[Coco] CoCo Hard Drive History

Gene Heskett gheskett at wdtv.com
Mon Oct 14 02:17:53 EDT 2013 

On Monday 14 October 2013 01:46:42 Bob Devries did opine:

> Gene, you're right...
> I just checked and I have all 50 pins between the two drives, and
> Disto's standard cable to the controller. Quite easily done, actually.
> 
> Regards, Bob Devries
> Dalby, QLD, Australia
> 
I always thought that was probably the magic twanger to make it work, but 
never did it.  There were other things wrong with the 4n1, so my 4n1 has 
long since been reduced to a no-halt floppy, nothing else.  That part 
always worked flawlessly.  But the serial port, using a 6551 was stripped 
to a 3 wire setup, needing software xon/xoff and a wall wart psu unless it 
was in an MPI, and the RTC was so subject to some sort of noise during the 
powerdown/up, so rarely had the correct time after a powerdown reset.  The 
parport for driving printers had the same problems the J&M-CP had, there 
was no buffering or latching and "modern" printers (only 25 years old now) 
with their FCC mandated noise filtered inputs were not able to deal with 
write pulses only an E-Clock wide.  One could have made a latching buffer 
that handshaked with the printers ACK strobe, and I was tempted, but the 
printer, a DMP-132 was such a P.O.S. I never bothered.  For a printer, I 
used a xerox 1650ro for many years, still have that old battleship, but the 
worlds supply of film ribbons for it are so old & brittle they shatter on 
the first hammer strike now.

So I am using a Brother HL2140 B&W laser printer now, by sending what I 
want to print to the dw version of /p, which is captured as a file by the 
dw server, the files close is detected by a script I wrote running on this 
machine, its picked up, rasterized into data for the laser by cups, and 
sent back to that laser sitting on the top shelf of the coco3's desk, where 
it comes out at 19 to 22 pages a minute starting about 5 seconds after I 
get the prompt back from a "list filename >/p" on the coco3.

Whats not to like?, the output is beautiful, and for a long file, at least 
30x faster than any printer I ever drove with the coco.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gene Heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Monday, October 14, 2013 10:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCo Hard Drive History
> 
> > On Sunday 13 October 2013 20:23:41 Bob Devries did opine:
> >> Gene, I have two SCSI (Quantum) drives hanging off my Disto 4-in-1
> >> and they work flawlessly.
> > 
> > Did you do that by making up a jumper and connecting the center pins
> > of the
> > drives together?  Thats the pins the drive use to talk to each other
> > so they can share the interface, and which Tony's std cable does not
> > connect.
> > 
> > I was tempted to do that but never quite found my round tuit.  I
> > bought a TC^3 instead, which does work flawlessly.
> > 
> >> Regards, Bob Devries
> >> Dalby, QLD, Australia
> >> 
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Gene Heskett" <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> >> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> >> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 7:10 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCo Hard Drive History
> >> 
> >> > On Sunday 13 October 2013 05:09:32 tonym did opine:
> >> >> >---- Original Message ----
> >> >> >From: "Greg Law" <glaw at live.com>
> >> >> >Sent: 10/13/2013 1:59:03 AM
> >> >> >To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts"
> >> >> ><coco at maltedmedia.com> Subject: Re: [Coco] CoCo Hard Drive
> >> >> >History
> >> >> >
> >> >> >From: tonym
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> Are these WD SASI-to-MFM boards similar to the controller
> >> >> >> boards used in the Kaypro 10?
> >> >> >> Or is that a different board? I think those were WD1002-HD0?
> >> >> >
> >> >> >Yes, exactly the same as used in the Kaypro and a bunch of other
> >> >> >computers at the time. The WD1002-HDO is the same board as the
> >> >> >WD1002-05, except the -HDO does not have the floppy controller
> >> >> >components. Hence, HDO is hard-drive only.
> >> >> 
> >> >> Looked them up, and the datasheets.
> >> >> 
> >> >> The WD1002-05 and WD1002-HDO are NOT the same as the WD1002-SHD.
> >> >> the -SHD is SASI, and the -05 and -HDO are some host bus. even
> >> >> the block diagrams are different, and the -SHD datasheet mentions
> >> >> SASI and the commands supported.
> >> >> 
> >> >> Looks like the Eliminator supporter the same WD1002-HDO as the
> >> >> Kaypro 10...
> >> >> 
> >> >> SO my other question remains...
> >> >> 
> >> >> Do the Disto 4-n-1 and HD II support a SCSI HDD attached directly,
> >> >> as opposed to going MFM?
> >> > 
> >> > Yes, but it was a single drive only, Tony's interface was missing
> >> > too many signals that would have allowed 2 or more drives to
> >> > co-exist.
> >> > 
> >> >> --
> >> >> Coco mailing list
> >> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> >> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >> > 
> >> > Cheers, Gene
> >> > 
> >> > Rome was not built in one day.
> >> > -- John Heywood
> >> > A pen in the hand of this president is far more
> >> > dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of
> >> > 
> >> >         law-abiding citizens.
> >> > 
> >> > --
> >> > Coco mailing list
> >> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >> 
> >> --
> >> Coco mailing list
> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> > 
> > Cheers, Gene
> > 
> > When does summertime come to Minnesota, you ask?  Well, last year, I
> > think it was a Tuesday.
> > A pen in the hand of this president is far more
> > dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of
> > 
> >         law-abiding citizens.
> > 
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco


Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)

My father was a saint, I'm not.
		-- Indira Gandhi
A pen in the hand of this president is far more
dangerous than 200 million guns in the hands of
         law-abiding citizens.

More information about the Coco mailing list