Catweasel 3.5" Drive compatibility

[RedskullDC]

Hi All,

Not really a problem, but seems most appropriate place to post..

Been experimenting with a few different 3.5" drives with my PCI Catweasel card (MK4) to see how compatible (or not) they are. Thought others may be interested in the results.
Mostly use it for imaging Amiga disks, though sometimes AppleIIgs/MAC 400/800k floppies. Also use a 5.25" driver for old CP/M disks, but that is really another topic..

I'd certainly be interested in hearing from anyone else with similar experiences.

So:

TEAC FD-235HG - Fine for Amiga, can't read outer tracks of Apple disks (data written at different bitrate/angular velocity?)

Panasonic JU-256A347PC - Ditto

Samsung SFD-321B - Fine for Amiga, Can't read outer tracks of Apple disks.
Major problem using this drive though. When there is a track read error, the Imagetool (V3.2) tries to seek the head in as far as possible. Head locks in the fully-in position and won't seek out again Drive has to be dismantled to re-align the head. sigh!

Sony-MP-F17W - Fine for Amiga, also for Apple IIgs/MAC disks. Reads outer tracks fine.

Panasonic JU-257A604P - Reads everything I have thrown at it.
Easy to tweak the head alignment if necessary to read "tricky" disks.
Best of the lot, with the Sony drive close behind.

Hope someone finds this helpful.

Red

[prowler]

Thanks for kicking this off, Red!

I have a MkIV PCI Catweasel card and an original ISA Catweasel too.

I'll post something similar based on results with Amiga and Mac disks and my various 3½" drives in due course.

I've recently acquired an IBM 2.88MB 3½" drive for use with my Catweasel and I'll post results for that here too when I get it connected.

Jens Schönfeld is currently looking at addding support for A-Max disks to Catweasel, and I am hoping for some news on that soon.

This thread could develop into a useful reference for all Catweasel users.

[prowler]

Hey Red,

Could you post some details and pics of your head alignment techniques sometime?

[RedskullDC]

Hi prowler,

Originally Posted by prowler

Hey Red,

Could you post some details and pics of your head alignment techniques sometime?

Actually, check this post for pics:
http://eab.abime.net/showpost.php?p=342453&postcount=1

Second picture shows the head stepper motor.
Simply loosen the screws and rotate the stepper motor
assembly till the disks become reliably readable.

It's naturally a good idea to make some marks alignment marks using a sharp knife *BEFORE* you loosen the screws.
Will prove invaluable in returning the head alignment to it's original position.

I have come across several batches of floppies over the years that must have been written on drives which were way out of alignment compared to mine.

Cheers,
Red

[prowler]

Thanks for the link and info, Red!

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

I have come across several batches of floppies over the years that must have been written on drives which were way out of alignment compared to mine.

By strange coincidence, so have I.

[prowler]

Hi Red,

Sorry about the long delay before I replied again in this thread. I have only just started to use my Catweasel card with intent, having the need to try to recover bad sectors from an Amiga floppy by tweaking the drive's head alignment.

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

TEAC FD-235HG - Fine for Amiga, can't read outer tracks of Apple disks (data written at different bitrate/angular velocity?)

I have a TEAC FD-235HF 4240 and access to the drive motor is the best I have seen, but the drive itself doesn't work at all, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

Panasonic JU-257A604P - Reads everything I have thrown at it. Easy to tweak the head alignment if necessary to read "tricky" disks. Best of the lot.

I have a Panasonic JU-257A605P which was supplied by Amitek for use with an A1200. I bought it from an eBay seller as a replacement for my Escom AT1200's flopy drive, but it wouldn't read disks at all!

I tried it in my Commodore A1200 and it will read disks using programs like TSGui, but won't mount them on the Workbench, so I have used it from time to time to make floppy disk images on that machine.

I thought it might work on my Catweasel, but again it won't read disks at all!

Drive motor access is far from easy, but after what you had reported about your experience with a similar drive I though I'd give it a go.

Finally, I found a Mitsumi D359M3D drive which has drive motor access almost as good as the TEAC, and this works flawlessly in every respect! (This post refers.)

There are still a couple of bad sectors to recover, and I've got my eye on a Samsung SFD-321B next with that in mind...

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

Samsung SFD-321B - Fine for Amiga, Can't read outer tracks of Apple disks.

Major problem using this drive though. When there is a track read error, the Imagetool (V3.2) tries to seek the head in as far as possible. Head locks in the fully-in position and won't seek out again Drive has to be dismantled to re-align the head. sigh!

I'm using Imagetool v3.3.0.176. I'll let you know how it goes.

Gday first post on here.
my question is to redskulldc
How did u connect ur apple superdrive - sony mpf-17w-xxx to the catweasel?

is there some magic documents that poeple are trying their best to keep for ole barana?

or did u get pinouts for the superdrive, and a pc floppy and play connect the dots?

also Jens said the cw supports software eject - did u use this, or is it a matter of someone having to write them into the imagetool to get it to work atm?
thx -Barana

[RedskullDC]

Hi Barana,

Originally Posted by barana

Gday first post on here.
my question is to redskulldc
How did u connect ur apple superdrive - sony mpf-17w-xxx to the catweasel?

is there some magic documents that poeple are trying their best to keep for ole barana?

The SONY driver I had wasn't an Apple superdrive, it was just a normal 34pin interface drive:
http://insight.actapricot.org/insigh...y/sof17wbf.htm

Apple 19/20 pin drives are not going to interface to the Catweasel card I'm afraid.

Cheers,
Red

[prowler]

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

Samsung SFD-321B - Fine for Amiga, Can't read outer tracks of Apple disks.
Major problem using this drive though. When there is a track read error, the Imagetool (V3.2) tries to seek the head in as far as possible. Head locks in the fully-in position and won't seek out again Drive has to be dismantled to re-align the head. sigh!

Hi Red,

I've now had this problem with my Mitsumi D359M3D drive, and the head refuses to budge from the fully-in position, just as you describe.

Could you possibly post a few details for me about what's involved in realigning it, please?

There's no hurry, I can wait awhile if you need to think about it first.

Thanks.

[RedskullDC]

Hi Prowler,

Originally Posted by prowler

Hi Red,

I've now had this problem with my Mitsumi D359M3D drive, and the head refuses to budge from the fully-in position, just as you describe.

Could you possibly post a few details for me about what's involved in realigning it, please?

Basically, the problem on the samsung drive is with the head positioning screw.

Have a look at figure #B on this page:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/...-drive/1055927

The floppy head has a small arm with a ball-bearing which follows the groove in the screw.
In the Samsung drive there doesn't appear to be a head-stop.
If you try and position the head past about track 45, the ball-bearing will jump out of the end of the groove in the screw.
If you try to send the head back to track 0, the groove doesn't capture the ball again

All you need to do is push the head assembly back until the ball matches up with the groove again.
Still, it's a major PITA.

Cheers,
Red

[fishyfish]

Can anyone tell me please if it's still possible to get ahold of a catweasel? I desperately want/need one for my amithlon box.
Also, how does 9pin jostick support work from amiga os? Does it use lowlevel.lib?
Little out of scope of the thread, but does anyone know if amigaos euae will support joysticks via catweasel?
Does catweasel have a clock port, and if so can I use some sort of usb stack through it?
And last but not least, can anyone tell me please if catweasel even works with amithlon?
Im under the impression it does, but Im not too sure which version(s) of catweasel. If Im not mistaken its only mk4 that is a pci card? My amithlon box is a core2duo, ergo new enough to only have pci (and pci express) slots.

Thanks in advance.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by RedskullDC

Have a look at figure #B on this page:
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/...-drive/1055927

The floppy head has a small arm with a ball-bearing which follows the groove in the screw.
In the Samsung drive there doesn't appear to be a head-stop.
If you try and position the head past about track 45, the ball-bearing will jump out of the end of the groove in the screw.
If you try to send the head back to track 0, the groove doesn't capture the ball again

All you need to do is push the head assembly back until the ball matches up with the groove again.
Still, it's a major PITA.

Thanks, Red. That's a great help. It sounds like that's exactly what's happened to my Mitsumi drive.

That's my favourite 3½-inch drive for use with the Catweasel because of the ease with which the head alignment can be adjusted, and I really must get it back in shape. I guess, once I've got it back the first time, I'd better get used to doing it on a regular basis.

Originally Posted by fishyfish

Can anyone tell me please if it's still possible to get ahold of a catweasel? I desperately want/need one for my amithlon box.

They crop up from time to time on eBay. The good news is that they're usually in very good condition, having been hardly used, if at all.

Most users buy them for disk imaging, and it's not a simple matter to set one up. The drivers are notoriously difficult to get working, and have left the previous owner exasperated and desperate to get shot of it.

Originally Posted by fishyfish

Also, how does 9pin jostick support work from amiga os? Does it use lowlevel.lib?
Little out of scope of the thread, but does anyone know if amigaos euae will support joysticks via catweasel?
Does catweasel have a clock port, and if so can I use some sort of usb stack through it?

I can't answer those questions, I'm afraid. I've never used it with Amiga OS.

Originally Posted by fishyfish

And last but not least, can anyone tell me please if catweasel even works with amithlon?
Im under the impression it does, but Im not too sure which version(s) of catweasel. If Im not mistaken its only mk4 that is a pci card? My amithlon box is a core2duo, ergo new enough to only have pci (and pci express) slots.

Yes, I'm sure it does work with Amithlon, but I have no details of how to set it up.

Catweasels MkIII, MkIV and MkIV Plus are PCI cards and compatible with your Amithlon box. (The MkIII also has a Zorro interface compatible with big box Amigas.)