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TRS-80 Model III Diskless upgrade advice : Power Connectors

behines

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2024
Messages
38
Location
Pasadena, CA, USA
Hello,

This thread is the first in a series of questions about upgrading a Model III from diskless. I am new to Model III so am looking for advice and "gotcha" tips.

I am upgrading a diskless Model III to include a floppy and hard disk.



I have a bunch of stuff I'd love to get input on, but I have two main question I'd love to get input on. The first is

1) Power connector for the floppy controller (and for the RS232 card)

I purchased both a original floppy controller and RS232 card. What's baffling is that the power connector seems reversed from what's on the motherboard. Here's a photo of my motherboard's power connector at left and the floppy connector at right:

1710718679872.png

As baffling as it seems, I did a deep dive into the schematics and circuit board layouts in the Tech Ref, and in both cases we have +5V on pin 1 and GND on pin 2, etc.

I may have made sense of it when I discovered this photo on Dave's Old Computers site of a Model IV, showing the floppy power connectors indeed wired "backwards", with red on the right:

1710719054593.png

I have made my own power connectors (as part of a "franken-cable") with my new power supply that uses this Jameco part and pins, that have red on the right:

1710719163403.png

I believe this to be 1) correct, and 2) proper form, in spite of the fact that it's the opposite of the motherboard power connector. Is this all true?
 
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