[Coco] Somewhat OT - SWTPC 6809 Restoration Project

[Ron Bihler]

Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Sunday 12 April 2009, Ron Bihler wrote:
>   
>> Joel Ewy wrote:
>>     
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> I have on loan the remains of two or three SWTPc 6809 computers that
>>> had belonged to the late friend of a friend, and I'm going to try to
>>> restore them to working condition.  (I can probably only get one
>>> working, since there only seems to be one CPU board, unless another
>>> one turns up in other boxes...)  My plan is to try to get Flex and
>>> OS-9 running, and maybe get it to run some old text adventures and
>>> such things.  If I get real ambitious I might hook up one of those
>>> serial<->ethernet/telnet thingies and make it play adventure games
>>> over the Internet.  First things first though.  I'm cataloging the
>>> parts and trying to understand the DAT circuit on the CPU board.
>>>
>>> If you have an interest in such arcana, you can check out my progress
>>> here:  http://8littlebits.wordpress.com/category/swtpc/
>>>
>>> JCE
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>>       
>> Been working on a 6809 SWTPC as well, the machine I have is
>> operational.  However it appears the DC-4 floppy controller didn't like
>> shipping and I have not been able to get the Flex boot disk to work.
>> Still a work in process, but a step at a time.
>>
>> Let me know how you do, I would like to get os9 running on the machine
>> as soon as I get the floppy to work again.  Have you run the everson
>> emulation?  Very cool and I am hoping the rom images from the emulation
>> will work to load OS9.  The flex disk formats are very odd, but in the
>> end the controller is not working right.
>>
>> Ron Bihler
>>     
>
> What FDC chip is in that controller?  I have had several 1773's go toes up 
> over the years & ATM have NDI where fresh ones can be had.  I used up all my 
> spares in the EDISK workalike (but much much better) at the tv station over 
> the years.  Or is someone now making clones?  For the 1793, the MB8877 
> (Fujitsu?) works even better, but again, those are false teeth for chickens at 
> best.
>
>   

Need to look it up again, it's a DC-4 controller and I think the 1773 is 
correct. 

Thanks
Ron