On 5/24/2010 6:37 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
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On Monday, 2010-05-24 at 14:21 -0500, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 05/19/2010 02:19 AM, Hans Witvliet wrote:
The reason why the light on a _floppy_ disk was on when connecting the cable backwards, is that the one of the lines, the /write-gate, was permenently asserted, thus the floppy drive was constantly writing.
I think most of the older generation, who had to solder their own computer, made that mistake, once ;-)
So true. Most of the current generation hasn't had the pleasure of finding out just what happens when the floppy cable gets put on backwards. I had that painful learning experience while building my first box in 1989. So my first response about the floppy was from that experience and was written in a half-joking/half-serious manner.
IIRC, the connector had a notch so that it couldn't be plugged reversed by accident. However, I had a computer with the cable reversed (it wasn't soldered, but of the IPC (insulation piercing connector" type)), so that I had to plug the connector with the notch in the wrong side... by using the "right" amount of force. Later I removed part of it with a cutter.
I didn't asemble that machine initially, bought it built. I had to remove cables once, and when I reassembled the floppy (at least) did not work, the light was always on... what? It took some time to discover the cable plug notch was on the wrong side. No Internet or email to ask for help, you know...
Glad you got it working. ... now where did my tin of flux go :?
Better not find it. It is a contaminant, we are supposed to use something else instead of the tin-lead alloy we used. But I still have about half a kilogram of it... and I don't intend to go shopping son ;-)
- -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. I recently read somewhere that the "modern" solder and the old tin/lead are not completely compatible. If you're working on an older device, it would be good to have the old solder. Conversely, of course. . . .
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