[Coco] FD501

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Phill Harvey-Smith <afra at aurigae.demon.co.uk>
> Chester A Patterson wrote:
> > Tricky devils. 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> >> chance to try it out. Is it normal for these units to have DS0 *and* 
> >> DS1 jumpered? Can't figure that one out.
> > 
> > Yes, my FD501 also has both DS0 and DS1 connected. Tandy's method of
> > drive selection was to remove the appropriate contacts from the edge
> > connectors on the cable.
> 
> <RANT>
> Why oh why do manufatureres feel the need to do this, there is a 
> standard using jumpers/dip switches. This of course has the parctical 
> disadvantage that (like the IBM twisted cable), that drive 0 must always 
> be in the same position on the cable, which is prolly ok in the standard 
>   Tandy drive enclosure, but can be a real pain in the butt, when you 
> come to put the drives in a different enclosure and the cable isn't 
> quite long enough to reach both the drives and the controler in the 
> config that Tandy (or IBM etc) forces upon you.... Ok so it means you 
> don't have to change jumpers but it's not *THAT* difficult...
> </RANT>

Well, Tandy started the practice with the first Mod One drives in 1978.  IBM was some time after that getting a PC with floppy drives to market.  At the time, most floppy drives were external, each with its own case and power supply.  It was easier to track things with the drives selected by the cable position rather than for a tech at the other end of a phone line to use clairvoyance to figure which drive was which.  That's why the terminated drive had a different stock number visible on the outside of the case.

When Tandy started most of their product lines, "standards" had not yet been established for many subsystems.
--
Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net

When you let people do whatever they want, you get Woodstock. When you let governments do whatever they want, you get Auschwitz.       Doug Newman