On Tue, 10 Jan 2023, Fred Cisin wrote:
So, a flux transition board might work,
(for OSI
disks)
On Tue, 10 Jan 2023, Mike Katz wrote:
I haven't seen any mention of greaseweazel types
of "flux" readers. They
read the flux changes off of the floppy and then interpret them with a
separate program.
I use this to analyze DEC RX01 & RX02 8" floppies.
I know it works with FM, MFM and GCR disks as well as single and double
sided diskettes.
Well, the original post that started this thread was primarily about
cleaning the heads of the drive being used, with reading being done by
essentially the same hardware that wrote them. (NOT OSI disks)
Disk head cleaning would be about the same when using a flux transition
board, as when using the original system. Possibly very minor issues, in
terms of how many revolutions end up being needed for each successful
track read.
I think that a flux transition system would seem be appropriate for the
OSI disks. Although, it would be good to hear from anybody who has read
OSI disks. (are there any OTHER differences that need to be taken into
account?)
At one time, I speculated whether a flux transition system could be used
to read the second side of a flippy disk without flipping it. Or, reading
the second side of a double sided disk in a single sided drive, by
flipping it. But, then I remembered/realized that double sided drive
heads are physically radially offset from each other.