This article was taken from the Unix newsnet. It was transferred by Mark Keates, and tidied and edited by Dean Garraghty.¢-----------------------------------¢¢Subject: 3.5" In A 1050¢¢¢I disagree with Jim Hague's suggestion <IA8V91#91> that the 1050 should be eliminated. A noble idea, to be sure, but totally impractical. The reason being, that 5-1/4" disks with clumsy ole DOS 2.0s or 2.5 is the common medium of software exchange. There are just too many 810's, 1050's & XF551's out there, they number literally in the millions.¢¢For the better part of the past year I have been using 3.5" 720K drives from CSS, I love them, I call them "The Poor Man's Hard Drive". But I still have to keep a few 1050s around to handle boughten software or program/data disks I exchange with other people thru the mail.¢¢I'm not familiar with the IC 3.5" upgrade.¢¢The CSS upgrade comes in 3 flavors, as follows:¢¢1.) The single 3.5 replacement upgrade;¢¢2.) the dual 5.25"/3.5" upgrade;¢¢3.) the dual 3.5"/3.5" upgrade.¢¢All three require an XF551. With item 1.) above, you replace the 5" mech with the 3" mech in the case of the 551. In item 2.), the 3" is simply slaved to the 551; you keep the 5" mech in the 551 & the 3" mech sits on top. And item 3.) combines 1.) & 2.).¢¢The hardware consists of a sealed module with wires you have to solder to various pins on the 8050 CPU, plus a ROM that replaces the original on the XF551 controller card. Then there's the cables & drive mech. CSS uses 3.5" Sony mech mounted in a 5.25" frame. I've also successfully used 3.5" Sony mechs purchased for $39 from Jameco.¢¢The aesthetics of the CSS upgrade leave much to be desired. I was bummed out with the bare mech sitting on top of the 551 with wires hanging out. But the mech from CSS can be fitted into a 1050 case (with some labor) & it looks really nice. The color of the CSS Sony mech is exactly halfway between the grey of the 551 & the ivory of the 1050. No matter which shell you use, it comes out looking OK. I employed a 1050 whose board already was dead, so I stripped the parts from the board & kept the +5V supply to run the 3.5" mech. The little drives consume almost no power: 20mA at idle, 800mA full load.¢¢I use Sparta 3.2 on these drives. DS/DD format w/ultraspeed gives you 737K of actual storage.¢¢Much simpler to implement than a hard drive, cheaper too. Not as fast, tho, & of course lacking mega storage. Even so, I love it.¢¢- BEN POEHLAND¢Always The Alchemist¢Still officially 8bit editor of Current Notes til the end of the year.¢
