[Coco] Floppy drive source

[wdg3rd at comcast.net]

----- "Wayne Campbell" <asa.rand at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: "Wayne Campbell" <asa.rand at gmail.com>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 5:29:05 PM GMT -05:00 Colombia
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Floppy drive source
>
> I don't knowfor sure, but I had a 3.5 720K floppy and 2-5.25 360K
> floppies 
> on my old coco3. The 360K's cam from a Tandy 2000 (80186, unique
> version of 
> DOS), and the 720k I bought 2nd hand from someone else.  I don't see
> why a 
> 5.25 720k wouldn't work.
> 
> Wayne

The T2k never used any floppy drive except 5.25" 720k DSQD drives (by Tandon, IIRC).  If there was ever a 360k drive attached to a Tandy 2000, it was by a hobbyist, and not reported to any of us in the tech support chain.  I had reports that those (5.25" 720k) drives were attached to Color Computers and Model IVs, but for some reason none of those systems were brought into my store's (downtown Los Angeles) repair center.  

Which is where I had a multi-user OS-9 Level One Color Computer set-up in the classroom before the Coco 2 started shipping.  Hey, there were these things in the OS-9 manual that implied  it, I had access to a 64k machine and a separate 16k machine with a Vidtex cart, a couple of serial cables to graft together into a null-modem cross-over, so I had to do it, since by then I was a serious Xenix geek.  It worked, but not well.  The bitbanger setup dropped bytes if you typed on the "terminal" (the 16k machine with the Vidtex ROM) while the "master" was hitting the floppy drive.  (But it was a two-seat time-sharing system that retailed for $1017.67 including CA/Los Angeles sales tax in late 1983 during that month's sale prices, assuming you already had two TV sets [even then usually a safe bet], which was a lot less than a Model 16b (just out) by itself without a $599 DT-1 for a second station.  (The DT-1 was a Mod IV shell with a ROM to emulate the VT-52 and several _even worse_ terminals [as though the VT-52 wasn't bad enough already -- but that's the idiocy in Tandy Towers then]).  If anybody is interested, the VT-52 is what the Videotex cartridges (and related tapes/disks for the Tandy Z-80 machines and Apple ][) were close to.  No wonder AOL bought CompuServe for a song.  (IIRC, H&R Block had recently suffered some setbacks, so they were going for anything they could get).  (Yes, CompuServe started as "spare cycles" on DEC computers H&R Block was only using three months out of the year).

Funny how you remember some of this kark.  Might be the 12% beer I'm sucking down (La Esposa has hidden the whiskey) to mourn a friend closer than a genetic brother could have been.  Or the beer might be rousing brain cells I thought I'd killed with similar self-medication back when I was doing customer service for The Shack.  (Tech support and system administration are not a good career path if your family has a history of self-induced liver disease).
-- 
Ward Griffiths        wdg3rd at comcast.net




> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Frank Swygert" <farna at att.net>
> To: <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:18 PM
> Subject: [Coco] Floppy drive source
> 
> 
> >I was looking around the net for something else and ran across the 
> >California Digital site. They are the ones with the Tano Dragons new
> in the 
> >box still (http://www.cadigital.com/computer.htm).
> >
> > Anyway, they also have some 360K and 180K floppy drives. Go to 
> > http://www.cadigital.com/flopdriv.htm then scroll down to the bottom
> of 
> > the page. They have the worlds largest supply of 8" drives, and I
> believe 
> > them! Probably will for some time to come too. The 360K drives are
> $39, 
> > 180K (single sided) only $9. Might come in handy for a spare! I had
> a pair 
> > of the Mitsubishi 360K in my repack, and I believe I got them from
> CA 
> > Digital back in late 88 or early 89!! Great drives.
> >
> > Won't some of the 96 TPI (720K) 5.25" drives also work fine as 360K
> 
> > drives?? They have a couple different brands of those too.
> >
> > -- 
> > Frank Swygert
> > Publisher, "American Motors Cars" Magazine (AMC)
> > For all AMC enthusiasts
> > http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
> > (free download available!)
> >
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco 
> 
> 
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