I have an Apple IIe with a Disk II, and I'm looking for a better solution to my disk drive cabling.
Currently, the Disk II ribbon cable goes from the drive loosely through an open port in the back of the computer and into the controller card.
I'm wondering if this is the typical way these are set up? My concern is that I move the computer in and out of storage often, and I'd rather not be opening it up and fiddling with the controller card each time.Also, the controller card gets tugged often when the drive is moved around.
Is there a standard adapter that goes in the open port that I can plug the drive into? Thanks for any advice.
Later on in the life of Apple II, Apple Computer provided metal clamps for peripheral cards with external cables. These I think came about in the early 1980s as part of the transition from non-RFI to RFI-compliance for Apple II. These metal clamps fit into the V-shaped cutouts in the case, and made a stronger connection for the cable and peripheral card. Apple used the same pinout for the disk drives, both 3.5" and 5.25", only the connector shape is different, so you can certainly put your own adapters on. You can use an S20-pin header- to -DB19-pin connector module
I think there was a metal piece that bolted to the top and bottom of the case opening. I am not certain. I know the earlier Apple II Plus had a big metal piece that bolted into the case opening.
I may try making my own adapter to fit in the port. I have a 3D printer which might be helpful in this. There seem to have been a few adapters in recent years that could be repurposed into a port connector, but they all appear to be discontinued or available in sporadic batches, so it might just be easier to wire up something myself rather than hunt down a finished device.
Thanks everyone for the ideas!
The A/B switch might work, I kind of pictured something that would be parallel with the back of the computer rather than perpendicular, but beggars can't be choosers. It seems what I'm looking for (which to me seems like an obvious thing) was never really a widespread concern.The BMOW site has several items which might work, although they were designed to do other things (and priced accordingly.) Considering I basically want to put a plug in the back of my computer, I'd hate to buy something and then take it apart for the plug. Maybe I'll contact BMOW and see if they can sell me a couple plugs and a cable.