MrMartian Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 In my never-ending need to hack and modify anything and everything Atari, I realized I've never found a Rana drive.. Where they very common at all? If someone would like to provide me with a dump of the ROM image from one, I'd like to look through it - You never know, I might be able to make it do Ultraspeed! At the same time, if someone has one that they'd like to sell, or lend for a bit so I could do some testing, that'd be even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNIXcoffee928 Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Both the Rana & the Indus GT were expensive, exotic drives... Both had really cool industrial design, too. Most people had 1050s, 810s seemed rare in comparison to 1050s. Astra & Percom drives were VERY rare amongst users, but had great functionality specs. Their industrial design was fairly basic compared to the Rana & Indus drives... Meaning they didn't look as cool, but they were rare & exotic in their own way, due to their technical sophistication. I have a Rana in my parts-bin to-do list pile. It had a read problem, and a faulty DC power jack. I may get around to troubleshooting it over the course of the month. If no one else can help you get a ROM dump, I may be able to help you out. I need to get it working first, though, before I start fiddling around with that. I haven't looked yet, but if you have any technical documents on the drive, do post them here. L8R, UNIXcoffee928 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted November 23, 2007 Share Posted November 23, 2007 Here's the user manual, schematics and a dump the PAL version of the ROM. I have a working RANA drive but I don't know if I've ever even opened it up before. If I get a chance I'll make a dump of it's ROM since I only seem to have a dump the PAL version currently. rana.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Guitarman Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I have some Rana drives I got in one of my collections. If I can find them, I can dump the ROM. I just moved so most of my stuff is still in the hunt & find stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted November 24, 2007 Author Share Posted November 24, 2007 I have some Rana drives I got in one of my collections. If I can find them, I can dump the ROM. I just moved so most of my stuff is still in the hunt & find stage. As I just found out, there are two different types of brains for these drives. I've gotten schematics and a PAL rom dump for the 6502 based board, and will soon have an 8031 based one in my possession! Quite interesting to find out they had two radically different boards for these drives.. Wonder what brought about the change? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I have some Rana drives I got in one of my collections. If I can find them, I can dump the ROM. I just moved so most of my stuff is still in the hunt & find stage. As I just found out, there are two different types of brains for these drives. I've gotten schematics and a PAL rom dump for the 6502 based board, and will soon have an 8031 based one in my possession! Quite interesting to find out they had two radically different boards for these drives.. Wonder what brought about the change? The 6502 had a more complex board, IIRC. I suspect economics drove the change. The Rana was pitched as an economical alternative when introduced. Aside from the lack of UltraSpeed, the greatest shortcoming of the Rana was poor reliability of the mechanisms, especially in double density. Many/most Rana's had "pull-down" mechanisms, unlike in their ads of the day showing the typical Tandon-style "lever-lock" mechs. The Rana that I use most often is a "RanTan" -- I replaced the original mech with a 1050 Tandon (with some technical help). Nice! -Larry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR> Posted November 24, 2007 Share Posted November 24, 2007 I have some Rana drives I got in one of my collections. If I can find them, I can dump the ROM. I just moved so most of my stuff is still in the hunt & find stage. As I just found out, there are two different types of brains for these drives. I've gotten schematics and a PAL rom dump for the 6502 based board, and will soon have an 8031 based one in my possession! Quite interesting to find out they had two radically different boards for these drives.. Wonder what brought about the change? Looks like mine is the 8031 version. Here's a ROM dump in case you want to play before yours arrives ranarom.zip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I think I lost my Rana..... I moved about a year ago and went thru all my stuff and it wasn't there. I do have an Astra Big D though.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMartian Posted November 28, 2007 Author Share Posted November 28, 2007 I think I lost my Rana..... I moved about a year ago and went thru all my stuff and it wasn't there. I do have an Astra Big D though.. If you want to pull the ROM and send me a dump of it, I'll look through it to see how likely US would be.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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