Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!xanth!lll-winken!uunet!ncrlnk!emdeng!lnewman From: lnewman@emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM (Lee.A.Newman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809 Subject: Re: Wordpower 3.2 disk I/O blues Keywords: coco Message-ID: <643@emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM> Date: 20 Mar 89 17:39:23 GMT References: <8903061306.AA18126@decwrl.dec.com> <636@emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM> <1687@leah.Albany.Edu> Reply-To: lnewman@emdeng.Dayton.NCR.COM (Lee.A.Newman) Distribution: na Organization: E&M Dayton, NCR Corporation, Dayton, Ohio Lines: 56 In article <1687@leah.Albany.Edu> bbw842@leah.Albany.Edu (Barry B Werger) writes: >I love my coco. I waited a long time for the coco 3 and OS/9 level >2, and finally they arrived. Shortly thereafter I left for college, and >for a while was separated from it... > >I couldn't find a radio shack that had ever >heard of the multipack modification for the coco3. My disk controller >needs the now-nonexistant 5 volt power line, so i cannot use it withjout >the multipack. You can find 3rd parties who will send you the PAL chip for your 26-3024 multipak in Rainbow Magazine. I hear on the net that Tandy will no longer sell just the chip - it appears they want the money to install it also. I have been living dangerously, that is, I have been running without a modified multipak. No problems, YET. I plan on upgrading it within the next couple of weeks, though. In case anyone is wondering, I have not previously upgraded since I own a board which I knew would not work with the new PAL chip. I have just modified the address decoding on the board to permit it to work with a modified multi-pak. Note: If you own multipak #26-3124 you need to add a small piggyback board. If you are afraid of doing electronic soldering inside your coco, I recommend that you let Tandy do it. Remember, if they screw it up they will give you a new one. If you screw it up, you're out of luck. >One of my disk drives seems to be on it's last legs in >terms of functionality, and the other I need a cable for; it's a 40 track >double sider. You should be able to use your existing cable with your double-sided 40 tk drive, but you won't be able to access the other side. Since I assume that you have the original Tandy cables, Here's what you can do to access the other side: 1) Add a new connector to your existing cable. Radio Shack sells replacement 34 pin connectors. Place it at the drive (not controller) end of the cable, and plug your double-sided drive into your new connector. What Radio Shack did was pull some pins off of their connectors. Double sided drives need one of the pulled pins to access the other side, and they need the appropriate drivers (Level 2 comes with them, but you must create a new bootable disk). OR 2) Create a new cable. This is more expensive, but is the more elegant solution. You need to buy a long enough cable (I have found that I always need a longer cable than I thought I did when I was at the store) and at least two 34 pin connectors. WARNING: make sure you mark which end is the top, on both sides of the cable. Suggestion: keep a tail on the cable, as you never know when you may want to get another drive. Replacing a cable just because there is no room for another connector is no fun. Oh, one thing I forgot. Use a vise to clamp the two parts of the connector together. Using your fingers or a hammer just won't work. (I speak from experience. Don't try it.) Lee Newman lnewman@emdeng.dayton.NCR.com