sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) (06/05/89)
Recently, someone plugged in a bad external drive into my A1000, which shorted
out the 8520 and floppy drive (apparently). After swapping with a good
(borrowed) 8520, my A1000 gets the kickstart screen, but the drive doesn't work.
Since then, it's been a struggle to find an 8520 and replacement drive. I don't
have the 8520 yet, but I did purchase an IBM-type 720K 3.5" drive (made by
Toshiba). It looks like it'll work (although the mounting is different [I don't
mind drilling holes], the connectors and cables are all the same, except for the
LED for "drive busy"). Is there something I need to know (perhaps jumper
settings needed, such as the DC/RDY jumper)? Is this going to work? (Unless
someone says, "No way!" I'm goin' for it as soon as I get the 8520.)
I was seriously tempted to get a 1.44 meg floppy and see if I could make a
mountlist entry to store 1.44 megs (perhaps in FFS format). I decided to take
the safest route possible, and to not deal with this complication. I would
be interested in hearing if it's possible or not....
--
Gary Wolfe usenet: ..uunet!mimsy!ames!mailrus!uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop
BBS : SysOp of The Temporal Vortex BBS at 904-771-8589gilham@polya.Stanford.EDU (Fred Gilham) (06/05/89)
In article <206@tlvx.UUCP> sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) writes: > Is there something I need to know (perhaps jumper >settings needed, such as the DC/RDY jumper)? Is this going to work? (Unless >someone says, "No way!" I'm goin' for it as soon as I get the 8520.) > I think you are out of luck. My understanding is that a seperate interface chip or (or chips) is needed to make this work. I actually tried it. I tried every combination of jumpers and even some trace bridging on several different drives. The drives would read and write all right, but they wouldn't notice when the disk was changed. I ended up buying a drive for an a2000 and leaving off the front of my external drive. That seems to work fine. -Fred Gilham
dyip@orville.nas.nasa.gov (David Yip) (06/06/89)
Using an Toshiba drive works fine. I've been using one for about nine months ever since my original drive quit after a week and the commodore approved techs couldn't fix it. I did have to hack the case of my 500 to make it fit. Well worth it though. It's quieter and much more reliable than the nec unit commodore uses. David
sysop@tlvx.UUCP (SysOp) (06/07/89)
In article <2189@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>, dyip@orville.nas.nasa.gov (David Yip) writes: > Using an Toshiba drive works fine. I've been using one for about nine months > ever since my original drive quit after a week and the commodore approved techs > couldn't fix it. I did have to hack the case of my 500 to make it fit. > Well worth it though. It's quieter and much more reliable than the nec unit > commodore uses. > > David I appreciate the replies (including the mail). I replaced the 8520 and hooked up the Toshiba 3.5" drive, and at first couldn't figure out why I never got the Kickstart screen. Ooops, I had the plug on backwards. (Well, I *DID* check the included manual and look on the drive's PC board, neither of which led me to know which end had pin 1.... The connector also appears backwards from the original drive. I ended up looking at the PC board which was intended to adapt the drive to a clone, and that had the proper markings. Sigh.) With the cable on correctly, the drive appeared to work fine, except that it has a mechanical defect (which is unrelated to my other problems, just a new one). However, I was able to boot up a couple of disks. Looks like the hardest part will be drilling holes in the mounting bracket to get it to fit right (and the eject button may never fit right). Here's how I set the jumper settings: the drive select is DS1, and the ready/ disk change is set to RDY (the XT setting). That's it, to get things to load. Of course, I haven't had a chance to test it under various circumstances (especially over time), but with the comments by David and my initial results, I'm very pleased! :-) (3 weeks without an Amiga is TOO LONG!) -- Gary Wolfe usenet: ..uunet!mimsy!ames!mailrus!uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop BBS : SysOp of The Temporal Vortex BBS at 904-771-8589
Sullivan@cup.portal.com (sullivan - segall) (06/12/89)
>Recently, someone plugged in a bad external drive into my A1000, which shorted >out the 8520 and floppy drive (apparently). After swapping with a good >(borrowed) 8520, my A1000 gets the kickstart screen, but the drive doesn't work. >Since then, it's been a struggle to find an 8520 and replacement drive. I don't >have the 8520 yet, but I did purchase an IBM-type 720K 3.5" drive (made by >Toshiba). It looks like it'll work (although the mounting is different [I don't >mind drilling holes], the connectors and cables are all the same, except for the >LED for "drive busy"). Is there something I need to know (perhaps jumper >settings needed, such as the DC/RDY jumper)? Is this going to work? (Unless >someone says, "No way!" I'm goin' for it as soon as I get the 8520.) It's been a while, so this explanation is only to get you on the right track. I have an 80track IBM 3.5" floppy in my Amiga. It has some limitations: Since the drive doesn't correctly identify itself when the Amiga resets it, Some programs will not work correctly. The only program that I've encountered so far that continuously resets the floppy drive is the public domain copier NIB v1.0. Marauder also displays odd behaviour if a diskette is in the drive when a copy is first requested. Also when rebooting, the drive must identify itself so that the Amiga will recognize it and configure correctly. Since the floppy drives are supposed to respond with $FFFF,FFFF on the diskready line you can simulate this behaviour by popping any floppy disks out of the drive, which will drive the disk ready line high (disk not ready.) If you do not remove the diskette before rebooting the drive will be deconfigured. (It will be as though it were not attached. Keep these limitations in mind before you decide to use a non-Amiga floppy drive. With that in mind, the floppy cable in the Amiga is keyed backwards from those on PC's. To attach the drive you will have to file down the plastic key on the ribbon cable connector, and attach it upside down. The drive select should be set to the first drive (drive 0 for older floppies, drive 1 if that is the lowest.) As I recall, the addresses of the drives are selected by a twist in the ribbon cable, and so you shouldn't need to change the drive select however many drives you are using. > >I was seriously tempted to get a 1.44 meg floppy and see if I could make a >mountlist entry to store 1.44 megs (perhaps in FFS format). I decided to take >the safest route possible, and to not deal with this complication. I would >be interested in hearing if it's possible or not.... > >-- The amiga diskcontroller hardware is not capable of reading bits at the rate required for a 1.44 meg floppy. >Gary Wolfe usenet: ..uunet!mimsy!ames!mailrus!uflorida!unf7!tlvx!sysop > BBS : SysOp of The Temporal Vortex BBS at 904-771-8589 -Sullivan Segall _________________________________________________________________ /V\ Sullivan was the first to learn how to jump without moving. ' Is it not proper that the student should surpass the teacher? To Quote the immortal Socrates: "I drank what?" -Sullivan _________________________________________________________________ Mail to: ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!Sullivan or Sullivan@cup.portal.com