TRS-80 floppy drive compatibility

[Tony Duell]

> 
> I have a Tandy CoCo that had been used with 2 floppy drives. 
> 
> Can I just unplug the drives and use them with a Model I, III, or IV ??

I certainly used a CoCo floppy drive unit (the FD501 one I think) on my 
Model 3 for a time, so it should work on the Model 4 too (same disk 
controller). And I see no good reason why it wouldn't work on a model 1.

I even used one of those cheap mechanical printer swtichboxes (with 36 
pin Blue Ribbon connectors) to switch the drives between the CoCo and the 
Model 3. Made up a couple of cables with edge connectors on one end, Blue 
Ribbon on the other, and crimped a Blue Ribbon plug onto the cable coming 
out of the drive box. Looking at the mess of wiring inside the switchbox 
told me it shouldn't work (noise everywhere!), but amazingly I had no 
problems...

-tony