ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) (12/17/90)
I recently bought a PCF554 disk drive that is designed for 5.25 floppy disks. It did not come with any instructions. Can you help me to get it going? Is there some software needed?
pegram@kira.UUCP (Robert B. Pegram) (12/18/90)
From article <1990Dec16.234939.22473@watmath.waterloo.edu>, by ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey): > I recently bought a PCF554 disk drive that is designed for 5.25 > floppy disks. It did not come with any instructions. Can you > help me to get it going? Is there some software needed? Yeah, you need something to slow down the step rate to 6 msec from 3 and a 40 track formatting program. Check out the various PD Control panels, at least one of them (schizo??) can set the head step rate. DC formatter will format 40 tracks, as will Hypercopy and several other formatters. DC formatter can also write an MS Dos bootsec and a bootsector for the ST to set the step rate to 6 msec. Oh yeah, NeoDesk 3.01 also has *everything* you need to handle 360K 5.25 disks. good luck, Bob Pegram pegram@griffin.uvm.edu or ...!uvm-gen!pegram
drp9500@isc.rit.edu (D.R. Paradis ) (12/18/90)
In article <1990Dec16.234939.22473@watmath.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) writes: >I recently bought a PCF554 disk drive that is designed for 5.25 >floppy disks. It did not come with any instructions. Can you >help me to get it going? Is there some software needed? You need a program in the auto folder that will slow down the seek rate delay for the FDC chip. "ST" drives are 3ms but most 5 1/4 drives are about 5ms. The chip can handle from 2ms - 6ms. E. Arthur Brown has the software to do it (it includes formatters and stuff) for $15. I don`t know if there is aPD version. -- | "Trust, faith, understanding, reasonableness,& respect have been more| | effective in tearing down a concrete wall than the barbed wire, | | machine gun nest, bureaucracy, and mines were at keeping it up." | | Just imagine what it could do to this bathroom. |
ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) (12/18/90)
In article <1990Dec16.234939.22473@watmath.waterloo.edu> I wrote: >I recently bought a PCF554 disk drive that is designed for 5.25 >floppy disks. It did not come with any instructions. Can you >help me to get it going? Is there some software needed? Well, I have had a knowledgeable reply. It seems that there is a program "PCF554.PRG" written, apparently, by someone at Atari and distributed to developers. Now, it seems that this program will help me to make use of this disk drive in a way that it becomes more useful than a door stop. No here is my problem: my contact, a highly honorable developer, is uncertain about the legal status of the information (code?) sent to him that allowed him to type in and assemble the program "PCF554.PRG". Could the folks at Atari comment on this? Is it legal for someone to sell or give away this code? I have heard that there is a low-memory system variable that looks like it might be the thing to change but it isn't.
sytang@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Shoou-yu tang) (12/21/90)
There should be one in the atari-archiver.cc.umich.edu(terminator.cc.umich.edu) , it would set the timing righht. Tang
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (12/22/90)
In article <1990Dec17.211439.23664@isc.rit.edu> drp9500@isc.rit.edu (D.R. Paradis ) writes: >In article <1990Dec16.234939.22473@watmath.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@watmath.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) writes: >>I recently bought a PCF554 disk drive that is designed for 5.25 >>floppy disks. It did not come with any instructions. Can you >>help me to get it going? Is there some software needed? >You need a program in the auto folder that will slow down the seek rate >delay for the FDC chip. "ST" drives are 3ms but most 5 1/4 drives are >about 5ms. The chip can handle from 2ms - 6ms. E. Arthur Brown has the >software to do it (it includes formatters and stuff) for $15. I don`t >know if there is aPD version. I bought a floppy drive cable from EAB, and it came with their software. None of it works on TOS 1.4 or 1.6. -- -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan Flame all you want - we'll take more.