kasahara@hpujsda.HP.COM (Hiroyuki Kasahara) (06/24/91)
I found that SCSI based 1.44 MB floppy drive is available for Macintosh. It's called 'Turbo Floppy' from PLI. The ad says it enables old Macs to read&write FDHD formatted disks. I want to connect this product to Amiga3000 and utilize it with A-Max II. Is it possible? Or, are there any technical difficulties about it? Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. --- Hiroyuki Kasahara Japan CPO, Hewlett-Packard kasahara@hpujisa.yhp.hp.com
sticht@edith.UUCP (Stefan Sticht) (06/25/91)
>In article <19930001@hpujsda.HP.COM> kasahara@hpujsda.HP.COM (Hiroyuki Kasahara) writes: >I found that SCSI based 1.44 MB floppy drive is available >for Macintosh. It's called 'Turbo Floppy' from PLI. The ad >says it enables old Macs to read&write FDHD formatted disks. > >I want to connect this product to Amiga3000 and utilize it >with A-Max II. Is it possible? Or, are there any technical >difficulties about it? > >Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. Oh nice! How much is it? Anyone out there willing to write drivers for it for reading Mac, MS-DOS and Amiga Disks with it? I would buy it for a reasonable price! Stefan Sticht Internet: cbmvax.commodore.com!cbmehq!cbmger!edith!sticht@rutgers.EDU or: IWSTICHT@ibm.rz.uni-passau.de Fido-Net: Stefan Sticht (2:242/16:4)
Harvey_Taylor@mindlink.bc.ca (Harvey Taylor) (06/25/91)
In <19930001@hpujsda.HP.COM>, kasahara@hpujsda.HP.COM (Hiroyuki Kasahara) writes: | | I found that SCSI based 1.44 MB floppy drive is available | [...] | | I want to connect this product to Amiga3000 and utilize it with A-Max II. | Is it possible? | Or, are there any technical difficulties about it? | Hiroyuki, Well I can help get you part way there. I have got the TEAC FD235-JS SCSI floppy [2.88M, 1.44M, .72M] working with A2000. I am using SCSI Direct. There are mode_select and format peculiarities to get over (see below). As for the step of getting it to work under Amax2, I'm sorry but I can't help you there. -het ---includes--- There has been a bit interest in the SCSI floppy posts I have made so I have written a doc to cover most of the questions. Here are a couple of messages I posted re: the Teac SCSI floppy transmogrified into one doc. Using it is farly straightforward. The major fly in the ointment is that one has to do DiskChanges & if the new disk is a different density, use the utility mentioned to set the controller mode. -het ---doc0--- In <1991Jun7.221235.27924@osceola.cs.ucf.edu>, wampner@acme.ucf.edu (Eric Wampner) writes: | |In article <1991Jun7.005237.9755@sunaus.oz> dkelly@boffin.Aus.Sun.COM writes: |> |> Can anyone tell me what the status is regarding the Amiga |> (500/1000/2000/3000) supporting high density (i.e. 1.44Mb and/or above) |> 3.5-inch floppies ? |> | |Well, I don't know about any amiga specific products, but the |NeXT computer has a couple for it (PLI Super Floppy, CubeFloppy) |They do 720,1.4 and 2.88. |Of course they black and expensive..... See below |Why does this matter? cause they are SCSI. They would probably |work like a cartridge drive. You would have to write the |software for the formatting type... I have written a SCSI Direct formatting & mode select utility to allow one to initialize the TEAC FD235-JS SCSI floppy. This is a 4M, 2M, 1M drive (Formatted capacities 2.88M, 1.44M, 720K). Then the FFS can deal with the device. BTW. The major difficulty I had was getting documentation from TEAC; manual was out of print, pages missing etc. This is the mountlist I use. /* * SCSI Floppy under the Xetec driver 720K, 1.44M, 2.88M * BlocksPerTrack = 36 (for 2.88M) SD4: * BlocksPerTrack = 18 (for 1.44M) SD2: * BlocksPerTrack = 9 (for .72M) SD1: */ SD1: Device = harddisk.device FileSystem = l:FastFileSystem Unit = 1 Surfaces = 2 LowCyl = 0 HighCyl = 79 Reserved = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 9 Buffers = 10 BufMemType = 3 Stacksize = 6000 Priority = 10 GlobVec = -1 MaxTransfer = 0x0001FE00 Mask = 0x00FFFFFE DosType = 0x444F5301 # /* he Xetec driver .72M * Using MSDOS File System * BlocksPerTrack = 36 (for 2.88M) SI4: * BlocksPerTrack = 18 (for 1.44M) SI2: * BlocksPerTrack = 9 (for .72M) SI1: */ SI1: Device = harddisk.device FileSystem = l:MSDOSFileSystem Unit = 1 Surfaces = 2 LowCyl = 0 HighCyl = 79 Reserved = 2 BlocksPerTrack = 9 Buffers = 5 BufMemType = 5 Stacksize = 6000 Priority = 10 GlobVec = -1 MaxTransfer = 0x0001FE00 Mask = 0x00FFFFFE DosType = 0x4D534400 Mount = 0; # SCSI floppy drives are available from several sources, but the only manufacturer I know is TEAC. --- TEAC America Inc. (213)727-7682 (213)726-0303 FD-235HS-302 3.5" 1.44Mb SCSI floppy (using FC-1) FD-235JS-401 3.5" 2.88Mb SCSI floppy (using FC-1) FD-55GS-704 5.25" SCSI floppy (using FC-1) FD-235J-401 3.5" 2.88Mb floppy (without FC-1) FC-1 SCSI floppy controller only (not avail. seperately?) --- Tulin Corp. 2156h O'Toole Ave. San Jose CA. 95131 (408)432-9025 03/03/91 PriceList TLFD2N (FD-235HS) US$179 TLFD4N (FD-235JS) US$219 --- Digital Instrumentation Tech. According to NextWorld, Jan/Feb/1991, Page 93 CubeFloppy 2.9 @ US$520 --- PLI Peripheral Land Inc. According to NextWorld, Jan/Feb/1991, Page 93 SuperFloppy2.8 @ US$499 TurboFloppy1.4 [Direct price unknown] --- MacWarehouse According to MacUser, April 1991, Page 187 PLI TurboFloppy1.4 @ US$359 --- If anybody knows another source of SCSI Floppy drives, please post it. BTW, this makes me really curious what is in the expensive nExt packages. If anybody wants to get the format & mode_select utilities, I'll send them to c.s.a.sources. At present, I'm using relatively customized (for my system) tools, but I could fairly easily make them more general. I will make the source available. Misc Info: Kickstart version 34.5. Workbench version 34.27 A2000B Xetec MiniFastTrak Driver Version 1.48 TEAC FD-235-JS SCSI Floppy ---doc1--- I am writing to call upon the collective wisdom of the net. As you may have noticed in .hardware, I have a TEAC FD-235JS SCSI Floppy working on my system now. This is a 4M, 2M, 1M floppy which formats to 2.88M, 1.44M & .72M. At present I have a utility to set the mode of the controller & a utility to do formats. To use the disk I do a SCSI format & then an AmigaDOS [or MSDOS] quick format. This is a recipe for disaster because the FFS does not notice diskchanges. When folks were using FFS floppies with 1.3 there was a program around called AutoDiskChange by Martin Taillefer (sp?). It worked by patching a trackdisk interrupt. I need a program something like this. My current idea is to write a daemon to do occasional Test Unit Ready & Mode Senses. The Sense Keys will tell me if I have a diskchange & if I have the correct mode set. Then I will have to send a packet to the handler process. What I wonder is... Is there a better way? -het PS. Anybody know a source of cheap 4M (barium ferrite) disks? I could get used to this 2.88M per floppy, but they're expensive. ---doc2--- You may have noticed my asking for information re the Teac SCSI Floppy FD-235JS-xxx. The xxx in the name designates the model of FD-235J drive which the FC-1 controller board is strapped to. I have seen mention of 300/302/401/650 & I have the 660-U. Here's the scoop on the docs: FC-1 Spec Part number 10530468-01 @ US$20.00 FD235J-650 Spec Part number 10530403-50 @ US$ 7.00 FD235HS-300Spec Part number 10530472-02 @ US$ 7.00 FD235JS- Spec Part number ? @ US$ 7.00 They also want $4.00 shipping & handling per item. My copy of the FC-1 docs was missing pages & had pages out of order, but there was enough info there to get the thing working. -het Tonight's top stories: Police crack down. Leaders urge restraint. Comment sparks controversy. Costs overrun estimates. Committee issues call for action. Candidate claims mandate. Harvey Taylor Meta Media Productions uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Harvey_Taylor a186@mindlink.bc.ca
awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels) (06/26/91)
In article <sticht.7356@edith.UUCP> sticht@edith.UUCP (Stefan Sticht) writes: >Oh nice! How much is it? Anyone out there willing to write drivers for it >for reading Mac, MS-DOS and Amiga Disks with it? I would buy it for a >reasonable price! I don't know what reasonable might be, but MacConnection has the PLI TurboFloppy 1.4 for $309, and the SuperFloppy for $429. The difference is that the SuperFloppy reads the Mac 400 and 800k formats as well as the 1.4 meg Mac and DOS formats. The TurboFloppy only does 1.4 meg Mac and DOS. I called PLI and they hadn't heard of anybody that had used one with an Amiga and expressed concern about the lack of a driver. If you have connections with somebody at a University, you might be able to experiment. They offered to ship me one on a trial basis for $379 (direct University of Texas price for the SuperFloppy version.) Maybe an Amiga dealer with a good distributor could get close to the same deal.
kasahara@hpujsda.HP.COM (Hiroyuki Kasahara) (06/26/91)
>Oh nice! How much is it? Anyone out there willing to write drivers for it >for reading Mac, MS-DOS and Amiga Disks with it? I would buy it for a >reasonable price! PLI's Turbo Floppy is $395 list. Some mail order places are selling it around $300~350. Not so cheap. But, if it works just as we expected, it's worth the price. And it may be the only FDHD upgrade path for A-Max II owners. --- Hiroyuki Kasahara Japan CPO, Hewlett-Packard kasahara@hpujisa.yhp.hp.com