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More Hardware Project Ideas

lutiana said:
How about a Mono/CGA/EGA -> VGA adapter? A scan converter, there are a plenty out there that go from VGA -> DVI or composite -> VGA, but I have yet to see one that would take a vintage video signal and up it to VGA. Probably would not need to boast a large amount of up scaling, 800x600 would work I'd think.
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Would something like this work? This seems to have been developed for the video game and slot machine market. From what I have read, they kept using CGA monitors long after they died out in the PC market.

http://www.jammaboards.com/store/cga/ega/yuv-to-vga-converter-pcb-gbs-8220/prod_291.html

Todd
 
How about USB floppy controller that supports a wide variety of 5.25" and 3.5" Drives.

This could allow someone to easily connect a 360k 5.25" drive to a modern machine.
 
lutiana said:
How about USB floppy controller that supports a wide variety of 5.25" and 3.5" Drives.

This could allow someone to easily connect a 360k 5.25" drive to a modern machine.
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Funny that you should ask that... (isn't it Andrew?) ;)

We're sketching out design details of one that combines USB with a Catweasel-type interface for a "just about handles anything implementation". We'll keep the list posted.
 
Chuck,

Let me know when you start offering preorders ;-) The obscurity and rarity/price of these items is becoming a real hassle. If I could just back up half the software/floppies I have it'd be great for me as well as the community in general (as software will again be acquirable and archived).
 
barythrin said:
Chuck,

Let me know when you start offering preorders ;-) The obscurity and rarity/price of these items is becoming a real hassle. If I could just back up half the software/floppies I have it'd be great for me as well as the community in general (as software will again be acquirable and archived).
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I started to get interested in this because some of my old customers wanted a version of the 2K/XP/Vista floppy driver we do for 32-bit Windows for 64bit Win7.

Having remotely current hardware helps in a project like this, so I went off looking for high-end name-brand (e.g. HP, Dell, etc.) x64 systems that still offer floppy support--and came up empty. Uh-oh. Yes--you can still get a motherboard with floppy support, but even those are starting to thin out--and most people today pick up pre-built name-brand systems. Not to mention that laptops/notebooks have been outselling desktops for at least the last year or so. We'll still do the driver, but I don't know how long it'll be before you can't run it on any new system.

Says I to Andrew (and myself), "It's about time we did something about this." So we're looking at some alternatives, but my sense is that it won't be too awful.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Funny that you should ask that... (isn't it Andrew?) ;)

We're sketching out design details of one that combines USB with a Catweasel-type interface for a "just about handles anything implementation". We'll keep the list posted.
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Hi! Yes, that is interesting. The timing is amazing. :)

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
I would also be interested in this. The only reason that I have a lame P3 in my computer shack for my archives, is because it can use 5.25 inch floppy drives. If I could read these floppies with more modern machines I'd ditch it in an instant!

Tez
 
lynchaj said:
Hi! Yes, that is interesting. The timing is amazing. :)

Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
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Well it came from the fact that the latest ASUS board I just bought does not have a floppy connector at all so I was looking for an PCI floppy controller or a USB floppy controller.

Perhaps start a new thread to keep up updated?
 
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