[Coco] PC-to-CoCo floppy drive cable

[Gene Heskett]

On Wednesday 12 November 2008, Roger Taylor wrote:
>I'm having trouble locating the pinouts for the CoCo floppy
>cable.  Is this hard to believe?  I've looked in almost every CoCo
>manual I have and many technical PDF docs with no luck.  After
>hundreds of posts on the subject over the years and lots of CoCo tech
>documents on the web, nothing is turning up after 1 hour of digging.
>
>Anyway, I'm trying (yet again) to wire a PC 3.5" drive (hard-wired as
>Drive 1) to be seen as Drive 0 on the CoCo.  The drive currently is
>seen as Drive 1 and works good.  I'm using a cable I apparently
>hacked in the past but later I lined the ribbon wires back up
>normally and crimped it back to work with normal CoCo floppy
>drives.  I know I need to swap or twist a few of the ribbon wires,
>but I have no clue which ones they are now.
>
>It seems like this should be written in stone and easy to find, and
>I've found this info in the past which is why I'm wondering where it
>is hiding on the web.
>
>Any help?
>Thanks

Roger, I'm amazed at you.  You have failed miserably the 'are you a packrat' 
test. Most folks on this list could not deny they are packrats, I sure can't.  
I probably have 10 or more old pc floppy cables, the twisted ones, cuz 
anytime someone gives me an old box, it gets stripped for stuff like that.  
All you need to do is pop the pc's idc connector off, and pop on a coco edge 
pattern connector.  Fine tipped exacto to open the idc with, and a vice to 
put the edge connector on with.  And a SHARP pair of scissors to trim the end 
of the cable in case its ragged.  SE Razor blades can be used two.

I've also had fair luck looking the drives pcb's over with a stout glass, 
often there will be a clue in the artwork as to where to cut the ds1, and 
blob over the ds0 pads.  But I have had to trace it with an ohm-meter to make 
sure I was cutting & blobbing the right traces.

Worse comes to worse, I could send you a copy of the pc version.  Yelp if you 
need it.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Without fools there would be no wisdom.