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Adding an external 3.5″ drive to the Einstein TC01 by Chris Cocall

Adding-an-external-3.5-disk-drive-to-a-Tatung-EinsteinDownload

The original 3″ floppy disks for the Einstein are out of production and used floppies are hard to come by but, a modern 3.5″ PC floppy drive without jumper settings, can be used by the Einstein TC01 computer and quickly fitted as shown.

The Einstein computer needs a book disk to install DOS after which applications and programs saved on floppy disks can be loaded and run in the Einstein. A 3.5″ boot disk for the Einstein TC01 can be made in a PC floppy.

For quickly fitting a 3.5″ to an Einstein TC01

An original three inch internal drive for the Einstein TC01. Drive jumpers circled.

If the original 3″ internal drives are fitted these should have their jumper settings changed to be different from the external drives being fitted or an internal drive can be disconnected. The Einstein computer will have to be opened to do this.

3.5″ floppy drives can be fitted quickly to the external floppy drive port on the Einstein with a standard PC floppy drive data cable. Without alteration of the data lines on the ribbon cable it will act as drive 01 or B. To act as a boot drive 0 or A the ribbon cable can be altered.

The Standard PC floppy disk cable for a 01/B drive.

Making the 3.5″ external floppy an A/0 boot drive.

Note: If instead line 14 from the Einstein’s external port is joined to line 12 to the floppy drive the drive will become 02/C. If line 6 is cut and joined to 12 the floppy drive will become 03/D. With either of these adaptations opening up the Einstein and changing the internal 3″ drives might not be necessary to have a working 3.5″ drive. The boot drive would remain an internal 3″ drive in this case.

An external power supply for the 3.5″ floppy or an extension power cable and splitter can be used from the Einstein’s floppy drive power cable.

Creating a 3.5″ Einstein boot disk on the PC

A 3.5″ boot disk for the Einstein TC01 can be made in a PC floppy drive with an XP operating system using CPCDiskXP software and an Einstein Disk Image which can be downloaded via the internet.

CPCDiskXP can be downloaded from http://www.cpcmania.com

Einstein boot disk images can be downloaded from http://www.tatungeinstein.co.uk/

Use a 3.5″ 720k DD floppy disk or an HD disk with the right hole blocked.