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External Floppy Cable

General discussions or ideas about hardware.
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rubber_jonnie
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External Floppy Cable

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Another FB conversation prompted this when somebody asked about connecting the FDD part of the CosmosEx to the external floppy port, to give a B: drive.

So guess what I'm making today:
Guess_What.jpg
I used an existing external enclosure to get the pin mappings I needed looking at the front of the plug, as I couldn't disassemble it:
External Cable.jpg
And then reversed it:
External Cable_2.jpg
As I would be working from the back of the plug.
Solder_side.jpg
I then clamped a new 34 Pin IDC connector on to allow me to buzz out the wires to the plug as per my diagrams:
IDC_Time.jpg
Once I had the 14 wires I needed I trimmed the rest off and began to get my assembly going:
Assembly.jpg
The end result being:
Completed.jpg
Hopefully the pinouts and will help somebody wanting to do the same as me.

Make sure you buzz everything out before assembling to make sure all the connections are good, I had one bad solder joint and a pair of wires transposed.

Happily it's all connected up to my MSTE and CosmosEx and working a treat :)
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Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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exxos
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Re: External Floppy Cable

Post by exxos »

Very nice. Ive not built one for like 20+ years.. *somewhere* I have a 5.25" proper floppy drive.. That Pinout must go back to "paper days" :lol:
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rubber_jonnie
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Location: Essex

Re: External Floppy Cable

Post by rubber_jonnie »

@exxos I've had the parts for years, I bought the din connector from you, god knows how long ago.

Connecting up the CosmosEx as a 2nd floppy was the nudge I needed to make it.
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...

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