Re: OT: floppy drives suck (was Re: OT: power supplies suck)

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

On Sun, 2003-05-25 at 10:00, Nate Reindl wrote:
> On Sun, May 25, 2003 at 07:43:43AM -0500, Stephen D Reindl wrote:
> > Nate and I have had actual smoke come from the floppy connector (ribbon
> > cable) and the power supply survived. Of course nothing worked while the
> > pins on the floppy were welding themselves together.
> 
> Heh.  I remember that.  We plugged the floppy in backwards and turned
> the machine on.  A few moments later, the smell of smoke flowed from the
> open case.
> 
> > E=IR. If R=0 (a short) then by definition (multiplication by 0) so does
> > E (electromotive force or voltage). Did this help or confuse?
> 
> Yeah.  For a circuit to be complete, some resistance must exist; simply
> hooking the two poles of a power source together won't wield anything
> too incredible, nor will putting LEDs down without resistors produce
> anything more than a moderately warm battery.
> 
> Oh, and to any of you who've noticed, this is why resistors are needed
> along with LEDs since LEDs don't provide their own resistance.

Wasted bandwidth guys. If you'd followed the link I provided to the PS
tester in question, you'd have noticed a large rectangular object. It's
a ceramic power resister. Enough with Ohm's Law, OK?

When you disconnect an ATX power supply connector from the motherboard
and plug it in to the tester, there is no longer any voltage on the
motherboard (or the floppy drive). The only exception is when the
motherboard is a P4-type PS with an second PS cable -- which you should
have also disconnected had you read the instructions.

Clearly if the connection state of the floppy drive makes a difference
in the state of the tester's green LED, there's obviously something
important not yet in evidence. Unless you believe in magic. :-)

--Doc


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