Widget drive

[mactjaap]

I own a "former Macintosh XL". Just a case and monitor. I would like to restore it. Now it looks like mission impossible ...... but I just started.

This week I bought a Widget HD. It arrived and I realized .... where to begin.

First the disk.

I would like to know if the disk is working.

Is it possible to connect it to the motherboard of a 128k or a 512k?

Or is it possible just to power it up?

Does anyone have some kind of instruction what to do?

 

[bigmessowires]

"Just a case and monitor" - no logic board then? It's just an empty case?

From what I understand, the Wiget is a parallel hard drive, so it's not usable on a Mac. 

You might want to ask on the LisaList, where most of the knowledgable Lisa people seem to hang out: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/lisalist

 

[snuci]

You can't use it on any other computer other than a Lisa 2/10.  You could power it up but be prepared for the sound of  jet engine taking off.  Other than seeing if it spins up, there's no real reason to test it unless you have all of the other parts including the logic board/CPU/memory and I/O board in place.  That will be the true test of the hard drive.

 

[mactjaap]

So..... It could work on a Macintosh XL

 

[snuci]

So..... It could work on a Macintosh XL

Yes.  A Macintosh XL is a Lisa 2/10 with a square pixel video mod.  If it doesn't have the video mod, it is still could be called a Macintosh XL depending on when it was sold and what software came with it. 

 

[CelGen]

I've powered up a Widget standalone to ensure that it was passing its internal tests (there's a video on youtube) but beyond that you require ALL of the guts of a Lisa to do much else. My 2/5 will recognize it as a hard drive but either because of a ROM incompatibility or additional problems with my own drive, if the bus pokes at it the drive simply resets.

Formatting until recently was only possible through the LOS/Macworks installer. More recently however the Basic Lisa Utility also added support for formatting and disk exercising functions.

 

[mactjaap]

I have the movies on Youtube, but I miss instructions how to do it. So how do I connect power to de HD without having the correct power unit. Could one use a generic one with some intermediate cords with "crocodile" connectors?

 

[CelGen]

Durr, I totally never uploaded the pinout anywhere. Anyways, yeah. Even in a Lisa 2/5 all the voltage pins you need are present on the power supply. You just need to break them out. Failing that you can power the drive as-is with a regular ATX power supply.

 

[mactjaap]

Super! Thanks very much for the power information. I will try to get an ATX power unit.

 

[mactjaap]

Bought myself an ATX power unit! Now studying the way to connect it.

 

[techknight]

Very carefully. With extra ductape

 

[CelGen]

BIZARRE. From the corner of your photo the PCB layout is different from all the ones I have seen so far. You have a Z8 chip with the EPROM piggybacked.

 

[mactjaap]

OK. I will make some more pictures.

 

[haplain]

You pick that up from baybob60? He's the man

 

[snuci]

BIZARRE. From the corner of your photo the PCB layout is different from all the ones I have seen so far. You have a Z8 chip with the EPROM piggybacked.

When I was looking for my piggyback Z8, an early Widget drive was indicated as one of the sources to look. I don't recall the reference any more but none of mine had one.  The piggyback Z8 is interchangeable with the right code on it.

 

[mactjaap]

Have tested it today. Disk doesn't seem to spin up. Currents are ok. See:

https://youtu.be/ZxKsA2q0vOI

Only a green light blinks and becomes green

 

[snuci]

You may have a "stuck brake".  Take a look at this document: https://ia801808.us.archive.org/14/items/AppleLisa_RepairSunGuideDC/AppleLisa_RepairSunGuideDC.pdfand navigate to page 27 of 48.

Good luck.

 

[mactjaap]

As promised  pictures of the Widget drive:

 

[mactjaap]

I like to add to the current state that after a time the green light op top will burn continually. If you then switch of power you will hear a hard click.