12 Jun
2008
12 Jun
'08
5:19 p.m.
Okay, so I saw this today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music by screwing with the
stepper motor. It is my understanding that the video was a hardware
hack, but it got me thinking... For those who know floppy drives well,
do you think such a thing could be possible via IBM PC floppy controller
software calls only? Or is a hardware hack required to generate the
right frequencies?
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
12 Jun
12 Jun
5:29 p.m.
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008, Jim Leonard wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music by screwing with the
stepper motor. It is my understanding that the video was a hardware
hack, but it got me thinking... For those who know floppy drives well,
do you think such a thing could be possible via IBM PC floppy controller
software calls only? Or is a hardware hack required to generate the
right frequencies?
. . . but think what you could do with the stepper of an SA400
(or SA390 (Apple))
Run it backwards and it will talk about billg
6:03 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008, Jim Leonard wrote:
Still not as fun as the big drives walking across the room or line
printer music.
Get a AM radio and have fun with music from your PDP-8.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music by screwing with the
stepper motor. It is my understanding that the video was a hardware
hack, but it got me thinking... For those who know floppy drives well,
do you think such a thing could be possible via IBM PC floppy controller
software calls only? Or is a hardware hack required to generate the
right frequencies?
. . . but think what you could do with the stepper of an SA400
(or SA390 (Apple))
Run it backwards and it will talk about billg
7:12 p.m.
Fred Cisin wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jun 2008, Jim Leonard wrote:
There's an HP flat-bed scanner that'll play Ode To Joy on
the scan-head stepper motor, as a "self-test". One of
the classic HP easter-eggs!
--
John Honniball
coredump at gifford.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music by screwing with the
stepper motor. It is my understanding that the video was a hardware
hack, but it got me thinking... For those who know floppy drives well,
do you think such a thing could be possible via IBM PC floppy controller
software calls only? Or is a hardware hack required to generate the
right frequencies?
. . . but think what you could do with the stepper of an SA400
(or SA390 (Apple))
Run it backwards and it will talk about billg 
13 Jun
13 Jun
9:47 a.m.
On Jim Leonard wrote:
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music
by screwing with the
stepper motor. ... Or is a hardware hack required to generate the
right frequencies?
It's not a floppy, but there's an Easter Egg in the HP Scanjet 5P firmware
that allows it to play Beethoven with the stepper motor that moves the head
carriage. It wins my vote for the coolest musical Easter Egg in a consumer
product.
Bob
12 Jun
12 Jun
7:14 p.m.
Jim Leonard wrote:
Okay, so I saw this today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4SCSGRVAQE
It's a video of a floppy disk drive playing music by screwing with the
stepper motor. It is my understanding that the video was a hardware
hack, but it got me thinking... For those who know floppy drives
well, do you think such a thing could be possible via IBM PC floppy
controller software calls only? Or is a hardware hack required to
generate the right frequencies?
You have "heard" the 1541, no?
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=60849
http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=37806
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5gnMgmlKi_o&feature=related
There are other variants, ones that truly make the 1541 sound like your
original clip, by using the head knocking and other loud actions.
Jim
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations (X)
brain at jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Home: http://www.jbrain.com
7:17 p.m.
Jim Brain wrote:
You have "heard" the 1541, no?
Yes, I have. The C64 and Apple could do these things because there was
very fine-grained control over the stepper motor.
What I'm asking the PC floppy gurus is: Is something like this possible
with IBM/PC drives/controllers done completely in software, or is there
simply not enough granularity in the PC line to do this?
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
13 Jun
13 Jun
7:49 a.m.
Jim Brain wrote:
Unlike the Apple and C64 drives, the step rate on the PC is controlled by
a traditional floppy controller, and limited to the step rates supported
by that device. - you can make noises with it, but I doubt you could get
anything I'd call music.
Dave
--
dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html
You have "heard" the 1541, no?
Yes, I have. The C64 and Apple could do these things because there was
very fine-grained control over the stepper motor.
What I'm asking the PC floppy gurus is: Is something like this possible
with IBM/PC drives/controllers done completely in software, or is there
simply not enough granularity in the PC line to do this?
5860
days inactive
5861
days old
7 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
bob＠jfcl.com -
brain＠jbrain.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
coredump＠gifford.co.uk -
dave06a＠dunfield.com -
trixter＠oldskool.org