9 May
2009
9 May
'09
8:32 a.m.
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read RX02's?
Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the
DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers.
But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a PC-clone?
Several years back I built a doohickey that plugged into a PC's
parallel port and allowed me to step floppy drives and read
bit-timing-information, a track at a time, into a RAM buffer, which
I then dumped into the parallel port and wrote some software
to analyze arbitrary disk formats. I wired the index/sector hole
detector to the MSB RAM line and used it with great success to
analyze and read several 8" and 5.25" hard-sector
floppy formats and eventually pumped a few thousand disks through
the scheme. Not bad for something thrown together on a solderless
breadboard using random TTL chips I had lying around the basement :-).
Obviously similar devices have been discussed here in the past
decade or two. Is there anything available off the shelf that
can plug into a USB port and let me do similar? Right now the
thought of traveling with a 8" HH floppy drive and a laptop
has a certain appeal as opposed to hauling around a BA23 and
a DSD440 :-).
Tim.
9 May
9 May
9:23 a.m.
On Saturday 09 May 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the
DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers.
But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a
PC-clone?
I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to be able to do this with a
Catweasel and the utils that make a DMK out of them (Tim Mann's name
comes to mind).
Pat
--
Purdue University Research Computing --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/
The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org
9:43 a.m.
From: "Patrick Finnegan" <pat at computer-refuge.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 09, 2009 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: non-DEC-compat HW to read RX02's?
On Saturday 09 May 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
I think I have that format on my Octopus conversion system, but I can't
check right now.
The drive I use is YE-data YD180(+)
Nico
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the
DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers.
But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a
PC-clone?
I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to be able to do this with a
Catweasel and the utils that make a DMK out of them (Tim Mann's name
comes to mind).
1:47 p.m.
What
non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read RX02's?
Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the
DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers.
But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type drive and a
PC-clone?
I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to be able to do this with a
Catweasel and the utils that make a DMK out of them (Tim Mann's name
comes to mind).
11:44 a.m.
On Sat, 9 May 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
I'm sure a Catweasel can do it, but doubt that anyone has written the
necessary support software.
I just purchased one and hope to gain some experience writing drivers.
Unfortunately the API documentation is not very helpful. Tons of nitpicky
detail with absolutely no overview, theory of operation or context in
general. Not to fault the designer, but it's the kind of thing that's
easy to end up with when you know the subject so well that the "big
picture" is obvious to you, but need a reference for the low-level
details.
If anyone has suggestions regarding opensource Catweasel code I can study,
please speak up?
--
6:15 p.m.
On Sat, 9 May 2009, Steven Hirsch wrote:
On Sat, 9 May 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
Found an open source Catweasel driver for Linux, and the sources are
extremely helpful in deciphering its operation. Following a link from the
page, I tripped over:
http://www.tim-mann.org/catweasel.html
Most of the verbiage deals with its use in reading and writing TRS-80
formats, but buried in the docs was the news that it can read and write
RX02 formats.
Steve
--
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
I'm sure a Catweasel can do it, but doubt that anyone has written the
necessary support software.
I just purchased one and hope to gain some experience writing drivers.
Unfortunately the API documentation is not very helpful. Tons of
nitpicky detail with absolutely no overview, theory of operation or
context in general. Not to fault the designer, but it's the kind of
thing that's easy to end up with when you know the subject so well that
the "big picture" is obvious to you, but need a reference for the
low-level details. 
10 May
10 May
2:13 p.m.
On Saturday 09 May 2009, Steven Hirsch wrote:
On Sat, 9 May 2009, Steven Hirsch wrote:
Yes, Tim did a lot of excellent work on the Catweasel driver.
Unfortunately, there is something buggy in the RX02 reading and/or writing.
I tried reading multiple RX02 diskettes with Tim's software - and it
created images w/o reporting errors. However, when I attempted to re-create
RX02s from the images, it did so - but the newly created diskettes were NOT
readable by a real RX02.
I emailed Tim about this at the time, but IIRC, he didn't have an RX02
available to do testing against the "read thing". Tim asked me to collect
some debugging data - I did so, bot ended up dropping the ball when I my
non-hobby work load went crazy (it still is)...
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are were God is dividing by zero"
On Sat, 9 May 2009, Tim Shoppa wrote:
Found an open source Catweasel driver for Linux, and the sources are
extremely helpful in deciphering its operation. Following a link from
the page, I tripped over:
http://www.tim-mann.org/catweasel.html
Most of the verbiage deals with its use in reading and writing TRS-80
formats, but buried in the docs was the news that it can read and write
RX02 formats. What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
I'm sure a Catweasel can do it, but doubt that anyone has written the
necessary support software.
I just purchased one and hope to gain some experience writing drivers.
Unfortunately the API documentation is not very helpful. Tons of
nitpicky detail with absolutely no overview, theory of operation or
context in general. Not to fault the designer, but it's the kind of
thing that's easy to end up with when you know the subject so well
that the "big picture" is obvious to you, but need a reference for the
low-level details. 
11 May
11 May
8:53 p.m.
Tim Shoppa wrote:
What non-DEC-compatible stuff out there can read
RX02's?
Obviously the original RX02 drive can read RX02's... as can all the
DSD, Sigma, etc. Q-bus, Unibus, Omnibus compatible controllers.
I still have a Sigma box (that is about 2/3 the size of a BA23) with a
built in
8" floppy. It also has a built in hard drive of a size I can't
remember, probably
about 10 MB and is able to run RT-11 quite nicely. Since there is a Qbus
backplane, it should be possible to add a SCSI host adapter to allow copies
of any RX02 floppies to be made to a SCSI hard drive.
I realize that this is still much larger than an SA801 drive and a PC
laptop,
but much better than a BA23 and RX02 or DSD 440.
But what can read RX02's using a generic SA801-type
drive and a PC-clone?
As a previous reply mentioned, a Catweasel controller may be able to
read the
RX02 format. Since I still have a DSD 880/30 available and maybe even a DEC
RX02, that is not a problem for me. Although I can't remember wanting
to read
an 8" floppy for about 10 years.
Now reading a real TU-58 tape using a real DEC TU-58 drive, that I have done
only a few months ago.
Jerome Fine
5531
days inactive
5534
days old
7 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to -
lbickley＠bickleywest.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
shoppa＠trailing-edge.com -
snhirsch＠gmail.com