Anyone remember the ICT Mini-Chief Hard Drive?

[MachineDr]

I believe that it was the very first HD for the C=. Perosnally, I liked their approach to allow you to use it as one large drive or partion it to simulate individual hard drives.

I found some limitations when using it completely wide open. I would partition most of it and leave a few large chunks for uploads and downloads.

Anyone know the official status of ICT? I used to interact with their key guy Scott Wishard all the time.

From what I have read CMD was sold to someone who does not fill orders promptly. Would there be any benefit in resurrected the ICT due to this? I'm sure a kit would be available as well as the Master ROM's. The hardest part would be finding the 20MB HD's (I think they offered a 5, 10 & 20).

For those of you who don't know, the ICT was a mod to a 1571 fitting a 20mb HD to it. I believe that they were 1st to the market with a C= Hard Drive. They were based out of Maryland.

I was just getting out of C= when the CMD's HD's hit I have one that is like new. Might have used it once or twice (primary job change @ that time). I liked it a lot. Right before the Hard Drive came, Doug Cotton came down to give me a visit and discuss a relationship between our two companies. The meeting went well but a week later I had to call him and let him know that I had to change my plans for the BBS due to a job change.

Regards,

Jim

[Mangelore]

The following website includes a photo and some brief info
http://members.optusnet.com.au/vortex69/HD-HISTORY/C64HD-HISTORY.html

[Blacklord]

Hi Jim,

I believe that it was the very first HD for the C=.

Actually no - Commodore produced the D90xx series for the PET's, don't know if anyone managed to bolt these on to a C64 though.

cheers,

Lance

[MachineDr]

Hi Jim,

I believe that it was the very first HD for the C=.

Actually no - Commodore produced the D90xx series for the PET's, don't know if anyone managed to bolt these on to a C64 though.

cheers,

Lance

I wasn't aware of that. C-64/C128 blinders only opened up far enough for the SFD's!

Lance, I thought I saw a few posts in other places where a C-64 was hooked up to a PC Hard Drive in a different fashion than the ICT. Is this fact or fiction?

Thanks for the link!

Regards,

Jim

[MachineDr]

The following website includes a photo and some brief info
http://members.optusnet.com.au/vortex69/HD-HISTORY/C64HD-HISTORY.html

Thank you for the link, I mistakenly gave credit to Lance.

Interesting link. One thing stands out like a sore thumb to me is the fact that they do not list the ICT Mini Chief (they have the Data Chief but no Mini).

The Mini-Chief looks EXACTLY like a 1571 (it's a mod that they added to the 1571). I have 2 of them. Very nice drives.

Thanks again!

-Jim

[MachineDr]

The following website includes a photo and some brief info
http://members.optusnet.com.au/vortex69/HD-HISTORY/C64HD-HISTORY.html

Here's a pic of the ICT Mini-Chief. Has anyone ever seen one of these before? BTW, it's the small one on the right!

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/pictures/gpage1/20.jpg

-Jim

[hydrophilic]

Never seen one before.  The thing has a floppy in it

BTW, what is the switch for?

[Mangelore]

Here's a pic of the ICT Mini-Chief. Has anyone ever seen one of these before? BTW, it's the small one on the right!

http://www.zimmers.net/anonftp/pub/cbm/pictures/gpage1/20.jpg

-Jim

Cool! I also had never seen one of these before. I'm curious now to find out how they modified the 1571.

[MachineDr]

Never seen one before.  The thing has a floppy in it

BTW, what is the switch for?

You know, I honesty forget!. I have the manuals in srorage. When I get it I will look it up and let you know.

It might have to do with the mode you are using (partioned as 1541's. 1571's or a full open Hard Drive).

Aha, it comes back to me!!!!! The swicth is to select for Drive 8 or 9.

-Jim

[MachineDr]

Cool! I also had never seen one of these before. I'm curious now to find out how they modified the 1571.

I'll try to get in touch with Scott and see if that information is available. Since 1571's are readily available it might be a good home project for people. As a I said earlier one of he hard things to get on this will be the 5.10 or 20Mb HD's. I really doubt that it would support today's large PC HD's.

BTW, I do believe that it has custom ROM's in it. So now I have to ask, does anyone here have a PROM burner?

-Jim

[Golan Klinger]

Actually no - Commodore produced the D90xx series for the PET's, don't know if anyone managed to bolt these on to a C64 though.

I had my BBS running on a 1541, a 9090 and an 8250 using a Batteries Included BUScard. Everything worked just fine until the 9090 caught on fire due to Commodore's putting the fans in backwards (we'll save that story for a different thread or better yet, for PET Alive!) Then I started using SFD-1001s which never actually caught on fire but generated as much heat as a fire.

[Golan Klinger]

Lance, I thought I saw a few posts in other places where a C-64 was hooked up to a PC Hard Drive in a different fashion than the ICT. Is this fact or fiction?

This question seems to have been overlooked so I'll answer it. Perhaps you're thinking of the IDE64 which is unavailable at the present time. The upcoming IDE64 V4 should be released RSN.

[MachineDr]

Then I started using SFD-1001s which never actually caught on fire but generated as much heat as a fire.

SFD-1001!!!!!

Beleieve it or not this one device was the motivating factor in me writing a BBS Program. I agree that they were hot but that could be remedied by creating a heat sink kit. Back then I had the engineering and manufacturing resources to design one and produce it.

That is not the reason though.

I used to run a Ravics BBS which relied heavily on REL Files. For some reason, I would get a corrupted file at least once a week. Finally, I came home one night and found that it had wiped all of them. Needless to say, I was livid!

By midnight that same night I had arranged a sale of ALL my 64 Hardware (except the 1541's) and bought a 128 the next day and began development on Dragonfire BBS.

-Jim

[Andrew Wiskow]

I believe that it was the very first HD for the C=.

As Lance already pointed out, Commodore made the first hard drives for Commodore computers.  The first third-party company to make a hard drive for the C64/128 was the Lt Kernal.

Anyone know the official status of ICT? I used to interact with their key guy Scott Wishard all the time.

Official status?  No...  But there was a thread on the comp.sys.cbm newsgroup back in June started by a guy named Tom Peranteau, who apparently worked for the company, so he'd be the one to get any details from.  You can read that thread here:
http://tinyurl.com/33z342

His website appears to be down, but you should be able to contact him at thomas@tomsoft.net.

Oh, and there's a copy of the ICT Data Chief manual at http://users.commspeed.net/wlbbs/thechief.pdf

-Andrew

[Blacklord]

Actually no - Commodore produced the D90xx series for the PET's, don't know if anyone managed to bolt these on to a C64 though.

I had my BBS running on a 1541, a 9090 and an 8250 using a Batteries Included BUScard. Everything worked just fine until the 9090 caught on fire due to Commodore's putting the fans in backwards (we'll save that story for a different thread or better yet, for PET Alive!) Then I started using SFD-1001s which never actually caught on fire but generated as much heat as a fire.

Ouch!

So it is possible to connected a 90xx to a C64 ? Wasn't sure about that one..... Surprisingly these things still come up every now & again on eBay - might be worth grabbing one perhaps ?

What's the largest capacity drive you can wack in one of these things ?

cheers,

Lance

[Blacklord]

By midnight that same night I had arranged a sale of ALL my 64 Hardware (except the 1541's) and bought a 128 the next day and began development on Dragonfire BBS.

-Jim

Ha ha , best reason I've heard yet for upgrading

cheers,

Lance

[airship]

The last INFO RoundUp lists five hard drives for the CBM:

ST10C                       (10MB)     $895     Computer Specialities
Data Chief                 (20MB)     $995     InConTrol
                                (10MB)     $895
                                (  5MB)     $695
Device 9 - 'The Vault' (10MB)     $900     Progressive Peripherals
JCT Hard Drive          (10MB)     $895     JCT
Lt. Kernal                  (20MB)     $899     Xetec
Lt. Kernal 128            (20MB)     $949

The Lt. Kernal used a cartridge interface, so it needed a special C128 version.
We didn't list the 'Mini Chief'. Our 'Data Chief' listing mentions the 'built-in floppy' but neglects to mention it's actually the other way around.
The CMD must have come out after this issue. (Spring/Summer '87)
We never mentioned CBM PET peripherals, even if they could be used with a C64 or C128. Benn's editorial direction, despite the fact that we listed at least eight IEEE interfaces for the C64 and/or C128.

[Mangelore]

Cool! I also had never seen one of these before. I'm curious now to find out how they modified the 1571.

I'll try to get in touch with Scott and see if that information is available. Since 1571's are readily available it might be a good home project for people. As a I said earlier one of he hard things to get on this will be the 5.10 or 20Mb HD's. I really doubt that it would support today's large PC HD's.

BTW, I do believe that it has custom ROM's in it. So now I have to ask, does anyone here have a PROM burner?

-Jim

Thanks Jim.

That would be fantastic as we might be able to modify the ROM so that it supports larger hard drives. However, I would need to have a look at the printed circuit board as well. I read in another thread that you've considered selling your collection in one hit. If only teleportation was a reality...

Cheers
Fotios

[Andrew Wiskow]

So it is possible to connected a 90xx to a C64 ? Wasn't sure about that one..... Surprisingly these things still come up every now & again on eBay - might be worth grabbing one perhaps ?

AFAIK, you can use any IEEE drive designed for PETs on a C64/128 as long as you have an IEEE interface, such as a Skyles IEEE Flash! interface.

What's the largest capacity drive you can wack in one of these things ?

The drives came in 5MB (9060) and 7.5MB (9090) vareities.  I never heard of anyone "upgrading" one with a larger mechanism, so I'm guessing that it's not possible.

The Lt. Kernal used a cartridge interface, so it needed a special C128 version.

The "cartridge interface" you speak of is called a Host Adapter, and it's required to use a Lt. Kernal hard drive on both C64's and C128's.  The Host Adapter is actually the "brains" of the drive.  The only thing inside the casing of the Lt Kernal hard drive is the hard drive mechanism, a power supply, and a small SCSI interface.  There IS an extra device required for use on a C128, called a 128 daughterboard.  You can see photos of the host adapter and 128 daughterboard from my Lt Kernal setup here:
http://mysite.verizon.net/wiskow/ltk.htm

-Andrew

[MachineDr]

Cool! I also had never seen one of these before. I'm curious now to find out how they modified the 1571.

I'll try to get in touch with Scott and see if that information is available. Since 1571's are readily available it might be a good home project for people. As a I said earlier one of he hard things to get on this will be the 5.10 or 20Mb HD's. I really doubt that it would support today's large PC HD's.

BTW, I do believe that it has custom ROM's in it. So now I have to ask, does anyone here have a PROM burner?

-Jim

Thanks Jim.

That would be fantastic as we might be able to modify the ROM so that it supports larger hard drives. However, I would need to have a look at the printed circuit board as well. I read in another thread that you've considered selling your collection in one hit. If only teleportation was a reality...

Cheers
Fotios

I was able to get an E-Mail out to Scott Wishard earlier today. He was my primary contact @ ICT. Hopefully he will get back to me soon with the info on who holds the right the the 1571 upgrade. I had a very good rapport with him and think that he will provide any information that he can.

Regards,

Jim

[Golan Klinger]

So it is possible to connected a 90xx to a C64 ?

Sorry, I wasn't very clear in my first post. Yes, the BBS was running on a 64 with the aforementioned Batteries Included BUSCard II which is an IEEE-488 adaptor. I wouldn't recommended buying a 9060 or 9090 for day-to-day use though. They're slow, noisy and run hot. At this point the best use for them is as collector's items. They use ST-506 (MFM) drives  and the controller is part Commodore homebrew and part SASI (which is a predecessor to SCSI) and yes, they are upgradable. We had one at my school and it was upgraded several times over the years.

OT Trivia: Steve Punter's BBS software which was called, you guessed it, PunterNET, ONLY worked with IEEE drives.

[Blacklord]

OT Trivia: Steve Punter's BBS software which was called, you guessed it, PunterNET, ONLY worked with IEEE drives.

Something I'd like to get a hold of - can you imagine putting a telnet PET BBS up ?

cheers,

Lance

[airship]

Steve wrote his BBS first for the PET which was IEEE only, of course, and I guess he didn't feel like rewriting the drive access routines for serial floppies.

[swishard]

Well, I found my way to this board. This sure brings back some memories.
Unfortunately I no longer have any of the documentation or hardware associated with the drive. I do remember some things, but have forgotten a lot.

One item noted about, just about any 20MB drive would work, but the MINI's needed to have a 3.5" drive. It was absolutely necessary at Western Digital WDX card be used. Had very little luck with other cards.

In the later units, there were models available with 30Mb drives. Again these hard to be used with a WDX card that supported RLL. The low level command was G=C800:ccc for the format.

Althought most models (except for the very early models) had circuit boards. These boards required modification as the layout of some parts was incorrect.

I remember buring NVROMs, but do not have the source for them. I guess it would be possible to copy the ROMs for use on other devices.

The internal power supplies of the 1541 and 1571's were removed. Looking back at it, I wonder if any fires occurred from this configuration..........

Scott Wishard (scott%scottwishard,com)

[Andrew Wiskow]

Tom Peranteau has revived his website dedicated to the ICT Data Chief hard drive.  You can find it at www.datachief.org ...

Also, Rick Youngman is still hosting a PDF of the original manual at http://users.commspeed.net/wlbbs/thechief.pdf

-Andrew