[Coco] CoCo and SATA/USB drives.

[James Hrubik]

Well, first off, don't stop thinking. %^D

Years ago I earned a number of brickbats on this list for suggesting  
an IDE adapter for the CoCo.  They said it couldn't be done.  Its was  
done.

I suggested a VDG adapter for the CoCo.  They said it couldn't be  
done.  Roy proved them wrong.

Five or six years ago I suggested a USB adapter for the CoCo.  "You  
don't understand the difficulty.  It can't be done" said they.  And  
they are right, I don't understand the difficulty.  I have no  
training whatever in electronic engineering.  I DO have, however, an  
old Kodak DC240 camera that I use daily for my work.  It has a Mac- 
type serial port, and connects directly with a Mac printer cable to  
old Macs.  It also came with a cable that has the Mac serial plug on  
one end, a USB plug on the other end, and a little "tootsie roll"  
that looks like an RF choke toward one end.  It plugs directly into  
my Pavillion and my iMac.  No adapter.  I use that cable every day.   
I don't understand the difficulty.  I don't even know where I would  
start to write a driver for such a thing.  But I DO know that my  
camera sends .jpgs every day down a cable that is serial at one end  
and USB at the other with no adapter.  And I DO know that my  
Pavillion running XP is too stupid to know the difference.

So don't be discouraged.  Keep on thinking outside the box.  If we  
don't ask the stupid questions, we will never learn to defy gravity.

On May 24, 2006, at 2:24 AM, Jim Cox wrote:

> This got me thinking about the future of Floppies and Hard Drives  
> for the CoCo community.  With low cost USB External Enclosueres for  
> SATA drives becoming available and with USB floppy drives already  
> available, I think what the CoCo needs is a USB 2.0 adapter that  
> can address both.  I wonder if it is possible to have this adapter  
> create a new drive type that will allow the CoCo to read 1.44M 3.5"  
> floppies.
>
> I'll follow up later when I have time, but I would like to know  
> what others think about the future of drives and how the changes  
> will affect the CoCo.
>
> -Jim Cox
>

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Unauthorized use of my stuff may cause senility.