toml@xrxns.UUCP (Tom Love) (02/04/87)
a few months ago there was some discussion of roll-your-own hard disk systems,
in particular one approach based on a dma to scsi adaptor built by a company
named berkeley microsystems. i think jim turner was the first "guinea pig"
in the netnews world, followed up by jawar bammi (sp?). anyway, with some
encouragement from jim i ventured into the mysterious world of hardware
hacking (note, i use this phrase loosely, and only to make myself feel like
i accomplished something significant!). the result was a relatively cheap
and (to date) quite reliable 34 Mbyte hard drive setup.
i just finished writing a magazine article on this experience for "ST
Applications" magazine. it attempts to provide the documentation for the
assembly and installation procedure which berkeley microsystems doesn't.
this article will appear in the march issue, barring any snafus. i have
arranged permission from the magazine's publisher to distribute electronic
copies of this article to bbs's and usenet.
so here is the deal: should i post this article, or mail it to those
requesting it? the ascii file is about 20 Kb. i can compress it down using
bsd compress, or i could arc it, or just send it out whole.
for now, if you wish to receive an electronic copy, send me mail to the
address below. indicate what form you would like to receive it in, and
whether you think it should be posted to the net. i will guarantee that
everyone requesting a copy will receive one, the gods of the network
permitting. alternatively, send me a SASE and i will return you a paper
copy; this will include two cad graphics figures which i must of necessity
omit from the electronic distribution.
if more than 10 people think it should be posted, and less than 10 people
scream that it shouldn't be posted, i will post it in one form or another.
i know 10 is a small number, but i don't have any good guidelines on how
to do this, so sorry if i offend anyone.
alternatively, you could buy the magazine. if you don't have ready access
on a local newstand, contact: ST Applications, PO BOX 980, Forestville,
CA, 95436 USA. subscriptions are $32.50/yr (12 issues) in usa; support
disks are also available. i imagine they would send out single issues if
you're just after my article. if you write them, please mention my name
and how you heard about this.
if all else fails, send me snail mail or call me.
enjoy!
tom love
xerox egp/edds
home: rt 2, box 277, sterling, va 22170 USA (703)430-2853
work: xerox, p.o. box 2000, leesburg, va 22075 (703)777-8000, x5185
intelnet: 8-437-5185
XNS internet: tom love:lsbg-egp/cad:xerox
uucp: {major sites} !seismo!rochester!rocksanne!xrxns!tomljdg@elmgate.UUCP (02/05/87)
Distribution:
I used the Berkeley Micro board and an ACB 4000. After blowing one
board (they replaced it for free) through no particular fault of my own,
I have a 42mb drive up and running. I used a IBM-XT style case and 135
watt P.S. to round out my HD subsystem. The two boards are mounted in
the case along with the drive. The control cable comes out the front of
case and hooks to the ST. The case makes a nice monitor stand ta' boot.
They supply the DMA code loaded at startup to run the drive and also 2
utilities to set and access the battery backed-up clock on their board.
To date (I've had it running a month now) I've only had one problem. The
clock programs refuse to deal with the month of February(!!!). I can set
it ahead to March or back to January but February is out of the
question. Jim Turner, have you experianced the same problem? I'm
investigating...
The HD is quite fast, and it's not hick-up 'ed yet.
My partitions are 15meg, 15meg, 6meg, and 5meg.
All in all, if you already have an ST506 type drive, for ~$350 it's the
way to go.
Oh yes, BMS says their driver and board support 2 hard disks. Since I
only have one I can not confirm nor deny that.
The cost:
BMS board, driver, cable: $125
ACB-4000: ~$125 (depends where)
Case: $ 40
Power supply: $ 50
--
Jeff Gortatowsky {allegra,seismo}!rochester!kodak!elmgate!jdg
Eastman Kodak Company
<Kodak won't be responsible for the above comments, only those below>turner@imagen.UUCP (02/06/87)
in article <569@elmgate.UUCP >, jdg@elmgate.UUCP (Jeff Gortatowsky) says: > Distribution: > > I used the Berkeley Micro board and an ACB 4000. > > To date (I've had it running a month now) I've only had one problem. The > clock programs refuse to deal with the month of February(!!!). I can set > it ahead to March or back to January but February is out of the > question. Jim Turner, have you experianced the same problem? I'm > investigating... > it's a known bug and they have a fix for it already. > Oh yes, BMS says their driver and board support 2 hard disks. Since I > only have one I can not confirm nor deny that. > i run a 20Mb disk and a 10Mb disk on mine, all i had to do was plug in the cables, power etc. on boot. shazam it worked -- --------------- C'est la vie, C'est le guerre, C'est la pomme de terre Mail: Imagen Corp. 2650 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, CA 95052-8101 UUCP: ...{decvax,ucbvax}!decwrl!imagen!turner AT&T: (408) 986-9400