Message-ID: <1287@mhuxd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Mar-84 19:13:28 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxd.1287
Posted: Fri Mar 30 19:13:28 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Mar-84 09:23:11 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 58

-
How's this for a grabber?  I recently purchased one of
these things because the buffered printer port seemed
to provide the finishing touch to my son's system
without going overboard.  As I told the guy in the store
(who pointed out that there were bigger and better ways
of expanding an Atari 800 system), if I want a serious
system, I'll go out and buy one.  Well, folks, I just
proved once again that there's one born every minute.

The disk drive works fine.  The only problem here is 
that the literature (and the dealer, possibly mistakenly)
implies that the "Turbo software", which comes with the
drive, is a DOS.  WRONG!!  You still need Atari DOS to
boot the thing.  Disappointing, but not too big a deal.

Here's the real kick in the teeth.  The dealer tries to
sell me a printer cable.  Now, I have a real antique of
an MPI 88T printer in which both the parallel and serial
inputs are terminated in headers on the pc board.
I'll make my own, thank you, sez I, knowing that no way
will the standard cable work.  HA!  Nowhere in the
documentation does it give the pinouts for the 34-pin
edge card connector.

Naturally, I call Trak (on their toll-free number,
of course).  First, the gal on the other end tries to
get me to call their tech staff long distance.  No
sale.  Then another gal, presumably in charge, gets
on the phone to listen to my problem-- "that's better,
I think to myself".  Not on your life!  Upon hearing
my request, she informs me that they do not give out
the pinouts for the printer port.  If I have some
other kind of connector than that which matches their
cable (36-pin Centronics), I could see my dealer,
who can evaluate my request, contact Trak, and
maybe, just maybe, they can assemble a custom cable
for me.  And we all can imagine what that will cost.

Moral of this sad tale: With an attitude like that
(as if parallel printer connections were some big
proprietary deal), I wonder how accommodating they
would be if I had a really big technical problem.
Caveat Emptor, prospective buyers.

			Sadder, but maybe wiser,
				Chip
p.s.

Unless someone out there has already solved this
problem, and can mail me the pinouts, I'm going
to be forced to buy their cable, map the pinouts
to the 36-pin connector, and then return it
because, surprise, it won't fit.  Unfortunately,
the only one who will be inconvenienced (besides
me) is the dealer.  Maybe I'll give him a copy
of the pinout map so he can get into the custom
cable business himself!

Message-ID: <7343@akguc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Apr-84 18:35:44 EST
Article-I.D.: akguc.7343
Posted: Wed Apr  4 18:35:44 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Apr-84 01:14:23 EST
Organization: AT&T Technologies, Atlanta
Lines: 16

The 34-pin edge card connector on the TRAK AT-D2 disk drive is pin-to-pin
compatible with the first 34 pins of a standard 36-pin Centronics parallel
interface (as is used on Epson and most other printers) so that ribbon
connectors can be used on both ends.  I don't have the Centronics pin
assignments readily at hand, but I can supply them if you can't find them.

Some of the early drives (before ~ Jan) also had problems with:
   a) garbled graphics output
   b) drive motor sometimes refuses to shut off
   c) won't format the 'flip' side of a disk
Problem a) can be fixed with a new ROM which TRAK will supply free of
charge.  Problems b) and c) require some added jumpers and trace cutting.
These problems have all been fixed in the current models, I'm told.

				Brad Kummer	akgua!rbk
				AT&T Bell Laboratories - Atlanta