Trying to get an external floppy drive to work ( TEAC FD-235F 205-U )

[bolding]

Hi all,

I have an external floppy drive case in which I've just installed the TEAC FD-235F 205-U drive. However, when I connect it to the Amiga 1200 it doesn't work properly. In the workbench it simply says DF1:??? - and it's no different no matter which disk I insert (DF0: works fine).

I suspect this may be a jumper thing?

On the drive I can set the following jumpers (which should be enabled?):
- MS
- IR
- DC
- D1
- D0
- FG (preset)

Is my drive dead or simply not Amiga-compatible?

[Sim085]

I am no hardware expert. However when I opened a cumana I found that it had a modified pc floppy-drive in it. An amiga floppy-drive would not work with the board inside the cumana and the floppy-drive in the cumana would not work inside the amiga. What external drive do you have? Did the drive previously also have a TEAC D-235F 205-U floppy-drive in it? or it had something else?

[bolding]

Originally Posted by Sim085

I am no hardware expert. However when I opened a cumana I found that it had a modified pc floppy-drive in it. An amiga floppy-drive would not work with the board inside the cumana and the floppy-drive in the cumana would not work inside the amiga. What external drive do you have? Did the drive previously also have a TEAC D-235F 205-U floppy-drive in it? or it had something else?

That's interesting - I thought the drives would be interchangeable! The old drive that was in the external case is a: Citizen OSDC-41G-U

[solarmon]

Post some pictures of your external drive controller, the floppy drive and the jumpers.

[bolding]

Originally Posted by solarmon

Post some pictures of your external drive controller, the floppy drive and the jumpers.

Here we go - in fact when I looked a bit more at the controller I noticed the following on the PCB: AMDISK Iss.4

I don't remember where I got this drive, but I have a feeling it is one of those old Amitech Silent Drives (no click). So maybe it's not possible to change the drive...

Pictures are here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...m3?usp=sharing

[solarmon]

On my working TEAC FD-235F-161-U floppy drive, I have the following jumpered:

RY

DC
D0

If you look on the bottom side of the board, these jumpers are actually grouped as (according to the silk screen) (I've put an * where it is jumpered):

MS
IR
RY *

DC *
D1
D0 *
FG

[bolding]

Thanks! Something different actually happened now with your jumper-settings! When the floppy is read the green diode flashes now and diskchanges are seen. However, WB still reports working floppies as DF1:????

Hmm!

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by bolding

Thanks! Something different actually happened now with your jumper-settings! When the floppy is read the green diode flashes now and diskchanges are seen. However, WB still reports working floppies as DF1:????

Hmm!

If it is not a known working drive, it could be that it needs cleaning:

* Clean the read/write heads with a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol.
* Clean the track motor gear with a cotton bud and lubricate with grease/lubricant.
* Lubricate the write-protect and disk-present sensors - use a cotton bud soak in WD40 and dab the switches up and down.

Or there are some alignment issues, which is a another level of pain.

[bolding]

Thanks for all the tips - but it seems the drive is more or less dead. No matter what I do it wont read any discs. I'll be saving the drive for the future...maybe I'll give it another go at some point
I've installed a different drive in the case and it's working perfectly again.

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by bolding

Thanks for all the tips - but it seems the drive is more or less dead. No matter what I do it wont read any discs. I'll be saving the drive for the future...maybe I'll give it another go at some point
I've installed a different drive in the case and it's working perfectly again.

That is a shame.

I spent ages trying to figure out why one of my floppy drives wasn't working - you can see my journey with it in the thread linked below - it might give you some hopes and hints:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=96237

I would highly recommend using DriveTest to test the floppy drive functions:

http://aminet.net/package/driver/media/DriveTest

A video of how to use it can be seen at:

[ Show youtube player ]

And also, Amiga Test Kit has some good disk drive testing features:

https://github.com/keirf/Amiga-Stuff/releases

Good luck!

[darefail]

Originally Posted by solarmon

On my working TEAC FD-235F-161-U floppy drive, I have the following jumpered:

RY

DC
D0

If you look on the bottom side of the board, these jumpers are actually grouped as (according to the silk screen) (I've put an * where it is jumpered):

MS
IR
RY *

DC *
D1
D0 *
FG

I may be wrong but what is the purpose of RY and DC signals if you have jumpers on both? Isn't it either RY or DC?

[solarmon]

Originally Posted by darefail

I may be wrong but what is the purpose of RY and DC signals if you have jumpers on both? Isn't it either RY or DC?

That is a good question, and I know what you are on about. This question is applicable when talking about converting PC drives to be used on Amigas. PC drives put the Disk Change signal on pin 34, and Amiga drives use Drive Ready on pin 34 (and Disk Change on pin 2).

I'm not sure why, for this particular drive, there are specific jumpers for RY and DC, when RY maps to pin 34 and DC maps to pin 2 (I verified with a multimeter).