[Coco] Remembering your CoCo Repacks

[Francis Swygert]

I remember that the SCSI to MFM adapter cards and the popular MFM drive controller adapter (Burke & Burke card -- used a then standard 8 bit PC/XT MFM controller) were used a lot to connect then inexpensive MFM drives to the CoCo. I went another direction and used a DISTO Super controller with a 4-n-1 card. IIRC technically the DISTO hard drive interfaces is SASI, but it would support two SCSI drives. There is only a slight difference between SASI and SCSI... IIRC it was mainly in the connector cable? That might be only the way DISTO implemented it though. I know DISTO didn't use all the lines on a standard 50 pin connector, you had to make (or buy from DISTO) a cable. 

My main point is that with even IDE drives being hard to find, there are still many SCSI drives available under $100 that would be suitable for a CoCo (I checked NewEgg.com). I really liked the DISTO with the 4-n-1 as it provided everything you normally used an MPI for... without the MPI. At least it was a great solution for OS-9 users. I transferred all my ROM Paks to disc, so it worked for me even with DECB. Much easier to use in a re-pack! Too bad no one has reverse engineered the 4-n-1. DISTO also made an adapter for it so you could use the 4-n-1 (or any of the adapters for the DISTO expansion header) without a Super Controller -- such as in an MPI or directly in the cartridge port, or even a Y cable. That would be handy also, or a 4-n-1 made to plug directly into the CoCo port...

Frank Swygert
 Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
 803-604-6548