27 Aug
2002
27 Aug
'02
8:35 a.m.
Do you mean that I could use a 3 1/2" floppy in the 502, with suitable data
connector of course ? That would be even cooler than a 2nd 5 1/4 !!
That would enable me to get into "serious" OS9 stuff. Woo-haa !!
I just ran up and checked an old data cable for floppies. It does fit the 502.
I'm surmising that the TEAC (FD-55BV-75-U) was a standard issue floppy
that R-S used so any 34pin 3 1/2 connector could be used to replace the
2nd edge connector on the 502. That would also imply that I could use 2
3 1/2" floppies in there if wanted. Or am I simply running away with myself.
Would the cartridge interface accept 3 1/2" drives ?
I have to get into some major research on the CoCo. I have some of the
important issues of "Rainbow" (eg Jan 84 Beginners Issue) and almost
complete sets of Micro 80 and US 80.
Lawrence
Rumor has it that Lawrence Walker may have mentioned
these words:
[snip]
lgwalker(a)mts.net
bigwalk_ca(a)yahoo.com
The 502 has a dummy faceplate for a second
floppy and 2 data 34pin
connectors and 2 standard 3 1/2 floppy plug types as you say and a
whopping big PSU that must support 2 drives. There's one single square 2pin
plug which doesn't have any visible connector on either drive.
The only mod needed would be to replace the small power with a large type.
The PSU does support 2 drives, but when it does so, it gets a little
warm... that's what the 2-pin plug is for - Fan power. If you're using
newer drives that take less power (especially if it's 3.5" and you have
more room for convective cooling) it's not necessary (or at least *as*
necessary, if you power the machine for a short amount of time) but if you plan
on using that older TEAC, you'll want to fit in a compatible-sized fan. The fan
was included in the CoCo "Drive 1" kits...
Dunno if a standard PC case fan is the right size - my FD502 is still
packed away for now... (sniff) but if that's too big, a larger pentium-like CPU
fan should be just the ticket. If it's not *ezactly* the right size, I'm sure
suitable boltholes could be fashioned... ;-)
That's great. When you don't have a HD,
2 floppies sure makes things
easier. I recall with no pleasure spending hours doing the disk-change
mambo copying programs off magazine disks on my Atari ST.
Yea, when I upgraded my CoCo3 to 512K, it wasn't so bad 'cause I fashioned a
200K RAMdisk; which made copying stuff a wee bit easier; but the original IBM
PCs were tough, they'd only copy 3-4 tracks each spin... :-(
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
zmerch(a)30below.com
What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????