Exatron Wafer Drive
Robert Hudson
I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
have worked with a Tandy computer.
It uses tapes about 1/2 the size and thickness of an audio cassette
and has a 20' loop of 1/16" tape. Its an external device with a slot
and 2 leds on the front, and a ribbon cable with a 16 pin header on
the end.
The tapes I found were from Entrepo
Thanks
Robert
Ian Webb
The Exatron drive was called a "stringy floppy" and was made by Exatron
in Santa Clara or Sunnyvale (that area of Silicon Valley is all mixed
together). There used to be a user's group that met at the Exatron plant
on Saturdays.
The unit worked much, much, much better and was much faster than a
cassette recorder, obviously. It was superseded by the floppy drives as
the prices dropped to be competitive. As I recall the stringy floppy
package sold into the TRS80 market was in the neighborhood of $125-$150
which was cheaper than a floppy drive and supporting hardware at the
time.
As far as I know, Exatron is still in existence though I have no idea
what they manufacture. I haven't been by their building for many years.
How times change!
Ian
Jim Kajpust
rhu...@dreamscape.com (Robert Hudson) wrote:
>I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
>have worked with a Tandy computer.
>It uses tapes about 1/2 the size and thickness of an audio cassette
>and has a 20' loop of 1/16" tape. Its an external device with a slot
>and 2 leds on the front, and a ribbon cable with a 16 pin header on
>the end. snip...
Sounds like the Exatron Stringy Floppy. I had one. The starter kit was
$300 back in 1980 or so. It was pretty neat. There was a keyboard
debounce routine built in and it and the driver fit into a couple of K
of unused memory.
It could do some things that a floppy couldn't. I had a protected game
that couldn't normally be saved, but the Exatron could write out a
complete block of memory with contents. Execute that block and the
game would take off from you saved it.
The tape in the wafers had a bad habit of coming apart at the foil
splice tho'.
Jim Kajpust - Personal Freedoms - Michigan
http://www.cris.com/~jkajpust
Mathew Boytim
Robert Hudson wrote:
>
> I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
> have worked with a Tandy computer.
> It uses tapes about 1/2 the size and thickness of an audio cassette
> and has a 20' loop of 1/16" tape. Its an external device with a slot
> and 2 leds on the front, and a ribbon cable with a 16 pin header on
> the end.
>
>
This sounds like the 'Exatron Stringy-Floppy'. The one I remember was
for the model I which is very similar except it had a wider ribbon cable
with card edge connector that plugged into the expansion connector on
the back of the model I.
The stringy-floppy for the model I was actually pretty cool. Since the
model I had only 12K of ROM it was able to contain a 2K ROM which
contained firmware for the drive. After the machine booted you would
type 'SYSTEM' and then '/12345' and it would hook itself into BASIC and
give you several commands, all of which started with '@'. '@NEW' would
format the tape, '@SAVE' would write to tape, and '@LOAD' would read
from tape. There was at least one other command, possibly '@LIST' but I
can't remember for sure, that would list the contents of the tape. I
believe one LED indicated that the motor was running and the other that
the drive was writing.
The tapes were continuous loop and came in various lengths. Later
drives had beepers that would chirp when the beginning of the loop was
encountered. Exatron provided instructions on how to add this beeper to
early units that did not come with one.
There supposedly was a stringy floppy unit available for the model III
but I don't know how it connected or how it hooked into the software.
But maybe that's what you have.
Matt
--
mabo...@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/3041
Eric Dittman
Ian Webb <ian_...@NOSPAMpacbell.net> wrote:
> As far as I know, Exatron is still in existence though I have no idea
> what they manufacture. I haven't been by their building for many years.
A few years ago our group bought a laser marker for ICs from Exatron.
As a joke I asked one of the field service guys about whether they still
supported the Stringy Floppy. Surprisingly enough, he did know about
it, but hadn't actually seen one in operation.
--
Eric Dittman Raytheon TI Systems - Component Test Facility
dit...@hibernia.dseg.ti.com (972) 462-4292
Disclaimer: Not even my opinions. I found them by the side of the road.
Robert Hudson
jkaj...@concentric.net (Jim Kajpust) wrote:
>rhu...@dreamscape.com (Robert Hudson) wrote:
>
>>I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
>>have worked with a Tandy computer.
>Sounds like the Exatron Stringy Floppy.
>It could do some things that a floppy couldn't. I had a protected game
>that couldn't normally be saved, but the Exatron could write out a
>complete block of memory with contents. Execute that block and the
>game would take off from you saved it.
That's how the Sinclair computers used tape.. dumped the entire memory
used for the program to the tape. I used that to keep variables in
the basic programs because the Harvard BASIC it used lacked the DATA
command.
Thanks for all the replies!
Robert
Jeff Lemke
Jim Kajpust wrote:
> The tape in the wafers had a bad habit of coming apart at the foil
> splice tho'.
>
> Jim Kajpust - Personal Freedoms - Michigan
> http://www.cris.com/~jkajpust
Ah, yes, that brings back fond memories of audio 8-tracks.
Jeff Lemke
Jeff Lemke
Robert Hudson wrote:
>
> I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
> have worked with a Tandy computer.
> and has a 20' loop of 1/16" tape. Its an external device with a slot
> and 2 leds on the front, and a ribbon cable with a 16 pin header on
> the end.
>
> The tapes I found were from Entrepo
>
>
> Robert
I think the tape is about 50% wider than that, like 3/32". I'll have to
take a look again at my wafers at home. They came in various lengths,
ranging up to 75'.
Jeff Lemke
Jeff Lemke
David R L Porter
The message <3576E8...@terra.cira.colostate.edu>
from Jeff Lemke <le...@terra.cira.colostate.edu> contains these words:
It may be an Aculab 'floppy tape' stringy floppy. These had an
unfortunate habit of shedding acetate and your program with it --
nice engineering on the drive, tho, and the OS was nice -- you could
but several commands on one libe separated by a colon, if I remember
right ... I have some of the tapes, unuses, of anyone wants to make
an offer! They were a new improved variety that was supposed not to
shed the acetate, but by then I'd got rid of the drive.
--
Best wishes,
David.
david....@zetnet.co.uk
+ + + + + + + + + + + + +
"It's often safer to be in chains than free ..." Kafka, 'The Trial'.
Nele Abels-Ludwig
On Thu, 4 Jun 1998, Robert Hudson wrote:
[About Exatron Stringy Floppy (a wafer for the TRS-80):]
> >It could do some things that a floppy couldn't. I had a protected game
> >that couldn't normally be saved, but the Exatron could write out a
> >complete block of memory with contents. Execute that block and the
> >game would take off from you saved it.
>
> That's how the Sinclair computers used tape.. dumped the entire memory
> used for the program to the tape. I used that to keep variables in
> the basic programs because the Harvard BASIC it used lacked the DATA
> command.
Mhm. Not quite true, at least not for the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum. It
could be that the ZX-80/ZX-81 Basics did lack the data command, I am
not sure about that, the ZX-Spectrum machines have this command. True
is that variables area is saved on tape. Yet, not the ENTIRE memory
is saved on tape, the 48K/128K would take much too long to load, even
with the fast Spectrum loading routines. Only the Basic program, and
the existing variables are saved. On the other hand there are certain
hardware extensions like the Multiface which offer the feature to save
the entire ram on tape so that you can make "backups" of your
favourite zap'em games :)
Nele
replace with CA
In article <Pine.LNX.3.96.980608...@stud-login1.Uni-Marburg.DE>,
Nele Abels-Ludwig <Ab...@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de> wrote:
>On Thu, 4 Jun 1998, Robert Hudson wrote:
>[About Exatron Stringy Floppy (a wafer for the TRS-80):]
>> >It could do some things that a floppy couldn't. I had a protected game
>> >that couldn't normally be saved, but the Exatron could write out a
>> >complete block of memory with contents. Execute that block and the
>> >game would take off from you saved it.
>> That's how the Sinclair computers used tape.. dumped the entire memory
>> used for the program to the tape. I used that to keep variables in
>> the basic programs because the Harvard BASIC it used lacked the DATA
>> command.
>
>Mhm. Not quite true, at least not for the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum. It
>could be that the ZX-80/ZX-81 Basics did lack the data command, I am
>not sure about that, the ZX-Spectrum machines have this command. True
I am sure about it. There was no data command, you'd just save the entire
program and variables. It was a interesting way to do it.
>is that variables area is saved on tape.
FWIW, the Exatron Stringy Floppy we used in high school was a hellish
beast. It would jam up, and eat the tapes periodically. Combined with
the model I's keyboard bounce, and non-full screen editor, it made me a
Commodore Pet 2001 fan. The best thing about the "TRaSh 80" was the funky
silver lame printer that had a super loud bell if you lprinted chr$(7) to
it. Provided hours (minutes?) of fun when combined with a simple program that
would set it off during quiet exam times.
--
Jeremy Konopka konopka at cs dot uregina dot ca
Following lines are for SPAMscum.
postmaster@localhost
abuse@localhost
root@localhost
Ruud Broers
jkaj...@concentric.net (Jim Kajpust) wrote:
>rhu...@dreamscape.com (Robert Hudson) wrote:
>
>>I came across one of these tape drives recently, and suspect it might
>>have worked with a Tandy computer.
:
:
>
>The tape in the wafers had a bad habit of coming apart at the foil
>splice tho'.
>
Was there any method of repairing these very slim tapes, or was it
just bad luck when that happened? I found an old drive with tapes, but
they indeed come apart when used.
Ruud Broers
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
Ruud Broers wrote:
> Was there any method of repairing these very slim tapes, or was it
> just bad luck when that happened? I found an old drive with tapes, but
> they indeed come apart when used.
A little of both. I co-wrote the operating system for the Ohio
Scientific version of the Stringy-Floppy, and had to do this a few
times.
With *very* gentle and dextrous hands, thin gloves, a good magnifier,
and pre-cut pieces of very thin adhesive foil, you could repair them.
Once you had the tape spliced, you could re-tension the tape like an old
8-track ... by pulling with a gentle acceleration and letting go. It
would take it up if you did it just right. Wear gloves.
These things actually had a pretty long life. They were used in the
ocean for data storage on buoys! I probably have box of a hunded of
those tapes in all lengths, along with a few drives. I haven't looked in
a long time...
Best to you,
Dennis
--
Dennis Báthory-Kitsz
Malted/Media: http://www.maltedmedia.com/
The Middle-Aged Hiker: http://www.maltedmedia.com/books/mah/
Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar: http://www.maltedmedia.com/kalvos/
Jim Kajpust
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz <bat...@maltedmedia.com> wrote:
>A little of both. I co-wrote the operating system for the Ohio
>Scientific version of the Stringy-Floppy, and had to do this a few
>times.
>
>snip
I remember back in the eighties debating buying an Ohio computer.
There was a dealer near us that offered them. I ended up with a Radio
Shack computer -- obsolescence just a bit further down the line....
sigh
I gotta try the delete * thing in my email - sorry
k3ck...@gmail.com
> have worked with a Tandy computer.
> and has a 20' loop of 1/16" tape. Its an external device with a slot
> and 2 leds on the front, and a ribbon cable with a 16 pin header on
> the end.
>
> The tapes I found were from Entrepo
>
> Thanks
>
> Robert
Maybe some of you could sale one, or tell me -where to search?
regards