RWallmow
Veteran Member
I just recently added a Tandy 1100 FD laptop to my collection, and the machine powers up and boots MS-DOS from ROM like a champ. However I found the floppy doesn't work, upon disassembly I find that the drive is belt driven, and this is a common problem with a stretched drive belt, I believe I have found a turntable belt with the right measurements to fit.
My question (long winded I know), does anyone know if there is a compatible floppy drive unit that is direct drive, not belt driven, because I would much rather not have to swap belts every few years on this thing since its a real pain in the arse to take it apart. I found someone listing pinouts and plans to convert a standard 1.44Mb PC floppy drive over, but it looks like more of a project than I want to take on, I have made high pin count converter cables before and I nearly went cross-eyed doing so, so why reinvent the wheel if someone here knows a direct drop in.
Also, does anyone know how hard would it be to burn a different version of DOS (with some custom files and configuration, maybe even some apps) into a ROM chip and have it work in the 1100? I don't yet own a eeprom burner, but getting one has been on my short list for quite some time, and if this would be possible it might just give me the reason to pull the trigger on one.
If custom ROMs are a possibility, does anyone know what size ROM the 1100 can see, I'm guessing the one that's in there is probably 256k or less, which if its the max doesn't leave much room for anything.
Issues aside, I am psyched that I got this thing for the price I did, I have wanted one since I was about 10 or 11 years old, the page this was on in my radio shack catalog was dog eared and well worn from dreaming of it, over 20 years later I finally have one ;-)
My question (long winded I know), does anyone know if there is a compatible floppy drive unit that is direct drive, not belt driven, because I would much rather not have to swap belts every few years on this thing since its a real pain in the arse to take it apart. I found someone listing pinouts and plans to convert a standard 1.44Mb PC floppy drive over, but it looks like more of a project than I want to take on, I have made high pin count converter cables before and I nearly went cross-eyed doing so, so why reinvent the wheel if someone here knows a direct drop in.
Also, does anyone know how hard would it be to burn a different version of DOS (with some custom files and configuration, maybe even some apps) into a ROM chip and have it work in the 1100? I don't yet own a eeprom burner, but getting one has been on my short list for quite some time, and if this would be possible it might just give me the reason to pull the trigger on one.
If custom ROMs are a possibility, does anyone know what size ROM the 1100 can see, I'm guessing the one that's in there is probably 256k or less, which if its the max doesn't leave much room for anything.
Issues aside, I am psyched that I got this thing for the price I did, I have wanted one since I was about 10 or 11 years old, the page this was on in my radio shack catalog was dog eared and well worn from dreaming of it, over 20 years later I finally have one ;-)