Just as a matter of courtesy: consider starting a new thread when the conversation changes greatly from the "subject" line. I am a user, I'm not in charge. But since I'm posting a response, I'll change the subject line. The subject of the thread "Needed SD card solutions for museum" was about SDcard adapters to replace floppy drives on 8-bit computers. But most of the thread now is entirely about an H89 acquired which may be donated to the VCFed museum; and/or about the utility of a "Gotek" hardware product for it that emulates various vintage floppy drives with file-storage. I would have ignored the thread, except by luck. I read this list online, after the fact; not by emails. And anyone looking backwards or search, would not find those H89 interests among the subject lines, until now. The H89 by Heath and Zenith is a great 8-bit Z80 system. It works fine with original hardware and software, and hard or soft sectored disks. One needs a controller for each, with drives dedicated for each. That's how it was done in the era. But people today do like putting modern widgets and new boards on it, some use modern mass storage. The H89 and support for it, or a system to restore or to pass to the Museum, are certainly worth their own discussion threads. As for modern SDcard or CompactFlash devices that emulate floppy drives, like GoTek. I don't follow them much. But it's unusual for them to support formats like Heath's hard-sectored USART based floppy controller. It's a technical challenge, not just "bugs" to fix. If GoTek supports that better over time, that's interesting and good news. Regards, Herb Johnson retrotechnology.com https://retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_zenith.html#h89 -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT comcast DOT net
On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 3:39 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Just as a matter of courtesy: consider starting a new thread when the conversation changes greatly from the "subject" line. I am a user, I'm not in charge. But since I'm posting a response, I'll change the subject line.
Yes, I agree Herb. Thanks for the catch. I usually enforce the topic drift and get people to create a new thread, but missed this one.
The subject of the thread "Needed SD card solutions for museum" was about SDcard adapters to replace floppy drives on 8-bit computers. But most of the thread now is entirely about an H89 acquired which may be donated to the VCFed museum; and/or about the utility of a "Gotek" hardware product for it that emulates various vintage floppy drives with file-storage.
Yes. We like to have original hardware, disks, etc. where possible, but modern SD card solutions make it much easier and sometimes faster to do a demonstration in the museum. As is often the case hard drives fail, floppy drives fail, disks fail, but modern solutions are easier to find, replace, fix, and troubleshoot. I also like the fact that one can have a lot of software in one place instead of spread over multiple floppies, etc.
I would have ignored the thread, except by luck. I read this list online, after the fact; not by emails. And anyone looking backwards or search, would not find those H89 interests among the subject lines, until now.
The H89 by Heath and Zenith is a great 8-bit Z80 system. It works fine with original hardware and software, and hard or soft sectored disks. One needs a controller for each, with drives dedicated for each. That's how it was done in the era. But people today do like putting modern widgets and new boards on it, some use modern mass storage. The H89 and support for it, or a system to restore or to pass to the Museum, are certainly worth their own discussion threads.
I agree. I'm endeavoring to learn more about the H89 system. Admittedly I know nothing about it other than the Heathkit legacy.
Now that the subject has been updated, I'll clear up any misunderstandings up to this point. I have an H89 that was donated to me, for my collection. I will not be donating it to the museum. The museum already has one. However, I will be bringing this system to the next Workshop to clean, troubleshoot if necessary, and test. Along with what I received are about 150 SSDD hard sectored disks of personal software from when this system was being actively used back in the late 70s/early 80s. These all include CP/M and HDOS, programs, games, data, etc. If I'm reading the disk labels correctly, these will be more than enough to compile a working set of disks for use on the Museum's H89 so we can get yet another system on display running demonstrations. Until I test the disks, which for all I know may have not survived long term storage, I'll know better what I have and what software is available from the collection. Making straight copies of this software will be easier than trying to convert from online disk images to real disks on a hard sectored drive. If the Museum has any blank hard sectored disks on hand, they will be very useful to have available if none of the disks I have are blank. What I learn from using my H89 should help me with triaging the Museum's H89 to get that up and running at least. As for Gotek solutions, I am aware that hard sector emulation is beta. However, I don't look to there being much need for one at the moment. There simply isn't a vast amount of software that's exclusive to the H89 since it's a CP/M machine, except for maybe the ability to boot HDOS. I don't see the need for more than three or four disks on hand for demonstration purposes, just like the Osborne and Zorba. Jeff Salzman On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 3:40 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Just as a matter of courtesy: consider starting a new thread when the conversation changes greatly from the "subject" line. I am a user, I'm not in charge. But since I'm posting a response, I'll change the subject line.
The subject of the thread "Needed SD card solutions for museum" was about SDcard adapters to replace floppy drives on 8-bit computers. But most of the thread now is entirely about an H89 acquired which may be donated to the VCFed museum; and/or about the utility of a "Gotek" hardware product for it that emulates various vintage floppy drives with file-storage.
Alex Bodnar, long-time member of this club, knows about as much as anyone Heathkit. If he does not know he knows were to get the info. He belongs to a Heathkit group of some sort. Bill On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 5:42 PM Jeff Salzman via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Now that the subject has been updated, I'll clear up any misunderstandings up to this point.
I have an H89 that was donated to me, for my collection. I will not be donating it to the museum. The museum already has one. However, I will be bringing this system to the next Workshop to clean, troubleshoot if necessary, and test.
Along with what I received are about 150 SSDD hard sectored disks of personal software from when this system was being actively used back in the late 70s/early 80s. These all include CP/M and HDOS, programs, games, data, etc. If I'm reading the disk labels correctly, these will be more than enough to compile a working set of disks for use on the Museum's H89 so we can get yet another system on display running demonstrations.
Until I test the disks, which for all I know may have not survived long term storage, I'll know better what I have and what software is available from the collection. Making straight copies of this software will be easier than trying to convert from online disk images to real disks on a hard sectored drive. If the Museum has any blank hard sectored disks on hand, they will be very useful to have available if none of the disks I have are blank.
What I learn from using my H89 should help me with triaging the Museum's H89 to get that up and running at least.
As for Gotek solutions, I am aware that hard sector emulation is beta. However, I don't look to there being much need for one at the moment. There simply isn't a vast amount of software that's exclusive to the H89 since it's a CP/M machine, except for maybe the ability to boot HDOS. I don't see the need for more than three or four disks on hand for demonstration purposes, just like the Osborne and Zorba.
Jeff Salzman
On Sun, May 9, 2021 at 3:40 PM Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Just as a matter of courtesy: consider starting a new thread when the conversation changes greatly from the "subject" line. I am a user, I'm not in charge. But since I'm posting a response, I'll change the subject line.
The subject of the thread "Needed SD card solutions for museum" was about SDcard adapters to replace floppy drives on 8-bit computers. But most of the thread now is entirely about an H89 acquired which may be donated to the VCFed museum; and/or about the utility of a "Gotek" hardware product for it that emulates various vintage floppy drives with file-storage.
On 5/9/21 6:16 PM, Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Alex Bodnar, long-time member of this club, knows about as much as anyone Heathkit. If he does not know he knows were to get the info. He belongs to a Heathkit group of some sort.
SEBHC, the Society of Eight-Bit Heathkit Collectors: https://groups.google.com/g/sebhc -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA
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