On May 10, 11:50, Tony Duell wrote:
> Subject: Re: HP 150 stiffies
> > I think the real contemporary stiffies for those early drives didn't
> > have the spring to pull the door closed. But I've never actually seen
>
> I have a couple somewhere... From memory, there is a spring - you slide
> the door open against the spring and it locks open. Then you insert the
> disk into the drive. When you eject it you pinch the corner to release
> the catch and the door springs closed.
That's what mine are like, too.
The drives in the Sony WP were the same as the Apricot ones, mentioned in
another reply, and Sony and Apricot upgraded to double-sided at about the
same time. I've got the tech and service manuals for those drives, too.
The 26-pin connector has the same signals as a modern 34-pin (barring ones
that wouldn't be relevant here) and you can certainly make a simple
adaptor.
However, the data rate in the Sony and old Apricot systems was twice the
normal rate for double-density, and the drives spin at 600 rpm instead of
300 rpm, so you can't just swap for a modern drive without changing other
things to (like the PLL and differentiator circuit, and the BIOS).
> BTW, does anyone remember Steve Ciarcia's homebrew touchscreen articles
> in Byte? I have the reprints somewhere, and it works in the same way as
> the HP150 touchscreen - IR LED/detector pairs around the screen.
I've got that reprint somewhere, too. "Let Your Fingers Do The Talking",
Byte August 1978 and September 1978. A 16 x 16 grid of emitters/sensors.
A box near the ned of the article says "An industrial grade alphanumeric
terminal incorporating touch panel input is being manufactured. For
information contact: General Digital Corp, 700 Burnside Av, East Hartford
CT 06108".
Another box says, "NOTE: Any one building a unit from these designs should
be advised that they are covered by a number of patents by the University
of Illinois and may not be sold for profit".
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Received on Sun May 10 1998 - 16:03:10 BST