Microsci HAVAC - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

11 Oct 1998

Damn, you're right, that was the same as the early SA400's.  This one isn't
built nearly as solid, though, and the clamp mechanism is driven by
strings(!) that run over pulleys just like an old radio tuner mechanism.

Kai

-----Original Message-----
From: James Willing [mailto:jimw@agora.rdrop.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 11, 1998 9:10 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Microsci HAVAC

On Sun, 11 Oct 1998, Kai Kaltenbach wrote:

...
  This weekend I picked up this wacky little 6502
computer called the Microsci
...
  HAVAC.  Has anyone else ever seen one of these, or
better yet, does anyone
 have a boot disk for it?

 The HAVAC has the weirdest floppy drive I've ever seen.  It has a
 center-mounted clamp lever, and the head positioning is done via a
 spiral-grooved disc! 
Well... while I am not familiar with the 'HAVAC', to find a more common
use of the "spiral grooved disc" for head positioning, just look in any
Apple II disk drive! (the early ones, not the 'DuoDiscs')

That was the standard early Shugart 5.25 inch disk positioner mechanism.

-jim
---
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