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Mounting 3.5" drives in Tandy 6000

H

hexsane

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Mar 4, 2009
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So I've progressed to booting my 6000 with CP/M. Currently its a glorified model 16 (I think as I get fuzzy as to the difference in the models). Basically a Model 12 case with the guts of a 6000HD sans 68k board set. I have pictures of the entire process of the rebuild but I want the grand finale of photos with the drives installed. Has anyone done this? I'm looking for mounting pointers or ideas. I was thinking 2 drives mounted flush side by side sitting vertically with access through the 8" slot. I don't have an 8" drive to gauge alignment and don't know the distance from the edge of the slot to the side of the 8" drive mounting bracket. I prefer to do this without damaging the 6000 face. Any thoughts?

-Matt
 
Thats my website. :)

There was a lot more space to work with in the MII and I didn't have to remove the entire face when I needed to get measurements.

-Matt
 
Why would you want to do that? I'd leave the 8" drives where they are and put the 3.5" drives in an external box. If you need to boot from the 3.5" drive, just change the drive-select jumpers.

That being said, you could mount 4 3.5" drives horizontally in the 8" drive space with room left over.
 
I don't have the 8" drive that goes with it. Because the 6000 uses slim 8" drives and has a molded face for disk access you can't mount them as I did for the 5 1/4" drives in the MII. I do have an extra slot cover though so external is an option. I'd really like to use the open space in the case if I can make it look good.

-Matt
 
If I read it right Matt doesn't have an 8" drive (or did you mean a spare, external one to measure?)

And I think he wants to use the existing 8" slot without opening up the whole 8" bay; have I got that right?

Seems to me he's going to have to remove the front plate sooner or later...

edit: looks like our replies crossed in cyberspace; so what's the problem? Make a plate to mount the drives on and use some spacers or build a little box to line up the drive slots. What are you going to do about the buttons?

edit 2: I don't really understand; what's the difference? If you remove the 8" drive or the spare cover don't you have a hole to mount the drives in? Picture(s)?
 
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For clarification: I don't have an 8" drive for this at all not even a defective one.

Not only have I had the face off. I've rebuilt this computer from the base plate up. :)

Its difficult to get the measurement from the edge of the 8" slot opening to the edge of the internal drive bracket as I have big fingers. I don't know how far the 8" drive protrudes from the drive mounting bracket. With that measurement alone I'd probably be able to fashion the bracket and stack spacers until I get it edged up with the slot.

I was just hoping someone had done this before and could give me some ideas.

-Matt
 
Guess I still don't get it; if there's no drive and/or blank plate, don't you just have an 8.5 x 2.375" hole or two?

I have some Tandon TM848s if that helps in any way with measurements; also a few boxes of 8" diskettes if you (or someone) needs any elsewhere.
 
The face of the case is molded to fit the slot of the 8" drive with a larger opening at the bottom for the drive lever. It isn't just an open drive bay.

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The measurement from the mounting holes nearest the disk slot to the face of the drive should be good enough to get me started.

-Matt
 
I'm staring at my Model 16 here and trying to make sense of your photo (I'm lousy with visual-spatial things).

I'm guessing that you didn't mod the case at all--that the blank plate is mounted on the outside of the case and the original case divider for the side-by-side half-height 8" floppies is still present.

If that's the case, would a couple of 3"½"-to-5¼" adapters to replace the 5¼" drives be the simplest?

As a side issue--how many of the Model II/12/16/6000 boxes lack a hard drive? Would a simple SD or USB pen-to-WD1002 interface project attract any attention? You could probably do it with an AVR µC and very few components.
 
The Model II in the photo has an open full height 8" drive bay. The 12/6000 doesn't. It's molded as I explained before.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=766

The above is the case for a 12 (nearly identical to the 6000) and what my 6000 is mounted in. I found a picture of the 16 and it appears to be a Model II case with a molded face (maybe its a 16b?):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32614724@N06/3045221625/

Hard drives and controllers for the II series are not easy to come by and I would support an effort to get it going. I have an HD in mine but no controller.

-Matt
 
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