12 Oct
2007
12 Oct
'07
4:28 p.m.
Really don't understand all the talks about
catweasels secrets, etc.
Just make few boards for the classiccomp group, and be done with the
subject ;-)
I suppose--every once in awhile, I run into a very odd format that's
not compatible with any of the commodity controllers and am forced to
use a Catweasel on it. But 99% of what I see is plain old soft-
sectored media, readable on most WD17xx or NEC 765 controllers.
Cheers,
Chuck
-----REPLY-----
There has been lots of talk about these universal floppy controller devices
and I for one would LOVE to see one done but so far nobody has made one
work. The closest thing I have seen is either the external floppy drive and
compaticard combination or the parallel port Backpack external floppy drive
from Microsolutions. If anyone actually makes the
universal floppy reader,
please put me down to buy one as well.
However, IMO, the best solution for the universal floppy drive is an old PC
with a Catweasel and a 3.5", 5.25", and/or 8" floppy drive. Then just
write
the software for it. Really, writing software for the Catweasel is really
simple and it is 100% open source.
The documentation is all available publicly, its supported in Linux, MS-DOS,
and/or Windows, the owner/manufacturer is as accomodating as one could
possibly hope for (Jens Schoenfeld). There is a developer list and lots of
enthusiastic users. The hardware is cheap and readily available. Count me
as diehard Catweasel fan!
The Catweasel in an old PC is as close to the perfect universal floppy drive
reader as far as I can see. What else is needed? More and better software
and that is about all.
There are Catweasel software available for practically every format
imaginable. Most if not all of the soft sector formats are covered by the
Tim Mann CW2DMK software. There are reader for many formats such as
specialty disks as the Amiga, Atari, Macintosh, Commodore, Nintendo, Apple
II, etc. There is software for many of the hard sector formats as well
(NorthStar, PTDOS, Data General, and Heath, at least. Vector Graphic is in
work).
Thanks and best of luck with your project. Really, if anyone does complete
a universal floppy reader which is even close to as good as the Catweasel, I
will be in line to buy it.
Andrew Lynch
17 Oct
17 Oct
4:33 p.m.
New subject: Emailing: Universal Floppy reader, was Re Extracting CDOS and CP-M) files
On Fri, 12 Oct 2007, Andrew Lynch wrote:
There has been lots of talk about these universal
floppy controller devices
and I for one would LOVE to see one done but so far nobody has made one
work. The closest thing I have seen is either the external floppy drive and
compaticard combination or the parallel port Backpack external floppy drive
from Microsolutions. If anyone actually makes the universal floppy reader,
please put me down to buy one as well.
FWIW, I'm exploring the idea of a universal floppy controller with some
currently undisclosed people in the classic computers arena. I envision
the final product as a fully-populated naked board. It would carry an
FPGA, support up to four drives of any kind, and talk USB to the host
computer. From a software perspective, it look like ordinary PC floppy
drives, much like an external 3.5" drive. It also presents raw
character interfaces to each of the drives as well. User-mode programs
can read and write raw data to do things like copying entire disks. Disks
can be mounted by way of usermode filesystems. My current task is
locating free FPGA cores to implement the usual floppy controller chips.
This will allow the external 5.25" drive that some people here have been
clamoring for.
I'm also exploring the feasability of a PCI and/or PCIE floppy card. All
this would do is just provide regular PC-style floppy interfaces.
According to private discussions, this would be easy, but would not be
usuable with stock floppy drivers. This won't be a problem for modern
operating systems, we'll just create new drivers. It would present
problems for DOS programs that directly diddle with the interface.
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
5:48 p.m.
New subject: Emailing: Universal Floppy reader, was Re Extracting CDOS and CP-M) files
At 03:33 PM 10/17/2007, you wrote:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2007, Andrew Lynch wrote:
There are 44 pin QFP packages available to control 4 drives, 8" to
3.5". $7.50 a piece. To me its not even worth the time to do a
google search for disk drive cores. Free usually means buggy and
YMMV any way... ; )
I'm making a 3.5" disk drive card for the Altair.
There has been lots of talk about these universal
floppy controller devices
and I for one would LOVE to see one done but so far nobody has made one
work. The closest thing I have seen is either the external
floppy drive and
compaticard combination or the parallel port
Backpack external floppy drive
from Microsolutions. If anyone actually makes the universal floppy reader,
please put me down to buy one as well.
FWIW, I'm exploring the idea of a universal floppy controller with some
currently undisclosed people in the classic computers arena. I envision
the final product as a fully-populated naked board. It would carry an
FPGA, support up to four drives of any kind, and talk USB to the host
computer. From a software perspective, it look like ordinary PC floppy
drives, much like an external 3.5" drive. It also presents raw
character interfaces to each of the drives as well. User-mode programs
can read and write raw data to do things like copying entire disks. Disks
can be mounted by way of usermode filesystems. My current task is
locating free FPGA cores to implement the usual floppy controller chips.
This will allow the external 5.25" drive that some people here have been
clamoring for.
6:49 p.m.
New subject: Emailing: Universal Floppy reader, was Re Extracting CDOS and CP-M) files
On Wed, 17 Oct 2007, Grant Stockly wrote:
There are 44 pin QFP packages available to control 4
drives, 8" to
3.5". $7.50 a piece. To me its not even worth the time to do a
google search for disk drive cores. Free usually means buggy and
YMMV any way... ; )
Hmm, I suppose that chip would do the trick for native block-access.
Still, an FPGA will be required to support "weird" formats like Commodore
older Macintosh.
I'm making a 3.5" disk drive card for the
Altair.
Nifty! When can we expect the serial and cassette tape cards?
--
David Griffith
dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
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3 comments
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participants (3)
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dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu -
grant＠stockly.com -
lynchaj＠yahoo.com