[Coco] HD controllers for Coco-3

[Willard Goosey]

Everything I've read says owlware was just repackaged lrtech.

Driver wise, as far as I know we're still at that same point... I don't know if anyone has attempted to use an LR-Tech with Superdriver.

Superdriver has become the standard hard-drive driver system for NitrOS-9 and is now included for free in NitrOS. Ironically enough I'm not using it on my current hard drive (Glenside IDE with Boyle's 99 driver) so I don't know how to set it up, sorry.

I can't really help much with the lrtech either, I sold mine to a guy who promptly junked all his coco stuff. :-(

If you have a PC you can set up as a Drivewire server that's worth doing, then you can extract your old hdd backup onto a virtual drive. 

If I were you I'd take a little time, get the newest nitrOS and get comfortable with it before tackling the hard drive thing. Even on a 6809 NitrOS is a good bit faster than OS9.

Willard
Sent from Samsung tablet

-------- Original message --------
From Kandur <k at qdv.pw> 
Date: 06/11/2014  8:44 PM  (GMT-07:00) 
To CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com> 
Subject [Coco] HD controllers for Coco-3 
 
I have an LR-Tech and an Owl-Ware HD controller.
On the pc board inside the Owl-Ware HD controller LR-Tech is printed.
http://qdv.pw/eng/_photos/Computers/Coco/cartridges/HD%20controller/index.html
Is there any functional difference between these controllers?
Let me quote Wilard:
"Willard Goosey | 4 Mar 08:59 2006
Re: Tandy Hard Disk Controller

>Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2006 18:31:14 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Bill Gunshannon" <billg000 at ...>

>As long as we're talking about COCO disk interfaces, anyone know
>anythng about an OWL Interface Disk Controler?  The board inside
>says LR Tech.  What interface is it and is it of any real use?

LR Tech is a SASI controller.  The slightly-newer Ken-Ton SCSI card is
supposedly compatible with the LR-Tech, so Ken-Ton software (SCSIsys,
Superdriver) should be able to use it.

As far as I could tell, the difference between LR-Tech SASI and actual
SCSI was that the LR-Tech didn't generate parity bits.

When I was running an LR Tech system, I was using the original
software for it, but then, I happened to have one of the supported
SASI-to-MFM controller boards around.

Willard"

Same as Willard, I used a Seagate ST-225 MFM HD in RLL mode, 
using an Adaptec ACB-4070 MFM to SASI bridge board.
Later I used a pair of 104 MB CDC WREN-III SCSI drives 
connected directly to them. they worked flawlessly.
There is an OS-9 HD backup set of 28, 5-1/4" diskettes, 
made by one of these controllers, waiting for restoration. 
I'd like to use these controllers with my Coco-3 running NitrOS-9.
Please give me some hints, advice, how should I go about that.
You will be talking to someone, who had become a total noob
after 20 years, from being comfortable with the Cocos and OS-9. :)

Kandur

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