--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
OK, for the record, I saw the app. But, I made an
assumption that I
need a PC drive.
PC's use standard Shugart-style interface floppy drives, just like most other
computers of the era. You'll find that most machines have compatible disk drives -
Kaypro, Osborne, TRS-80, IBM PC, TI-99/4A (in the expansion unit), etc, etc.
The "oddballs" like the C64, Apple II, Atari, and other micros are all different
though.
The primary difference between other machines and PC's is the drive select line.
PC's have all the disk drives jumpered as the second drive (drive 1), and use a cable
with a twist in it to swap the select line around to turn a drive jumpered as drive one
into drive zero. Most other machines just use the drive select jumpers on the drive
itself.
As for a cable, you should only need a regular PC floppy cable, with the card edge style
connectors as well. Find one of the long ones, Gateway full tower machines used to come
with really long floppy cables. And the cables for older machines used to have both card
edge and dual row pin type connectors for both 5 1/4" drives and 3 1/2" drives.
You should be able to unplug the data cable from the Kaypro drive, and plug it into the PC
cable. You can leave the drive in the Kaypro, and leave it connected to the Kaypro for
power - and just hook the cable up to the PC. If you use drive zero, then plug it in with
the non-twisted connector, and the PC should use it as Drive A. If you use drive one, plug
it in with the twisted connector, and it'll be drive A.
-Ian