andy_bernstein Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Hello Gang, Sorry to have been gone for so long - been very busy trying to get things done before the end of the year and it's just been insane. Also, I'm giving a hand to Analmux regarding his GTIA upgrade and I finally was able to start working on it earlier this month. Anyway, quick question. I have two XF551 (bought from B&C) in Paris, France but I have absolutely no disk drive (only an XC12) to save my programs here in California. I've looked at Ebay to get another XF551 but the prices are just insane + I have to invest in extra upgrades (XF Enhancer, etc...) from CSS to get the maximum out of it (these two XF551 in Paris cost me a lot more than the initial price !). So... If I get an inexpensive 3 1/2 ST Drive, is it possible to tweak it (soldering iron ok) to make it compatible with an XE ? I presume Spartados will be the way to go but that's fine. Happy Holidays, AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classics Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 You cant really adapt an ST disk drive to work on an XL/XE. ST drives are just standard interface floppy drives with a special connector adapter on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bernstein Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Steven, Thanks for replying. So how do these guys at CSS pull it off ? (they offer a 3 1/2 drive that you can mount inside your XF551). I presume they use the internal hardware (SIO port, etc.) of the XF551 to host the I/O and the 3 1/2 is only a mechanism. If I go for a MyIde approach, any chance I can plug a 3 1/2 drive directly into an XE (given proper power supply) with a chip in the middle ? (very much like the first incarnation of SIO2PC). BTW- I'm not the most technical person so please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks. AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Steven, Thanks for replying. So how do these guys at CSS pull it off ? (they offer a 3 1/2 drive that you can mount inside your XF551). I presume they use the internal hardware (SIO port, etc.) of the XF551 to host the I/O and the 3 1/2 is only a mechanism. My guess would be that they developed a board that interfaces between the 3 1/2" drive and the controller board on the XF551. I doubt there's a huge difference between the the mechanics of driving a 3 1/2" floppy versus 5 1/4" floppy. Without the interface board already on the XF551, a standard 3 1/2" drive would surely require a much more sophisticated board to be adapted. Is CSS still selling hardware? ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goochman Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Well, I forgot who, but my XF551 mechanism was swapped with acombo 5 1/4 & 3 1/2 inch mechanism awhile back. There is a toggle switch to choose which format I want to use - I dont think anything was added/changed internally, just the case had to be 'dremeled' to fit the larger opening. The 5 1/4 mech doesnt work that well (its prob a 1.2 unit) but the 3 1/2 has worked great. I think Steven Tucker did it for me????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Actually, the interface is quite similar between a standard density 5.25" and a 3.5" drive. The main issue is changing the firmware to access the entire disk. Somewhere I have some info on doing the conversion... I'll see what I can dig up. -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bernstein Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Good morning from hazy California... CSS -> http://www.nleaudio.com/css/ The last time the page has been updated was three years ago but you can always contact them by e-mail. When I see the number of upgrades that can be applied to an XL / XE to make it a better machine (Turbo 816 from Dataque anyone ?), I'm so angry at the Tramiels for not doing anything with this platform beyond low price production and the eventual re-design / re-marketing (XEGS). Heading for coffee (black) - AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Good morning from hazy California... CSS -> http://www.nleaudio.com/css/ The last time the page has been updated was three years ago but you can always contact them by e-mail. I just wrote them, I'll respond back here when I get a reply. I assume CSS is still Bob Puff, whom I know from when I was living in Rochester. Will be nice to hear from him again after all this time. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 Wouldn't something like an SIO2PC cable help you out? Using that you could save your work to your PC as disk images and then put those on a standard PC floppy to bring back with you along with the cable. This is of course provided that you already have a PC that you can use for this. I may be misunderstanding what you're trying to do, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bernstein Posted December 20, 2003 Author Share Posted December 20, 2003 Sauron, Thank you for your suggestion but I no longer use PC's (only Macs) so SIO2PC -unless it's developed for MAC- is not an option. Hopefully, CSS will reply to Albert. Later. AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Sauron Posted December 20, 2003 Share Posted December 20, 2003 I'm a Mac user too, so even though I do have a PC I can feel your pain. It would be nice if it was possible to create an SIO2USB adapter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bernstein Posted December 21, 2003 Author Share Posted December 21, 2003 Sauron, I remember reading a post from Atarimax where it was mentioned that timing issues render necessary the use of the PC serial port for the SIO2PC cable to work. A while back, I started a post about a possible SIO2MAC cable and the only possibilty I thought about (unless the whole concept is re-designed from scratch) would be to use the serial port of either a legacy MAC (all macs till the B&W G3 Rev.1) or a third party card like a Stealth model. Then run Virtual PC 6 with either APE or SIO2PC under MS-DOS and connect the MAC & the Atari with a classic SIO2PC cable. Compared to the ease of use experienced by PC users running simply APE, it's obviously a real pain BUT NO WAY I'm going back to PC at home. OSX rules for what I'm doing (Film Scoring). AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oesii Posted December 21, 2003 Share Posted December 21, 2003 A while back, I started a post about a possible SIO2MAC cable and the only possibilty I thought about (unless the whole concept is re-designed from scratch) AB. I think that designing a Mac interface from scratch would probably be the only solution. I'm surprised someone hasn't worked out something yet with the popularity of OS X with the Unix nuts. If USB is flaky because of timing issues maybe a FireWire-SIO cable could work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy_bernstein Posted December 21, 2003 Author Share Posted December 21, 2003 Bry, If you ever find anything (specs, article, etc.) about how to adapt a native 3 1/2 disk drive for an XL/XE - just PM me. It would be nice to do without the XF551 (unlike what CSS is offering) and get something affordable to work. AB. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted December 22, 2003 Share Posted December 22, 2003 I'll keep looking... -Bry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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