Help identifying extension [done: vidc enhancer]

[DutchAcorn]

With an A310 that I got last week (working but with issues) I also got a device I could not identify. It is fairly small and has "WE 1991" printed on it, suggesting something by Watford Electronics?

Pictures included, suggestions (and fitting instructions) are welcome!

[daveejhitchins]

It's a "Remote 8-Bit I/O Expander for I2C-Bus" - A search of the part number PCF8574T will find lots of data for it.

Dave H.

[IanS]

Probably the non-super version of the vidc enhancer, looks like it doesn't do the H&V sync inversions.

viewtopic.php?p=243961#p243961

https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/page.cfm/co ... index.html

[DutchAcorn]

Thanks, that’s very probably what it is! Also nice to see that the driver is there. I saw there were vidc drivers were on the Connor hard disc that is in it but it died before I could get them off.

[sP1d3r]

Thanks, that’s very probably what it is! Also nice to see that the driver is there. I saw there were vidc drivers were on the Connor hard disc that is in it but it died before I could get them off.

How is the Connor drive dead, may I ask?

Does it try to spin up or is there nothing happening?
I've managed to revive a Connor disk by some simple cleaning, before.

[DutchAcorn]

Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not 100% sure the drive is completely dead yet. The Watford IDE interface is giving me a lot of trouble, I could not get it to format any drive yet and the formatter just “hangs” on reading the drive parameters on most drives. It took over 4 hours to scan for errors for one drive and then crashed.

So I’ve decided to let it rest for a week or so, I have a bit more time to investigate after next week.

[sP1d3r]

See viewtopic.php?t=21044

Also, ISTR that Ian Jeffrey had some success with Archi Conner drives that had failed.

[philpem]

I've had success with them too - they have a magnetic actuator lock with a rubber bumper which relies on a sharp "thump" of power thru the voice coil to unlock it.
When the bumper turns to goo, the magnet and metal plate get far too closely acquainted, and the actuator can't unpark the head.

Fair warning that this is a recovery technique only, adding the tape may impair or entirely defeat the actuator lock. The drive may be more susceptible to damage from shock, bumps and jars than it normally would.

[DutchAcorn]

As a follow-up; the issue was caused by the way the Watford IDE podule works. You need to configure the drive parameters correctly and save them before using a drive. It seems to store these parameters somewhere persistent (on the podule?) and you need to explicitly “identify” the drive in the tool for it to find the correct parameters. Also it is not happy if you have a drive configured and not installed (hangs up the configuration tool).

So with that figured out I could access the drive again but it had so many faults on it that there was not a lot I could salvage.

On the plus side the Watford IDE interface seems to work with a lot of different drives / SD cards / SD card interfaces and once you figure out the drive configuration requirement it is easy to format new drives using the tool.