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Brand new, olny 35+ years old... DIY floppy drive

Roland Huisman

Roland Huisman

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Joined
Mar 24, 2011
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1,466
Location
The Netherlands
recently I was searching for an external 8 inch floppy drive case. So I'd ask some
forums and friends. Suddenly I got a message: I might have something for you.

He once bought a floppy drive for a computer. He wanted to start learning
to work with computers in the seventies. Well things changed and he never used it.
But lucky for me, he kept it all years in storage. The drive is older than I am :)
It's dated in 1976.

And I got also a document about a super simple floppy drive interface.
It came with two chips. I don't know if this document is interesting for anyone.
I can always scan it. These is also assembly software listed in the document.

I really wonder, does anyone recognise this case? Is it also BASF?
Does anyone have this drive completely build an have some pictures from it?

1.JPG2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg

Regards, Roland
 
I would definitely scan the docs. The Byte magazine article might be available in a scanned format in other places already, so look before you put a lot of effort into it.

What are the part numbers on the ICs? Be careful - they should be in an anti-static bag and you need to take precautions when handling them. After 30+ years it would be a shame to kill them accidentally.


Mike
 
Hello Mike,

Don't worry, their save now. The ESD material
was completely fallen apart due it's age...

The chips seem to be FDD controller chips.

6.JPG

I will scan the technical doc from the BASF drive.
Only I don't have a website to publish it.

Regards, Roland
 
Hm, doesn't 8140 mean the upper chip was manufactured in week 40, 1981? That would make it five years newer than rest of the kit, if it's dated in 1976.
 
Hello Anders,

That's also my idea. The document for the simple FDD interface
is also dated in 1981. But the drive itself is 1976.

I don't know if the person purchased it all at the same time.
The BASF documentation is dated in 1977.

I really wonder who made the case, and when...

Regards, Roland
 
By 1981, the WD1771 floppy controller was sunsetting. Three supply, pretty much useless without an external data separator, capable only of FM. I beleive that by that time, the WD179x had been out for some time and the WD1770/72/73 was making an appearance. The NEC uPD765 was already out.

But I don't know who made the case for that drive.
 
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