KG7PFS
Experienced Member
I'm looking for a Tandy Color Computer Hard Disk Controller, Catalog #26-3145.
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Tandy Color Computer Hard Disk Controller
- Thread starter KG7PFS
- Start date
Wow, I did not know such a thing existed. Did not make economic sense in 1988, a $129 controller that required a MPI and OS9 to use with several thousand dollar 15MB HD all to run on a $200 computer.
Would this work with a FreHD? (Ian..)
KG7PFS
Experienced Member
Come on, there must be one of these out there somewhere!
NF6X
Veteran Member
Wow, this is new to me, too! If a second one appears, please sign me up.
KG7PFS
Experienced Member
There were two different hard disk systems sold by Tandy in those days. One, of course, is the big primary drive with up to three secondary drives. The OS-9 Level II Development Kit came with the drivers for this controller, up to 35 Meg. ($2995.00) Tandy also sold a 70 Meg drive that would probably work but you would have to write your own descriptor.
The other system for the model 4 used the 26-1138 controller and 25-1025 10 Meg drive ($699.00) or 25-somethingorother 20 Meg. ($abunchofmoney.00). They say "nobody ever got these drives to work" with the CoCo. Duh. Tandy never advertised them for the CoCo. They are smaller, maybe more common, and the style is more consistent with the external 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" drives sold for the Tandy 1000, as well as Commodore, Coleco, Atari, and lots of other classic drives. I have always preferred these single drives over the FD-50x dual drives or the vertical full height.
Adapting the Model 4 controller might take some minor programming, but it shouldn't be too hard. This controller also opens up the possibility of using other model III/4 hardware with the CoCo.
The other system for the model 4 used the 26-1138 controller and 25-1025 10 Meg drive ($699.00) or 25-somethingorother 20 Meg. ($abunchofmoney.00). They say "nobody ever got these drives to work" with the CoCo. Duh. Tandy never advertised them for the CoCo. They are smaller, maybe more common, and the style is more consistent with the external 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" drives sold for the Tandy 1000, as well as Commodore, Coleco, Atari, and lots of other classic drives. I have always preferred these single drives over the FD-50x dual drives or the vertical full height.
Adapting the Model 4 controller might take some minor programming, but it shouldn't be too hard. This controller also opens up the possibility of using other model III/4 hardware with the CoCo.
Dwight Elvey
Veteran Member
I have a 5Meg box that I converted to use with my Olivetti M20.
The controller in it was basically a WD1000. They are simple to interface
with and not that hard to write software for. I had to write low level software
to clear the track 0 on a 20Meg drive( the Olivetti used it for bad sector
information ). Most hard drive controllers are much easier to communicate
with than floppies. They all have at least a sector buffer.
Dwight
The controller in it was basically a WD1000. They are simple to interface
with and not that hard to write software for. I had to write low level software
to clear the track 0 on a 20Meg drive( the Olivetti used it for bad sector
information ). Most hard drive controllers are much easier to communicate
with than floppies. They all have at least a sector buffer.
Dwight
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