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OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 7:05 pm
by stephen_usher
As some of you may have seen I'm attempting to produce a recreation of the Computer One floppy interface for the One Per Desk/Tonto.
The good:
- I've reverse engineered the schematic from the information on the RWAP web site.
- I've got the Mk.I PCBs arriving on Friday.
- I've got all the chips and other components.
The bad:
- I can't find the ROM image!
Can anyone help? Without this the project is rather dead in the water. I thought it was on the RWAP web site with everything else but I was mistaken. Bother!
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:20 pm
by Chr$
I did have a brief email chat with Rich last year and he didn't have the ROM data. All I have is a pic of an i/f. Label states v1.13 and the message on the PCB says Adder Technology. Is that the same as the current adder.com people? Not sure what the relationship was between Adder and Computer One.
Good luck tracking down the ROM data, I really hope you find it somewhere.
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:36 pm
by stephen_usher
He obviously lost the board he was sent then.
That's a different board layout to the one in the article on the RWAP web site too. Maybe the one on there was the issue 1.
I'm guessing that it is one and the same Adder, not that that would be any real help.
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:10 pm
by Pr0f
There is mention of David Warne who supplied details of the C1 Disk interface and firmware image to quanta for a project to rebuild the interface - so perhaps someone with Quanta connections may know more?
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 8:16 am
by RWAP
stephen_usher wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:36 pm
He obviously lost the board he was sent then.
That's a different board layout to the one in the article on the RWAP web site too. Maybe the one on there was the issue 1.
I'm guessing that it is one and the same Adder, not that that would be any real help.
I never had the C1 board - the none working interface I had was for the Teledrive.
The technical document was put together by Quanta and sent to me by someone, but I lost my emails, so do not know who sent it or whom was working on that project. There is no information in the PDF.
I wonder if it ever appeared in the Quanta magazine? The original Interface Project Notes and Disk Drive Guide were both dated 26th March 2018 so I assume it might have been mentioned in Quanta around that time.
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 8:47 am
by Pr0f
It does make you wonder where all this old hardware ended up - someone must have a bit of it stashed away somewhere
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 9:59 am
by stephen_usher
RWAP wrote: ↑Thu Dec 14, 2023 8:16 am
stephen_usher wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:36 pm
He obviously lost the board he was sent then.
That's a different board layout to the one in the article on the RWAP web site too. Maybe the one on there was the issue 1.
I'm guessing that it is one and the same Adder, not that that would be any real help.
I never had the C1 board - the none working interface I had was for the Teledrive.
The technical document was put together by Quanta and sent to me by someone, but I lost my emails, so do not know who sent it or whom was working on that project. There is no information in the PDF.
I wonder if it ever appeared in the Quanta magazine? The original Interface Project Notes and Disk Drive Guide were both dated 26th March 2018 so I assume it might have been mentioned in Quanta around that time.
Oh well.
It may be interesting to see if the Teledrive unit could be at least partly reverse engineered as that adds RAM as well as the floppy interface.
Even that unit's ROM image may be a good start as it could be disassembled and used as a basis for a new ROM for the Computer One unit, extracting just the floppy I/O and filesystem code.
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 4:09 pm
by stephen_usher
Thanks to Rich, we may have a lead on a ROM image... *crosses fingers*
I must thank the community for helping with this search.
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2023 4:20 pm
by Pr0f
That sounds like good news
Re: OPD: Computer One floppy interface recreation.
Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2023 12:01 pm
by stephen_usher
Well, the PCBs have arrived...