Date : Fri, 09 Nov 1990 16:40:48 GMT
From : munnari.oz.au!sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au!levels!etrmg@uunet.uu.net
Subject: Kaypro II-84: SSDD to DSDD Change
In article <1990Nov7.155342.23829@ecn.purdue.edu>, wieland@ea.ecn.purdue.edu
(Jeffrey J Wieland) writes:
> In article <4060001@hpnmdla.HP.COM> donm@hpnmdla.HP.COM (Don Montgomery)
writes:
>>This may have been asked many times previously, but I missed it-
>>
>>I have a "stock" Kaypro II-84 with 191K SSDD drives. What do I need
to convert
>>to DSDD drives besides the drives themselves? (The originals are indeed
single-
>>sided, one head with a rubbing block on the other side.)
Well, I bought two 2-84's, just as you describe. Both have SSDD drives for
191K and I just put in a copy of my Microcornucopia ROM and have installed a
360K drive with no probs. . . I'm not too sure about copying my ROM like that
but they are out of business, right? Anyways, the turbo ROM I don't know
about. I do also have a 2x (that's right, 3 of 'em!) and it came with the 'U'
ROM, so that came with DSDD drives.. On simtel you'll find the Tinkerkit.
It has alot of code in it, if you're a real nut case (like me)
I can send you a copy of my U ROM if you like, but you may want to go up to
Quad drives instead. I did, it saved me alot a space; makes disks go further.
No prbs with using DSDD floppies yet either. 780K IS worth it. Especially if
you have no HD. . .
>>Does anyone have the
>>code for the monitor ROM changes? What other hardware changes are required,
if
>>any? With the demise of MICROCORNUCOPIA magazine and the advent of MS/DOS,
all
>>the advertisers for this sort of thing have disappeared.
>>
As far as I know, you don't need to modify a thing. All the '84 computers had
the same PC I believe. Just lacked some parts for the SASI interface, int
modem and Clock. At least my 2 '84 went up to 360 K with ONLY a ROM and drive.
It still lacks the stuff I put into my 2x (SASI, MDM, RTC)
I know how you feel about uC. Pretty much my fave mag. That's how it is tho.
Polyphony died, Popular Electronics died before it died. . . Byte died,
And it's still alive!! :-) That's why I don't subscribe to mags for more than
a year now. Got too many settlements like Creative Computing and Computer
Language (which BTW I have not yet received a copy of!!!! )
Embedded Systems Programming looked good, from the eyes of a Charter Subscriber
(me) But their billing Dept. jerked me around so much since I sent them my cash
that I'm almost glad my Feb '90 issue just arrived, forwarded from ARGENTINA!!
(I'm in South Australia) No bull. I'm mad as hell, but have to take it!
Get a subscription to The Computer Journal. You'll like it. Info:
TCJ
190 Sullivan
Columbia Falls, MT 59912
USA
Tell 'em Ronn sent ya.
>>Can anyone offer any help? Thanks
There you go. .
>
> Advent Products should still have upgrade products for Kaypros. They sell
> the TurboROM for $60, which knows about DSDD (and 96 tpi) drives. They
> also sell a drive decoder board that adds the additional logic for
> double-sided drives (also allows up to four drives) -- it goes for $40.
> I believe the TurboROM manual has instructions on how to add the side
> select circuit yourself, too. Advent's number is 714-630-8172.
What's their address??
>
> By the way, Bridger Mitchell's company, Plu*Perfect Systems apparently
> wrote both the TurboROM code and the Turbo BIOS code.
>
> I have no relationship with Advent or Plu*Perfect -- I just think that
> they have darned good products that work together. My Kaypro 2X has
> Advent's TurboROM, host-adapter, 1 Meg RAM disk, real-time clock,
> Western Digital WD-1002-005 hard disk controller and a Seagate ST-138-1
> (30 meg) hard drive. I am using NZCOM and ZSDOS, and it all works.
> I also have a MicroSphere Color Graphics board in it, but that's another
> story...
I called up Microsphere some time ago; evidently, they no longer have any more
Kaypro stuff. Didn't want to know me either. . . Too bad, I wanted a color
board too. :-(