Tim's own version of the Catweasel/Compaticard/whatever

From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com <(CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com)>
Date: Fri Jul 7 17:25:14 2000

>You write about this experiment with considerable confidence in your result,
>considering that you haven't any conventional hardware for dealing with this
>stuff. There must be something about your results that gives you the
>confidence to proceed. What might that be? Are you getting verifiable
>results, i.e. data that makes sense like ascii files, etc?

Yes, ASCII (and EBCDIC, remember I'm recovering floppies originally written
in the early 70's) files that make sense.

I think, Dick, that sometimes you make this seem harder than it is. Many
of the data formats are readable (in hardware) with something as simple as
a one-shot and a UART.

>Sampling and recording the analog signal might prove disappointing. The
>data will be much harder to recognize in its analog form, particularly on
>the inner tracks on a noisy diskette or drive.

True, but the analog circuit would also be easy to simulate electronically.
Just a few coupled linear and nonlinear differential equations!

Tim.
Received on Fri Jul 07 2000 - 17:25:14 BST