[Coco] Disk drive question

Wed Jan 18 23:13:21 EST 2012

OK so it looks like i need to get some cable and connectors and build a new ribbon cable.  sounds reasonable.  let me see what i can do and maybe i can get this working.  I have a truckload of diskettes for the coco and i wanted to image them all so i can hopefully recover the data before they go the way of all things.   I will get that aspect knocked out and then see what happens.  watching these threads over the past few months has told me i can always find help here.  and thanks again for the advice!

________________________________
From: gene heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
To: coco at maltedmedia.com 
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 9:59 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Disk drive question

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:43:43 PM Bill Pierce did opine:

> Wasn't there a problem running the FD-501 with a Coco 3? Seems like it
> was a voltage problem. Something like no 12v on the Coco 3 and the
> FD-501s need the 12v? Or was this the FD-500? I remember reading
> somewhere that you needed the FD-502 for a Coco 3. This may even apply
> to some of the later Coco 2s. Seems like you had to have a Multipak to
> use them as the Multipak supplied the proper voltages.
> 
> 
> Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
> https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
> Bill Pierce
> ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gene heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
> To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Wed, Jan 18, 2012 10:26 pm
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Disk drive question
> 
> On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:11:29 PM Patrick Wilson did opine:
> > I have a question for you gentlemen.  I started work on this some time
> 
>  ago and lost my momentum when i had to attack a project.  Here is the
>  deal.  I have a number of CoCo 2 and 3, and one of the FD-501 sets.  I
>  am trying to hook up a 3.5 along with the 5.25 but cannot get the
>  drives to work properly.  I think i am safe in assuming i am doing
>  SOMETHING wrong, but have no idea what at this point.  It appears that
>  the drives are experiencing addressing conflicts.  But as i said, i am
>  not sure.  You gentlemen have obviously overcome this sort of problem
>  so i was wondering if you could profer some advice to help me get my
>  issue corrected.  Any suggestions are welcome.
>  Thanks,
> 
>  Pat
> 
> . All 3.5" drives are programmed to be drive 1, and the twist in the end
> ection of a pc drive cable make it drive 0.
> 2. I have always attacked it as a cabling problem because the shack
> upplied cables have missing contacts in the card edge connectors.
> That means I disassemble the connectors by removal from the cable and
> btain some that have all 34 contacts installed, and install those in
> their lace.  With a card edge to DIL drive adapter for the 3.5" drive,
> put it on he middle connector, and check the jumpers on the 5.25" drive
> to assure hat the jumper is only on the set of pins labeled DS0.  There
> are probably ther jumpers too but don't disturb them. There may not be
> terminators on he 5.25" drive if it had been previously used as an E
> drive (2nd floppy on pc.) in which case a set should be scrounged and
> installed.  There may be wo in single inline format, or one in DIL
> format, looks like an integrated ircuit socket, depends on the style of
> sockets for them on the 5.25" rive.
> If you've done it right, you should see only the led on the drive being
> ddressed come on when you do a "dir0" or "dir1", 0 being the 5.25" and 1
> eing the 3.5".

Now, something is amiss in how AOL's webmail is handling the echos of what 
I typed, there are 14 lines above that are missing the first characters of 
the line.

I'm no fan of anything resembling webmail, but it normally works a lot 
better than that.

> > ________________________________
> 
>  From: Bill Pierce <ooogalapasooo at aol.com>
>  To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>  Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 5:51 PM
>  Subject: Re: [Coco] Disk drive question
> 
> 
>  Sounds like a winner Gene, thanks. I will give the "complete" cleaning
> a try. Mike gets back from Mexico on the 1st and will be sending me his
> boots for the hard drives then. From what he's told me, he's basically
> left the boot disk in drive 0 forever and just turned on the machine
> and the Eagle interface would autonatically boot OS9 if you do nothing.
> Once running he only used the Hard Drives and used the 5.25 80trk (d2)
> & 3.5 80trk (d1) for ocassional backups. So he mostly worked from the
> hard drives and rarely used the floppies. He wouldn't have noticed the
> floppies getting slower as they sat in place for so long. I can say the
> system was spotless when I recieved it. No dust, no dirt, nothing. The
> insides of this system look shiney as if they were new. I did get quite
> a bit of "gunk" off the contacts though you couldn't see it till it
> showed on the tissue. The keyboard issue is driving me nuts though.
> Everytime I fix a key, another goes out. If all else fails, I'll pull
> th
>  e eagle interface and get a Coco3 keyboard from Cloud9 and be done with
>  it.
> 
>  thanks again
>  Music from the Tandy/Radio Shack Color Computer 2 & 3
>  https://sites.google.com/site/dabarnstudio/
>  Bill Pierce
>  ooogalapasooo at aol.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: gene heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com>
>  To: coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>  Sent: Wed, Jan 18, 2012 5:56 pm
>  Subject: Re: [Coco] Disk drive question
> 
>  On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 05:28:57 PM Bill Pierce did opine:
>  > I've tried the drives in different combos. individually as well. For
>  > the
> 
>  most part I can't even boot from a single drive except for a Level 1
>  v2,00 system master boot. Seems I read somewhere long ago that the RS
>  factory disks were written to in a manner that even if your drive was
>  in slight miss-alignment that in most cases the disk would read. This
>  was for the fact that no 2 drives are exact in alignment and they
>  wanted no problems. Since the RS disk will boot and no "created" disk
>  will boot, it makes me wonder about alignment.
> 
> > Same here.

>  (S)light miss-understanding there I'd say.  And the next thing I would 
do
>  is (t)o get one of those shack oilers with the long tube & a cap on the
>  end of (t)he tube. Its even got a pocket clip on it. Open up the drive
>  boxes & (r)emove the drives and using some painters alcohol, not that
>  imitation stuff alled rubbing which is up to 70% water, and some q-tips
>  and clean the gunk (a)nd old dried out lube off the shiny rods that the
>  head carriage slides in (a)nd out on.  With power off, you can slide 
that
>  back and forth and clean (u)ntil they are "lox clean".  If the drive has 
a
>  motor with a long spiral (c)ut screw for a shaft on the back of the 
drive,
>  clean that screw till its (a)lso shiny all the way to the bottom of the
>  groove.  Then apply a couple (d)rops of that oil and work it back and
>  forth till its well distributed. On (t)he screw drive too if the drive 
has
>  one.  While you are that close to it, (t)he heads can also be cleaned, 
but
>  get a fresh q-tip for every time you wet (i)t with the alcohol, never
>  putting a dirty q-tip back in the alcohol to (c)ontaminate it.  It goes
>  w/o saying that head cleaning s/b done gently so (a)s not to spring the
>  head suspension.
>  Put it all back together and see if it will work.  I'd bet the stepper
>  (n)oise the drive makes is a lot louder because it can now move easily 
and
>  (q)uickly from track to track, where before it was quiet, sort of 
ooozing
>  rom track to track and possibly/probably losing steps.  It _should_ be
>  (e)asily heard.
>  Quiet drives are a sign of impending, if not current, trouble.
>  I have a tube/needle of that oil here, with about 20 drops left in it,
>  (p)ushing 25 years old & blacker than coffee from all those years of 
light
>  (e)xposure, but it still works.
> 
>  (W)hat I'm using for clues here is that it won't read a disk created in
>  it.  (I)f the head can slide easily enough, then it should be able to 
read
>  a disk (m)ade in it better than any disk made in another, possibly 
draggy
>  drive. (T)his will not make it read a disk created before the above
>  maintenance (t)hough, because that disk will probably have the tracks
>  quite a ways out of (k)ilter.

I put a set of () around the missing letters in the second echo of what I 
sent.  Did it arrive at your mailbox mucked up like that?

>  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)
>  y web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene>
>  n general, if you think something isn't in Perl, try it out, because it
>  sually is.  :-)
>              -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul31.174523.9447 at netlabs.com>
>  --
>  oco mailing list
>  oco at maltedmedia.com
>  ttp://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
>  --
>  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
> 
> heers, 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)
> y web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene>
> he amount of time between slipping on the peel and landing on the
> avement is precisely 1 bananosecond.
> --
> oco mailing list
> oco at maltedmedia.com
> ttp://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
> --
> Coco mailing list
> Coco at maltedmedia.com
> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco

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)
My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene>
There's nothing like the face of a kid eating a Hershey bar.

--
Coco mailing list
Coco at maltedmedia.com
http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco