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Commodore CBM 8032 32B?

M

Mos6502

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Feb 22, 2011
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So I have been looking for a disk drive for my PET 4032, but all of the ones that have shown up on ebay have been ludicrously overpriced lately.

Anyway I bid on and won a 2040 for a very fair price today and I'm happy about that. Somewhat unfortunately it came with a CBM 8032 32B, which I really don't want or need (but must pay shipping for anyway).

But, I am curious about it. After a little googling I read that the 8032 32B was designed to accommodate an internal disk drive. However I could find no images of a machine so fitted.

Does anybody know if any 8032 32Bs had drives installed in them? Was this something that would have been done at the factory?

Anyway I'd love to hear the story behind this if there is one.

Thanks!

Also if the person I outbid by 88 cents uses this forum and is reading this, I'd be happy to offer the 8032 to you for a very low price.
 
Hm, is this what is better known as a 8032-SK, i.e. the model with detachable keyboard and rounded case? If so, you would absolutely find buyers. This speculation is based on that the bigger brother 8296 was available in two models, plain and 8296-D with two integrated 8250LP drives. There is also the CBM-II series with similar cases of which one model had or was planned to have integrated drives. I think Steve or Bill can recount on that matter.
 
No it is basically the same as the regular 8032, except that it uses the taller lower cabinet like the early PETs, instead of the shorter version that appeared on the 4000 series. I'm presuming this was to create more space inside, although I haven't seen any indication of how the internal drive would be mounted. The one I am getting from this auction does not have an internal drive, and looking for pictures of other 32B models, it doesn't seem like anybody has one that was actually fitted with an internal drive - thus my curiosity.
 
Mos6502 said:
No it is basically the same as the regular 8032, except that it uses the taller lower cabinet like the early PETs, instead of the shorter version that appeared on the 4000 series. I'm presuming this was to create more space inside,
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No, I think it was just an older case design and never intended to house a drive. The "B" may indicate a business keyboard. I assume the keyboard has only letters with numerals on the top row with no special PETSCII graphic symbols?

I hope your 2040 dual diskette drive is working OK for you? For your information, it is "read" compatible with the Commodore 1541 drive that goes with the C64 which may prove useful to you.
 
dave_m said:
No, I think it was just an older case design and never intended to house a drive. The "B" may indicate a business keyboard. I assume the keyboard has only letters with numerals on the top row with no special PETSCII graphic symbols?
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Yes, it was an older case design, but I think it *was* intended to house one or two internal drives; mind you, neither I nor Steve Gray (who's seen and in fact owns most versions of the PET) have ever seen one with drives actually installed. Here's my 8032-32B with the bezel removed, beside a FAT 40 which uses the same lower-profile case as the later 8032s; there are threaded mounting posts inside which the drives would presumably attach to:

4032vs8032.JPG
 
MikeS said:
Yes, it was an older case design, but I think it *was* intended to house one or two internal drives; mind you, neither I nor Steve Gray (who's seen and in fact owns most versions of the PET) have ever seen one with drives actually installed.
Click to expand...

Mike,
That is interesting. Did any floppy drive that Commodore was using then even fit in that space?
 
Mos6502 said:
Anyway I bid on and won a 2040 for a very fair price today and I'm happy about that.
Click to expand...

I would say, my computer glitch-ed and i missed the auction.

I just went back to look at my watch list, but found i deleted already. Must have been still steamed seeing what it sold for. lol anyhow I hadn't noticed anything special about the PET, but would be very interested in picking it up from you to add to my collection as I don't have one with drive bay slots if this one does and was only looking at the auction originally for the drive as well.
 
Once it arrives and I make sure it works/hasn't been damaged in shipping, I will let you know.
 
dave_m said:
Mike,
That is interesting. Did any floppy drive that Commodore was using then even fit in that space?
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I don't think so; they're only 1.25" high.

Mind you, those funky 1/3 height Compaq drives would fit... Just need to get/clone one of the PET-to-standard-FDD adapters of the day...
 
Let us know when it arrives and take some pics! Actually, I brought my 8032 to the local Amiga user group (note: it's just a few folks who hang out mostly lol but we still talk current Amiga news and occasionally a system comes in to play with, trouble shoot or show.) Ironically they meet tonight (thursday nights). Like I said, just a small group of friendly Amiga users (past and present). I'm there less often than I'd like but George is usually there with a wealth of knowledge and the latest Amiga gear. CTACS.
 
I don't believe they've even shipped it out yet, but when it shows up I'll be sure to take some pics.
 
dave_m said:
Mike,
That is interesting. Did any floppy drive that Commodore was using then even fit in that space?
Click to expand...

Commodore were definately PLANNING to add internal drives to the PET. You can see this by the mounting posts and removable bezel. Commodore were notorious for cost cutting, so they wouldn't have added those features if they weren't planning to use them. An old magazine article by Jim Brain mentions commodore was working on interal DMA-type drives numbered 2010, 2020 and 2030 (which explains the first drive model numbering-- 2040) but they never got finished/released.

I have seen one third-party installation of a full-height drive mech in the old-style PET casing and the drive slot was very low on the front bezel area. The drive hung down inside. It seemed to be connected to a board in an internal expansion slot add-on.

Of course, Commodore did finally install internal drives into the 8296D machine... the last PET. They were modified 8250LP IEEE drives.

Steve
 
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For even more, more fun, here's the magazine with the article by Jim about the drives... (I can find anything if it's on the web!) ;-)

http://www.bombjack.org/commodore/magazines/commodore_world/pdf/Commodore_World_Issue_18.zip

Okay, I got the numbers wrong... they were the 1010,1020, and 1030 drives, and apparently some prototypes were seen... This is the second part of the article, first part in the issue before. Some VERY interesting reading.

Steve
 
Alright, showed up today. But I don't have my camera with me. Sure enough the front plastic nameplate clips into two openings on the front of the machine, and on the inside of the case there are mounting nubs with threaded brass inserts.

It's actually a lot nicer looking than I thought it would be - the the big screen PETs all look oddly proportioned in photos.
 
Mos6502 said:
Alright, showed up today. But I don't have my camera with me. Sure enough the front plastic nameplate clips into two openings on the front of the machine, and on the inside of the case there are mounting nubs with threaded brass inserts.

It's actually a lot nicer looking than I thought it would be - the the big screen PETs all look oddly proportioned in photos.
Click to expand...

Did the drive work?
 
It powers up, but I don't have the cable for it. I'll probably not be touching it until I get my 4032 out of storage. But I can read the manual that came with it in the meantime.
 
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