Unix PC and WD2010B

[Thad P Floryan]

All the discussion about the WD2010 and the UNIXPC is interesting.  As I stated
a few weeks ago, I'm looking into this matter since several people have
reported problems with the WD2010 from the group buy I arranged last year.

If he hasn't already (postings are slow to return back to PORTAL), Chad Netzer
will post some preliminary findings re: WD2010, a Miniscribe 3085, and several
revisions of the UNIXPC motherboard.  In summary, all of the 3085, the WD2010,
and the motherboard(s), are good and OK in and of themselves, but some combos
simply do NOT work.  The highest motherboard rev level tested so far is ``C''.

Just before the fire here (July 1), I was looking at the UNIXPC schematics
in the vicinity of the 26LS31 and 26LS32 chips (data I/O from/to the HD), and
there are some significant differences depending on the motherboard rev level.
Since my books are still in storage, I cannot examine them, but hopefully
they'll be back by this weekend, and I'm going to run some experiments.

Since I'm operating several 3B1 systems with a WD2010 and a 6085, it's my
"gut feeling" that all that's needed is to upgrade the motherboards to current
specs (just some wire and stuff).  But, we'll see.

Other differences (on my systems) include the 3B1 power supplies adjusted to
5.20VDC and 12.4VDC, Cramolin-preserved connectors, operation on UPS systems,
and everything properly grounded.

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]