[Coco] FD-50X Drive manuals

[Tim Fadden]

Don't know about ALL of the models, but the latest 502's come with ROUND 
cables.  Unless you are pulling my leg.   They are actually  flat cables 
put into a grey ROUND sleave. If you want a picture I can send it.

Tim

wdg3rd at comcast.net wrote:
> ----- "Tim Fadden" <t.fadden at cox.net> wrote:
>
>
>   
>> This looks more like sticky head rails.
>>
>> Just for general  purposes, on all of the card edge connectors, dirves
>>
>> and controllers. Us a pencil erasor on the contacts and buff them up 
>> pretty!
>> Then do the clean/lube proceedure on the drives.  I be you will get
>> them 
>> working.
>>
>> The round cable is most likely the stock tandy cable.  The flat ribbon
>> cable is most likely home made.  If you only have 1 drive on the
>> system 
>> It should make no difference which cable you use as long as you put
>> the 
>> drive on the end of the cable.  Tandy drives all come set as drive 1. 
>>
>> The fiddle with the cable to make the drive select different.
>>     
>
> To the best of my knowledge (which used to be pretty exhaustive, but in a couple of decades a lot of brain cells die, and I have habits that help that process), Tandy never made a round floppy cable -- it was just ribbon.  Mod 1/3/4 FD and HD, Mod 2/12/16/6k FD and HD, Coco FD and HD, Tandy 2000 and early PC compatibles external HD.  All ribbons.  (My knowledge may be incomplete, as I left the company in 1986 and they didn't completely stop manufacturing computer products until five or six more years later, so some round cables may have snuck in while I wasn't watching, but I doubt it, they cost more and the Shack was always went for the cheap).  (Connecting the ends of round cables to _anything_ is labor intensive, which makes them expensive and is one of the reasons land lines cost so much).
>