Quickdisks

[Chuck Guzis]

On 10 Nov 2008 at 16:16, William Donzelli wrote:

> > There's a seller who's selling the 2.8" Smith-Corona-labeled DataDisk
> >  for about $10 the each new.  Drives?  Probably cheapest to find a
> >  Smith-Corona PWP with one and scavenge it from there.  Bare drives
> >  seem to command an obscene premium as they're used in some old Roland
> >  synths.
> 
> Do you know which ones used QuickDisks? The ones I have or have seen
> use 3.5 inch disks.

(Fibber Magee goes to his closet)

I've got a PWP-5G portable here that uses them, and my notes say that 
the PWP-1000, 2000, 90 and 3 used them also.  Other than the 5G in my 
hot little hands, the list is by no means complete nor authoritative.

A single track recorded as a spiral;  the drive positioner works off 
of a grooved disc-with-follower driven from the spindle motor through 
a clutch.  Auto-completes and returns to the beginning of the track 
as part of the cycle.  Very, very simple.  If you wanted to emulate 
it in software, it'd be very easy as the datarate isn't particularly 
high.

Cheers,
Chuck