ez001287@deneb (Thomas Lew) (09/25/90)
We all know that the reason that Commodore manufactured disk drives are so
expensive is that each drive contains its own controller card. My question
is this: is it possible to disassemble a 1581 drive and plug in an
IBM-compatible low density 3 1/2" drive into the Commodore controller board
and have it work? Are the connectors, power requirements, and data lines
the same, or is this just a fanciful pipe dream?
If anyone has any input on this subject, I'd greatly appreciate a reply here.
Thomas Lew
ez001287@deneb.ucdavis.edutreesh@darwin.helios.nd.edu (09/26/90)
I know for a fact that the Apple Machintosh floppy disk drives will not work in place of the 1581 disk drive mehcnical assy. Also, Im not sure but I think that the 1581 assyomblly does not have a +5 +12 volt power connector on it like cheep 720K MS DOS drives do. The 1581 drive gets its power via the data cable. So, I would venture to say NO, that wont work. But I know something even sweeter that does!! Did you know you could use an IBM hard drive on a 64? The parts are kinda tricking to find, but I have done it with mine. You need a Tandon Dos Controller board, and an Omti SASI to MFM converter board. Both these can be found in the old Commodore 9060 hard disk units. I have gotten 19441 blocks free out of a 'lil 10 megger IBM drive. And thats only 5 megs! ctfm
nrossi@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Nick Rossi) (09/26/90)
In article <450@news.nd.edu> treesh@darwin.helios.nd.edu writes: >Did you know you could use an IBM hard drive on a 64? The parts are kinda >tricking to find, but I have done it with mine. You need a Tandon >Dos Controller board, and an Omti SASI to MFM converter board. Both these >can be found in the old Commodore 9060 hard disk units. > >I have gotten 19441 blocks free out of a 'lil 10 megger IBM drive. I once had a 5 meg IBM hard drive interfaced to my 64. It was manufactured by a company called JCT, which used to operate in Oregon. I think they went out of business some time ago, but they used to make 5, 10, and 20 meg drives for the Commodore by interfacing an IBM hard drive controller and a Commodore floppy controller. The drive gave me 18,808 blocks free, and it came with a modified version of DOS that supported subdirectories with a D: command. However, this was an old unit -- the 5 meg drive was a full-height Seagate 110 (not sure about the number, but it was in the 100s) and it hooked up to the 64 with a regular serial cable. The drive was made to be as slow as a 1541. It was also very unreliable, as it scrambled data every so often. It caused my BBS to crash a lot. Fortunately, I got it free from someone at the company, as they sold for $700 or $800. I unloaded it for $50 on someone who fried the controller cards a week later by hooking them up wrong. Nick
root@zswamp.fidonet.org (Geoffrey Welsh) (09/28/90)
> From: treesh@darwin.helios.nd.edu > Message-ID: <450@news.nd.edu> > > I know for a fact that the Apple Machintosh floppy disk drives will not > work in place of the 1581 disk drive mehcnical assy. Mac 3.5" disks use variable-speed motors. PCs, Amigae, STs, and 1581s don't, as far as I know. > Did you know you could use an IBM hard drive on a 64? The parts are kinda > tricking to find, but I have done it with mine. You need a Tandon > Dos Controller board, and an Omti SASI to MFM converter board. Both these > can be found in the old Commodore 9060 hard disk units. > > I have gotten 19441 blocks free out of a 'lil 10 megger IBM drive. > > And thats only 5 megs! Hmmm, I'm sure there are lots of folks who'd appreciate a full write-up of that project, if you have the time! -- UUCP: watmath!xenitec!zswamp!geoff | 602-66 Mooregate Crescent Internet: geoff@zswamp.fidonet.org | Kitchener, Ontario FidoNet: SYSOP, 1:221/171 | N2M 5E6 CANADA Data: (519) 742-8939 | (519) 741-9553 "Experience talks... and talks... and talks..."
dg@pallio.UUCP (David Goodenough) (10/04/90)
ez001287@deneb (Thomas Lew) asks: > We all know that the reason that Commodore manufactured disk drives are so > expensive is that each drive contains its own controller card. My question > is this: is it possible to disassemble a 1581 drive and plug in an > IBM-compatible low density 3 1/2" drive into the Commodore controller board > and have it work? Are the connectors, power requirements, and data lines > the same, or is this just a fanciful pipe dream? I doubt it will work to well. The 1581 format apparently gets the equivalent of 800K on a DS DD 3.5" disk (80 tracks * 2 sides * 10 SPT * 512 BPS) As many people will tell you, the cheapo drives that are used in PC's and the like are not sufficiently high tolerance for 10 sectors per track, which is why they only put 9 SPT (360K) on them. You _CAN_ get decent tolerance drives (like the ones in a good many CP/M machines: Kaypro, Televideo, Osborne, etc.), but IBM ones won't cut it. All this may be academic, given that another posting hinted that there is only one connector to a 1581 drive, implying that power is shoved up the same cable. Could this be like PS/2 hardware I ask myself??? -- dg@pallio.UUCP - David Goodenough +---+ IHS | +-+-+ ..... !harvard!xait!pallio!dg +-+-+ | AKA: dg%pallio.uucp@xait.xerox.com +---+