12 Feb
2002
12 Feb
'02
9:20 a.m.
Today I picked up two 8" Shugart 851 floppy drives and two 8" hard
drives. I checked the hard drives (Quantum 2030s) and they use the SA 1000
interface. How similar is that to the interface for floppy drives? The
control cable for each hard drive also connected to one of the floppy
drives so they must share a good bit of the interface. Does anyone have a
pointer to a good on-line description of the SA 1000 interface?
Joe
12 Feb
12 Feb
10:28 a.m.
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11:27 a.m.
There are quite a few signals that are more or less the same, and the
connector is the same ... BUT ... there are differences which are, in fact,
quite subtle. The Quantum drives, for one thing, use a superset of the SA1000
interface. That means, among other things, that the Quantum drives, (if my
feeble grey cells don't fail me) among other things, provide a clock that's
synchronized with the data the drive recovers, which the Shugart drives don't
provide, on the data cable. Moreover, the Quantum drives have a
microcontroller that accumulates pulses and can slew the step rate up and
down. I don't remember whether it actually does that (that's the difference
between the ST506 and ST412 interface, BTW) but the capability is there. The
clock extraction is such a big help that I'd say it cuts controller design
effort in half.
That greatly simplifies controller design, and, will allow you to jumper
around the PLL, etc, on the controller if you like, since the drive recovers
the data more reliably than the controller's PLL in many cases. What's more,
it makes it dirt-simple to hack a 5-1/4" (5 MHz) controller to work with the
8" drive, simply by changing out the crystal that provides write data timing.
I don't believe that the drive provides that clock when the write-gate is
turned on, but a quick peek with a 'scope will tell you about that. That way
you can hook one of the things to a bridge controller of your choice and
simply patch (cut-n-jumper) around the clock extraction circuitry and use the
clock from the drive instead. The controller hardware, firmware, and host
adapter software won't know about it at all, so you'll have an easy time
determining whether they work properly.
Good luck!
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 4:20 PM
Subject: SA1000 interface
Today I picked up two 8" Shugart 851 floppy
drives and two 8" hard
drives. I checked the hard drives (Quantum 2030s) and they use the SA 1000
interface. How similar is that to the interface for floppy drives? The
control cable for each hard drive also connected to one of the floppy
drives so they must share a good bit of the interface. Does anyone have a
pointer to a good on-line description of the SA 1000 interface?
Joe
12:18 p.m.
New subject: Oh, Happy Day!
Much to my wife's chagrin, I just found a new toy...
I'd posted to a couple newsgroups & another email list on my continuing
search for a decent *affordable* PAL/GAL/EPROM/Flash programmer, and
someone suggested I check online vendors for refurbed "obsolete" items. I'd
done that before with no luck, but that renewed my interest of looking
around, so I googled a little more, and stumbled across a homebrew
electronics FAQ:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/homebuilt-comp-FAQ/
which had a nice long list of hardware vendors who sell just these kinds of
things, at *way* too much money. But, I persevered, and when I got to the
*last* web address on the list, low & behold... Paydirt!
http://www.xeltek.com/
They sell their refurbed programmers at muchly reduced prices, and had a
decent stock of them, to boot! I needed one that was parallel port capable,
as my main PeeCee & my laptop at work use expansion slots that aren't ISA.
I got their Superpro L, 40-pin programmer & 74xx series logic tester for
$185, plus SH&I rounded it to $200 and a few pennies...
I couldn't resist clicking on "add to cart" and "checkout" - they
take
PayPal for payment as well as Credit Cards -- around 1400 hrs EST. I got a
receipt email about 20 seconds later... and 3 hours later, another email
that it's already been shipped, with a tracking number! :-)
Yiippee!!!
So, to make sure this stays on-topic (as 90+% of what I'm using this for is
programming stuff for classic computers) if anyone has (or knows where to
find) the datafile to program a fresh GAL to fix a gray Tandy Multi-Pak
adapter (26-3024, IIRC) for CoCo3 usage, I'd be happy to burn new GALs for
anyone needing them for cost of GAL & shipping. I have a Multi-Pak that
needs updating, and I dunno if anyone else has this ability (or cares)
anymore...
Just one thing left to find... an SMD rework station for around the same
($200) mark... (again, so I can make boards for my CoCos...)
(The same site has a sale on their SMDeasy station - $349, but that's still
a wee bit out of my price range... time to save my pennies...)
Well, just had to share my good fortune with y'all...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
1:56 p.m.
New subject: Oh, Happy Day!
On Tue, 12 Feb 2002, Roger Merchberger wrote:
So, to make sure this stays on-topic (as 90+% of what
I'm using this
for is programming stuff for classic computers) if anyone has (or
knows where to find) the datafile to program a fresh GAL to fix a gray
Tandy Multi-Pak adapter (26-3024, IIRC) for CoCo3 usage, I'd be happy
to burn new GALs for anyone needing them for cost of GAL & shipping. I
have a Multi-Pak that needs updating, and I dunno if anyone else has
this ability (or cares) anymore...
I've got a white 4 cart multipack adapter. What is the difference between
the gray and white ones?
Just one thing left to find... an SMD rework station
for around the
same ($200) mark... (again, so I can make boards for my CoCos...)
I just found a flux/epoxy dispensing system this last weekend (no
handpiece yet), so I'm just about ready to find a SMT rework station
myself. Maybe I'll find one of those for $0.50 too...well, I can dream
can't I? ;P
-Toth
2:18 p.m.
New subject: Oh, Happy Day!
Well, I'm not sure of what the differences are, but I have a SuperPro, i.e.
the ORIGINAL Superpro. The original product, the one I actually ordered and
paid for, was a UNIPRO, which, as it turned out, didn't work very well at all.
I pointed out all the parts that their device didn't program properly, and,
somewhat apologetically, they replaced it with this SUPERPRO, which, BTW,
isn't perfect either, but which certainly worked much better than the UniPro.
I also got the "SuperGen" software, which was a very costly add-on, enabling
the user to program his own algorithms, which is not a terribly useful tool in
and of itself, since the device manufacturers seldom allow that informatin out
the door except under close NDA, but it does allow you to add to the TTL/CMOS
testing capability, and, if you're a real glutton for punishment, testing of
processors, etc.
SInce the programmer is about a decade out of date, if you want to try this
software to see if it works for you, with your SuperPro-L, I can fix you up, I
think. It's really frustrating to find that they don't have a test procedure
for your favorite TTL/CMOS parts. Just take a look and see whether you have
the ability to test a 74LS597 or something of that ilk. Try to test a 74LS590
sometime ... That software will fix the shortfall if you figure out how to
use it. The manual is only marginally helpful.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Merchberger" <zmerch(a)30below.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2002 7:18 PM
Subject: Oh, Happy Day!
Much to my wife's chagrin, I just found a new
toy...
I'd posted to a couple newsgroups & another email list on my continuing
search for a decent *affordable* PAL/GAL/EPROM/Flash programmer, and
someone suggested I check online vendors for refurbed "obsolete" items.
I'd
done that before with no luck, but that renewed my interest of looking
around, so I googled a little more, and stumbled across a homebrew
electronics FAQ:
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/homebuilt-comp-FAQ/
which had a nice long list of hardware vendors who sell just these kinds of
things, at *way* too much money. But, I persevered, and when I got to the
*last* web address on the list, low & behold... Paydirt!
http://www.xeltek.com/
They sell their refurbed programmers at muchly reduced prices, and had a
decent stock of them, to boot! I needed one that was parallel port capable,
as my main PeeCee & my laptop at work use expansion slots that aren't ISA.
I got their Superpro L, 40-pin programmer & 74xx series logic tester for
$185, plus SH&I rounded it to $200 and a few pennies...
I couldn't resist clicking on "add to cart" and "checkout" - they
take
PayPal for payment as well as Credit Cards -- around 1400 hrs EST. I got a
receipt email about 20 seconds later... and 3 hours later, another email
that it's already been shipped, with a tracking number! :-)
Yiippee!!!
So, to make sure this stays on-topic (as 90+% of what I'm using this for is
programming stuff for classic computers) if anyone has (or knows where to
find) the datafile to program a fresh GAL to fix a gray Tandy Multi-Pak
adapter (26-3024, IIRC) for CoCo3 usage, I'd be happy to burn new GALs for
anyone needing them for cost of GAL & shipping. I have a Multi-Pak that
needs updating, and I dunno if anyone else has this ability (or cares)
anymore...
Just one thing left to find... an SMD rework station for around the same
($200) mark... (again, so I can make boards for my CoCos...)
(The same site has a sale on their SMDeasy station - $349, but that's still
a wee bit out of my price range... time to save my pennies...)
Well, just had to share my good fortune with y'all...
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
14 Feb
14 Feb
12:09 p.m.
New subject: A *real* classic
Now THIS is a classic:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2003117896
Starts making me long my old Sphere I, and Outpost II.
1:10 p.m.
New subject: A *real* classic
"Real" piece of crap in this listing, with ridiculous price and lousy title:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2003065650
This is the nearly-not-compatible Sanyo MBC-550-2 "silver devil", hundreds
and thousands out there stashed inclosets, only ever had MSDOS 1.25 and 2.11
since it had to have a special hacked version to work with their odd
bit-mapped graphics and imcompatible BIOS. At least this one has all of the
original floppies, without them it's worthless. With them maybe $25 total.
=> -----Original Message-----
=> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of John Chris Wren
=> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 8:10 PM
=> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> Subject: A *real* classic
=>
=>
=> Now THIS is a classic:
=> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2003117896
=>
=> Starts making me long my old Sphere I, and Outpost II.
=>
=>
8351
days inactive
8353
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7 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
edick＠idcomm.com -
jcwren＠jcwren.com -
rhb57＠vol.com -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
tothwolf＠concentric.net -
zmerch＠30below.com