What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Nagging hardware related question? Post here!
User avatar
BSJR
Trump Card
Posts: 186
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:53 pm
Location: Amsterdam
Contact:

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by BSJR »

aalea wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:03 pm ...
Regarding the DA2, i can't found anywere, I will apreciate if you can post pictured of it "for the record"
This is my Miracle Disk Adapter 2.
DiskAdpt_P0025t1.jpg
DiskAdpt_P0027t1.jpg
BSJR


User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2761
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by dilwyn »

Was a very useful device. Always worked very well for me, the only little problem was that as it was uncased, it got dusty
I'm not using mine currently, as my Gold Card QL has been reduced for now to two floppy drives since getting QIMSI. Previously, I had a mix of DD, HD and ED floppy drives. Well, I still have those, but the full set only makes an appearance when needed.


User avatar
Chr$
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1315
Joined: Mon May 27, 2019 10:03 am
Location: Sachsen, Germany
Contact:

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by Chr$ »

dilwyn wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 12:04 pm Was a very useful device. Always worked very well for me, the only little problem was that as it was uncased, it got dusty
I'm not using mine currently, as my Gold Card QL has been reduced for now to two floppy drives since getting QIMSI. Previously, I had a mix of DD, HD and ED floppy drives. Well, I still have those, but the full set only makes an appearance when needed.
Was that a typical use-case Dilwyn, i.e. to support all 3 drive densities? I can't really get my head around the benefit of having 4 floppy drives on the go at the same time. Obviously with 4 drives you could boot from one, have useful progs on another and your own current work on another, or whatever - like a floppy based HDD with all that storage space (12.8mb if all 4 were ED!). But wasn't 1 drive or 2 at the most, fine for most use scenarios?


https://QXL.WIN
Collector of QL related computers, accessories and QL games/software.
Ask me about felt pads - I can cut them to size and they have proved excellent for mdv data recovery.
User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2761
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by dilwyn »

I never used it with three different densities of drives. It certainly worked OK with a dual HD and dual ED or dual DD and dual ED.

EDIT: what I meant by that was that they were dual ED drives, dual HD drives and dual DD drives - I used whichever I needed at the time. Not a set where I had a mix of three different densities at the same time. And it wasn't a "typical use" case in the slightest. It was just a means of transferring and testing on that QL.

After the failure of one of the Miracle ED drives a couple of years ago, the drive pair I now use has one HD and one ED drive, plugged direct into the Gold Card. Will have to get all the bits and pieces out when I have time to see what mix works with the expander board and what doesn't (they are currently boxed in the attic and NO WAY am I going up there to dig them out while it's this cold!).


User avatar
tofro
Font of All Knowledge
Posts: 2702
Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:53 pm
Location: SW Germany

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by tofro »

I used to use a dual ED setup with my GoldCard for quite some time. 6MB of changeable storage was nearly getting into hard disk capacity regions. I think I started to play around with an additional DD drive just because I wanted to see if it worked, It did, but was not really practical with disks working in one drive and not in another - It was a bit of a mess.


ʎɐqǝ ɯoɹɟ ǝq oʇ ƃuᴉoƃ ʇou sᴉ pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ʇxǝu ʎɯ 'ɹɐǝp ɥO
User avatar
dilwyn
Mr QL
Posts: 2761
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:39 pm

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by dilwyn »

tofro wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 1:44 pm I used to use a dual ED setup with my GoldCard for quite some time. 6MB of changeable storage was nearly getting into hard disk capacity regions. I think I started to play around with an additional DD drive just because I wanted to see if it worked, It did, but was not really practical with disks working in one drive and not in another - It was a bit of a mess.
For a long time I used an 8MB RomDisq, and two ED disks were quite close to this capacity, as you say.


User avatar
aalea
Bent Pin Expansion Port
Posts: 86
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2022 9:27 pm

Re: What is this 4 Floppy Drives adapter for?

Post by aalea »

BSJR wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2024 11:29 am
aalea wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:03 pm ...
Regarding the DA2, i can't found anywere, I will apreciate if you can post pictured of it "for the record"
This is my Miracle Disk Adapter 2.
DiskAdpt_P0025t1.jpg
DiskAdpt_P0027t1.jpg

BSJR
Thanks BSJR and Chr$, this pictures are very usefull.


Post Reply