Tandy Portable Disk Drive Repair

[bluejay]

I really need to get my TPDD working now. Seriously. Cassettes suck.

Anyways, I'm having problems with my TPDD. First and foremost, I don't have the serial cable for it. Where can I get one that isn't way overpriced?

Also, the eject mechanism is a bit funky. A lot of the time, the drive gets jammed open, and requires a complete disassembly to fix. Is this a common problem?

The drive has a disintegrated belt, but I guess I can just buy a new one off eBay and replace it.

What kind of disk does it use? 3.5 DSDD? DSHD?

Lastly, what is the drive used for and how? Is it just the cassette's big brother? Was a lot of Model 100 software relesed on floppy?

Thanks in advance.

[+arcadeshopper]

I have cables at arcadeshopper.com

Sent from my LM-G820 using Tapatalk

[bluejay]

Seems a bit expensive tho...

But I don't think I'll be able to get it anywhere else.

Well, at least I'll have a plan B when I can't find anything else.

[Turbo-Torch]

I'm really trying to figure you out.  Do you randomly buy old computers with little to no knowledge about them?

When you buy one, do you try to gather the most basic information about them by reading the manuals?  The links below took only seconds to find using Google.

The first link has pdf downloads to all the manuals you can want for your 100 series computer.

The center link is specifically for the drive you're asking about, including schematics.

The third link is to Radio Shack's catalogs from back in the day.  Open the page to your computer...read what your computer can do, take notice of the very informative fine print specs, check out all the other ads for the accessories that were available, read about all the software that was available.

 

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/kyocera/index.htm

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/kyocera/potrtdisk.pdf

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalog_directory.html

 

It seems you've recently bought a VIC 20, CoCo, Model 100 and an expensive Apple setup.  Have you managed to get even one of them working properly? 

Just a suggestion...maybe buy one system, take your time doing needed maintenance and repairs to get it 100%, then learn how to use it and its peripherals, load programs, enter programs, etc. before moving on to another system.  Like I said, just a suggestion.  And then when you need a proprietary part like Arcade Shopper's custom built cable at an extremely reasonable $25, it won't seem like it costs a fortune to you.

 

Oh and one other suggestion...when you ask questions and others take the time to answer, you often leave them hanging by never coming back to that thread.  An example is the one you started about your fuse popping VIC 20.  Maybe a simple thanks or hitting a like button once in a while so that person doesn't feel like they typed into a black hole?

 

 

 

 

 

[bluejay]

The disk drive came with my broken model 100, and I didn't bother researching about it when I got it because the Model 100 didn't work. And while I try to do some proper research, I also post some questions I have here because I can't find the stuff I need online a lot of the time.(If you type PR#3, the computer will switch to 80 column mode. It doesn't.)

And about the "not replying"... That's totally my fault. I apologize to people who might have thought the same way.