On Sat, 2004-09-11 at 14:42, John Lawson wrote:
A simple method of sync would have to be worked out, but, being the
AnalogGeek(tm) that I am, I'd be tempted to record the bitstreams as
square-wave audio data to some kind of DAW software...
I was assuming PC audio cards would not be fast enough. I am an analog
person too, but not to your extent of expertise.
The disk has one (or a few) timing tracks. I assumed I would record the
timing track plus a data track; hence all recordings would have a
reference. A stereo sound card would do this. There's no physical index
pulse, it's derived from disk data. I haven't looked at the timing data
for over a year, I need to RTFM before I open my mouth any more.
if you
could get a 'whole drum after this pulse' (sort of like capturing one
video frame) sync set up, then you could record each track onto a similar
parallel track in the DAW....
1) I figured I could capture N seconds, to get N * 1/RPM copies of data,
and pick the timing::data out.
2) What's "DAW"?
Recording this would be fairly tedious but apart
from a high-speed
multi-track data-logger, It would get the job done.
Another choice is to simply disable writing electrically, and use the
computer itself. The biggest worry (at this point) is head/platter
issues. THe heads contact at rest, then lift. The mechanical issues
exist no matter the data-recovery method.
Another thought would be to use an external audio
osc and power-amp to
slow down the drum motor and make it easier to record the track pulses and
index marks... run the motor at 10 Htz or so.
Well the problem as I see it is deterioration of the magnetic
surface/circuit, and changing motor speed won't improve that (probably).
Lost data is secondary to a lost timing track! That would be ruinous, I
have no idea how I'd re-create that. Certainly, I need a copy of that.