[Coco] Floppy hardware...

[Danny Amborn]

On Wed, 15 Jan 2014 03:16:07 +0000, Christopher Barnett Fox
<cbfox01 at syr.edu> wrote:

>Good evening!
>
>I'm having a devil of a time building a complete 2xDSDD 5.25" floppy system for my CoCo 3. I've got a complete one-drive FD-502, and a complete one-drive FD-500 (with the 26-3029 controller).
>
>The FD-500, I discovered, only has a TEC FB-501 180K SSDD drive.
>The FD-502, while it has a Mitsumi D502 360K drive, has unusual power connectors – not the standard 4-pin Molex, and it doesn't match the 4-pin mini-Molex found on 3.5" drives. The two-drive-bay enclosure has support for a second drive, but the included power connector is the same odd 4-pin that doesn't match a mini-Molex.
>
>I bought a Chinon FZ-502 off Fleabay, which should be a 360K drive. It's got a standard large 4-pin Molex power connector.
>
>Is the pinout on the power connectors in the FD-500 and the FD-502 the same? Could I install the Chinon into the FD-502 case by cutting out the odd power connector and splicing in a spare 4-pin Molex?
>
>Don't even start me on the fun I had mistakenly buying what was labeled as a 360K TEAC drive on Fleabay and discovering what arrived was actually a 1.2MB TEAC-55GFR.
>
>Fun stuff.
>
>--
>Christopher Fox


I added a 3.5" floppy drive to my FD-502 a while back.  While that
power connect isn't a mini molex I slipped it onto my floppy drive
like one and it worked.  I found a floppy cable extension on ebay
because the cable needed a couple extra inches to reach the floppy but
it was way to long.  I ended up taking the floppy end off and
adjusting it to the length I needed.  I also modified the 3.5" drive
720k/1.44meg sensor so it reads all disks put into it as 720k since it
didn't work with the 1.44meg disks and I am all out of 720k disks.
Works well.   

--

Dan Amborn
slackware64 at embarqmail.com