21 Oct
2007
21 Oct
'07
9:30 p.m.
On 21 Oct 2007 at 20:47, dwight elvey wrote:
Most of us have older PC's that will read most
standard formats.
That isn't the issue. The Catweasel is the closest thing out there
but it is, as Dave D. says, not open documented.
It isn't? At least from a software point of view it is--and the
operation is straightforward enough that I could probably toss one
together without too much trouble.
As a matter of fact, if you have a reasonably quick PC, I suspect
that you could probably toss something together that could hook to a
printer port that would scarcely be more than a timer and a couple of
flip-flops (and maybe some drivers) that could do the job for most
5.25" FM and MFM low-density disks.
The Catweasel, at least on the reading end, isn't rocket science.
Heck, it doesn't even use DMA and stepping is all done by banging the
STEP/ line at software-determined intervals. Compared to the
Catweasel a Deluxe Option Board is rocket science.
At least on the CW MK I and MK III, most of the board is taken up by
Amiga-realted nonsense like joystick ports and SID sockets.
Cheers,
Chuck