[Coco] Lotharek floppy emulator (was: cheap floppy emulator)

[Ronivon Costa]

The TRS-80 Color floppy drives are compatible with the TRS 80 Model 4 ?
I don't even have a Coco disk controller, so I can't directly answer
you question, but I can using the HxC just fine with my TRS 80 Model
4.


On 12 September 2013 23:44, Christopher Smith <csmith at wolfram.com> wrote:
> So, after some looking around and talking back and forth off list, I thought I'd ask again about this.  Has anyone successfully used the Lotharek/HxC emulator with a CoCo?  If you've done so, how is the experience, and how difficult is it to get disk images onto the thing?  Does it do something sane with the disk images so that you could just copy new ones onto the card, or does it require you to use the software that comes with it?
>
> Chris
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "tonym" <tonym at compusource.net>
>> To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>> Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 2:06:52 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator
>>
>> I think the only one right now that works, is the HXC2001/Lotharek
>> emulators:
>>
>> $144
>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100633903?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
>>
>> $74
>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100633943?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
>>
>> $77
>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/181194736200?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
>>
>> $108
>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/171100634031?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
>>
>> website:
>>
>> http://hxc2001.com/
>>
>> Tony
>>
>>
>>
>> ---- Original Message ----
>> From: "Robert Hermanek" <rhermanek at centurytel.net>
>> Sent: 9/9/2013 2:17:52 PM
>> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator
>>
>> I played around with a China (affordable) emulator and verified, as
>> expected, that although they work fine in a PC with 720 or 1440
>> images,
>> they do not work in the coco.  The cheaper emulators are not
>> configurable in any way, and always expect 80 tracks, 9 or 18 sectors
>> per track, 512 byte sectors.  I was hoping against hope that with
>> coco
>> being 35 tracks, 18 sectors, that the emulator would live with it,
>> but I
>> think the 256 vs 512 byte sectors was a deal breaker.
>>
>> -RobertH
>>
>> On 9/9/2013 1:09 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
>> > So, given that I may need to build my CoCo disk system from parts
>> > anyway, I've been looking at the possibility of emulating one out
>> > of two floppy drives in hardware.  There is at least one very
>> > impressive floppy emulator available which will do everything I
>> > want, but it's upward of $100 and the budget isn't so great for
>> > now.  I'm looking at the possibility using a Chinese import
>> > emulator from ebay.  Supposedly it will emulate a 720k, 1.2M, and
>> > 1.44M floppies.  Now, of these formats, I'm reasonably sure the
>> > CoCo won't like any but the first.  That may be sufficient.
>> >  Here's what I'm considering:
>> >
>> > I have a Teac 5.25" drive on order.  It's high-density, but people
>> > say that these things have an RPM jumper on them which will slow
>> > the spindle down.  You can then either force them to
>> > double-density mode or have them function as quad-density.  People
>> > also say that the quad-density disks will work out ok under OS-9.
>> >  I'd like to fit a switch onto the density selector so that I can
>> > force the drive into either double or quad density mode at any
>> > given time.  So that should make one good drive.
>> >
>> > I'm also thinking about trying one of those floppy emulators.  It
>> > would need to be forced into 720k mode, and would basically work
>> > similarly to the 5.25" disk in quad-density mode, I suspect.  The
>> > downside is that the emulated disks would be smaller than usual
>> > under DECB, and unless I flipped sides there either by attaching
>> > another switch that mucks around with the side select signal on
>> > the cable or in software, I lose half of the space in a disk image
>> > that I might have still had.  Though, OS-9 should use them at full
>> > capacity, one would think.  My other problem here is that I
>> > strongly suspect that this emulator will not have drive select
>> > jumpers, so I may need to end up clipping pins, or -- who knows
>> > what, really -- to get the drives in the order I'd like.  Really I
>> > think the emulated floppy should be drive 0 and the actual floppy
>> > 1.
>> >
>> > Any comments or suggestions on how to do this or why it's a bad
>> > idea and something else should be done instead? :)
>> >
>> > All that aside, I'll still have the problem of housing the drives.
>> >  I've recently salvaged an old case that had a CD-ROM in it, which
>> > should be sufficient for a single drive, but I don't really have
>> > anything appropriate for two drives.  A standard (and as small as
>> > possible) PC power supply of even 60W or so should do fine for
>> > power, I think.  As for the box, I'm not quite sure what to do
>> > there.  Perhaps wood I could do on my own.  Maybe I could have
>> > something fabricated out of metal.  Something else?  Any ideas
>> > here will be welcome as well.
>> >
>> >
>> > Chris
>> >
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Christopher Smith
> Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research
>
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