[Coco] Lotharek floppy emulator (was: cheap floppy emulator)

Sun Sep 15 07:23:27 EDT 2013

The HxC works fine with the CoCo disk controller both under RSDOS and OS9.
Note that Cloud9's forthcoming SuperSD will offer superior features at a
similar price.

On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Ronivon Costa <ronivon.costa at gmail.com>wrote:

> The TRS-80 Color floppy drives are compatible with the TRS 80 Model 4 ?
> I don't even have a Coco disk controller, so I can't directly answer
> you question, but I can using the HxC just fine with my TRS 80 Model
> 4.
>
>
> On 12 September 2013 23:44, Christopher Smith <csmith at wolfram.com> wrote:
> > So, after some looking around and talking back and forth off list, I
> thought I'd ask again about this.  Has anyone successfully used the
> Lotharek/HxC emulator with a CoCo?  If you've done so, how is the
> experience, and how difficult is it to get disk images onto the thing?
>  Does it do something sane with the disk images so that you could just copy
> new ones onto the card, or does it require you to use the software that
> comes with it?
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "tonym" <tonym at compusource.net>
> >> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 2:06:52 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator
> >>
> >> I think the only one right now that works, is the HXC2001/Lotharek
> >> emulators:
> >>
> >> $144
> >>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100633903?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
> >>
> >> $74
> >>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100633943?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
> >>
> >> $77
> >>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/181194736200?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
> >>
> >> $108
> >>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100634031?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
> >>
> >> website:
> >>
> >> http://hxc2001.com/
> >>
> >> Tony
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ---- Original Message ----
> >> From: "Robert Hermanek" <rhermanek at centurytel.net>
> >> Sent: 9/9/2013 2:17:52 PM
> >> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator
> >>
> >> I played around with a China (affordable) emulator and verified, as
> >> expected, that although they work fine in a PC with 720 or 1440
> >> images,
> >> they do not work in the coco.  The cheaper emulators are not
> >> configurable in any way, and always expect 80 tracks, 9 or 18 sectors
> >> per track, 512 byte sectors.  I was hoping against hope that with
> >> coco
> >> being 35 tracks, 18 sectors, that the emulator would live with it,
> >> but I
> >> think the 256 vs 512 byte sectors was a deal breaker.
> >>
> >> -RobertH
> >>
> >> On 9/9/2013 1:09 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
> >> > So, given that I may need to build my CoCo disk system from parts
> >> > anyway, I've been looking at the possibility of emulating one out
> >> > of two floppy drives in hardware.  There is at least one very
> >> > impressive floppy emulator available which will do everything I
> >> > want, but it's upward of $100 and the budget isn't so great for
> >> > now.  I'm looking at the possibility using a Chinese import
> >> > emulator from ebay.  Supposedly it will emulate a 720k, 1.2M, and
> >> > 1.44M floppies.  Now, of these formats, I'm reasonably sure the
> >> > CoCo won't like any but the first.  That may be sufficient.
> >> >  Here's what I'm considering:
> >> >
> >> > I have a Teac 5.25" drive on order.  It's high-density, but people
> >> > say that these things have an RPM jumper on them which will slow
> >> > the spindle down.  You can then either force them to
> >> > double-density mode or have them function as quad-density.  People
> >> > also say that the quad-density disks will work out ok under OS-9.
> >> >  I'd like to fit a switch onto the density selector so that I can
> >> > force the drive into either double or quad density mode at any
> >> > given time.  So that should make one good drive.
> >> >
> >> > I'm also thinking about trying one of those floppy emulators.  It
> >> > would need to be forced into 720k mode, and would basically work
> >> > similarly to the 5.25" disk in quad-density mode, I suspect.  The
> >> > downside is that the emulated disks would be smaller than usual
> >> > under DECB, and unless I flipped sides there either by attaching
> >> > another switch that mucks around with the side select signal on
> >> > the cable or in software, I lose half of the space in a disk image
> >> > that I might have still had.  Though, OS-9 should use them at full
> >> > capacity, one would think.  My other problem here is that I
> >> > strongly suspect that this emulator will not have drive select
> >> > jumpers, so I may need to end up clipping pins, or -- who knows
> >> > what, really -- to get the drives in the order I'd like.  Really I
> >> > think the emulated floppy should be drive 0 and the actual floppy
> >> > 1.
> >> >
> >> > Any comments or suggestions on how to do this or why it's a bad
> >> > idea and something else should be done instead? :)
> >> >
> >> > All that aside, I'll still have the problem of housing the drives.
> >> >  I've recently salvaged an old case that had a CD-ROM in it, which
> >> > should be sufficient for a single drive, but I don't really have
> >> > anything appropriate for two drives.  A standard (and as small as
> >> > possible) PC power supply of even 60W or so should do fine for
> >> > power, I think.  As for the box, I'm not quite sure what to do
> >> > there.  Perhaps wood I could do on my own.  Maybe I could have
> >> > something fabricated out of metal.  Something else?  Any ideas
> >> > here will be welcome as well.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > Chris
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> >> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
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> >>
> >
> > --
> > Christopher Smith
> > Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research
> >
> > --
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>
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