Date   : Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:51:05 +0100
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: 3.5" Floppy For A Master

Jeff Gaines wrote:
> Hello Group,
> 
> I 'won' an eBay auction this evening for a BBC Master plus BBC floppy
> and the RF lead. I need to decide between GoMMC, a serial connection
> or an external 3.5" floppy to get my disk images on to the Master.
> 
> I have read Andy Davis's article on converting an Amiga or ST external
> drive, I'm not sure that having a 5.25" BBC floppy helps any because
> if I understand it the BBC drive runs on 5 volts and ordinary floppies
> need 12v and 5v. I kept the powered case I had, designed to hold 2
> floppies, until I had a clean out last year, b*gger, b*ugger, b*gger!

As David says, the aux connector underneath the BBC outputs both +5 and 
+12 volts. *but* I think you'll likely have problems writing BBC-format 
disks on a PC due to the limitations in typical PC floppy hardware (some 
controllers - either built in to the motherboard or not - reportedly do 
it, but out of the ten or so different boards I've tried over the years 
I haven't found one yet!)

> Can anybody think of any type of external enclosure available nowadays
> that has built in power and that I could persuade a floppy drive into?
> Or a way of making use of the 5.25" floppy?

Again, as David said, trays to fit a 3.5" drive in a 5.25" bay do exist. 
If you're close to Cambridge or Milton Keynes I can probably rustle one 
up when I'm back in the UK, but that's not for another 5 weeks yet!

> I could be the proud possessor of a Master soon-ish with no way of
> getting any apps on to it :-( I do have my old cassette recorder with
> the appropriate leads for it to be controlled by the Beeb.

I've only ever used xfer to get stuff *off* a BBC onto a PC, but it was 
a pretty painless experience (I see you're ok with soldering!). Took 
about ten mins to wire up a suitable cable, and the xfer software (on 
linux in my case) worked perfectly. Don't expect it to be fast, though - 
but it's a start.

Oh, the 5.25" drive you'll be getting with the BBC will work fine in a 
PC of course (as above, whether the PC can write BBC formats is another 
matter) - if you've got a newer PC then they may not give you a floppy 
data cable that has the 5.25" type of connectors on it though (I can get 
shedloads of these, just not until I'm back in the UK)

cheers

Jules