In message <53116.71.129.198.222.1117349883.squirrel at 71.129.198.222>
"Eric Smith" <eric at brouhaha.com> wrote:
Never heard of that, and I can't seen any way it
could possibly work.
The drives have a double-stepping circuit onboard. Every individual head step
becomes a double-step. The idea being that you can read 40t discs in an 80t
drive.
If you need to be able to write 40-track and 80-track
diskettes, you
need two drives.
Looks like I'm looking for a 40-track (48TPI) and an 80-track (96TPI) then.
90% of the time, I only need to read 40t discs, but the ability to write to
them would be quite useful.
I spotted a Shugart SA455 on Ebay though - are they any good?
<http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5201792809>.
(I've checked the service manual on bitsavers, yes I know it's 40 track, so
that leaves an 80 track still to find).
I've got a Viglen dual-disc 5.25" drive here, but I really don't want to rip
it apart for two reasons:
A) it's a nice drive
B) it's a pain to get it open without breaking stuff (I've already replaced
one of the 40/80 switches and resoldered the other - I spent an hour
with a metal spatula trying to pop the clips on the case without
breaking them or damaging the case)
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem at philpem.me.uk | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... Who the hell is General Failure? And why is he reading my drive!