Zenith Disk System Help
Posted by CardboardDeath86@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 6 comments
Does anyone know what kind of cable i need to connect this Z-37 Disk System to a Zenith Z-90 computer? I'm not too knowledgeable on early-80s microcomputer stuff like this, but would a regular PC floppy cable work or do I need something more specific? Any help is greatly appreciated
nixiebunny@reddit
Five inch floppy drives use 34 pin ribbon cable. You forgot to post pictures of the connectors at both ends of the missing cable.
CardboardDeath86@reddit (OP)
Well it looks like it's just supposed to take a standard 34 pin pc floppy drive ribbon cable with a female IDC to card-edge connector, but I just wasn't sure if I needed something more specific for this
nixiebunny@reddit
IBM cables have that weird drive select twist. This may or may not need that.
Stoney3K@reddit
The system probably uses the standard Shugart pinout where the floppy drives are wired all in parallel and you can use the Drive Select jumpers on the drive to set which drive is which.
IBM did it differently on the PC because they didn't want customers to bother with jumpers on the drive, so PC drives are always DS1. And the twist for "drive A" is needed because the controller will use DS0 which is re-routed to the DS1 signals when the A drive connector on the end is used.
tes_kitty@reddit
The twist also involves the motor control signals.
Stoney3K@reddit
Right, I forgot that the motor signals for drive 0/1 are not gated through the DS0/1/2/3 selection bits on IBM machines.
The IBM controller uses the DS0 pin to enable the motor for drive B.