user disks in the order 1-2
- programmer disk
- other option disks
- UUT disks 1-2

My system had 2mb ram to start with, two 1MB SIMMs installed in banks U13 and U14, my dip switches at U83 were set to mask 21h, so dips 1-8 were 00100001. Dips 1 and 2 appear to be used for something else, leave them switched OFF or it wont boot. FYI Dip 8 is nearest the display/keypad.
I put in two more 1mb simms at U15 and U16 and set the dips to mask 31h = 00110001 and rebooted, changed the systems config using the 1.4 service disk to ram size 4mb, rebooted, et voila!
The original simms fitted were Toshiba THM91000AS 10 - with TC511000AJ 10 Ram IC's.
The additional rams I found on eBay and added were Toshiba with TC511000AJ 70 ram IC's, virtually the same as the originals.
NOTES - the PDF manual I got from flippers appears to label the ram banks incorrectly in the memory size table headings.

task 9
Change the hard drive for a CompactFlash card!

..

..

There really isn't any rocket science to this task, its a case of getting hold of the right hardware, which I can tell you might be quite tricky. Following on from the success story I heard from Martin White, I managed to track down the same stuff he used, it wasn't cheap, and it wasn't easy to find, but I got it in the end. After having the hardware sit around for several years (literally) I decided one cold December night to attack the task.

1) Find a Spyrus MCDisk standalone pcmcia->SCSI adapter
2) gut it, you end up with a 3.5" bay unit
3) crack open your 9100
4) remove old hard disk, install PCMCIA adapter, it used different sized screws to the old hard drive, so I had to put in some alternative ones that worked. The mounting holes of course lined up, sweet!

task 9B - UPDATE 16/09/13
Change the hard drive for a CompactFlash card!

There has now appeared on the market a SCSI->CF card adapter made by a guy in Japan who sells these on eBay They are called AztecMonster CF card adapters - eBay user 'artmix'. These are nice and compact, but you will have to get creative mounting it in the 9100 so that you can exchange cards. It is intended for a static mounted solution internally. I have tried this on 9100A and 9100FT and it works great on systems that used native SCSI hard drives of the old CF card setup described in Task9.

1) Get a CF AztecMonster adapter card
2) remove the jumper at position JP4 (this sets the adapter to 0 SCSI termination)
3) crack open your 9100
4) remove old hard disk, install it!
5) put the software onto a CF card and switch it on!
6) see TASK 14 for hints on new software!

task 10
Modify the case to accept the PCMCIA ports

5) Ping off the plastic grille, you might still find the low density air filter still in place, the last time I went into my 9100 this fell to pieces in a crappy disintegrated mess, so I got rid of any trace of it ages ago.

6) Mark out where the ports will be, you can simply count the perforations where I cut, its a perfect size. I used side-cutters to snip the thin aluminium grille, then bent the flap downwards.

7) see the reverse side photo, I had to crimp the fold tight so that the ports were not obstructed, but also make sure the lid would go on the case again, so they can't poke out the bottom too much.

8) I used a big file to take off the finger-slicing shards that were spiking out the freshly cut aluminium grille.

9) refit the cradle to the lid, make sure you can press the PCMCIA slot eject levers without obstructions.

10) line up the plastic grille overlay, use your side cutters again to snip away the bars that surround the slots, once again use a file to take off the sharp edges that you invariably get.

task 11
Format the card and load the software

11) Now Format the drive using the service disk and install software like you would on a normal SCSI drive as described in Task 6 + Task 7!

12) I used a 128MB CF card, and it formatted to 122.24MB which is more than the system can see anyway, so it will report as 0 bytes disk space in the editor, don't panic!

Sit back and bask in the glory of having a removable CF card rather than a mechanical spinning disk of death!
See Task 13 for backing up and restoring your CF card!

task 12
Change the system fan

The Fluke system fan is pretty damn big, and pretty damn noisy. It has a very high flow rate because it needs it. The fan drags air through the grille by the floppy drive and hard drive, then across the PSU and exhausts it at the rear.

Now, if (like me) you hate noisy equipment, and you've got rid of the old hard drive, then you don't have as much need for such massive airflow.

I bought a silent PC case fan off eBay, I didn't skimp, and I got the highest airflow and quietest one I could find, its pretty damn silent. The original fan runs off the line voltage, the replacement I'm using is a 12v that simply hooks into the existing power connectors for the hard-drive. The airflow that the replacement can drag is still less than a third of the original fan, and when it was put up against the old grille, it halved its effectiveness again. Seeing as the unit sits on my bench all of the time, totally out of the way of inquisitive fingers, I decided to chop out the airflow restricting grille. I'll just be careful myself in future.

It might not look too elegant, but it pulls air through nicely, keeping the PSU cool which is now the biggest heat generator. Should think it has to work a lot less harder now it has a silly little CF card to power instead of the behemoth hard disks of yesteryear!

Now, my fluke 9100 is virtually silent, which is great because you need to have it switched on for long periods of time as it is when programming the damn thing!

task 13
Backup/Restore your CF card image

You need to boot to Linux to do this, I downloaded a small (200mb) Slackware Live CD and ran it on my laptop. I first tried to do this using the PCMCIA adapter in the slot on my laptop, but not knowing enough about Linux I quickly abandoned this for an easier method...

1) get a USB->CF card reader, plug it into a USB port

2) Boot with the Linux Live CD in your computer - Select text mode from the boot menu, you just need to get to a prompt, don't need the graphical interface - Login as root, and password as 'toor' (default)

3) type 'fdisk -l' you should see the hard disks listed first, then the USB CF card underneath, in my case I have hda1 and hda2 plus /dev/sda its showing up as a 128mb compactflash card, and it tells me I don't have a valid partition table on it.

4) so, to copy from your CF card to your hard disk root directory, you should type:
dd bs=5120 if=/dev/sda/ of=/mnt/hda2/mybackup

5) Be patient!! it will sit there and wont say anything, when its done it will report on the number of records in and records out and speed of transfer... I'd suggest using 64mb or 128mb CF cards in all honesty, much quicker than massive cards, and the fluke can't see anything above 100mb anyway!

6) to copy from a backupfile on your harddrive, type the following:
dd bs=5120 if=/mnt/hda2/mybackup of=/dev/sda

7) Be patient again! it will report much like step 5

8) type 'shutdown' and unplug, reinstall into your fluke, bingo!

task 14
New software images!
UPDATE 16/09/13

So, getting Fluke software to install by floppy is a bit of a pain in the arse, and there's quite a bit of uncertainty over what works and what doesn't, what has bugs and what doesn't..

So if you want the shortcut, DOWNLOAD THIS for a full suite of v6.1 software and v6.1 editor working on a 64mb compactflash card. Its a bare-bones install of software and pod libraries, no user programs or UUT's provided. Thanks again to Martin White for facilitating this. Shhhhh. Don't shout it from the rooftops in case Fluke is listening. This image will work on a 9100A and a 9100FT, I've tested it fully on both.

Task 13-6 will help you install this.

CRC-32

Here is a routine I wrote that calculates the CRC-32 of a given address space. This is a good way of verifying ROMs in-circuit without having to remove them and dump on an EPROM programmer. Hopefully the bones of what you need you can work out from what you see, I wont go into detail describing each line.

for 32mb - dip 5,6 must be both ON - but this always seems to fail the self-test?
I only got 16mb working with 4x4m*9 simms in bank 1 with DIP settings :

10100100