I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Disk drives, Monitors, SuperCPU etc.
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Gyro Gearloose
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I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

What would happen if we try this
FD-3000_fantasy.jpg
I just put two laptop drives instead of the full-sized drive, there's no connection inside the unit.

I wonder if there's a disassembly or source listing of the FD-2000's DOS. Either use the two drives as device 0 and 1 like the usual Commodore dual-drive way, or have them as devices 8 and 9, or whatever.

Meh, just an idea.


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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by MarcWalters »

Just a related but irrelevant aside: Back in the early 2000s, CMD created a custom disk duplicator that looked something like this, but in a larger case - the two drives were different devices and there was some custom ROM that allowed a copy upon sensing both disks were in.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

Yes I saw that on 8 Bit Show And Tell's channel, but I wasn't sure if it was a duplicator or actually works as a dual drive unit.

I just had two laptop drives (hoarder power, activate!) lying around. It fits physically, with some caveats.

Laptop drives use flat flex cables so there's no way to connect two mechanisms on the same cable so an adapter needs to be designed, as well as circuitry to allow the FD-2000 to select each mechanism. I think it's doable.

The caveats are that laptop drives don't exactly fit, they are half height as you can see but they are narrower so a mechanical adapter also needs to be made. And the screw holes are at the same locations but use smaller screws.

I just thought it looks kinda neat. Doing it is another story.
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Heart »

Maybe contact Robin to get a copy of the custom ROM.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

Well first I want to hook up just one laptop drive. I ordered a 34 pin to 26 pin floppy adapter and I'll see. Plus I have no idea if those laptop drives even work at all. Just another one of my random ideas ...
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Heart »

I think the drive mechanism requires one or two hardware modifications to work with the FD-2000 or FD-4000.
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

Well I received the adapter and indeed it doesn't work. The drive just spins and nothing else happens. I don't know if these mechanisms are still good. Oh well, another idea on the backburner.
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by eslapion »

Maybe I'm just like a dog strolling in the middle of a bowling alley here but...

Since we can program a modern micro-controller to simulate a 6502/6510 processor (see: https://www.pjrc.com/commodore-64-accelerator/ ) and we have the firmware of the original FD-2000 then couldn't we just build a virtual FD-9000 using a Teensy 4.1 which performs the same function as an FD-2000/FD-4000 but uses an SD card as storage which is far more convenient than antiquated 1.44MB floppies ?
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Gyro Gearloose
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by Gyro Gearloose »

None of that is fun for me. I want the old hardware. All the weird things and exotic out-of-reach hardware I saw in magazines as a kid. Like my SFD-1001 drive. What's the point? I don't know, but a 1M floppy in ~1983 was more amazing to me as a kid than any TB SSD or GHz CPU is to me now. :D
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Re: I'd like to propose a "FD-3000"

Post by banman »

Gyro Gearloose wrote: Mon Apr 17, 2023 1:29 am I want the old hardware. All the weird things and exotic out-of-reach hardware I saw in magazines as a kid. Like my SFD-1001 drive.
Absolutely!
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