Installation of the floppy disk system

In principle, all connections of electronic components should only be made or released when the power supply is switched off. Otherwise, how quickly is an expensive fully integrated component destroyed by voltage peaks that occur.

This also applies to the connection of the floppy disk system. So make sure that the power supply of the computer system is turned off.

The floppy disk controller is first connected to the system bus on the back of the computer. This is the plug strip to which a possibly existing memory extension was connected. You can now connect it to the top of the floppy disk controller. There are two 20-pin connector strips on the back of the floppy disk controller to connect the drives, they are marked “D1” for drive 1 and “D2” for drive 2

If you only have one drive, connect it to “D1”.

Each drive requires a separate power supply. The 5-pin DIN plug of the power supply unit must be plugged into the corresponding socket on the back of the drive.

Now connect the power packs to a mains socket and your setup is complete. You should make sure that there is no diskette in the drive when making or breaking the power connection, as this could possibly destroy the data content.

You should always disconnect the power supply from your floppy disk drives if you will not be using the system for a long period of time.

It is advisable to procure a 220 volt plug strip with an illuminated on/off switch for all mains connections of the computer system. This way you can interrupt the entire power supply when you have finished your work by simply pressing a button.

Remember that the LASER 110 and VZ200 computers with 4K internal RAM must have at least a 16K memory expansion.

Figure 1.8 Floppy disk drive, 16K memory expansion and floppy disk control