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  • Northstar Advantage Hard Drive Controller

    From David Jones@21:1/5 to All on Wed Dec 4 12:13:43 2019
    I was wondering if anyone out there has an Advantage hard drive controller card. Or has reversed engr'd it and has a cad drawing that can be used to get a board made? I have an Advantage I'd love to put a hard drive in.

    Thanks
    David

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  • From Evan Allen@21:1/5 to David Jones on Tue Mar 21 18:44:36 2023
    A few years on, but yes, I just finished my KiCAD of the hard drive controller. I've got one that's supposedly broken and an MFM drive emulator to test it with. I haven't validated my controller design will work, but if I can fix this official one then
    I'll have a gold standard to check against and I can validate my design.


    On Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 3:13:43 PM UTC-5, David Jones wrote:
    I was wondering if anyone out there has an Advantage hard drive controller card. Or has reversed engr'd it and has a cad drawing that can be used to get a board made? I have an Advantage I'd love to put a hard drive in.

    Thanks
    David

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Robert Stek@21:1/5 to Evan Allen on Wed Oct 11 05:27:18 2023
    On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 9:44:37 PM UTC-4, Evan Allen wrote:
    A few years on, but yes, I just finished my KiCAD of the hard drive controller. I've got one that's supposedly broken and an MFM drive emulator to test it with. I haven't validated my controller design will work, but if I can fix this official one then
    I'll have a gold standard to check against and I can validate my design.
    On Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 3:13:43 PM UTC-5, David Jones wrote:
    I was wondering if anyone out there has an Advantage hard drive controller card. Or has reversed engr'd it and has a cad drawing that can be used to get a board made? I have an Advantage I'd love to put a hard drive in.

    Thanks
    David

    Evan - Have you made any progress on the hard drive controller? My Advantage is working and I have a DREM HD emulator but no controller/

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  • From Evan Allen@21:1/5 to Robert Stek on Wed Oct 11 09:42:49 2023
    On Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 5:27:19 AM UTC-7, Robert Stek wrote:
    On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 9:44:37 PM UTC-4, Evan Allen wrote:
    A few years on, but yes, I just finished my KiCAD of the hard drive controller. I've got one that's supposedly broken and an MFM drive emulator to test it with. I haven't validated my controller design will work, but if I can fix this official one
    then I'll have a gold standard to check against and I can validate my design.
    On Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 3:13:43 PM UTC-5, David Jones wrote:
    I was wondering if anyone out there has an Advantage hard drive controller card. Or has reversed engr'd it and has a cad drawing that can be used to get a board made? I have an Advantage I'd love to put a hard drive in.

    Thanks
    David
    Evan - Have you made any progress on the hard drive controller? My Advantage is working and I have a DREM HD emulator but no controller/

    I validated that the controller I based the design off of works, but I have yet to build and test one of my custom boards. I can send you a blank one if you'd like or you can wait until I build one up to test. It has a couple of challenges being that
    it needs at least one delay line and bipolar prom (hard to find/need modern equivalent). I can do that substitution as well, but if you want to take that on go right ahead.

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