28 Nov
2022
28 Nov
'22
6:29 p.m.
On 11/28/22 09:27, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
I'm guessing this is a formatted Pertec
interface. My CDC Keystone
drives have that, and I hacked up one of my CNC control cards to make a
read-only interface that communicates at modest speed over the PC
parallel port. (These choices were not optimal, but reused
infrastructure I already knew well.)
Yes, the interface to the formatter. Although, I suspect that with the
current crop of MCUs, interface to the "naked" drive isn't beyond the
pale--it's just that there was a considerable amount of variation in
that by various vendors.
My board has ICs mostly for interface. The real work is done by the
MCU. I figure that a 64GB microSD should be good for at least 1,000
reels of 9 track tape.
MANY years ago, I got a surplus 800 BPI 9-track key to
tape system and
hacked into it to put 9-track tape on my Z-80 CP/M system. That was a
fascinating project.
I still do that with an HP7970 equipped with the double-stack (7 and 9
track) RO heads. The naked interface goes directly to an MCU. Works
well enough.
I prefer naked or Pertec interface drives to SCSI because of the better
control and information afforded by a more direct interface.
--Chuck