ISO half height drives (TI compatible)

[Opry99er]

Looking for a couple half height drives, a 5.25" and a 3.5" that I can mount in my PEB.

 

I have recently acquired an Apple IIe in a trade and I need to make desk space, so I will temporarily be moving my dual 3.5" box off the bench until I can build an extension on my desk.

 

I have looked a schmitzi's list of compatible drives and see that there are many out there that are doable.

 

Looking to trade for them, or purchase them if the price is right. If anyone in the states has a set or even one, I would love to talk business.

[Sinphaltimus]

The 3.5"drives are the same as pc drives, just need a modified cable (no twist).

[Opry99er]

Thanks. Yea, I wasn't sure if all 3.5 drives were compatible. Guess they are.

 

Just need to get a mount and make a bezel once I acquire one I suppose.

[RickyDean]

Most later 5.25 drives from a pc are not compatible, talking about the 1.2 MB drives, with the TI, (unless in some cases, you can modify a wire or reset some jumpers), because they run at 360 RPM, instead of the 300 RPM the TI controllers need to see. Most (pc version) 3.5 drives will run at the 300 RPM.

[+mizapf]

I believe these 1.2 MiB drives are running at 360 rpm only when the signal line for high density is asserted. There is a dedicated line in the Shugart bus. However, I never tried. The line may as well only change the head current.

[Casey]

Is there anything particularly difficult for a pretty novice person as far as installing 3.5" drives in the PEB? I've started to get back into collecting hardware, and I'm thinking of snagging a PEB off of Ebay, but I'd rather use 3.5" media since it is more readily accessible. I assume 2 drives would fit pretty easily in the 5 1/4 drive's slot, but what about the power and cabling. How hard is it to hook those up to a TI disk controller?

[Sinphaltimus]

Not hard at all. Just needed a straight through data cable without any twists. I'm uncertain if you need to mod the controller or not. It will probably work without the mod you'll just have smaller formatted disks and you'll want to be aware of what types of 3.5" floppies you purchase. I don't think HD work well at all.

 

Generally yes, it's easy, I just can't recall the specifics.

 

I have a 5.25" half height external, a 3.5" pc floppy drive internal and a GoTek drive internal. They work well together in my modded controller which is just an 80 track mod as opposed to the default 40.

[Casey]

Thank you!

[+arcadeshopper]

Also there's only holes in the box for one drive though, so you either need a bracket between the disk drives or you may have to drill holes if you want them mounted stable.

 

I use HD disks in 3.5" drives by covering the HD hole with a label.. that makes the drive default to DD instead of HD.. the disks probably aren't readable on a 720k drive though.. just on your drives ymmv

 

There's a kit with everything you need on ebay (not my auction) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Texas-Instruments-3-5-DUAL-FLOPPY-DRIVE-SET-TI-99-4A-TI99-with-Cables-Drives/152579781507

 

Greg