On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, Erno Palonheimo wrote:

> Greetings,

Hi Erno!

> 
> This might be a bit of a stupid question, but anyway, do disks other than
> those of RD5x series work on a RQDX3? And, what is the actual disk
> interface? I have quite some old ESDI disks which vary in size from 300
> megabytes to one gigabyte. My MicroVAX II (which can be accessed via
> http://esp.iki.fi/ :-) might need quite some additional disk space so I

Thanks for the URL.  It's always cool to see old vaxes on the web!
As for your question, it's not stupid at all.  There seems to be 
a surplus of RQDX3 controllers and a shortage of RD54 disks.  I
read Eric's reply too, and I'm not sure of the correct technical
term for this interface -- I've always just called it MFM/RLL,
but I suppose ST-506 is just as accurate.  Chuck McManis pointed
out to me last week a page that Tim Shoppa had referred to several
weeks ago: ftp://ftp.spc.edu/third-party-disks.txt , which I found 
fascinating, and you may want to read to learn more about what kind
of disks will work with that controller.  The short answer is that many
other MFM/RLL disks do work, but finding large ones these days is just
as hard as finding RD54's in good condition.

I think, since you already have several ESDI drives, that locating
an ESDI controller would be your best bet.  You can usually pick 
up a pretty good one for between $25 and $50.  I've had some experience
with the Sigma RQD11/EC, which can handle up to 4 drives, and the 
Dilog DQ696, and they both work very well with NetBSD.

> could track -current. If other disks don't work, is someone in Finland, or
> Scandinavia, willing to sell some more RD54's for me? And, what can you
> actually mount on the slot that's sideways on the BA123 chassis? Will a
> TK50 work if mounted sideways? How about an RD54?

I've never actually mounted anything else in that place either,
but I saw an auction picture on E-bay the other day, entitled
"3 VAXES", and one Microvax II had the TK50 in there sideways,
and the other had what looked like a hard disk.

Doug