mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) (10/14/90)
I hope this is the best base for this message to fit. I have been using A-Max for quite a while with the original A-Max box, a 1010 drive (yes, I realize its too big) and both an Apple disk drive and the MAST apple compatible, and a A500. I have two questions that noone seems to know, so I am hoping someone will hel me... First, why doesnt the A-Max cartidge work when attached to the back of the 1010 disk drive? It has a pass thru but it doesn't appear to give the cartridge any power (The access light doesn't flash on), but the A-Max itself came with legs that were specifically designed for the 1010 drive. Next, is there any way to modify the setup to allow the apple drive to read/write disks while in Amiga mode? I would glad to have it in just a special format, and be estatic to use AmigaDOS disks. Thanks
jeremym@brahms.udel.edu (Jeremy A Moskowitz) (10/15/90)
In article <XZJ1q2w163w@bluemoon.UUCP> mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) writes: > > I hope this is the best base for this message to fit. >1010 drive (yes, I realize its too big) and both an Apple disk drive and >the MAST apple compatible, and a A500. I have two questions that noone >seems to know, so I am hoping someone will hel me... First, why doesnt the >A-Max cartidge work when attached to the back of the 1010 disk drive? It Why? Poor design. It doesn't work on my 500 either, but it does work ona 2000. Why the heck knows why. >Next, is there any way to >modify the setup to allow the apple drive to read/write disks while in >Amiga mode? I would glad to have it in just a special format, and be >estatic to use AmigaDOS disks. Thanks No. No way no how no possibility, never, nunca, no, nada, nine, jamas. Well, maybe.. Just kidding. The amiga used a one speed step rate motor, apple, in their infinate wizdom, deems that everything they do has to be nonstandard to the rest of the planet. That way, only apple will work with apple. Apple's drives use variable speed drives (it says all this in the amax manual) Since the speeds are different, forget it. Maybe Khalid or Dillon can come up with something... but, I seriously doubt that even thes top notch killer programmers from planet A can do it. Hope I've helped. // Ok.. Contacts, right: THE NET: jeremym@brahms.udel.edu // Compuserve : 73055,665 // or (73055.665@compuserve.com) \\X/ Amiga's rule, but then again, who doesn't really know this?? Know what I hate most? Rhetorical questions.
greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp) (10/15/90)
In article <14678@brahms.udel.edu> jeremym@brahms.udel.edu (Jeremy A Moskowitz) writes: >In article <XZJ1q2w163w@bluemoon.UUCP> mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) writes: >> I hope this is the best base for this message to fit. >>1010 drive (yes, I realize its too big) and both an Apple disk drive and >>the MAST apple compatible, and a A500. I have two questions that noone >>seems to know, so I am hoping someone will hel me... First, why doesnt the >>A-Max cartidge work when attached to the back of the 1010 disk drive? It > >Why? Poor design. It doesn't work on my 500 either, but it does work >ona 2000. Why the heck knows why. Not exactly. It's not Readysoft's fault that A-Max won't work plugged into your A1010, it's Commodore's. It not exactly their _fault_ either. Commodore only officially supports one (1) external drive plugged into the A500 or the A1000. Because of this, some A1010's were built with no power on the drive pass-thru. Therefore, Sean, you should be able to plug your A1010 into the A-Max cartidge and plug the A-Max into the computer. I don't know about A-Max I, but under A-Max II this will also make that drive 3 instead of 2. (At least in the setup I used this weekend, with my external drive plugged into the cartridge and a Mac drive hooked up. This may not happen without the Mac drive. Your mileage may vary.) Also, Jeremy Moskovitz says that A-Max won't work on his 500. I have had no problems using it on mine. Maybe you've got a dain-bramaged CIA chip. A-Max cartidges have a nasty reputation for zapping CIAs in such a way that most everything else still works, but no A-Max... This, of course, only occurs when you plug or unplug the cartridge with the power on, which I'm sure no one _here_ is guilty of doing... :-) >>Next, is there any way to >>modify the setup to allow the apple drive to read/write disks while in >>Amiga mode? I would glad to have it in just a special format, and be >>estatic to use AmigaDOS disks. Thanks > >No. No way no how no possibility, never, nunca, no, nada, nine, jamas. >Well, maybe.. Just kidding. The amiga used a one speed >step rate motor, apple, in their infinate wizdom, deems >that everything they do has to be nonstandard to the rest of >the planet. That way, only apple will work with apple. >Apple's drives use variable speed drives (it says all this in >the amax manual) > >Since the speeds are different, forget it. Maybe Khalid or Dillon >can come up with something... but, I seriously doubt that >even thes top notch killer programmers from planet A can >do it. Actually, (I may have misunderstood) it sounds like Sean wants to use his Mac drive as another storage device, and would be happy if it could use AmigaDOS disks. I don't see it as too difficult to use the Mac drive under AmigaDOS, but you'd definitely have to write a different driver for it. As for reading/writing AmigaDOS, I don't know. There is supposed to be an Amiga emulator (Don't worry. I've heard it's really BAD.) on the Mac. I have no idea if it can use AmigaDOS floppies. If so, then it would be possible to make a Mac drive emulate an Amiga drive. Like I said, it _should_ be possible to write something along the lines of MSH: for Mac floppies. In fact, I've been miffed at Readysoft for not doing it... Aw, now I guess I have to dig out that list of Amiga projects I have and add that to it.... Opinions? Ideas? Flam....er...forget that last one... >Hope I've helped. Ditto. > // Ok.. Contacts, right: THE NET: jeremym@brahms.udel.edu > // Compuserve : 73055,665 > // or (73055.665@compuserve.com) > \\X/ Amiga's rule, but then again, who doesn't really know this?? > Know what I hate most? Rhetorical questions. Greg ---------------Greg-Harp---------------greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu---------------- AMIGA! // // Don't you just hate those long signature files? I mean, there oughta \X/ be a law. If I were in control, .sigs would get cut off if they were
joseph@valnet.UUCP (Joseph P. Hillenburg) (10/15/90)
Then how the hell did Simon Douglas make the A-max II+ read Mac disks off a standard Amiga drive? -Joseph Hillenburg UUCP: ...iuvax!valnet!joseph ARPA: valnet!joseph@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu INET: joseph@valnet.UUCP
lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) (10/17/90)
In article <DD03q7w163w@valnet> joseph@valnet.UUCP (Joseph P. Hillenburg) writes: >Then how the hell did Simon Douglas make the A-max II+ read Mac disks off >a standard Amiga drive? This is how I understand all of this... Amax II+ is a card that plugs into your Amiga >=2000. The drives actually get hooked up through the A-Max board in addition to the Amiga floppy controller when you install it, so AMAX II+ is able to control your drive hardware directly and thus can pulse your drive motor so as to achieve variable speeds. (Apparently this is how it worked in the _original_ Macintoshes). In other words, it's not the Amiga drives that are actually the factor that prevents you from reading Mac disks, it's the Amiga floppy controller. If I'm wrong on some of this, it's because I interpolated most of it from the AMAX II ad in the front of an AmigaWorld. >-Joseph Hillenburg > >UUCP: ...iuvax!valnet!joseph >ARPA: valnet!joseph@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu >INET: joseph@valnet.UUCP ====================================================================== "Up rode the knight to the tower | Logan Shaw The mean old queen was takin' a shower. | lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu She was mean, but she was clean - | Home: (512) 476-2749
jeremym@brahms.udel.edu (Jeremy A Moskowitz) (10/17/90)
In article <DD03q7w163w@valnet> joseph@valnet.UUCP (Joseph P. Hillenburg) writes: >Then how the hell did Simon Douglas make the A-max II+ read Mac disks off >a standard Amiga drive? > >-Joseph Hillenburg > >INET: joseph@valnet.UUCP Well, I'm sure it was pretty difficult. (So difficult that he's on vacation for two weeks) He probiably forced the drives faster and slower by passing MEGA POWER through the step rate motor. Then he probiably used a ram cashe to get the needed data to the amiga bus. I dunno, but this sounds pretty good to me! :) -jerm // Ok.. Contacts, right: THE NET: jeremym@brahms.udel.edu // Compuserve : 73055,665 // or (73055.665@compuserve.com) \\X/ Amiga's rule, but then again, who doesn't really know this?? Know what I hate most? Rhetorical questions.
DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (10/17/90)
There's no trick at all to AmaxII+ reading Mac disks. They simply have a custom floppy controller on their board (remember the CopyIIPC option board?) -- Dan Babcock
sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (10/18/90)
In <XZJ1q2w163w@bluemoon.UUCP| mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) writes: | I hope this is the best base for this message to fit. |I have been using A-Max for quite a while with the original A-Max box, a |1010 drive (yes, I realize its too big) and both an Apple disk drive and |the MAST apple compatible, and a A500. I have two questions that noone |seems to know, so I am hoping someone will hel me... First, why doesnt the |A-Max cartidge work when attached to the back of the 1010 disk drive? It |has a pass thru but it doesn't appear to give the cartridge any power (The |access light doesn't flash on), but the A-Max itself came with legs that |were specifically designed for the 1010 drive. Amax II works off of my amiga 1010 drive on my Amiga 1000 with no problem. -- John Sparks |D.I.S.K. Public Access Unix System| Multi-User Games, Email sparks@corpane.UUCP |PH: (502) 968-DISK 24Hrs/2400BPS | Usenet, Chatting, =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|7 line Multi-User system. | Downloads & more. A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of----Ogden Nash
tinyguy@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Yeo-Hoon BAE) (10/18/90)
In article <90290.001705DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes: >There's no trick at all to AmaxII+ reading Mac disks. They simply have a custom > floppy controller on their board (remember the CopyIIPC option board?) >-- Dan Babcock But Amiga's drives are not variable-speed.... This card DOES allow to read Mac disks on the non-variable speed Amiga drives... *************************************************************************** * Yeo-Hoon Bae * Amiga /// * * Dept. Computer Science, McGill University. * 2000 /// * * tinyguy@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca, tinyguy@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca * \\\/// * * Amiga2000 + 3MB + 48MB HD + KX-P1124 + DiamondScan * \XX/ * ***************************************************************************
DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu (10/18/90)
The fact that Amiga drives are not variable speed makes no difference at all. To read Mac disks, just increase the data transfer rate. The effect is the same as reducing drive speed. Actually trying to slow down drives that weren't meant to be slowed down is difficult and silly. -- Dan Babcock
mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) (10/19/90)
DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes: > There's no trick at all to AmaxII+ reading Mac disks. They simply have a cust > floppy controller on their board (remember the CopyIIPC option board?) > -- Dan Babcock I was kinda wondering just how it was done (the Amiga drives accessing Mac drives) and the sugestions make sense...but.... can I get my apple drive to do anything except be a fashionable paperwieght while I am in Mac er...AMIGA mode?? I have found out the Amax on the 1010 problem. Somebody must have hacked something up, how does Mac-2-dos do it?? /sw
mental@bluemoon.uucp (Sean Kellner) (10/22/90)
> > Amax II works off of my amiga 1010 drive on my Amiga 1000 with no problem. I figured out the problem with this one... The apple drive needs a 12v signal to run, the amax cart itself doesnt. This coupled with the fact that the 1010 doesnt pass the 12v signal on gave me the problem of seeing if amax was working by looking for the little red light to come on the disk drive as being totally wrong. Fortunately I have found a hack to pass the 12v line thru and am just looking for someone who has used a soldering iron before to help me with it. My problem now is how can I use these apple drives in Amiga mode?? The MAST drive looks an awfull lot alike a amiga drive, but then again, a disk drive is almost a disk drive..just the variable rate kicks. Could I just get a different cable and use the Mast drive?? I have a $150 and a $200 disk drives just sitting here most of the time. (The rice is the main reason I would have rather gone mail order, but I needed that report done by the next morning and most (18 pages) was already done on Word). Can anyone help me out on this one??