+Larry Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 As I mentioned in another thread, I would get this out and check its condition, etc. Here are a couple of pics. The 3.5 drive is housed in a 5.25 case that I got a long, long time ago -- an IB drive. (I don't remember much about the IB.) The XF551 upper case is pretty badly yellowed, so it would need retrobriting or spray paint to restore the appearance. Rustoleum "Soldier Gray" is the closest I've found to the original XE colors, but I haven't looked in quite a few years. My method of choice used to be to spray first with Krylon "Fusion" and then apply a second coat of the Rustoleum. I'll post more after I check it out. BTW, the XF to the left of the dual drive is an XF552, and it will get a separate thread. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 Well, I have checked them out and they appear to be in good working order. I was able to boot both regular and UltraSkew disks in the XF551. No trouble reading very old disk files on either drive. I used Hias' HISIO rom OS to test the high speed. IMO, the XF551 was always a "cut above" in reading disks since it used an arguably superior floppy disk controller -- WD1772. For me, it would read virtually everything, including disks that 1050's would not read. Probably a combination of factors including the Mitsumi mech, but definitely great read/write. As you can (sort of) see in the above picture of the back, the top cover had to be filed out slightly in order to not pinch the ribbon cable and get the power wires through. I went to the NLE/CSS web site to see if the docs were posted, but didn't find them. I do have the original kit docs from CSS. Somewhere around here, I have the alternate rom that allows two 3.5" drives. But so far, I haven't run across it. I'm going to use these for awhile to make sure that everything continues to work properly, then I'll probably entertain offers if someone is interested. It won't be "eBay prices", but will definitely be north of $200 + shipping to give you an idea of what I'm thinking. If you check out the NLE web site, you'll see that it has been "spiffed up." Good for Bob, and I hope he and his audio business are doing well! http://www.nleaudio.com/css.shtml 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+bf2k+ Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted June 7, 2020 Author Share Posted June 7, 2020 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mathy Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Hello Larry IIRC, later versions of the ROM allowed you to use two 3.5" drives when you lifted one of the legs of that ROM. BTW you can find the docs on my Docs page. Sincerely Mathy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Larry Posted June 8, 2020 Author Share Posted June 8, 2020 Thanks, Mathy. I did not know that you had posted the docs on your web site (or I'd forgotten!). -Larry 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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