Tandy 1000TX build \ VOGONS

Tandy 1000TX build

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First post, by snorg

Posted on 2016-06-05, 16:52

snorg Offline

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So I've decided a good rainy-day project for today might be to finally finish this Tandy 1000TX restore I've been putting off.

I have a 720k Gotek floppy emulator, can I use this with the stock machine or is this going to cause problems? As I recall, the 1000 series has some strangeness regarding the cabling on the floppies, I assume I'd need to modify it somehow before I could use the Gotek.

If I don't want to fool with that, can I just put in an 8 bit floppy drive controller and use standard cabling? Or is that going to cause all sorts of other problems?

Maybe I will just leave the machine completely stock, save for the XT-IDE adapter I bought for it.

Thoughts? Advice?

Reply 1 of 4, by bjt

Posted on 2016-06-05, 19:02

bjt Offline

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Yes, you would need to cut some wires in the floppy cable, but it will work with the Tandy's FDC. I have a Gotek in my TL/2.

A standalone floppy controller would only work if you are able to disable the TX's FDC completely.

Reply 2 of 4, by keenerb

Posted on 2016-06-06, 14:36

keenerb Offline

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See if nofloppy works on the tandy 1000TX:

ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/tvdog/tandy1000/ut … es/nofloppy.zip

Stick it on a bootable floppy, run it, and it should (temporarily) disable the on-board floppy drive.

If that works, then you should be able to pick up an aftermarket floppy controller (or build one of Sergey's) and have 1.44mb support.

HOWEVER, I'd recommend tracking down a 1000SL or better; the ability to use standard XT keyboards (or PS/2 keyboards with the AT2XT adapter) is a huge relief considering the rarity and cost of the 8-pin/83-key tandy 1000?X keyboards.

Reply 3 of 4, by Great Hierophant

Posted on 2016-06-07, 00:45

Great Hierophant Offline

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Nofloppy won't work on the TX, it is only for the TL and SL and later computers.

http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/ - Nerdly Pleasures - My Retro Gaming, Computing & Tech Blog

Reply 4 of 4, by keenerb

Posted on 2016-06-07, 01:56

keenerb Offline

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Yeah, a bunch of the references I found referred to "might work on other tandy models" and whatnot.

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