17 May
2023
17 May
'23
1:06 p.m.
I have to agree with the folk on here who recommend some kind of flux
reader/writer like the greaseweazle.
It handles any format, handles most any data rate and has more ram/rom
and cpu horsepower than an old PC. And is the size of a deck of cards.
I have mine stored inside a dual 8" drive cabinet.
Though I am only using single sided drives (for reading RX01/RX02
drives). I know it can handle double sided drives.
And all of the source is open source so you can modify it for any format
you want.
On 5/17/2023 2:49 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
On 5/17/23 12:22, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
If you know of an external USB drive that does
have the cpabilities of a
standard PC disk controller, please tell us what you can of make, model,
supplier, availability, etc.
Interestingly, the Micro Solutions Backpack floppy
drives do have all
the capabilities of a standard PC controller; they're basically and FDC,
an 8051 MCU and some added SRAM. You can fire off FDC commands over a
parallel interface (I know, "what's that?")
For commercial applications, the USB Mass Storage Device standard is
patterned after SCSI; as a matter of fact, it uses SCSI CDBs embedded in
a USB packet to work. As users of SCSI floppy drives know, that's just
a subset of the stuff that can be done with a legacy FDC setup.
That isn't to say that someone hasn't rolled a one-off project for
this--I know of at least one. It requires its own Windows drivers.
As much as Tony doesn't like it, I need to point out that a modern MCU
quite often has as much (or more) RAM, and runs faster than many older
PCs. Consider, for example, the lowly STM32H7A3 series. 1.4MB of RAM,
2MB of program flash, 5 DMA controllers, ethernet, TFT LCD, up to 164 5V
tolerant GPIOs, USB OTG...I won't go on.
Why tinker around with a PC when your MCU is more powerful? I store my
retrieved data on a 32GB SD card.
Yeah, I know, this is a "classic" list and I shouldn't discuss anything
much past an 80386.
--Chuck