[Coco] So, does anyone know where to get disk drives?

[Mark J. Blair]

Interesting. I was thinking of trying out an 80 track 5.25" DSDD drive, but I hadn't considered trying 3.5" one. 

-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
Web page: http://www.nf6x.net/

On Aug 28, 2013, at 21:28, "Mike Pepe" <lamune at doki-doki.net> wrote:

> Mark - if you don't care about being able to read and write 5.25" disks, any
> old 1.44MB floppy will work just fine on a CoCo as long as you use 720k (low
> density) disks.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
> Behalf Of Mark J. Blair
> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 7:18 PM
> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [Coco] So, does anyone know where to get disk drives?
> 
> 
> On Aug 28, 2013, at 11:11 , Christopher Smith <csmith at wolfram.com> wrote:
>> I'm trying to find drives for my CoCo systems, and I'm having tons of
> trouble doing so.  I'm at the point where I may just try to cannibalize
> other systems to get working double-density floppies and build my own case,
> but I'd prefer not to do this unless I absolutely have to.  My ebay
> experience trying to buy drives for this seems to have ended with UPS losing
> my shipment after my waiting a month to receive it, so not much luck there.
>> 
>> Anyway, I thought I'd ask here.  Any idea where I might find a couple of
> floppy drives in an external case? :)
> 
> 
> I've bought a couple of complete single-drive Radio Shack floppy systems for
> the CoCo off eBay in the last few weeks since I started playing with vintage
> computers. IIRC, one was an FD-500 and the other was an FD-501. Both worked
> fine. I also picked up a pair of Tandon SSDD half height drives there; one
> worked fine and is now installed in one of those systems, while the other
> one appears to only step the head in one direction. I'll look at it later
> and see if I can fix it. Hopefully it's just a blown transistor or something
> in the stepper motor drive circuit.
> 
> I also got a pair of DSDD full height floppies in external cases. Both
> drives work. One case+power supply worked, and the other one made fire as
> the power switch consumed itself in an electric arc when I turned it on.
> Cool stuff. I use one of the drives naked on the tabletop with my KryoFlux
> and the little switching supply it came with.
> 
> Then, I just pounced on a pair of Teac FD-55B drives in the last day or two
> shortly after they were listed. I'll set them aside (when they arrive) while
> I continue to look for a J&M controller to go with them.
> 
> I've seen several other CoCo floppy drives and/or controllers on eBay during
> that period, too, some of them in original boxes. Single-drive systems seem
> to be pretty common at the moment, but I haven't seen any double-drive
> systems. So, I'd say that you may need to pick up a single-drive system and
> another bare drive to add to it.
> 
> Let's see, right now I see a naked controller (missing its case), an FD-502
> interface, an FD-502 drive cable, and a complete full-height CoCo drive
> system in its original box. The latter was found by visual search, not by my
> saved search for CoCo items; check out item 281157216709. Some sellers don't
> know what they're selling, so it's often necessary to cast a wide net and
> wade through the pictures looking for something interesting.
> 
> P.S.: If anybody has a spare J&M controller, particularly a JFD-CP, I'm
> interested!
> 
> -- 
> Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
> http://www.nf6x.net/
> 
> 
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