michael@yonder.UUCP (Michael E. Haws) (02/21/91)
I realize I am very likely showing my ignorance, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Is there any chance that the floppy controlled based mini-cartridges (40 mg) would work with the 3b1. I use them at work on a compaq running SCO xenix. The cartridges have to be formatted before use just as if they were a floppy. There is probably something obvious as to why this would not work (i.e. need different device driver, hardware incompatibilty, etc). Sure would be nice if it did work. Thanks Michael -- Michael E. Haws "Keep the blue side up" w - (303) 986-2370 boulder!yonder!michael h - (303) 232-0628
dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (DoN Nichols) (02/21/91)
In article <435@yonder.UUCP> michael@yonder.UUCP (Michael E. Haws) writes: >I realize I am very likely showing my ignorance, but nothing >ventured nothing gained. Is there any chance that the >floppy controlled based mini-cartridges (40 mg) would work >with the 3b1. I use them at work on a compaq running >SCO xenix. The cartridges have to be formatted before use >just as if they were a floppy. > >There is probably something obvious as to why this would >not work (i.e. need different device driver, hardware incompatibilty, >etc). Sure would be nice if it did work. > It might work! Does anyone have access to one of these and the tape controller for the 3B1? I would be willing to try if someone can lend a drive. (Or perhaps the pin-out for the drive first, just to check for design stupidity like putting raw +12V on a pin that the controller thinks is a ttl input or output.) I seem to remember one or two pins on the ground side of the connector being used for something in the floppy tape drive we have. The 40MB version may simply use more tracks, or slower tape speed/denser recording, or perhaps rll :-) ? ? If someone does have access to both ends of the question, please try and post results. Good Luck DoN. -- Donald Nichols (DoN.) | Voice (Days): (703) 664-1585 D&D Data | Voice (Eves): (703) 938-4564 Disclaimer: from here - None | Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
mvadh@cbnews.att.com (andrew.d.hay) (02/21/91)
In article <435@yonder.UUCP> michael@yonder.UUCP (Michael E. Haws) writes:
"I realize I am very likely showing my ignorance, but nothing
"ventured nothing gained. Is there any chance that the
"floppy controlled based mini-cartridges (40 mg) would work
"with the 3b1. I use them at work on a compaq running
"SCO xenix. The cartridges have to be formatted before use
"just as if they were a floppy.
you're talking about qic-40 tapes, right?
"There is probably something obvious as to why this would
"not work (i.e. need different device driver, hardware incompatibilty,
"etc). Sure would be nice if it did work.
yes, it does require a device driver, which i plan to work on just as
soon as i get my hd2 board (are you listening, jbm? ;^>).
this is a project of long standing - coming up on a year - which has
been on hold because of the difficulty of working with only one floppy
device on the 3b1. i have done a substantial amount of design work
for it, though.
--
Andrew Hay +------------------------------------------------------+
Ragged Individualist | JAAAAAAANE! |
AT&T-BL Ward Hill MA | HOW DO YOU STOP THIS CRAZY THING? |
a.d.hay@att.com +------------------------------------------------------+mvadh@cbnews.att.com (andrew.d.hay) (02/21/91)
In article <1991Feb21.021757.6924@ceilidh.beartrack.com> dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (DoN Nichols) writes:
[]
" It might work! Does anyone have access to one of these and the tape
"controller for the 3B1? I would be willing to try if someone can lend a
"drive. (Or perhaps the pin-out for the drive first, just to check for
"design stupidity like putting raw +12V on a pin that the controller thinks
"is a ttl input or output.) I seem to remember one or two pins on the ground
"side of the connector being used for something in the floppy tape drive we
"have. The 40MB version may simply use more tracks, or slower tape
"speed/denser recording, or perhaps rll :-) ? ?
"
" If someone does have access to both ends of the question, please try
"and post results.
the 40M qic-40 drive is *completely* different, which is not to say you
couldn't write a driver for it using the controller card.
hardware might also not be a big problem, but the drive was meant to plug into
the floppy-drive ribbon cable, not the controller's db-37.
my goal is to make it run off the *internal* controller...
--
Andrew Hay +------------------------------------------------------+
Ragged Individualist | JAAAAAAANE! |
AT&T-BL Ward Hill MA | HOW DO YOU STOP THIS CRAZY THING? |
a.d.hay@att.com +------------------------------------------------------+dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (DoN Nichols) (02/22/91)
In article <1991Feb21.115538.21538@cbnews.att.com> mvadh@cbnews.att.com (andrew.d.hay) writes: >In article <1991Feb21.021757.6924@ceilidh.beartrack.com> dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com (DoN Nichols) writes: >[] >" It might work! Does anyone have access to one of these and the tape >"controller for the 3B1? I would be willing to try if someone can lend a >"drive. (Or perhaps the pin-out for the drive first, just to check for [...] > >the 40M qic-40 drive is *completely* different, which is not to say you >couldn't write a driver for it using the controller card. >hardware might also not be a big problem, but the drive was meant to plug into >the floppy-drive ribbon cable, not the controller's db-37. But the DB-37 is just the external reflection of the internal 34-pin edge connector. Look inside the case of your drive! The three pins at the pin 1 end of the connector are not used, and the remaining ones map to the 34-pin edge connector used on the drive (just like a floppy drive, except that (if I remember correctly - I'm not at home where the docs are), some of the drive select lines are used as additional head select lines. (Really head vertical positioning commands, since the head has one track worth of poles, and is stepped vertically to select tracks on the tape.)) How is the drive different? If it works from a floppy interface, it can't be too different. The data pins, and most of the control pins will be the same. I don't know whether the s4tape diags format to a fixed sector count, or check for the {beginning,end}-of-tape markers. We might have to rewrite the format program in s4tape. I guess that the "sector number" is kept in a single byte, which explains the turnaround of the tape at 255 sectors. The number of tracks could be increased by playing games with more encoding of the drive/head select lines, or probably could actually use the "step out" and "step in" lines. Do you have the pinout of the qic-40 drive? We can at least check if the hardware interface is likely to be compatable. >my goal is to make it run off the *internal* controller... > I'd actually prefer a replacement controller for the QIC-36/QIC-24 interface, using the Archive drives or equivalent. (60MB and no need for pre-formating the tapes. :-) It would be intelligent enough, and have enough buffer so the system could be building the next buffer with tar or cpio WHILE the current buffer was being written. But, that is a more major project than this could be if we're lucky. What I really need is enough disk space on my Tektronix 6130 so I could ftp a tar image of my disk partitions to that system, then zap the image onto the Archive tape drive there. It'd be quicker than the present system. :-) (At least till I filled up THAT disk space :-) -- Donald Nichols (DoN.) | Voice (Days): (703) 664-1585 D&D Data | Voice (Eves): (703) 938-4564 Disclaimer: from here - None | Email: <dnichols@ceilidh.beartrack.com> --- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---