dg@lakart.UUCP (David Goodenough) (06/23/88)
From article <935@flatline.UUCP>, by erict@flatline.UUCP (j eric townsend): > In article <565@mannix.iros1.UUCP>, desmarai@iros13.iro.umontreal.ca (Stephane Desmarais) writes: > >> (Why didn't they find a way do avoid doing more than one or two bump on >> the head stop?) > > > It has to do with the way the head resets to track 0. Instead of making > a "where is the head now" sensor, they used GCR encoding. The drive > reads the GCR encoding data off of the disk, and can figure out > where it is. So how does it decide a reference point? Bring the > head in towards track zero for X amount of time, where X > amount of > time for the head to go all the way across from track 40 to track 0. I don't know if they are available in North America, but my father recently visited me from England, where he also has a C64 w/ a 1541. Apparently there is a widget known as an "Anti-woodpecker" spring that you can put in your 1541 to quieten up the self destruction when it is banging the head against the head stop. I'm getting him to send me one, so that my 1541 shuts up. (I've altered the Dist to include England - Comments anyone over there?) -- dg@lakart.UUCP - David Goodenough +---+ | +-+-+ ....... !harvard!cca!lakart!dg +-+-+ | +---+
kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Dykes) (06/30/88)
I just came to this newsgroup to ask the question
"is there a program/driver whatever, or otherwise is it straighforward
to read cbm disks on a dos machine"
i see several articles (as far back as we expire) with a subject line
implying i may find THEE ANSWER.
but all they talk about is how to buzz disk heads.
Was there an answer to THEE QUESTION? can DOS machines handle cbm disks?
A friend wants to discard his cbm business setup (inventory) and go to
a dos machine -- but he doesnt want to re-enter all the inventory data
and so it would be nice to be able to "convert" the data.
(as long as DOS can "read" the disks, we will figure something for any
mangling the actual applications have done to the data)
(actually, i havent seen his cbm machine, i HOPE it doesnt use those
ancient million-inch wide floppies (8 inch?))
-ken
--
- Ken Dykes, Software Development Group, U.of.Waterloo
kgdykes@watmath.uucp kgdykes@water.bitnet
kgdykes@waterloo.csnetjhenry@randvax.UUCP (Jim Henry) (07/06/88)
When I had my 1541 serviced, I had installed a spring replacement stop. The service man, who was quite outspoken but also quite competent, said that the spring was not needed and proceeded to show me that the pulley for the head positioning band is in a block which should slide on the head rails. He said that that this block is almost invariably frozen on the rails. As part of the service he lubricated the pulley block so it moved freely on the rails and he reinstalled the solid head stop. The drive just made a purring sound when it hit the stop. All the shock is taken up by the pulley. I am not sure what sort of lubricant you would want to use but it should be something that can be used sparingly and that will stay put. This seems like a much better solution to head noise than mucking around with the track 0 stop. I also have a suspicion that many so called alignment problems with the 1541 are actually related to a lack of lubrication on the head rails.
jbh@mibte.UUCP (James Harvey) (07/06/88)
In article <19681@watmath.waterloo.edu>, kgdykes@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ken Dykes) writes: > > "is there a program/driver whatever, or otherwise is it straighforward > to read cbm disks on a dos machine" > -- > - Ken Dykes, Software Development Group, U.of.Waterloo > kgdykes@watmath.uucp kgdykes@water.bitnet > kgdykes@waterloo.csnet I have done a lot of this type of conversion using my recently aquired Amiga 2000. I have a friend who has been after me for some time to convert my C64 Printshop collection and also my rec.humor collection to IBM disk format. I used an external Amiga 1020 5 1/4 inch disk drive to read the CBM disks into the Amiga and also to write out IBM compatible files onto MS-DOS formatted disks. There are two (at least) programs for the Amiga that will read C64 formatted disks. One is Disk-to-Disk which doesn't work very well, the other is a program named "Transfer" which comes with the "C64 Emulator 2" which worked perfectly, and can even use the 1541 disk drive. I used Dos-to-DOS to copy the files back to 5 1/4 inch IBM disks. This works very well and is quite fast. Your friendly local Amiga dealer may be able to help you with your project. It's a good demonstration of the capabilities of the Amiga. If you can't find an Amiga with the 5 1/4 inch disk drive, you could use the "C64 Emulator" with your friends 1541 drive, and then copy the files back to 3 1/2" IBM disks. It's not too hard to find IBM PCs these days with the 3 1/2" drives. I do not have a Commodore 128 with 1571 drive but there is a package called "Big Blue Reader" that will read and write IBM format disks on the 1571. I have never tried this method. -- Jim Harvey | "Ask not for whom the bell Michigan Bell Telephone | tolls and you will only pay 29777 Telegraph | Station-to-Station rates." Southfield, Mich. 48034 | ihnp4!mibte!jbh or try ulysses!gamma!mibte!jbh