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From: hans@umd5.umd.edu (Hans Breitenlohner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: Re: Indus GT drive, useless? maybe not...
Message-ID: <6482@umd5.umd.edu>
Date: 7 May 90 23:23:04 GMT
References: <24639@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <150.264046a9@wsuiar.uucp>
Reply-To: hans@umd5.umd.edu (Hans Breitenlohner)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 30

In article <150.264046a9@wsuiar.uucp> mwjester@wsuiar.uucp (Max Jester) writes:
>In article <24639@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>,
> c9b-ac@dorothy.Berkeley.EDU (Benson) writes:
>> ...
>> Question:	Sorry if it is a naive question, but is it possible to 
>> 		use the Indus drive on another computer? (ie. ibm pc,
>> 		mac, etc..).
>
>I think it depends on the drive mechanism. If it is DSDD, you can probably
>take the bare drive and add it to a PC.  A SSDD drive would also work with
> ...

Sorry to disappoint you, but ...

All the floppy drives used in PC-land etc. have a more-or-less standard
interface.  The Indus GT has nothing of the kind. (Mine at least, that is
the only one which I have taken apart).  It has what must be a one-of-a-kind
interface board, made especially by or for Indus. 
If you go one step further, you could remove that board too, and end up
with a totally 'bare' disk drive (no electronics at all).  If you have the
interface board from a compatible drive (i.e. same kind of heads, same
kind of stepper motor, etc.) you might make a usable package out of them.
For all that trouble, you would then have a single sided, double density
drive.
Since you can buy brand new half height floppy drives for around 70-80$,
I am pretty sure that doing the above would not be a good use of your
time/money/efforts.

The drive mechanism is made by Tandon (again, I only speak for my drive),
and looks to be compatible with the 1050 mechanism (only much quieter).