> Could you provide a scan of this manual please!!!!
The only chance you have of obtaining any printed document
>from Tony is to pay him to go to a place that has a copier.
I don't think anyone has ever been able to successfully
have this happen.
----------------------------------------------------
Vintage Computer Festival East 3.0
Saturday, May 13, 10am to 6pm
InfoAge Learning Center, Wall Township, New Jersey
http://www.vintage.org/2006/east/
----------------------------------------------------
The 3rd annual Vintage Computer Festival East is happening THIS
WEEKEND! Come and join us to celebrate the history of the machines,
stories and people of the computer revolution.
VCF East 3.0 is a one-day event taking place on Saturday, May 13th,
>from 9:30am until 6pm at the InfoAge Learning Center in Wall Township,
New Jersey.
The VCF features an excellent line-up of speakers, a fantastic
exhibition of vintage computers, and a marketplace where you can find
that one item you're looking for to get that old machine running
again!
/// VCF East 3.0 Speaker Schedule
Time Speaker Topic
-------- ------------------- ---------------------------------------
10:30 AM Steve Lukasik ARPA in the 1970s
12:00 PM Sellam Ismail VCF Ramblings
1:45 PM Sol Libes The Origins of Personal Computers
3:30 PM David Ahl The Total Idiocy of Starting a Magazine
5:00 PM Ray Holt An Early Microprocessor Before Intel
For more information on our speakers including talk abstracts and bios
please visit:
http://www.vintage.org/2006/east/speaker.php
/// InfoAge Learning Center Tours
Tours of the InfoAge Learning Center (the host of VCF East 3.0) are
being held throughout the day concurrently with the VCF. For more
information, please visit:
http://www.infoage.org/
For more information on VCF East 3.0 including admission, directions,
etc., please visit the VCF East 3.0 website:
http://www.vintage.org/2006/east/
I'll be there!
Best regards,
Sellam Ismail
Producer
Vintage Computer Festival
NOTE: Please do not reply to this message or else it will not be
received! Send all replies to <vcf at vintage.org>.
> I do not have a working 5.25 disk drive
> other than the ones in this trs-80. How can I obtain some disks to
> boot and test this system?
Go to www.trs-80.com
See if Ira will creat disks for you. If not, let me know which ones you need (based on the searchable list at Ira's site). I can make real disks from the images and mail them to you. You would have to cover postage and a small amount for each disk. I'm don't make a living doing this, but I can write just about any soft sectored format to 5.25, 3.5 and 8" media. I have not tested any DS/QD media in real life, but I know I can write it. All I want to be able to do is replace any disks I use.
Kelly
AFAICG the 1770 is a double sided controller chip,
being that its used in the RE Robot brain-board.
Purchance is it pin compatible with the dopier LOL
1771?
--- cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org
<ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > All:
> >
> >
> >
> > I have several random parts I'm going
to pull together to build
> > a "new" floppy system for my IMSAI. I have an SD
Sales Versafloppy
> > controller card (which used the FD1771B
controller) and several 5.25" floppy
> > drives (all soft sectored). The Versafloppy manual
indicates that it will
> > work with a Shugart SA400/450. When I look up the
specs on the SA400, it
> > indicates that the unformatted capacity is 109.6k
and the formatted capacity
> > is 81k. I didn't read the entire manual but this
look like SSSD specs.
>
> The 1771 is a single density (FM) controller only.
>
> > I of course don't have any floppy
drives like this but I have
> > several original PC drives (TM-100 and others) and
several 360k drives of
> > various types.
> >
> > The question is this: can I use these
later drives on this
> > controller without problems? If there are
problems, what might they be?
> >
>
> It's almost impossible to make a drive that will
handle double density
> but not single density. So your '360K' drives will
be fine in that
> respect.
>
> There are likely to be 2 other differences :
>
> 1) The SA400 was, IIRC, a single-sided unit. Your
360K drives are double
> sided. The controller may well not support
double-sided operation, and it
> may use the side select pin for something else (DS3
was one common use I
> think). You may need to do a little bit of
modification in this area.
>
> 2) I think the SA400 was a 35 cylinder drive, '360K'
drives are 40
> cylinder. This shouldn't matter unless, for some
unknown reason, the
> controller only sends 35 step pulses when it tries
to restore to cylinder
> 0. AFAIK any standard use of the 1771 won't suffer
>from this.
>
> -tony
__________________________________________________
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On 5/22/06, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> Wow, DG is not my cup of tea, but those are some beautiful systems.
Indeed... I have a Nova at home (got it from the original owner, a
machine shop North of town, but absolutely no docs or software). They
have a distinctive look, but I have pretty much no idea how to use
them.
> How interesting did customs make things travelling through Canada to get home?
I had no problems bringing a PDP-8 back to Ohio from Canada - but I
think it helps that it does say "Digital Equipment
Corporation/Maynard, Massachusetts" on the front (proof that it's US
goods returning to the US).
-ethan
All:
I have several random parts I'm going to pull together to build
a "new" floppy system for my IMSAI. I have an SD Sales Versafloppy
controller card (which used the FD1771B controller) and several 5.25" floppy
drives (all soft sectored). The Versafloppy manual indicates that it will
work with a Shugart SA400/450. When I look up the specs on the SA400, it
indicates that the unformatted capacity is 109.6k and the formatted capacity
is 81k. I didn't read the entire manual but this look like SSSD specs.
I of course don't have any floppy drives like this but I have
several original PC drives (TM-100 and others) and several 360k drives of
various types.
The question is this: can I use these later drives on this
controller without problems? If there are problems, what might they be?
Thanks.
Rich
Rich Cini
Collector of classic computers
Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project
Web site: <http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/>
http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
/************************************************************/
So, I've got a rack of gear, which I need to ship to a guy in the
Netherlands (who also happens to be a list member:). Has anyone done
this before, and can you recommend any particular shipper?
The only one who's actually sent me a quote back was FEDEX, which wanted
$1500... which seems really high. The other ones I've filled out a
quote request for didn't ever send me a quote back.
Thanks,
Pat
--
Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
> The guy emailed me and is ready to talk about a volume purchase deal now.
Has anyone actually RECEIVED one of that they bought from him?
I probably was one of the first to buy one, and it ain't here yet.
More fun from the CV 32- the CDC fixed SCSI drive sent up smoke signals today.
Does anyone know what the first SMD coming off of the +12v lead is on these guys?
it doesn't look like a fuse, and (in the past) orange smoke seems to mean tantalum caps.
>
>Subject: Re: Building new S100 floppy system
> From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell)
> Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 19:49:55 +0100 (BST)
> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
>
>>
>> All:
>>
>>
>>
>> I have several random parts I'm going to pull together to build
>> a "new" floppy system for my IMSAI. I have an SD Sales Versafloppy
>> controller card (which used the FD1771B controller) and several 5.25" floppy
>> drives (all soft sectored). The Versafloppy manual indicates that it will
>> work with a Shugart SA400/450. When I look up the specs on the SA400, it
>> indicates that the unformatted capacity is 109.6k and the formatted capacity
>> is 81k. I didn't read the entire manual but this look like SSSD specs.
Correct.
>
>The 1771 is a single density (FM) controller only.
Also correct.
>> I of course don't have any floppy drives like this but I have
>> several original PC drives (TM-100 and others) and several 360k drives of
>> various types.
>>
>> The question is this: can I use these later drives on this
>> controller without problems? If there are problems, what might they be?
Yes without problems. No you will only get around half the storage (180k).
>It's almost impossible to make a drive that will handle double density
>but not single density. So your '360K' drives will be fine in that
>respect.
Correct.
>There are likely to be 2 other differences :
>
>1) The SA400 was, IIRC, a single-sided unit. Your 360K drives are double
>sided. The controller may well not support double-sided operation, and it
>may use the side select pin for something else (DS3 was one common use I
>think). You may need to do a little bit of modification in this area.
Incorrect. The SA450 is a two sided drive and the versafloppy manual
mentions the 450.
>2) I think the SA400 was a 35 cylinder drive, '360K' drives are 40
>cylinder. This shouldn't matter unless, for some unknown reason, the
>controller only sends 35 step pulses when it tries to restore to cylinder
>0. AFAIK any standard use of the 1771 won't suffer from this.
Incorrect, 1771 recal worked with 77track 8" drives. The controller
doesn't know or care. The software supplied with the versafloppy
might have to be tweeked for 40 (or even 80) cylinders. thats a minor
change.
Overall with any effort a double density controller would be easy enough
to find or build and would offer a more workable amount of storage.
Allison