fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) (03/22/90)
Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? Does it work with no hitches? How about a 1.2 Meg drive - anyone tried that? -pete fay By the way, I can't get through to Atari to see if they have some kind of upgrade policy on drives - I heard they did, but haven't been able to comfirm.
depeche@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca (Sam Alan EZUST) (03/22/90)
In article <633@ksr.UUCP> fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) writes: >Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari >external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old >drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? Does it work with no >hitches? How about a 1.2 Meg drive - anyone tried that? > I tried taking out the chinon 720k drive which was built-in to my 1040 and replacing it with a panasonic 720k (the stupid drive burned out) and THAT didn't work... The cables fit perfectly, but when I turned my computer on, the drive would just spin infinitely - never seeking. I tried this on another panasonic - same thing. I think standard IBM drives don't work properly on the ST - perhaps some jumpers must be set but the techie folks at the store I bought the drive from had no idea how to do it. S. Alan Ezust | depeche@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca McGill University School of Computer Science | Montreal, Quebec, Canada If your only tool is a hammer, all your problems begin to look like nails. Corollary: If you do it all yourself, sooner or later you'll need a bigger hammer.
src@cs.odu.edu (Scott R. Chilcote) (03/23/90)
In article <633@ksr.UUCP> fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) writes: >Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari >external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old >drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? > >-pete fay I have a drive much like the one you describe sitting in front of me here. It works pretty much the way you describe, but there are a few things you have to look out for. The worst problem involved is the fact that SOME DSDD 3.5" mechanisms won't work with the Atari drive controller setup. If you get one one of these, which include some Chinon, Toshiba, and a few other brands of drives, it won't know when you've changed disks. Having a drive that doesn't know you've swapped disks is disasterous. It won't read the new directory, and it will overwrite data on your replaced disk. I know someone who had a drive like this and he was out $40 for the thing... Granted, a small loss. I'm using a TEAC mechanism, and it works fine. The second worst problem when making this upgrade is that not all Atari single-sided drives are built the same. Some of them are quite unusual. A friend of mine has a SF-354 which uses an oddball mechanism that requires the Atari PCB inside to have a fairly large amount of logic on it -- lots of chips including a controller. If you have any LSI chips on the PCB in your SF-354, I doubt that a drive mechanism swap will work. It's expecting a different type of bare drive than the 'standard' PC type. Other considerations: Fit. My Teac drive is significantly smaller than the one that used to be in there. It also couldn't use the faceplate that was on the drive. I wound up carving out most of the front of the case and using a carved 5 1/4" adapter plate from a PC for the opening. I had to use a cunning array of brackets inside the case to support this tiny thing, since it wouldn't fit on the old mounting holes. The only other thing I had to do was extend the power supply plug; the wires were too short to reach once the thing was in position. This took some splicing and soldering but went okay. It took some work, but I had it up and running in half a day. The Teac cost me $55 at a computer show. It was definitely worth it! ------------------ src@cs.odu.edu Scott Chilcote
pfg@ukc.ac.uk (P.F.Gisby) (03/23/90)
> In article <633@ksr.UUCP> fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) writes: > >Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari > >external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old > >drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? Does it work with no > >hitches? How about a 1.2 Meg drive - anyone tried that? > > > I tried taking out the chinon 720k drive which was built-in to my 1040 > and replacing it with a panasonic 720k > (the stupid drive burned out) and THAT > didn't work... The cables fit perfectly, but when I turned my computer on, > the drive would just spin infinitely - never seeking. I tried this > on another panasonic - same thing. I think standard IBM drives > don't work properly on the ST - perhaps some jumpers must be set > but the techie folks at the store I bought the drive from had no idea > how to do it. You have the disk drive cable upside down... This is just about the ONLY thing that would make the motor stay on when the drive is not being accessed..... Good luck...... I'd try again if I where you just remember THE RED WIRE ON THE CABLE IS PIN ONE...!!! and pin one should be marked on the connectory to the drive.. Pete.. /-----------------------------------------\ | | | ***** *** *** **** *** | | * * * * * * * * ** | | * * * **** * * * | | * * ** * ** * ** * | | * *** *** *** *** | | | \-----------------------------------------/ Physics UKC.
cosc10hv@elroy.uh.edu (Paul Sears) (03/24/90)
In article <633@ksr.UUCP>, fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) writes: > Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari > external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old > drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? Does it work with no > hitches? How about a 1.2 Meg drive - anyone tried that? > > -pete fay In fact, I have tried just that, but I had some problems. It appears that the atari drives have an external controller on a board just behind the drive but the Teac has a built in controller. I also couldn't get the cables to reach the new drive without some major modifications, so I just built me a case, got a cheap power supply and installed my Teac drive in another case. Works perfect. My SS drive sits in my closet.... -- -------------------------------------------- | Paul Sears University of Houston | | "ThunderCat" --------------------- | | COSC10HV@Elroy.Uh.Edu | | 129.7.1.2 or TECHJW@Elroy.Uh.Edu | |__________________________________________| 'the greater an individual's power over others, the greater the evil that might possibly originate with him' - PROPAGANDA, off the CD, A SECRET WISH
clf3678@ultb.isc.rit.edu (C.L. Freemesser) (03/27/90)
In article <2593@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca> depeche@calvin.cs.mcgill.ca (Sam Alan EZUST) writes: >In article <633@ksr.UUCP> fay@ksr.UUCP (Peter Fay) writes: >>Has anyone tried upgrading one of those old cruddy single-sided Atari >>external drives to a double-sided drive by just pulling out the old >>drive and inserting a 720K TEAC or whatever? Does it work with no >>hitches? How about a 1.2 Meg drive - anyone tried that? The problem with building your own drive is knowing what mechanisms work. I've had good luck with the Toshiba ND-354, but the 352 gives me problems. Ergo, you can't just say a company's drives will work. I'm using both a Teac 3.5 and a 5.25 inch drive on my system, and am pretty happy with them. I also know that Epson drives are good too. If you want to upgrade a SS mech, get rid of the PCB board. Buy a $10 drive cable from Best Electronics, or hack one end off of your drive cable and put on a 34-pin header for the drive. You can rig the power supply pretty easily. I've found that eliminating the PCB solves more problems than keeping it. By the way: somebody mentioned that they were able to get a Toshiba ND-352 working by some internal modification. Could you please repost what you did? Chris Freemesser, Rochester Institute of Technology ( THE ACORN BBS ||| BITNET: clf3678@ritvax ) (716)436-3078 ||| Usenet: clf3678@ultb.rit.isc.edu ( 2400 baud/42 megs / | \ GEnie: C.FREEMESSER ) full Atari support