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Re: Diamond Trackstar; Apple2-on-a-board for a PC
Bart writes ...
>
> I have two questions governing the Diamond Trackstar if anyone knows:
> 1. in the FAQ it speaks of a site that at one time had downloads of the 3
> varriants of the Trackstar software. Alos it talks of a fellow who wrote a
> improved version of one utility for it. Are these totally lost or, does anyone
> out there still have a trackstar floppy or other software?
>
Thanks to you and Wayne, the Trackstar FAQs files have been updated. One
change was to update links to Trackstar resources.
As Tom notes, you can find Trackstar stuff on USA2WUG. You can also find it
in the GS WorldView archive at http://206.14.25.120/~cturley/a2zine/Utils/ .
> 2. on the upper right side of the Trackstar board is a 8 lin in line molex
> connector for the CGA input from the PC ( Looks to me this works similar to
> the color switch board on a PC Transporter and what you need is a wire to
> connect it to the PC EGA out. I seriously doubt anyone has this wire these
> days and was wondering if anyone knew the pin-outs for the connector so I
> could build my own.
Here is a snip from the new version of the Trackstar FAQs Resource file
which uses the info supplied by Wayne Stewart and adds a few extra details:
>>
What are the connections for a CGA video cable to the
molex connector on the TrackStar E?
The cable has an 8-pin female molex connector going to a 9-pin
Dsub9 male plug.
-key- 1 2 3 4 5
]oooooooo[ ' ' ' ' '
87654321 ' ' ' '
6 7 8 9
(connectors viewed from front)
Molex Dsub9
on TS to PC CGA video output
1* - - - - - 1 Ground
2 - - - - - - 7 Reserved
3 - - - - - - 3 Red
4 - - - - - - 4 Green
5 - - - - - - 5 Blue
6 - - - - - - 6 Intensity
7 - - - - - - 8 Horizontal Drive
8 - - - - - - 9 Vertical Drive
*Pin 1 is usually marked "1" on circuit board.
Pin2 of the Dsub9 has no connection. There's also a ground wire that
goes to the outside of the Dsub9 plug.
Pins on board viewed looking at the front (chip side) of the board:
_______________________________________
--- keyway --- |
. . . . . . . . |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
|
|
Wayne Stewart
11 March 2001
<<
>
> ok a 3rd question:
> the circuit board and ribbion wire thing you plug into the Floppy Controller
> of the PC, then into a 360k floppy and a output connector on the lower left of
> the Trackstar: Anyone know a source for these or again, pin outs and how the
> board works??
>
....
I do not have info on the pinouts. The Trackstar E manual has a few pictures
showing setups using a big ribbon cable and small adaptor board which originally
came with the Trackstar. Basically, what you're doing is connecting the PC
controller to the disk drive via the adaptor board.
The adaptor board has molex and edge connectors to allow some flexibility
regarding the connectors used on the PC controller and/or disk drive. It also has
a small ribbon cable which goes to the Trackstar.
The big ribbon cable seems to be a moderately standard edge
connector-to-molex connector cable for connecting a PC disk drive to a controller
card. The adaptor board is the 'mystery part'. My guess is that the lines going
to the Trackstar are for switching in just data R/W lines (plus, maybe, the Write
Protect line) and that the PC controller card is used to handle head movement and
drive on/off.
You may feel like figuring out how to make the adaptor board; but, it
probably isn't worth the bother. Even if your PC 5.25" drive is old enough to be
one which is Trackstar-compatible, a PC drive is not supposed to be able to
handle many copy-protected diskettes.
It's much easier to just plug an Apple Disk ][ drive into the Trackstar.
That will take care of real Apple II diskettes. Plus you can have virtual drives
(using "Trackstore" files) and a virtual hard disk.
Rubywand