HXC on Thomson TO8 and other SD Card Loading Devices

[StarshipUK]

Are there any instructions available on how to use the HXC Floppy Device with a Thomson TO8 computer?

I have also seen SD Card Devices in use on other Thomson computers at: http://dcmoto.free.fr/bricolage/index.html but do not think any of these were made available commercially and are too technical for me to make.

[Daniel]

...do not think any of these were made available commercially

You are right, SDMOTO SD card interface and CS91-280 controller are DIY projects.

..are too technical for me to make.

I don't think so. SDMOTO interface can be made without any soldering, with a Catalex microSD board, 6 Dupont wires and a DB9 female connector. CS91-280 is still easier : just remove the EPROM in a nanoreseau controller and plug in the new one. If you don't own an EPROM programmer I can program the EPROM for you.

[Sautebroussailles]

My 2 cents :

I've performed preliminary tests on using my Hxc on a TO8D.
As I was not willing to embark on the adventure of crafting a custom floppy cable myself, I resorted to unplug the (very short) internal floppy flat ribbon and replace it with a standard PC-like one. Then I was able to connect it to the HxC and perform the said tests.

As a matter of fact the only thing I was able to execute was the Nyan Cat intro : http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=58150
I couldn't make other stuff work properly, however, probably due to my lake of experience using the HxC.
See, I'm mostly using my HxC on Amstrad machines, which have single face disk drives, so I'm used to switch manually the side of disks, from myStuff_sideA.hfe to myStuff_sideB.hfe.
The TO8D floppy disk, however, is double sided, so the data of a given disk is spread on both sides and I don't know how to make the Hxc automatically change fom one disk image to the other.
Or maybe I shouldn't use this 3way flat ribbon connector ? I doubt it, but who knows?

Anyway, that's my hypothesis as to why I couldn't properly run programs, though I could list the "disk" content and attempt executing its files.
I'll get back to this sometime, I just need to focus long enough. My current time span for quibbleing with my vintage computers is 5-15 minutes because of my kids (they are 3 and 5).


On this thread you'll find a description on how to build your own 14 pins external floppy connector for the To8 :
http://forum.system-cfg.com/viewtopic.p ... HxC#p53132

Btw, someone from UK using a TO8 !? Must be about as rare as a "continental" person using an Accorn Electron !

Tom.