2 Mar
2011
2 Mar
'11
2:10 p.m.
On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 1:52 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
One other nice featuroe of these drives is a slotted
optoswtich near the
head carrarriage that changes state at cylinder 43. This is used (I think
it's a jumper-selected option) to reduce the write current, so you don't
need to provide the TG43 signal from the controller. Very handy if you're
using them with a PC/AT controller ;-)
I know it's easy to generate this signal with an inexpensive
microcontroller, but I'm curious what drives have this feature. I
have a TM848 (can't remember if it's -1 or -2 - I'd probably have to
pull it from the Dataram Qbus chassis it's in to check, but since it's
meant to emulate an RX02, it's *probably* a TM848-1) that I was
planning on rigging to a PC-class machine at some point to image my
pile of RX01 and box of CP/M 8" floppies.
Of course with all the DEC gear I have, I might as well look into
using vtserver to pull down RX01 _and_ RX02 images from a real RX02
drive, but I still have plans to build a PC-based multi-media floppy
imaging box, so I'm keeping my eye out for a preferred model of 8"
drive for that purpose.
So far, I really only know a little bit about the SA800s and the
TM848s (and the Calcomps used in RX01s and RX02s, but I'm not likely
to hang one of those off of a PC). Anyone have any recommendations
for good drives to use with PCs?
-ethan