Teensy as ATAPI Zip Drive Emulator...

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ryansupak

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Hi, I'm checking the feasibility of using the Teensy as an ATAPI ZIP Drive Emulator.

The basic hardware flow would be as follows:

Code:
[Legacy ATAPI Host (Roland SP-808)]
          ^
          |
          v
[Teensy (via legacy 40-pin connector)]
          ^
          |
          v
[Teensy (onboard 5-pin USB connector)]
          ^
          |
          v
[USB Drive (emulating the ZIP Drive's storage)]

The basic software flow would be as follows:
Code:
[ATAPI Driver (custom?)]
          ^
          |
          v
[USB Storage Driver (off-the-shelf/existing?)]

Power Supply: I plan to use the 5V supply, which was originally there for the ZIP, to power the Teensy. I assume that a power supply originally designed to power bulky hardware, with at least one motor in it, should be able to power this Teensy rig no-problem.

Processing Power: The Arduino would seem to struggle with this task, which is what led me to Teensy. It looks like ZIP maxed-out at a 1.4 megabyte/second transfer rate so I think I should be safe there...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive

Am I on the right track? Seem feasible? Any pointers on existing code that could be modified would be a huge help!

Thanks for any thoughts!
rs
 
You can get an ATAPI to USB adapter for $30: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00NJ5CZJC/ref=dp_olp_unknown_mbc

Of course, that means you don't have a cool project; so if you want a cool project you will have to figure out how to talk to an ATA bus electronically, and in code. You will need a 5V-tolerant Teensy, or use level shifters. The device will also expect +12V to come from somewhere (probably separate Molex connector, don't think that was on the ribbon cable.)

This was a parallel interface with 40 pins, so you may have to use shift registers as well. Not that that's hard or anything, but I sure hope you like soldering!

Because ATAPI was a device-independent interface, the problem is probably not related to whether it's a Zip disk unless the code in the Roland device has some direct dependency on that. I don't see why it would. At most, the target device might have to pretend to have 100MB capacity (or whatever the Zip drive it used had.)

I fondly remember those things. Used to carry one in my backpack to the computer lab and run Borland C++ 3.2 (I think) instead of whatever 1.x version they had installed on the 286es, which was probably pulled over Token Ring from a Netware server in a basement somewhere. How times have changed!
 
Hi and thanks for the thoughts! Sadly, the board you referenced is one I got excited about too at first, but it relies on a USB host. I’m trying to go the opposite way, which is to start with an ATAPI host. Long thread full of dead-ends here:

https://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=31086&sid=b1410de6b264812a04f33fb9a96df0a4

It seems like, quite recently, there are people implementing solutions to solve similar problems as mine. My guess is because ATAPI optical devices, which a lot of legacy machines depend on, are slowly dying-off:

https://shop.tattiebogle.net/product/prod_EkTnv3Tk2Trxhf

Thanks again for the thoughts!
rs
 
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