Amiga 600 & External Floppy

SteveCoops · 24 March 2021, 00:40

Hi all,

I have recently just got an Amiga 600 and it came with an external floppy drive (Amitek 1mb) - it doesn't seem to do anything though. It did once light the LED up constantly but now it does nothing - doesn't appear in Workbench or make any noises or anything.
What do I need to check to see what's wrong? I don't have another amiga or floppy drive to test against unfortunately.
I did see a video on YouTube showing blown capacitors by the floppy connector - is that possible? I've not taken the (working) internal drive out yet to take a look underneath it.

Also, the switch on the back of the drive - Off/On/Antivirus - is that turning antivirus on/off or is it the drive power on/off? And how does the antivirus feature work on a floppy drive?!

Cheers,
Steve

Jope · 24 March 2021, 07:56

The switch at the back is most likely three position. The antivirus position stops writes to track 0, so both on and antivirus should make the drive accessible to the OS.

One thing you can do is to swap out the mechanism from the external case in place of your internal drive to see whether it works there. If it does, then the problem is in the cable or in the circuit board of the external drive enclosure.

Another thing you can do is to use a multimeter to measure the on/off switch at the back of the enclosure. Often they used really cheap switches, which now no longer make contact.

SteveCoops · 24 March 2021, 15:42

Do I need to change jumpers on the drive if I put it internally?
I don't know the pinout of that little switch, but I've sprayed some contact cleaner and wiggled it around to no effect.
I am getting 5V on the floppy power connector though.

Cheers,
Steve

Jope · 24 March 2021, 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveCoops

Do I need to change jumpers on the drive if I put it internally?

The DS jumper needs to be DS0 if it is connected internally. In some rare cases the external case will have the drive set as DS1.

Quote:

I don't know the pinout of that little switch, but I've sprayed some contact cleaner and wiggled it around to no effect.

Slide switches like this usually connect two adjacent connections together.

https://www.zseries.in/electronics%2...witches/slide/

24 March 2021, 00:40	#1
SteveCoops Registered User Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Rayleigh, Essex, UK Posts: 4	Amiga 600 & External Floppy Hi all, I have recently just got an Amiga 600 and it came with an external floppy drive (Amitek 1mb) - it doesn't seem to do anything though. It did once light the LED up constantly but now it does nothing - doesn't appear in Workbench or make any noises or anything. What do I need to check to see what's wrong? I don't have another amiga or floppy drive to test against unfortunately. I did see a video on YouTube showing blown capacitors by the floppy connector - is that possible? I've not taken the (working) internal drive out yet to take a look underneath it. Also, the switch on the back of the drive - Off/On/Antivirus - is that turning antivirus on/off or is it the drive power on/off? And how does the antivirus feature work on a floppy drive?! Cheers, Steve

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24 March 2021, 07:56	#2
Jope - Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Helsinki / Finland Age: 43 Posts: 9,863	The switch at the back is most likely three position. The antivirus position stops writes to track 0, so both on and antivirus should make the drive accessible to the OS. One thing you can do is to swap out the mechanism from the external case in place of your internal drive to see whether it works there. If it does, then the problem is in the cable or in the circuit board of the external drive enclosure. Another thing you can do is to use a multimeter to measure the on/off switch at the back of the enclosure. Often they used really cheap switches, which now no longer make contact.

24 March 2021, 15:42	#3
SteveCoops Registered User Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Rayleigh, Essex, UK Posts: 4	Do I need to change jumpers on the drive if I put it internally? I don't know the pinout of that little switch, but I've sprayed some contact cleaner and wiggled it around to no effect. I am getting 5V on the floppy power connector though. Cheers, Steve

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