Timex/Sinclair 2068 System - Oliger Drives

[timex_user]

I am in desparate need of documentation for the JLO Oliger disk system for the Timex/Sinclair 2068. This system is comprised of 3 cards. I believe it can be used simultaneously with the Larken Drive System allowing for up to 8 drives being used. I have all of the documentation for the Larken system. Thank you in advance for the help.
peace - neil

[RedWolf]

Welcome to the forum, Neil.  While I actually have a Timex-Sinclair 2068, I sadly do not have any accessories or drives for it.  That JLO system you speak of sounds very rare.  I hope someone out there can help you find what you're looking for.

[DWeezer]

The John L. Oliger disk drive system consists of a 4 port bus expansion card and cards A and B for the disk drive. Later versions came with an NMI button used when you loaded in a program from tape you pressed the NMI button to freeze the computer and selected a number to dump the entire memory content to the floppy disk. Then the program can be loaded from the floppy. The drive ROM was upgraded to Version 2.52, maybe more.
Several places on the web list his company still active as of 2000. The last address I have for it is;

The John L. Oliger Co.
11601 Whidbey Dr.
Cumberalnd, IN, 46229

Support for his drive system was always excellent. The documentation depends on what version of his ROM you have in the board. What version of ROM do you have?

[timex_user]

I am not sure what all I have for the JLO project, I think I have several different versions of Oliger ROM chip waiting to be put on a blank cartridge board. I will use the one with the most recent version number. As I recall, barely, the chip was piggybacked on top of the Larken ROM chip in such a way that the cartridge door barely closed. What I am hoping to do, is to have the G.Russell ROMSWITCH added to switch between Spectrum ROM and 2068 ROM while having a Larken Disk cartridge in the front cartridge port with the Larken controller backplaned along with the Oliger Disk system and 4-port expansion utilizing the 256K Larken RAMDISK. Sounds like a lot, I know, I hope to switch between the Larken and Oliger disk systems through software and I am pretty sure that switching between Timex and Spectrum ROM would require a reboot. There was a bootup feature with the Larken and Timex ROM whereby the Larken operating system was invoked by depressing "ENTER" while powering the unit to avoid having to type the command. I am not sure whether this worked with the ROM switch set to Spectrum.
 The RAMdisk board that I have is now (a year later) populated and the fun begins with soldering the edge connector to the board. I have a tech that does microsoldering so this should be childsplay for him, but he is not a Timex or Spectrum guy and I am not a tech, so between the two of us, hopefully we can pull this off....soon. ...peace..