Description
The Dual Floppy Drive Set
A great nostalgic add-on for any retro-computer*
2023 revision: brand new *fully maintainable* enclosure!
2 easy to reach screws –
You can disassemble the drive set completely!
- For Shugart compatible floppy interfaces
- Manually crafted!
- Front and back bezels are either original mint ones, or top-grade high resolution resin printed replicas
- The about 50cm long ribbon cable is attached to the drive set (can be detached if the case is opened)
- E.g. for:
- ZX Spectrum with PlusD, PlusDlite, Disciple or Betadisk floppy disk interface
- Sinclair QL with Cumana, Trump or Gold card floppy disk interface
- other machines like BBC etc, with Shugart-pinout compatible floppy disk interface
- Including *top grade* 5V 2A power supply (EU / UK / US / Australian – the type that is needed in your country is included)
*Connects to any Shugart compatible floppy disk interface – many retrocomputers need a separate interface for that.
Read the included printed manual here.
We offer the PlusDlite floppy disk interface for the ZX Spectrum in this webshop.
Pinout is according to the Shugart standard:
– Pin 10: Drive select 0
– Pin 12: Drive select 1
– Pin 14: Drive select 2
– Pin 16: Motor on
The enclosure can easily be opened for maintenance.
The included drives have been cleaned, tested, the heads have been cleaned with IPA, and the mechanical moving parts have been greased with silicon grease.
Norberto Collado –
Can I used the THE DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SET on a regular PC?
bverstee –
It is configured to be Shugart compatible, which is not 100% compatible to IBM/PC floppy disk interfaces: there are some minor differences with drive select and motor on signals.
However, two solutions are coming up:
1) I’m working on a Shugart to IBM/PC adapter, which is almost finished (need to test and see if modifications are needed). This will make it possible to connect a Shugart configured drive set, to a DOS machine, or another machine with IBM/PC interface (pinout).
2) The other solution is the new version of this drive set, which is also about to be available: this one has a new case (it took years to find this new version – only 2 case types are known to fit), which makes assembling a set way easier, and can be easily disassembled when needed. This also makes it very easy to swap out the ribbon cable with one that works with IBM/PC (pinout) interfaces.
Norberto Collado (verified owner) –
The “DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SET” works fine on my Heathkit H8 system with the New H8-H37-H67 Controller under HDOS and CP/M.
Thank you for such great product.
Norby
ande –
Hallo,
Ist das THE DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SET Amiga kompatibel ?
bverstee –
The set is Shugart pinout compatible, I’m not sure if the Amiga has the same interface signals.
I think it does: I remember people assembling a PC drive into their Amigas.
The Dual Floppy Drive set has a 34 (2×17) pin IDC connector, so to use it as external drive for e.g. Amiga 500, you probably need an adapter.
If there is more demand for such, I may dig into it.
Norberto Collado (verified owner) –
The “DUAL FLOPPY DRIVE SET” works fine on my Heathkit H8 system with the New H8-H37-H67 Controller under HDOS and CP/M.
Thank you for such great product.
Norby
Ermanno –
Hello.
I have a Sinclair QL interface model Micro Peripherals ltd Disk System 5.3I. Sinclair brand.
Please, could you tell me if your floppies are compatible?
Thank you very much.
Ben Versteeg –
By default the Dual Floppy Drive set is wired for Shugart floppy disk interfaces.
Most floppy disk interfaces for the Sinclair QL are Shugart compatible.
From a couple I actually heard this from customers.
You can find some of these interfaces in this manual:
https://www.bytedelight.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Dual-Floppy-Drive-Set-Manual.pdf
The Micro Peripherals interface is not listed there.
I assume the Micro Peripherals interface is also Shugart compatible, but I’m not sure.
If you have a manual of that, you could check the pinout of the floppy connector.
Shugart interfaces have Drive Select 0, 1 and 2 on pins 10, 12 and 14 respectivally.
IBM PC compatible interfaces have Motor On A on pin 10, Drive Select B on pin 12, Drive Select A on pin 14, and Motor on B on pin 16.