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From: paulw@cs.umr.edu (Paul Work)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit
Subject: re: xf551 conversion to 720K
Message-ID: <457@umrisca.usenet.umr.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 90 04:35:23 GMT
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Reply-To: paulw@cs.umr.edu (Paul Work)
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Subject: Re: Anyone tried XF551 with 80-track drive?
>In article <18508.25d461de@merrimack.edu>, ain1496e@merrimack.edu writes:
>In article <8356@c3pe.UUCP>, charles@c3pe.UUCP (Charles Green) writes:
>> I'd like to add a 720Kb floppy drive to my Atari 8-bit system.  The best way
>> I can see to do this would be to buy the XF551 double-sided drive, and the
>> rumored conversion kit for 3.5" microdiskettes.  (I'd prefer something
>> short of a box on the XL's parallel interface, unless that solution is
>> cheaper somehow.)
>>   
>  I know the 3.5kit exists, It is sold by Innovative Concepts
>  in an antic or analog a while back there was a review of it. The person
>  who wrote the artice (i think it was matt ratcliff) use the kit, and I think
>  it got a favorable review.

I believe that Matt Ratcliff can be reached for questions and discussions
and Gateway BBS in St Louis MO at (314) 647-3290.  He goes by the name 
Matt*Ratt there and has his own message area for answering questions of
exactly this nature.  The name of the message area is Ask the Rat.  Gateway
BBS is also networked with 6 other BBS's across the nation.  They are as
follows:  
          St Louis MO   Sylph           (314) 291-0205
          Chicago IL   Wishing Chair    (312) 843-7717
          Phil.   PA   Final Frontier   (215) 624-6347
          Orlando FL   Atarian Domain   (407) 855-1312
                        The Club        (407) 290-0404
       Southbrook NJ   Blank Page       (201) 805-3967

Posting a message on any one of these boards will get to Matt.

BTW, I just read about a new board for the Atari 8-bits on Gateway BBS that
might be what you're looking for.  A brief description follows:
A company called CSS (don't ask me what it stands for, I don't know) has
a new product on the market (since about Sep last year) called "The Black
Box" that is a add-on board with an S-232 connector, a printer connector
with another add-on board, IBM drives can be connected directly, and it also
has two switches which serve as write protect for hard drives (or something
like that).  CSS has a support BBS (phone:  716-247-7157) where you can get
more information, advice etc.  The BBS has a multi-user capability, so more
than one caller can be on-line at once.  I hope you can get what you want 
from these guys.  If you do check it out, drop a line to the group (if it
still exists) to let us know what you found.  Good luck!


--

Paul R Work  aka "The Studebaker Kid" E-mail:  paulw@cs.umr.edu
                                      Bitnet:  paulw%cs.umr.edu@umrvmb.bitnet
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