On 5/8/2013 6:15 PM, Peter Dassow wrote:
On 06.05.2013 12:31, David Schmidt wrote:On 5/6/2013 2:17 AM, Peter Dassow wrote:But this is almost unbelievable that nobody yet created a logic board with an FPGA/whatever which converts the signals/creates the missing signals. May be too much old drives are still available ...Indeed, old drives are still plentiful and cheap, for the most part. Though not everywhere in the world, of course. The function necessary would be to duplicate the analog board that currently lives inside the Disk II drive. [...] But the need/incentive to go from Disk II interface to some other kind of floppy drive simply hasn't arisen.What's about this one ? http://www.bootzero.com/HDDD_A2_v1.2/HDDD_A2v1.2_specifications.html
Yes indeed, I mentioned that to you in both this thread (the next few lines in the same message you quoted above) and the same thread you started in c.s.m.vintage. But the HDDD isn't a simple cable - it is a programmed processor that provides a very accurate mapping from Disk II signals to a modern HD 3.5" floppy drive.
So - what about it? It's a brilliant piece of hardware and firmware. It has a very interesting use case - making the arguably more-available HD 3.5" floppy disks useable as direct replacements for 5.25" media. Apple II software running on it can scarcely tell the difference. It's compatible at a very low level. I think we'll eventually see all spinning magnetic media go the way of the buggy whip, but HDDD definitely buys some time.
It still doesn't help you use your TEAC FD55A, though. :-)