[Coco] Disk drive question

[gene heskett]

On Monday, January 23, 2012 01:43:08 AM hhos at st-tel.net did opine:

> > It may be slightly more complex than that, as in switching a 12 volt
> > pin to
> > have it wired for 5 volts.  Having looked at its specs (I even had a
> > sheet around here someplace) I also got the impression it would also
> > work at 500 kilobaud allowing the use of many of the more modern
> > drives.  I have encountered 3.5" drives that will not function at all
> > with the coco's 250 kilobaud controllers.  A full megabaud or even 2
> > is likely beyond its reach
> > though.
> 
> I'm not sure you understood me correctly. What I meant was that the 8877
> does not require +12VDC at all where the 1793 does. The +12VDC could be
> present, or not, it would not matter to the 8877/8876 chips. They don't
> need them. So, when you put a 8876/8877 in for the 1793 it will read SD
> and DD disks without further modifications. That is what I remember
> anyway, but I'm not certain that I remember correctly.
 
I have a controller around here someplace with an 8877 in it, seems like I 
recall a black metal box "Hard Drives International" or some such wannabe 
seen as important name on it.

> > ??  Does anyone know where the 8877 can be obtained today?
> 
> Little John was selling them a couple of years ago. I bought two and
> have never installed them. I use a MicroSDPak now so I don't have much
> use for floppies at the moment, and I don't know where I stored those
> chips, so I can't dig out the hardware and try it out, at the moment. I
> believe John sells stuff on eBay under "shadownightwarrior".  I looked
> for 8877 and 8876 on eBay, but there weren't any on there right now.

Speaking of little John, I wonder how he is doing these days?  I was rather 
sad when he disappeared from the list.

Cheers, Gene
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