23 Nov
2014
23 Nov
'14
6:36 p.m.
The 5.25" drives in the Vixen utilize the standard 34-pin edge-connect
cabling and 4-pin 'Molex' type power connection, as with any conventional
5.25" floppy or 3.5" IDE HDD.
Of course, at this time I can't say if the voltages or signals are correct,
but the form-factors do seem to match up; they're plug-compatible, in any
case.
Seems like the best route is to hang out 'till someone with a working
Osborne offers to send me some bootable media. Thing is, I don't think I
even have a User's Guide for this thing - isn't there some sort of ROM
monitor you can invoke from the boot screen? Maybe not, but it seems like
something that ought to be there..
On Sun, Nov 23, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Jules Richardson <
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
On 11/23/2014 07:31 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
IFF you have the "double density"
upgrade of the Osborne, (was the Vixen
one of those?) then disks are writable with a PC with 360K drive, but are
NOT the same format as Kaypro nor Epson.
Some PCs will write SD, of course, although I think far fewer will write
SD and 128 byte sectors.
Does the Osborne use a "standard" SA400 interface? If so, then a 720K
3.5" could be cabled into it. (or a
3", or a 3.25", . . . )
I don't know about the Vixen. The OCC1 uses what seem to be stock drive
chassis but with custom logic boards that get power over the same cable as
data. I get the impression that there's nothing special about the
signaling, though, and so it's likely possible to run different drives
(which would include 3.x" units) if a suitable adapter were to be wired up.
cheers
Jules