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avatar_Gryzor

Guide to connect a 3" drive to a PC.

Started by Gryzor, 12:03, 18 November 11

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Gryzor

Submitted here!

Please do add/correct anything you may find incorrect :)

Bryce

Wow, very nice article. Technically fine, but maybe it needs to be split into sections (What you need, Hardware, Windows Versions, Software, etc) to make it more readable.

Bryce.

MacDeath

Yea, the text seem a bit rough... need a slightly better edition job...



I will have a good reading on this as I have some spare 3" drivers and wanted to put one of them on my PC...


Also, Would it be possible to get a more polished solution ?


I mean some sort of USB adapter perhaps ?

This would really be nice too but may need more hardware and more difficult design...

Gryzor

@Bryce: you're right, I'm on it.
@MacDeath: seriously? USB? :D I mean, sure, then let's also port Warcraft to the CPC while we're at it! A great idea, but good luck designing the interface... :(

MacDeath

#4
Well, There already are 3"1/2 USB disk drive... I have one...
you connect them on the USB port...

so why not the same but with a 3" disk drive?
The main point is to do some 3" disk for CPCs whithout installing 3"1/2 on all of them.
After all provided you change the drive belt, 3" disk is reliable and robust...

And most existing software library is designed to run on those...


Quotethen let's also port Warcraft to the CPC while we're at it!
The main problem with such kind of game (RTS) is that it need a lot of sprites/RAM and CPU ressource.

I mean, the average Warcraft game give you an army cap of 100 "tiny soldiers"...

You would have to cut this into a more skirmish game... with certainly a lot less tech evolution and buildings...
But the "dungeons" levels may be do-able I guess.

Perhaps a character based engine to simplify a bit (non smooth Sprites movements... well, less smooth).
Another issue is the pointing device.

Mouse on CPC/PLUS is not as good as it should.

Also maps may have to be drastically reduced...
;D


Well, perhaps a turn based game would be more suitable after all...


Heroes of Might and Magic then.. ::)

Bryce

Quote from: MacDeath on 11:24, 21 November 11
Well, There already are 3"1/2 USB disk drive... I have one...
you connect them on the USB port...

I've already investigated the possibility of making a USB 3in drive from one of these devices. Unfortunately these drives have a single PCB with everything integrated. USB harddrives have a nice little circuit that converts USB to IDE/Sata, but USB floppies don't have a USB to Shugart PCB, the circuit does everything including all the floppy control, so there is no place to connect the 3in Shugart connections :( Pity, because I had visions of my FD-1 getting a USB port.

Bryce.

robcfg

Would it be possible to make an adapter consisting on a small pcb with a microcontroller that could connect to a PC via usb and to a 3" disk drive?


The point would be for the driver to send commands to the microcontroller via USB and return the values.

Bryce

Yes, possible, but a lot of work. The µP would have to emulate a 765 or similar floppy controller and do the data seperation and USB protocol. Then there's all the PC driver side to be done :(

Bryce.

steve

It would be simpler to give the CPC a serial port then use a USB to serial converter and let the CPC read and write to the 3" disk.

Gryzor

Quote from: steve on 13:58, 21 November 11
It would be simpler to give the CPC a serial port then use a USB to serial converter and let the CPC read and write to the 3" disk.

That would be a nice idea and better than nothing, obviously, but the setup would be much more awkward than a single 3" drive...

Kris

Nice article, could be a very good idea to explain how to do that using a DDI-1 (easiest way to connect a 3" into a PC).


Bryce

?? You don't use the DDI-1 to connect to a PC, just the FD-1.

Bryce.

Kris

Yes right, Just a mistake cause I used to call it DDI-1....but sure, we don't need the 464 interface to connect to a PC, I'm sure that all CPC users would have understand that :D


fano

Yes , that would be very interesting (what ? Marvellous i meant !) , does not the FD-1 own a 3"5 compatible interface ?
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

Follow Easter Egg products on Facebook !

Bryce

Not 100%, the FD-1 supplies 5V on some signals to power the DDI-1 these shouldn't be connected to a standard Shugart output as found on a PC! Otherwise your PC and/or FD-1 might start sending you smoke signals.

Bryce.

fano

Yes i remember you said that when speaking about the DDI-1
"NOP" is the perfect program : short , fast and (known) bug free

Follow Easter Egg products on Facebook !

ralferoo

This all sounds useful. I'm going to try this at some point just to investigate what's on the collection of disks I've got with the various 6128s I've bought. There appears to be a small C compiler on one of the CPM-formatted disks, but no idea how complete it is, so I figured it'd be easier just to dump the lot and explore them from an emulator (it doesn't help that I've only got 1 working drive out of 3 6128s as 2 of them are dead beyond just needing a new belt) and it's been 20 years since I last used CPM and I'm struggling to do basic tasks...

TFM

Quote from: Gryzor on 12:03, 18 November 11
Submitted here!

Please do add/correct anything you may find incorrect :)

Ha! One of the pictures has Dutch language!  :laugh:
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

Bryce

He took the information from Frank van Empels Dutch site, so that would be expected.

Bryce.

Gryzor

I would guess so. Now, if the screen was in Trinidadandtobaguese, *that* would worry me.

TFM

Quote from: Bryce on 09:27, 24 November 11
He took the information from Frank van Empels Dutch site, so that would be expected.

Bryce.

Hehe, ich hoffe nur dass Frank der Erpel damit auch einverstenden ist ;-)))
TFM of FutureSoft
Also visit the CPC and Plus users favorite OS: FutureOS - The Revolution on CPC6128 and 6128Plus

ralferoo

Quote from: Gryzor on 17:20, 25 November 11Now, if the screen was in Trinidadandtobaguese, *that* would worry me.
You know they speak English there?

Gryzor

I would have guessed Spanish or (more so) French, but now I know :)

Bryce

We went on our honeymoon to Tobago, really nice, but the food wasn't great. They speak "Trini English", which is about 90% English, but they use a few strange phrases and words which obviously come from their French/Belgian/African past.

Bryce.

Gryzor

...this was probably when they were cursing at you, right? :D

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