Sony 920 MPF z/121 fix for Amiga - Page 4

prowler · 07 July 2010, 23:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

@Techseeker/rkauer,

In your opinion, would this unit (modified Sony MPF920 floppy drive)operate as a true Amiga HD floppy drive in my KS3.1/WB3.1 A1200 without further modification?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techseeker

Yep, I am agreeing with you. This should work as in HD as DF0:

Give it a shot and let us know

Hey, guess what?

That unit behaves as a 1.76MB Amiga High Density floppy disk drive when connected to the internal floppy port of my Commodore KS3.1/WB3.1 A1200!

It is noticeably slower when reading HD-formatted Amiga, MS-DOS and Macintosh disks (I suspect that this is normal, given that the drive is running at half the normal speed during HD R/W operations), but it is working!

If it wasn't for the information posted by others in this thread I would never have made this discovery. Thanks, guys!

And thanks to fitzsteve for selling it to me!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

Thats the drive that came in a Power Tower I bought on ebay, I took out all the bits I needed like the Mediator, Voodoo, Blizzard. Since I already had a brand new Amigakit FDD it was surplus.

I hope the Amigakit unit you kept for your tower build is also a high density floppy drive, Steve!

Techseeker · 07 July 2010, 23:49

Woot

fitzsteve · 07 July 2010, 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

And thanks to fitzsteve for selling it to me!

I hope the Amigakit unit you kept for your tower build is also a high density floppy drive, Steve!

I would never have known mate so would have gone to waste in my box of spares! Glad you have it.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=106

Thats the one I got from Amigakit, I don't think its HD but I only read regular Amiga disks so would be wasted on me.

As you know I've only kept my original games on floppy and a handful of stanard blank DD's for writing ADF's back to, so I have no real need for HD Floppy although if I *do* ever need to read one my A4000 has a HD drive

Steve.

prowler · 08 July 2010, 00:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

I would never have known mate so would have gone to waste in my box of spares! Glad you have it.

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=106

Thats the one I got from Amigakit, I don't think its HD but I only read regular Amiga disks so would be wasted on me.

Thanks, Steve! They don't mention that it's HD, and I'm sure they would have done so if it was.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitzsteve

As you know I've only kept my original games on floppy and a handful of stanard blank DD's for writing ADF's back to, so I have no real need for HD Floppy although if I *do* ever need to read one my A4000 has a HD drive

Hmm... Yes, my A4000 has a HD floppy drive too. I'll borrow it while that machine's in bits to try Glen Cumming's disks in.

I've put the MPF920 back in the external drive enclosure for now, but it behaves just like a normal 880K drive then, unfortunately.

prowler · 23 July 2010, 22:20

Hey, I've just bought seven Sony MPF920-E E/131 3½-inch internal floppy drives from a combinaton of three sellers on eBay for some experiments...

Techseeker · 23 July 2010, 23:06

Nice one, after I converted a few drives, samsung, panasonic, sony, I found that while all passed xcopy tests, some failed (within the same manufacturer) when trying to boot a disk with boot block scanner , for example the hombre boot disk. http://wiki.abime.net/file_transfer/hombre

i do like the converted sony drive but my favourite is the samsung as it uses almost the same eject button mount as the teac drives.

prowler · 23 July 2010, 23:12

I like the Sony drives because, in my experience, they can be very good at reading problematic disks, so they're useful for floppy disk recovery - something I have more than a passing interest in.

fitzsteve · 25 July 2010, 10:58

Do you want anouther one mate?

I saw this at a Car Boot sale for £1 and thought you might want it

prowler · 25 July 2010, 19:27

Yes please, Steve!

I'm on a mission...

fitzsteve · 25 July 2010, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

Yes please, Steve!

I'm on a mission...

Cool we'll sort out the details, no rush unless you're in a hurry.

Steve.

prowler · 25 July 2010, 22:29

I'm in no hurry for it. Those I've bought from eBay will keep me busy for a while.

BTW, thanks for keeping an eye out for me at the boot sale, Steve.

You can bring it with you to our next 'liquid lunch' if you like, and I will share with you what I know about getting two internal drives working in an A600.

fitzsteve · 26 July 2010, 00:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by prowler

I'm in no hurry for it. Those I've bought from eBay will keep me busy for a while.

BTW, thanks for keeping an eye out for me at the boot sale, Steve.

You can bring it with you to our next 'liquid lunch' if you like, and I will share with you what I know about getting two internal drives working in an A600.

Sounds like a plan, maybe next time I'll just take the afternoon off

No problems on the 'eye out' lol, I saw it (the box) Sony, hmm I'll take a closer look, hmm - Sony MPF920 - I'll be having that!

03 August 2010, 11:54

Hello,

connected pin 30 and 34 is not a good idea.
It works 100% only with 1 floppy drive.

If you have a 2000/3000/4000 try to do this with DF0 & DF1 and you will see that it not works.
If you have original drive, you will short real READY signal & RD (pin 30) when the original drive try to works, so you will see that it not works.

DeluxePhoton · 31 August 2010, 18:00

Very interesting thread.
I'm new to this forum.

I used an A500 in the 80s for about 5 or 6 years, then gave it to my brother who also used it for a similar time, then got it back off of him and stored it away, occasionally taking it out for a play, weary that the floppy drive was getting on a bit and had been heavily used in the past.
I had a play at the weekend and the internal floppy disc drive made a horrendous noise, making squeaks (on top of the traditional Amiga scratching noises) and couldn't read discs.

So had a look around for solutions and discovered a number of people had ways of using more recent drives.

Decided to open up my PC which has an unused floppy drive and found the the model number to be MPF920-z/121, then ended up here after some searching.

I'll have a go at modifying it, although I'll also check my brothers PC which has a redundant floppy as well.
Not much point in having unused floppy drives hanging around doing nothing!

prowler · 31 August 2010, 18:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeluxePhoton

Decided to open up my PC which has an unused floppy drive and found the the model number to be MPF920-z/121, then ended up here after some searching.

I'll have a go at modifying it, although I'll also check my brothers PC which has a redundant floppy as well. Not much point in having unused floppy drives hanging around doing nothing!

Hi DeluxePhoton, and welcome to EAB!

The Sony MPF920 is a very worthwhile drive to convert for use with the Amiga. It'll be a lot quieter than the standard Amiga drives were, even when new, and the quality of Sony floppy drives is legendary.

I have much experience of recovering data from old Amiga floppy disks, and the Sony MPF920 drive is one of the best tools for the job.

Good luck with that!

PS. You must remove the drive's fascia panel and you will need some longer spacers underneath the drive to make it fit an A500 properly, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Edit: Beware! The squeaking sound (actually more like squealing, IIRC) is an indication of mould growth on the surface of the floppy disks. You must not try these in any new drive, or it will become damaged very quickly!

DeluxePhoton · 31 August 2010, 18:36

Thanks Prowler,

I'll be back to say how I got on.

DeluxePhoton · 31 August 2010, 23:56

Hmmm.

Slight problem. I have opened the MPF920-z/121 up and have noticed that the area of the board in the top right has been redesigned (based on kippers original photo).

Where the ribbon cable is 6 wires on kippers version, I have 15!
And the chip immediately below it has 24 pins, oriented horizontally, instead of kippers 20 pin chip mounted vertically (again based on kippers original photo).

The rest of the board looks the same.

The chip has the number BA6986FS on it.

Added. Actually it looks like the drive in Prowlers post 58 without all the wires and extra chip.
Strange, it definitely says z/121 on the label!

prowler · 01 September 2010, 00:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeluxePhoton

The rest of the board looks the same.

I think it would be possible to find several variations of this drive, depending on what components were available when they were planning a production run.

The important thing is that the area where the modifications are required has not changed, so just go ahead anyway and it should be okay.

DeluxePhoton · 01 September 2010, 00:12

Your quick Prowler!

It looks like this one in 26:

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=680573&postcount=26

which is a z161
Interesting, looks like there is hope!

prowler · 01 September 2010, 00:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeluxePhoton

It looks like this one in 26:

http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=680573&postcount=26

which is a z161
Interesting, looks like there is hope!

Yes, that looks like the board you described. That should give you confidence that what you're doing will be okay.

Actually, the drive you're working on now makes the point that this thread has developed into a very useful reference.

25 July 2010, 10:58	#68
fitzsteve Professional slacker! Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Kent, UK Age: 44 Posts: 6,683	Do you want anouther one mate? I saw this at a Car Boot sale for £1 and thought you might want it Last edited by fitzsteve; 09 February 2011 at 09:37.

31 August 2010, 23:56	#77
DeluxePhoton Registered User Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Portsmouth/UK Posts: 14	Hmmm. Slight problem. I have opened the MPF920-z/121 up and have noticed that the area of the board in the top right has been redesigned (based on kippers original photo). Where the ribbon cable is 6 wires on kippers version, I have 15! And the chip immediately below it has 24 pins, oriented horizontally, instead of kippers 20 pin chip mounted vertically (again based on kippers original photo). The rest of the board looks the same. The chip has the number BA6986FS on it. Added. Actually it looks like the drive in Prowlers post 58 without all the wires and extra chip. Strange, it definitely says z/121 on the label! Last edited by DeluxePhoton; 01 September 2010 at 00:04.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Sony monitor, PVM 1342Q and my Amiga	tesla	support.Hardware	0	17 March 2013 15:12
amiga rtc fix	roy bates	Hardware mods	2	07 October 2011 22:32
Trying to fix a Amiga A600HD	Ioncannon	support.Hardware	38	20 October 2009 19:19
SONY VAIO PCMCIA CD-ROM on an AMIGA 1200	Kinchan	support.Hardware	5	28 January 2006 10:24
'Error code 121' - What does it mean?	Tim Janssen	request.Old Rare Games	11	13 November 2003 13:24

07 July 2010, 23:49	#62
Techseeker Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Cork / Ireland Posts: 28	Woot

23 July 2010, 22:20	#65
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Hey, I've just bought seven Sony MPF920-E E/131 3½-inch internal floppy drives from a combinaton of three sellers on eBay for some experiments...

23 July 2010, 23:06	#66
Techseeker Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Cork / Ireland Posts: 28	Nice one, after I converted a few drives, samsung, panasonic, sony, I found that while all passed xcopy tests, some failed (within the same manufacturer) when trying to boot a disk with boot block scanner , for example the hombre boot disk. http://wiki.abime.net/file_transfer/hombre i do like the converted sony drive but my favourite is the samsung as it uses almost the same eject button mount as the teac drives.

23 July 2010, 23:12	#67
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	I like the Sony drives because, in my experience, they can be very good at reading problematic disks, so they're useful for floppy disk recovery - something I have more than a passing interest in.

25 July 2010, 19:27	#69
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	Yes please, Steve! I'm on a mission...

25 July 2010, 22:29	#71
prowler Global Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Sidcup, England Posts: 10,300	I'm in no hurry for it. Those I've bought from eBay will keep me busy for a while. BTW, thanks for keeping an eye out for me at the boot sale, Steve. You can bring it with you to our next 'liquid lunch' if you like, and I will share with you what I know about getting two internal drives working in an A600.

03 August 2010, 11:54	#73
Get27 Posts: n/a	Hello, connected pin 30 and 34 is not a good idea. It works 100% only with 1 floppy drive. If you have a 2000/3000/4000 try to do this with DF0 & DF1 and you will see that it not works. If you have original drive, you will short real READY signal & RD (pin 30) when the original drive try to works, so you will see that it not works.

31 August 2010, 18:00	#74
DeluxePhoton Registered User Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Portsmouth/UK Posts: 14	Very interesting thread. I'm new to this forum. I used an A500 in the 80s for about 5 or 6 years, then gave it to my brother who also used it for a similar time, then got it back off of him and stored it away, occasionally taking it out for a play, weary that the floppy drive was getting on a bit and had been heavily used in the past. I had a play at the weekend and the internal floppy disc drive made a horrendous noise, making squeaks (on top of the traditional Amiga scratching noises) and couldn't read discs. So had a look around for solutions and discovered a number of people had ways of using more recent drives. Decided to open up my PC which has an unused floppy drive and found the the model number to be MPF920-z/121, then ended up here after some searching. I'll have a go at modifying it, although I'll also check my brothers PC which has a redundant floppy as well. Not much point in having unused floppy drives hanging around doing nothing!

31 August 2010, 18:36	#76
DeluxePhoton Registered User Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Portsmouth/UK Posts: 14	Thanks Prowler, I'll be back to say how I got on.

01 September 2010, 00:12	#79
DeluxePhoton Registered User Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Portsmouth/UK Posts: 14	Your quick Prowler! It looks like this one in 26: http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=680573&postcount=26 which is a z161 Interesting, looks like there is hope!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)