[Coco] Y cable construction

[Mike Rowen]

Hi everyone. I'm attempting a simple Y cable. At the moment, I have a single 40 pin connector at the end of a 5.5" ribbon cable. The contacts check out good when I do a continuity test. I do not find any shorts.

I plugged it into my CoCo 3 with a ROM pack connected via the ribbon cable and that works fine. When I switch to a Floppy controller, it generates a screen of garbage. The disk controller works fine when connected directly. I attached some alligator leads from the ground tabs on the controller cart to the CoCo 3 ground tabs, knowing better ground was required.

Any suggestions to create a working Y cable (other than a multiple-pak!)?

Thanks,
-Mike R