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

[Christopher Smith]

I've looked at this as well.  I have a TEAC 1.4M floppy that still has the drive ID jumpers on it, so I think that should probably do for a test at least.  I was just going to defeat the density selector and lock it into double-density mode.

Chris

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Pepe" <lamune at doki-doki.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 11:28:24 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] So, does anyone know where to get disk drives?
> 
> 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/
> 
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 

-- 
Christopher Smith
Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research