WANTED: TRS-80 video/disk interface <-> model 100 cable

-----------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:15:11 -0700 (PDT) From: steven stengel <tosteve at yahoo.com> Subject: WANTED: TRS-80 video/disk interface <-> model 100 cable I have the TRS-80 disk/video interface module, but not the cable to connect to my model 100. Does anyone know how to make one? Thanks- Steve. -----------------Reply: It looks simple enough; just take a 40c IDE HD cable and crimp a 40-pin DIP header on the end... But there's a catch: The connectors will not be offset the standard way relative to each other, i.e. you need to swap the even and odd pins somehow. There are two ways of doing that: 1 - Separate all the wires at one end and swap them when you insert them in the connector; put the striped wire in the second slot, the second in the first, the third in the fourth, the fourth in the third, etc. 2 - Crimp the 40-pin DIP header on an IDE cable without swapping; Get a second IDE cable and a set of 40 header pins such as you would find on an old motherboard (make sure they're long enough) and use them to connect the two cables; this will give you the offset and also a way to connect and dis- connect without opening the cover and possibly damaging the delicate 40-pin DIP header. If you make the M100 cable the right length you can fasten the header to the back of the M100 with DS tape and effectively have the same setup as the M102 & 200. If, as usual, I haven't made it very clear, contact me off-list & I'll send you some pictures. BTW, if you're new to the M100 world, check out club100.org and the user group there; lots of folks always willing to help. mike