Cromemco & Persci drives (was PS/2 interface &c)

-----------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 19:50:25 -0400 From: "Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at verizon.net> Subject: Re: PS/2 Interface (was: Wang 300 Calc] On Monday 17 September 2007 18:57, Tony Duell wrote: <snip> I have a Cromemco "System 3" (?). It also has a Persci drive in it, a dual. Is that what yours is? There's apparently some sort of a problem with mine, as the floppy which was in it when I got it had been tried so much and for so long that the initial tracks were completely worn away, and you could see through it. On perusing the service data for it, I notice that the drive uses a bunch of _incandescent_ light bulbs for things like index sensor, etc. I would imagine that one or more of these is likely to be the problem. I'd deferred working on it because you can't do much with it in the computer case, and I needed to make some sort of extension for the power cable to the drive, which was a rather odd connector... Nice machine, in that the S-100 card cage pulls out like a drawer. Too bad it's not working. ------------Reply: Lots of luck with that Persci; nice and fast when they worked, but... My 3s all have Tandon singles; slower but infinitely more reliable. You probably know, but the controller can use both 5 1/4 and 8" drives; it's sometimes convenient to hook up a known good 5 1/4 drive to check out the rest of the system and get it up & running before you dig into the 8". Also makes it easier to make disks from PC images if you need them. If there's no HD you might have trouble finding 12V though & need a separate supply or regulator; an external powered 5 1/4 disk in a nice enclosure is a useful peripheral for a System3. Relevant to the original discussion: Cromemco's external 5 1/4 FDDs and tape drives used a standard Amphenol IEEE connector as used on parallel Commmodore FDDs &c (not IEEE protocol though ;) mike