I don't believe so, if it's like the internal floppy drive (Which also uses a Citizen U0DA). That is its own thing with its own firmware.
Outbound laptop internal docking cable
- Thread starter cheesestraws
- Start date
Both the internal floppy drive and the external floppy drive have an interface board between them and the main board.
The internal and external boards have very similar component sets, except the internal board seems to lack the GAL.
It is conceivable that Outbound used the floppy interface as their expansion bus. I wouldn't want to guess how likely or unlike that is....
Actually, it seems kind of unlikely, because the internal hard drive is bare to the motherboard. Connected with just a dumb cable.
1) Are the internal drive interface and the external expansion bus the same set of signals? Probably not. It looks like the internal interface must be 16 bits wide with 44 pins? Don't have one in front of me, but here's a pinout for the Conner CP2064:
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/conner/CP-2064-64MB-2-5-SSL-IDE-AT.html
External interface is almost certainly 8 bits wide, because SCSI chip in SCSI adapter and 85C30 chip in Floppy adapter are set up to receive 8 bit data. I don't think there are bus latches/switches bringing in 16 bits and slinging them twice as fast, but 8 bits at a time to those chips.
It's also possible that the internal interface changes depending on what is detected there...
2) Are either of them the same or similar to the Apple floppy interface. Was that on a 19 pin connector?
The internal and external boards have very similar component sets, except the internal board seems to lack the GAL.
It is conceivable that Outbound used the floppy interface as their expansion bus. I wouldn't want to guess how likely or unlike that is....
Actually, it seems kind of unlikely, because the internal hard drive is bare to the motherboard. Connected with just a dumb cable.
1) Are the internal drive interface and the external expansion bus the same set of signals? Probably not. It looks like the internal interface must be 16 bits wide with 44 pins? Don't have one in front of me, but here's a pinout for the Conner CP2064:
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/hard-drives-hdd/conner/CP-2064-64MB-2-5-SSL-IDE-AT.html
External interface is almost certainly 8 bits wide, because SCSI chip in SCSI adapter and 85C30 chip in Floppy adapter are set up to receive 8 bit data. I don't think there are bus latches/switches bringing in 16 bits and slinging them twice as fast, but 8 bits at a time to those chips.
It's also possible that the internal interface changes depending on what is detected there...
2) Are either of them the same or similar to the Apple floppy interface. Was that on a 19 pin connector?
Bringing this thread back - the whole internal Outbound connection card/cable/etc. for the Mac Plus showed up on eBay. $1700...
RARE! Outbound Laptop Notebook interface card for Macintosh Plus Wallaby Systems | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for RARE! Outbound Laptop Notebook interface card for Macintosh Plus Wallaby Systems at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Grief, and I thought my docking card was expensive (though I still haven't worked out the pinout...)
As also the floppy was discussed inside this thread. It is possible to use gotek drive (at least as internal drive) and boot the Outbound laptop. Slow but it works. Have not checked if it might be possible to optimize something. With the right cable also a standard floppy is working. As far as I remember I used a drive modified to be working inside an Amiga.
For all searching a harddisk https://www.ebay.com/itm/276054451002 might be an option. Even if it is only 20MB I know with adapters and/or maybe custom made cable it can be used inside a outbound laptop. But you would have to be able to boot your outbound without harddisk.
If you can not boot and need a bootable harddisk you should still be able to write a image to the harddisk using an old PC that has an old real IDE connector running linux with dd. USB adapters can not be used. Never tried if maybe a sata/ide adapter could be used.
If you can not boot and need a bootable harddisk you should still be able to write a image to the harddisk using an old PC that has an old real IDE connector running linux with dd. USB adapters can not be used. Never tried if maybe a sata/ide adapter could be used.
I couldn't find any way of formatting the hard disc in the laptop - does a clean image exist anywhere?
To my experience you need the right harddisk. I own an original 40MB one, the later 40MB already using to today used 2,5" connector and the one from the ebay offer. All are PRAIRIETEK drives. The both 40MB drives share the same drive geometry. The 20MB two heads instead of four.
I got them formatted by installing system to the RAM disk. Switch off while still powered either by battery or wallpower. Install the harddisk and power on. During system startup you will be asked to format the harddisk.
This is the same process like when there was now power and you first start again, it will prompt you to format the RAM-Disk. If your system should be a floppy based one you probably would need to execute flash the ROM. I was not able to use internal floppy disk and harddisk at the same time.
No success so far using a conner 2064/2024 drive or all sort of ide/cf/sd card adapters.
I got them formatted by installing system to the RAM disk. Switch off while still powered either by battery or wallpower. Install the harddisk and power on. During system startup you will be asked to format the harddisk.
This is the same process like when there was now power and you first start again, it will prompt you to format the RAM-Disk. If your system should be a floppy based one you probably would need to execute flash the ROM. I was not able to use internal floppy disk and harddisk at the same time.
No success so far using a conner 2064/2024 drive or all sort of ide/cf/sd card adapters.
Thankyou!
Just to be clear, you connected the Outbound Floppy circuit board in between the Outbound and the gotek floppy drive?
You still need the Outbound floppy controller board, since that's where the floppy controller chips live. But it works with both the internal and external floppy boards.
Thank you. So that's a proof that a standard PC floppy will work with the Outbound, as long as the Outbound Floppy Controller Board is present? Suggesting these Citizen W1D floppy drives should also work if connected?
I'm not entirely sure about compatibility with all standard PC drives, I haven't done much testing there. I've heard others have tried standard PC drives, some worked and some didn't. I don't really have enough variety of 3.5" drives around to test it.
Floppy emulators work with 1.44MB MFM disk images. Theoretically I think they should be capable of emulating GCR disks as well, but I never figured out how to get it to pretend to be a PC drive with a GCR disk.
