Davong Hard Disk Controller

[SomeGuy]

A while back I obtained a Davong hard disk controller, and I have been trying to get it to work. This card is unique in that it is was one of the few hard disk systems that supported DOS 1.x. As far as I can tell it should be able to use any MFM hard drive although it would probably only use so much space. The installation program apparently creates multiple small drive partitions since there are no subdirectories, and I assume low-levels the drive.

I have been testing it on a generic turbo-XT clone motherboard, but I can't seem to get any response from it. When I try to run the driver installation tool it just says it can't communicate with the card.

It has some ROMs, but I am not sure if it is supposed to expose a BIOS to the system like normal MFM hard disk controllers. This one is certainly different.

I did discover that oddly, some of the chips are powered from the external connector instead of the ISA bus. I can't tell if there is supposed to be an external power supply attached, or if an external device is supposed to be able to take power from it via the molex connector. But the wiring appears "dumb" so it could go either way. Attaching a molex power connector to the board, and at least chips start to get warm, but still no response.

There is a jumper block on the board, but I can't find any information about that. Does anybody know what they are supposed to do?

Being such an early board, I don't know for sure how compatible it is supposed to be with clones. I don't have a genuine 5150 to test it with.

Any ideas?

I've had to put it aside for now, but I'll check any ideas when I get a chance.


View attachment davong hd drivers 2.4.zip
View attachment davong hd drivers 2.5.zip

 

[Chuck(G)]

These seem to turn up every few years.

One of the reasons that there is an external power connector is that big purple cerDIP package with its accompanying regulator transistor. I can't quite make out the part number, but I suspect that it's a Signetics 8x300 bipolar microprocessor. The ROMs below it contain the microprogram to run the controller--also bipolar. A 5150 with a 63 watt power supply could well be overwhelmed by this thing; certainly the accompanying hard drive would cause a serious draw on the little PC power supply.

Beyond that (ensure that your DIP switches are set correctly), it might well work in a 5160 clone, but I doubt that a "turbo" mode one would produce success.

And people laughed when I equipped my 5150 with a Shugart SA-1000 drive with its gigantic 4MB of storage...

 

[modem7]

I did discover that oddly, some of the chips are powered from the external connector instead of the ISA bus. I can't tell if there is supposed to be an external power supply attached, or if an external device is supposed to be able to take power from it via the molex connector. But the wiring appears "dumb" so it could go either way. Attaching a molex power connector to the board, and at least chips start to get warm, but still no response.

Your controller is pictured at [here].

The box to the right of the 5150 is an external power supply.
I believe that:
* The external power supply feeds power to the DE-9 connector on the controller.
* The controller, via the molex connector, powers the hard drive.

 

[SomeGuy]

What appears to be one of those power supplies is on eBeh right now:

Vintage Davong Systems DSI-PS1 Power Supply | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage Davong Systems DSI-PS1 Power Supply at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Not convinced that would help my card since it never seemd to do anything at all. Never could find a manual either.