Martin Russ title text
About SS&S Music Anime 3D Wallgames Betsubetsu Others...
SY99 Disk FM Tutorial Effects My Music Programming
Removal Ribbon Adapter Bracket Install Tidy up

Connector orientation
sy99 disk The new drive had a ribbon and a power cable, instead of the previous single ribbon cable.

Normally, the ribbon cable has a polarizing lug sticking out, whilst the socket has a corresponding cut-out. But this drive had a minimalistic open socket that was not compatible with this form of connector keying...

So there had to be a marking on the drive itself to indicate how the cable was meant to go...

sy99 disk The silk-screened character '1' on the ribbon socket was not overly clear. But I found it, and aligned the green stripe on the ribbon with it. The ribbon cable connector has a triangle to indicate the 'pin 1' end of the ribbon as well.

The power cable only went on one way, so that was easy!

sy99 disk Here's the drive with the cables connected. I matched the green stripe on the ribbon to the 1 on the PCB, and the yellow cable is on the right of the power cable.

The way the ribbon was made suggested that it needed to be bent underneath the drive as shown here so that the floppy drive can be placed in the bracket.

If the ribbon had been the other way then it would have needed a very tight bend to avoid the power cable, and stresses like that aren't a good idea with any insulation displacement type connector, so I rejected that idea.

sy99 disk This is what I ended up with after putting the drive in the bracket. (I always do a test assembly first, then put the screws in once I'm happy) You can see the ribbon green stripe on the left, and the power cable yellow on the right. The ribbon goes in the narrow gap between the floppy drive casing and the bracket.

I did consider trying to wrap the ribbon the other way, but then it would be pressing against the power cable and it didn't seem long enough to traverse round to the front of the drive without getting in the way of the floppy slot in the front of the drive. The topology said that this was the right way, so this what I did.

Back to the main description page...


About SS&S Music Anime 3D Wallgames Betsubetsu Others...
SY99 Disk FM Tutorial Effects My Music Programming
Removal Ribbon Adapter Bracket Install Tidy up
© 2004-2008 Martin Russ