Heath Company and ZDS offered many peripherals for their computer systems. These included disk systems, printers, modems, terminals, and more.
Disk Controllers
H-88-1 - 5.25" Hard-sectored floppy disk controller
H-89-37 - 5.25" Soft-sectored floppy disk controller
H-89-47 - 8" floppy disk controller
H-89-67 - SASI Winchester disk controller
The most common disk system for the H89 used 5.25" hard-sectored disks. The H-88-1 disk controller card came standard on the H89/Z89 and was connected to the internal floppy disk drive. The H-88-1 was an optional upgrade for the H88. The Z-89-37 controller allowed use of the more common soft-sectored diskettes and was required to support the double-sided/double density/96 tpi drives. The Z-89-37 came standard on the Z90, it was an optional upgrade for the H88/H89/Z89. Heath Company also offered the Z-89-47 controller to support dual 8" floppy drives in the Z-47, and the Z-89-67 controller to support the 8" Winchester (SASI) disk drive in the Z-67.
External Cases
H-17/H17-3 - An external case, which came in kit-form, with support for up to 3 - 5.25" floppy disk drives. These drives were single-sided/single-density/48 tpi.
H/Z-37 - An external case with support for up 2 - 5.25" floppy disk drives. These drives were double-sided/double-density/96 tpi.
Z-47 - An external case that came with two 8" floppy disk drives.
Z-67 - An external case with a 10 MB SASI Winchester drive and one 8" floppy disk drive.
H-77 - An external case which supports up to 2 -5.25" floppy disk drives. These drives were single-sided/single-density/48 tpi.
Z-87 - An external case that came with 2 -5.25" disk drives. These drives were single-sided/single-density/48 tpi.
The first printer that Heath Company offered was the WH-14 Line Printer. The printer supported 80, 96, or 132 character per line, and a speed of 136 CPS (characters per second). I personally owned one of these back in the '80s. One of the unusual aspects of the printer was the mechanism used to keep the printer head from over heating. Printing each line was dependent on the temperature of the head. Thus, at the beginning of the print job, it went fast, but after a short period, it would delay a few seconds before printing each line.
Although the H-89 class of systems included a built-in terminal, the H8 required a terminal if the user wanted to do much with it. The original terminal that was introduced with the H8 was the H9. It supported 80 columns by 12 rows. The H9 was soon replaced by the H-19/Z-19 terminals that supported 80 columns by 24/25 rows. Later models were the Z-29, Z-39 and Z-49.
The modems that Heath Company offered were assembled products from other companies. Their first modem, the WH13, was the Cat Modem by Novation, it was an acoustic coupling modem. They also offered modems from Hayes.
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If you have any question or comments, or if you have any old Heathkit equipment or software available, please contact me at: mark (at) garlanger (dot) com