A&J Stringy Floppy

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Feb 28 21:54:00 2003

--- Stan Barr <stanb_at_dial.pipex.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> "Chandra Bajpai" <cbajpai_at_attbi.com> said:
> > I bet Exatron just OEM the drive of other applications.
> > As far as I know Exatron built drives for the TRS-80 market.
>
> Yes, I've got one for a TRS-80. I used it for a couple of months
> until I saved enogh money for a couple of floppies - floppies
> cost serious money in 1978! ISTR it was quite reliable, if a
> bit slow.

I remember that they had a version for the PET (ads in Byte and/or
Creative Computing, IIRC) and I seriously considered getting one
PET floppy drives (2040 and 4040, at this point in time) were
*outrageously* expensive (more than the computer by a *lot*).
Fortunately (?) for me, I didn't even have enough money in high school
for even a Stringy Floppy. My first floppy drive was a 1540 that
belonged to my first employer (I got to take the machine home to
code on it, C-64 S/N 00002008) I still have "Disk 1" down in the
basement - saw it just last night.

Eventually, I did get a 2040 (with upgrades making it a 4040 except
for the sticker), but that was so much later that it was $10.

The first Stringy Floppy drive I saw up close was the one in the
device programmer. I don't think it ever ran a single tape. I
disassembled the programmer a few years ago - the drive is completely
integral with the case... it doesn't mount _in_ the case, the boards
and mechanicals mount _to_ the case. One would have to build an
armature to consider a transplant, and even then, it would lack any
sort of controller... I had thought to use it elsewhere (since my
need to blast bipolar PALs is nearly nil), but no dice.

-ethan
Received on Fri Feb 28 2003 - 21:54:00 GMT