29 Apr
2010
29 Apr
'10
11:30 a.m.
On 28 Apr 2010 at 19:01, fjgjr1 at aol.com wrote:
I posted a fairly long list of emulators not too long ago. $275 is
on the high end--the Chinese version of these (which perhaps is the
same as the one you describe) can be had for about $50. It's not
much--just a uC and some "glue".
A lot of thise floppy drive emulators make assuptions about the data you
are recording -- such as that it's normal MFM data from a PC-like disk
controller. Which makes them rather less useful for some classic computers
There are at least two DIY versions on the web.
But none of the off-the-shelf versions is going to help with my
Brother word processor (uses GCR to put 240K on a 3.5") or a real DEC
RX02 disk (uses DEC's own version of MFM) or an early Lanier word
Actually, I suspect the RX01 and RX02 are one of the simpler ones to
replace. The icontroller board is in the drvie chassis, and the interface
to the bus addapter board (RX8E/RX11/RXV11/RX211/etc) is a TTL-level
serial pne, timed by the controller board. It would thus be very easy to
bit-bang it on just about any microcontroller. A single chip
microcontroller and an SD card could make an RX01/RX02 replacement I think.
It's simple enough that I suspect even I could get it to work.
-tony