K-Products HD interface

[danwinslow]

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Looking for advice on what kind of drive and DOS would work with it.

[pps]

Never seen this peace of hardware, but as of the 50 pins at HD-connector it seems to work with SCSI-drives.

[drac030]

Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Compare with this:

 

http://atariki.krap.pl/index.php/Grafika:S...interface_1.jpg

 

This looks exactly like the SupraDrive interface, just the label is different.

[miker]

According to atari8faq these interfaces were Produced by Supra, and then by K-Products.

 

So the best solution is to look for SupraDrive docs.

[SpicyChronos]

Hi!

 

I have one as well. Bob Klaas is the owner of K-Products and I contacted him a few years ago, due to I had one, but lost the interface in a move, but still had the HDD.

 

My setup is a 20 Meg SCSI HDD, in three paritions. The interface has a ROM that contains the Parition information. To change it, you need to get the new information about the new drive, and how you want to split it up, then re-burn the ROM.

 

THe interface is pretty good, it also contains a parallel port interface.

 

But for more information, try locating Bob Klaas. Last time I knew where he was, was in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Spicy

[drac030]

The interface has a ROM that contains the Parition information. To change it, you need to get the new information about the new drive, and how you want to split it up, then re-burn the ROM.

 

ROTFL!

[SpicyChronos]

Well it is a very old interface. I haven't had any problems with it. It does require external power from a molex connector. so the power supply to power the HDD, powers the interface as well.

 

-Spicy

[drac030]

Well it is a very old interface.

 

Well, "very old" does not necessarily mean "very odd". Putting the partition table into ROM is insane IMHO. This prevents the user from partitioning the disk freely, according to own requirements. And this costed 700 USD? Huh.

[danwinslow]

Yes, aparrantly supra sold out this line to K-Products. Technically it is probably identical to supra. The ROM thing kind of surprises me too...why in the hell would anyone do that?

[cawley1]

Guys,

Sorry to resurrect a thread with no activity since 2006, but I have recently acquired one of these interfaces, along with a Hard Drive and I cannot get my 800XL (either PAL or NTSC) to boot when it is powered up.

 

If I don't switch the interface on, the computer boots. The second I flick the switch on the Hard Drive unit, I get a screen of junk!

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Paul

[Fuji-Man]

The drive and interface should be powered and completely spun up/drive diagnostic/drive ready finished before turning on the computer.

If the interface is not happy with the drive, strange and wonderful things may/may not happen.

I'll have to dig mine out of storage and see what's up.

[Mathy]

Hello guys

 

Supra sold it to K-Products. You can't reach Bob Klaas anymore, unfortunately, he died a couple of years ago. The interface was passed on to a third company, but I'm not sure if I am at liberty to say which company that was.

 

Back when this interface hit the market, this stuff (both the interface and the available HD's) was considered expansive. That's probably why they decided to put the partition data in the ROM.

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

[+Larry]

I had a Supra interface that I purchased from ICD at an Atari show (1988?) for $5. Really! When I found out about the EPROM partitioning scheme, I very quickly lost interest in it and gave it to another user. Anyway, I already had an MIO. AFAIK, two different people have worked on the Supra design to make improvements.
Larry

[Bumzyman]

That interface looks exactly like the interface that is attached to my SupraDrive 10MB If I recall correctly it appears as D1 and D3 to your Atari. If the drive isn't formatted or doesn't have DOS on the D1 partition you can boot while holding "HELP" and it will boot from D2 (a real floppy drive or APE) so that you can run the setup program and get the HD configured properly. I never realized the disk geometry was hard coded in the ROM but I guess it makes sense because there really is no setup besides formatting and loading your files. I also remember hearing that these were sold to K-Products at some point like Mathy and danwinslow said earlier.

 

 

More info HERE

 

[Bumzyman]

Linking up two similar threads.

More info can be found HERE

Edited July 2, 2014 by Bumzyman

[AtariGeezer]

There's one up on ebay: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 131228822307

[MrFish]

There's one up on ebay: eBay Auction -- Item Number: 131228822307

 

He has it listed as "Seller Refurbished". Refurbished to what? He said himself he can't get it to work. Cleaning the outside and/or inside does not equal refurbished, at least in the case of an electro-mechanical device. It's more like a parts/as-is.

Edited July 3, 2014 by MrFish

[emc]

Sad to hear bob klass died. He hooked me up with a couple of 1050s back in the mid 90s when I was getting back into the 8bit. 20 buks for the 1050s, shipped!

[flashjazzcat]

 

He has it listed as "Seller Refurbished". Refurbished to what? He said himself he can't get it to work. Cleaning the outside and/or inside does not equal refurbished, at least in the case of an electro-mechanical device. It's more like a parts/as-is.

 

Good point: I saw "Seller Refurbished" and assumed it worked, until I read the listing a bit more closely.

[+bf2k+]

Seems expensive for a non-working device.

[AtariGeezer]

 

He has it listed as "Seller Refurbished". Refurbished to what? He said himself he can't get it to work. Cleaning the outside and/or inside does not equal refurbished, at least in the case of an electro-mechanical device. It's more like a parts/as-is.

I didn't bother to read the whole page, I was just pointing it out