[Coco] 3.5" Floppies on my Coco 3!

Kip Koon computerdoc at sc.rr.com
Sat Apr 6 19:05:02 EDT 2013


Blake and All,
Pics of everything are coming soon.  I need to learn the command structure
for Cocopedia so I can layout my web page.  I have lots to tell and a lot of
time to do it in.  Of course you know the other side of that coin.  :)  
Right now though, the Coco 3 is sitting on top of the left speaker in the
living room with the Disto Super Controller in the cartridge slot.  The two
3.5" drives and PC switching power supply is sitting on the other speaker. A
really weird kluge of old PC floppy drive cables are connected together in
between the two to give me the right combination of connecters so the disk
controller can communicate with the two floppy drives without me having to
make/buy new cables. 
The composite video output of the Coco 3 is connected to the Composite video
input of a Bravia HD TV, and the Audio out is connected to the right Audio
input on the HD TV.  It all works great if you don't mind all the
interference in the composite video signal.  I've got to get one of Roy's
RGB to VGA converter boxes.  I hear they are great!
I have setup a small HP tower running Windows XP for my Drivewire 4 server
and as soon as I dismantle my Cisco Routers and Switches setup I used
several years ago in college, I will be setting up the Coco 3 in all its
glory in their place.  I'll need to find a place for all those CDs of PC
software I've burnt since coming back to SC in 2001 residing underneath and
in front of the computer desk.  :)
Things are getting exciting!  :)
Erturk Kocalar of SiMon6809 fame has been very gracious and quite willing to
share with me his entire body of work he created to make the PCBs for his
SiMon6809 Turbo creation which boots Flex 9 using a ramdisk.  More on that
later after I scour through the hardware, software, and documentation files.
6.4MB of stuff!  Thank you very much Erturk!  I will put it all to good use.
Now to contact Michael Sarnoff of Ultim809 fame to see if he is at a point
where he is willing to share his design files.  Of course I always like to
change things and make it my own.
When I finally build my version of an Ultimate 6309 computer, I want it to
be perfect!  Still a lot to do and a lot more to learn.  I'm in hog heaven!
Have fun guys!
Kip

-----Original Message-----
From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com] On
Behalf Of Blake Patterson
Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 1:40 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] 3.5" Floppies on my Coco 3!

Got a photo of the setup? Would like to see.

bp

On Saturday, April 6, 2013, Daniel Campos wrote:

> I also using a 1.44HD Drive and no problems detected with any disks so
far.
> But I think if using HD media with an HD Drive (my current config) I 
> will have no problems. I think problems occurs most if you are using 
> old 720Kb drives with HD Media...
>
> The only problem I get is that my Color64 can not load OS9 L1 yet. The 
> same config (using the same ROMs) on the XROAR, works like a charm.
>
> Daniel
>
> Em 06/04/2013 13:32, Michael Graham escreveu:
>
>> I must have unusually good luck, then, as I've been using 1.44MB 
>> disks with the hole covered as 720KB disks for a few years now, and I 
>> generally don't have any problem reading the disks back, even a few 
>> weeks after I've written them. I guess I haven't really tested any 
>> longer than that, though, as I usually think of something different 
>> I'd like to put on the disks, so I reformat and write new content to the
disks.
>>
>> Although, to be fair, I am using exclusively 1.44MB drives in 720KB 
>> mode to handle the disks, and I know they won't read back on a real 
>> 720KB drive (I did actually try that once).
>>
>> --Michael
>>
>> On 04/06/2013 05:28 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>
>>> On Saturday 06 April 2013 06:08:58 Kip Koon did opine:
>>>
>>>  Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I communicated with my very first two 3.5" floppy drives on my Coco 
>>>> 3 using Disto's Super Controller tonight!  I put HDBDOS 1.4 DW4 in 
>>>> the super controller.  It also has the 80x24 Composite video output 
>>>> daughter board with the mono sound output, an RTC and a Centronics 
>>>> Parallel port all on the daughter board for those that don't know 
>>>> what a Disto Super Controller is.
>>>>
>>>> I successfully formatted two real 720KB 3.5" disks and one 1.44MB 
>>>> disk with the capacity hole covered to make it look like a 720KB disk.
>>>>
>>>>  That won't usually last, sometimes not even an hour.  The 
>>>> recording is
>>> too
>>> weak for the magnetic coating of a HD disk and will fade.
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> .net/mailman/listinfo/coco>
>>
>
>
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> Coco mailing list
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> net/mailman/listinfo/coco>
>


--
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