[Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator

[Christopher Smith]

Well, I'm not too concerned with writing current media, since I no longer have any of it.  What does concern me is whether I can read it in case I get some later, and whether I can make optimal use of the disks with DECB.  If I'm not mistaken, the wider track spacing in double-density means more data space on the outside of the disk... unless at some point I manage to get a patched BASIC that will actually use all of the tracks.

Chris

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Al Hartman" <alhartman6 at optonline.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 2:03:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] Regarding a cheap floppy emulator
> 
> To be honest, the LAST thing I would do is try to use a 1.2mb drive
> jumpered
> to 300 RPM. It's still an 80 track drive, which writes thinner
> tracks. You
> won't be able to write to existing 35 track Coco Media without first
> copying
> the disk to a bulk erased floppy. I'd buy a 360k drive on eBay. I've
> bought
> three in the last month for under $30.00 apiece. You just have to put
> in a
> search for 360k drives, and wait. I'd also check an electronics
> recycling
> center, Freecycle, or Craigslist. If you spot an old IBM XT or PC or
> compatible with 360k drives, grab it!
> 
> I was using an old PC Clone case as a case/power supply for four
> drives for
> my Coco at one time.
> 
> I'm trying to buy an FD-502 myself.
> 
> Al
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
> From: Christopher Smith
> 
> So, given that I may need to build my CoCo disk system from parts
> anyway,
> I've been looking at the possibility of emulating one out of two
> floppy
> drives in hardware.  There is at least one very impressive floppy
> emulator
> available which will do everything I want, but it's upward of $100
> and the
> budget isn't so great for now.  I'm looking at the possibility using
> a
> Chinese import emulator from ebay.  Supposedly it will emulate a
> 720k, 1.2M,
> and 1.44M floppies.  Now, of these formats, I'm reasonably sure the
> CoCo
> won't like any but the first.  That may be sufficient.  Here's what
> I'm
> considering:
> 
> I have a Teac 5.25" drive on order.  It's high-density, but people
> say that
> these things have an RPM jumper on them which will slow the spindle
> down.
> You can then either force them to double-density mode or have them
> function
> as quad-density.  People also say that the quad-density disks will
> work out
> ok under OS-9.  I'd like to fit a switch onto the density selector so
> that I
> can force the drive into either double or quad density mode at any
> given
> time.  So that should make one good drive.
> 
> I'm also thinking about trying one of those floppy emulators.  It
> would need
> to be forced into 720k mode, and would basically work similarly to
> the 5.25"
> disk in quad-density mode, I suspect.  The downside is that the
> emulated
> disks would be smaller than usual under DECB, and unless I flipped
> sides
> there either by attaching another switch that mucks around with the
> side
> select signal on the cable or in software, I lose half of the space
> in a
> disk image that I might have still had.  Though, OS-9 should use them
> at
> full capacity, one would think.  My other problem here is that I
> strongly
> suspect that this emulator will not have drive select jumpers, so I
> may need
> to end up clipping pins, or -- who knows what, really -- to get the
> drives
> in the order I'd like.  Really I think the emulated floppy should be
> drive 0
> and the actual floppy 1.
> 
> Any comments or suggestions on how to do this or why it's a bad idea
> and
> something else should be done instead? :)
> 
> All that aside, I'll still have the problem of housing the drives.
>  I've
> recently salvaged an old case that had a CD-ROM in it, which should
> be
> sufficient for a single drive, but I don't really have anything
> appropriate
> for two drives.  A standard (and as small as possible) PC power
> supply of
> even 60W or so should do fine for power, I think.  As for the box,
> I'm not
> quite sure what to do there.  Perhaps wood I could do on my own.
>  Maybe I
> could have something fabricated out of metal.  Something else?  Any
> ideas
> here will be welcome as well.
> 
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
Christopher Smith
Systems Engineer, Wolfram Research