Kaypro System disks?

[Mr Ian Primus]

--- On Thu, 7/2/09, Jim Brain <brain at jbrain.com> wrote:
   
> OK, for the record, I saw the app.  But, I made an
> assumption that I 
> need a PC drive.
> 

PC's use standard Shugart-style interface floppy drives, just like most other computers of the era. You'll find that most machines have compatible disk drives - Kaypro, Osborne, TRS-80, IBM PC, TI-99/4A (in the expansion unit), etc, etc.

The "oddballs" like the C64, Apple II, Atari, and other micros are all different though.

The primary difference between other machines and PC's is the drive select line. PC's have all the disk drives jumpered as the second drive (drive 1), and use a cable with a twist in it to swap the select line around to turn a drive jumpered as drive one into drive zero. Most other machines just use the drive select jumpers on the drive itself.

As for a cable, you should only need a regular PC floppy cable, with the card edge style connectors as well. Find one of the long ones, Gateway full tower machines used to come with really long floppy cables. And the cables for older machines used to have both card edge and dual row pin type connectors for both 5 1/4" drives and 3 1/2" drives. You should be able to unplug the data cable from the Kaypro drive, and plug it into the PC cable.  You can leave the drive in the Kaypro, and leave it connected to the Kaypro for power - and just hook the cable up to the PC. If you use drive zero, then plug it in with the non-twisted connector, and the PC should use it as Drive A. If you use drive one, plug it in with the twisted connector, and it'll be drive A.

-Ian