Modifying PC floppy drives for Amiga use

[paulo_becas]

I don't think he did. In the photo it seems that you skip that part.

As fot this drives working perfectly in amiga i have my doubts. A few revision do work fine but others don't.

I modified almost every version of this drive that ever come out and i can say that the rev.T1 and T2 work fine but the T4 forget it.
There are others that i don't remind if they work or not but i can say that at least half of the revisions work and the other half don't

[Grega]

....yep sure have - just the solder blob moved from DS1 to DS0........checked continuity and all fine.....see it kinda does work thats the thing but is really slow, and, the drive light being opposite concerned me. i put my modified teac drive back on there and perfect.....this one back and issues - strange.

[Grega]

ah.........the drive is a revision T7

[Solo761]

Just to add one more to the list, ALPS DF354N164F works with a bit soldering. I used this tutorial, it's not for 164F revision, but PCB is the same so I tried and it worked.

I did everything as in above tut, removed solder blob from DS1 spot, added new one on DS0 spot, soldered wire from IC pin 5 to floppy pin 2 and soldered wire from rdy spot to floppy pin 34. Only difference was that my PCB had solder blob at MS2 point which PCB in above tut didn't have so I also removed that.

Anyway, it works, haven't tested with that demo yet, but if reads, formats and writes just fine in my A1200. To make it fit inside I had to cut off about one third of eject button plastic, as it overlaps with case. And remove upper drive cover. It seems it's somewhat thicker than original (original drive was teac) so I couldn't close the case. But luckily drive cover from teac more or less fits on this one, clips don't fit of course, but it's not loose, and the drive is not open which was the goal.

I don't know what happened with original drive. Last week it worked fine, wanted to format some diskettes on sunday and got error on track 0, tried another one, error on track 0, third one, error on track 0. Tried one that I know worked before, error on track 0... Tried to format one on my PC and it formats fine... For some reason original drive returns error on track 0 on every diskette...

[jeff b00toNic]

Tried to mod a SONY MPF920-E and used this tutorial http://jope.fi/drives/mpf920-e/.

I found all the solderingpoints on my PCB except one near BA6986FS step 4.

So I tried another point on the PCB here is the picture it's marked orange.
http://imgur.com/Q6h4CPE.

The Amiga recognises the drive "typical drive noise" but fails to read a disk DF0:?????
Oh, by the way it's an ESCOM 1200 with motherboard fix for all drives.
Any help would be appreciated.

[Solo761]

Googling for MPF920-E finds a lot of pictures and not all are the same :/. But I think this link has the one same as yours

http://www.cbmfreaks.com/?p=169

Tutorial from your link doesn't mention that you have to cut link near the solder point near pin number 2. This one does...

http://www.cbmfreaks.com/wp-content/.../2011/01/2.jpg

But that doesn't make sense since it looks like you have to solder to lower part of that solder point. If you cut the link it won't be connected to anything...

Here's one more link, this one also doesn't mention cutting but says you have to solder to lower half...

http://www.pitsch.de/stuff/amiga/floppy.htm#A2

There are few more drives near the end of the page. I think this one is exact match. I would probably try this tutorial.

I think I have some Sony floppies, I'll have to check how they look and maybe mod one. I need to replace floppy in one of my A500s anyway




So far easiest one to mod was Samsung sfd-321b. Even button from original A1200 drive fits. I only had to trim metalic holder on the floppy a bit. On Samsung it was 10mm wide, on my original A1200 drive it was 9mm, I shaved 0.5mm from each side with dremel and it fits perfectly.

[jeff b00toNic]

Thanks Solo761!

Let's see if I can sort things out.

[Amiga_CDTV]

Attached is how I did my Sony MPF920 (sticker says E/131, DEC2003).

Compared to the jope.fi -guide the drive select jumpers are next to the connector (not on the edge of the board) and there is a solder point next to the pin 2 of the BA6986FS (on the guide it seems to be soldered directly to the track on the board even it says 'soldering point').

[Jope]

Originally Posted by jeff b00toNic

Oh, by the way it's an ESCOM 1200 with motherboard fix for all drives.

You should revert that motherboard to the factory config, otherwise there's no point in modifying the drive..

[Solo761]

I rummaged through my floppy sack and found three Sony MPF920 drives. One actually has Teac FD-235HF sticker, but under the plate is Sony PCB. This "Teac" and one marked MPF920 are the same as Amiga_CDTV's drive.

Last one was MPF920-E E/131 MAY2000, actually I had it marked as defective. On PC it sometimes didn't read the disk I inserted. But When I opened it I wasn't surprised. Oh boy, the dust, the horror... There weren't even dust bunnies but dust bears in there , spindle from drive motor was gray instead of black . I cleaned it, modded it and it works on my A1200 from first try . Here are some pics




I guess it didn't work for jeff because it isn't exactly the same drive as Jope's, here's pic of "business" part of mine (and jeff's)



The one from Jope's pic is similar to this, but traces are not exact match. Solder points near BA6986FS chip are different. But main difference is that wire from floppy pin 34 goes to BA6986FS pin 14, and on mine I soldered it to trace that goes to BA6986FS pin 13. Maybe that's the problem?

[hooverphonique]

that MPF920-E/131 is the model that was modded by some company to work as an amiga HD drive by adding a PLD.. It would be excellent to have one of those to try to recreate the mod ;-)

[CockroacH]

Originally Posted by Solo761

It weren't even dust bunnies but dust bears

I know that feeling

[jeff b00toNic]

You should revert that motherboard to the factory config, otherwise there's no point in modifying the drive..

I changed the motherboard using this guide http://www.softpres.org/article:hard..._fdd_connector.
That's what I meant by "motherboard fix"
Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Amiga1992]

I want to do one of those mods and ownder which model would allow me to modify it easiest.
I have these options at hand:

- Panasonic JU-256A198PC
- Sony MPF920

Which one should I go for? I read Sonys are more complicated.

[Solo761]

Originally Posted by jeff b00toNic

I changed the motherboard using this guide http://www.softpres.org/article:hard..._fdd_connector.
That's what I meant by "motherboard fix"
Sorry if that wasn't clear.

You meant you undid escom's "fix" and are back to stock .

Now that I moded my sony drive I think I know where you missed on yours . On your picture wire from pin 34 goes to solder point near controller chip, just move that wire end to solder point directly above, that's how I soldered mine and it works.

Originally Posted by Akira

I want to do one of those mods and ownder which model would allow me to modify it easiest.
I have these options at hand:

- Panasonic JU-256A198PC
- Sony MPF920

Which one should I go for? I read Sonys are more complicated.

So far I moded three drives, Samsung SFD-321b, Alps DF354N164F and this Sony MPF920-E. If you've got instructions they're all about the same. Solder few wires and move one or more jumpers.
I have one Panasonic drive but I'm not sure which model, I think it's 257, not 256. There's some info from kipper here, looks simple enough.
But Sony also isn't hard, variation on the theme.
For panasonic it seems you need three wires, on sony 2 wires and jumper move, same thing in the end.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Solo761

There's some info from kipper here, looks simple enough.

That's exactly the one I got. Thanks so much!!

[Boboo_SK]

Today was released project Arise HD R6i, for Amiga HD floppy 1,76 MB
Include Jedec for GAL16V8 and PDF Schematic. Enjoy :-)

[dirkies]

That Arise mod looks really complicated! Any demo to show it works in an amiga with eg this 1868kb format (forgot exact size but I had hd floppies on my A4000 formatted to even bigger capacity, maybe it was pfs for floppies or something (?))

[Boboo_SK]

AriseHD works DiskSpare v3 1968 KB

[ElectroBlaster]

I am having a real headache with an Samsung SFD 321B E Rev SS-02, flipping thing will not work properly

All I can get, is a couple grumbly head steps and then total failure! Also will not detect any disk in it.

I posted a thread over here about it: http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php...l=1#post639078

I should have posted over here in hindsight, as I used Anemos guide...
I just cannot see anything wrong? The circuit board, the jumper wire resister and solder blob for DS0 all check out fine... thinking maybe the drive is fubared?

Ive done a few Sony MPF920-E's and they work great