[Coco] Floppy Controller available.

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

> (controller and FH floppy enclosure and PSU populated with one HH floppy)

HH = half height, PSU = power supply unit, FH = full height maybe

Looking at my J&M floppy controller, which matches the description, it is 
the original that is just a floppy controller. I needed to put a standard 
Radio Shack ROM into it, only one socket, when I got a CoCo 3.

> hard-sectored floppies WHAT???

SHF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "L. Curtis Boyle" <curtisboyle at sasktel.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Floppy Controller available.


>I am kind of curious if that is the "basic" J/M floppy controller with a 
>switchable ROM, or the one that also had the parallel port built it (that 
>even doubled as a hard drive interface with the right driver/cable, if I 
>remember correctly).
>
> L. Curtis Boyle
> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>
>
>
> On Apr 15, 2013, at 9:06 PM, Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just got this via private e-mail.
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "J. Kanowitz" <jkanowitz at snet.net>
>> To: <mmarlett at isd.net>; <dickbatt at buffalo.com>; 
>> <martygoodman at worldnet.att.net>; <SFischer1 at MindSpring.com>
>> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2013 2:46 AM
>> Subject: TRS-80 CoCo J&M floppy system: "Want one?"
>>
>>
>> Lucky you, you folks posted about this hardware in 2004 and it's the 
>> first hit on Google.
>>
>> I'm stuck with one of these (controller and FH floppy enclosure and PSU 
>> populated with one HH floppy) that I'm trying to get out of the ol' 
>> family basement.
>>
>>
>>
>> Any chance any of you are still at these email addresses and want it or 
>> know people who want it? Unfortunately I believe it lacks any identifying 
>> marks other than the J&M name - just a black metal box with the logo on a 
>> corner, and I was never a heavy CoCo user, just was given someone's 
>> abandoned system as a toy about... well, more than a decade ago.
>>
>>
>> I believe I managed to run something that "mis-flashed" it (could it 
>> possibly have some sort of NVRAM?) back in the day and rendered it 
>> incompatible with pretty much all the disks that came with the castaway 
>> system (helpfully they were hard-sectored floppies that someone'd stuck 
>> masking tape over to make soft-sectored, which had already lost its stick 
>> by the mid 90s) - was an unpleasant surprise that pretty much ended my 
>> noodling with the system - but presumably this can be recognized and 
>> remedied by people who actually know what they're doing.
>>
>>
>> The rest of the CoCo debris may still exist in storage somewhere as well, 
>> but access is quite inconvenient even though I'd like to get this stuff 
>> out of my life and into the life of anyone who actually wants it. ;)
>>
>> I'm in CT, nearish NYC, and if this hardware is a true rarity you could 
>> probably talk me into paying shipping to keep it "alive" (the 
>> controller's no big deal, the floppy + PSU is a minor boat anchor, 
>> though).
>>
>> -Cheers,
>> -Joe Kanowitz, N1KZZ