Modifying PC floppy drives for Amiga use

Originally Posted by rkauer

I can confirm that the modification from post #18 from this very thread will work perfectly with an YE-Data YED-FC701WH, which is almost the same board of the YED-702D-6037D.

Researching a bit more the modification I did using the El Piloto's guide I stumble on a minor problem: besides it works flawlessly inside the Amiga, you can't use more than one drive, no matter what: any external drive will not work at all.

So the mod is good only for people with just one drive.

Sorry but it was just what i said 1 year ago and i explain why it doesn't work.... see #89
You can however use 4 drives with pin 30 & 34 but all drives have to be modified like this.
Bad solution: use a diode instead of a wire between these pins.
Good solution: use a drive that have a real ready signal.

Originally Posted by bretmac

Hi Kipper,

Hmm... exactly like the mod I originally mentioned in my first post.

Pin 18 looks near as dammit the INDEX signal. It is *NOT* RDY.

On a 2 channel scope it is going low at exactly the same time as the INDEX signal.... Using this mod works by chance since the signal goes low at some point....

We're back to square one....any help much appreciated.

Agree, mod doesn't work on industrial robot that need real ready signal.
It's a chance that it works on Amiga.

[salax54]

Anyone ever had a success over a Sony MPF920-z/171 ?
I don't need a second drive, just a DF0 will do.. Thanks!

[prowler]

Hi salax54,

Could you upload/attach a scan of the z/171 pcb?

[prowler]

If it's not possible for you to photograph or scan the pcb on your z/171 floppy drive, have a look instead at the pcbs pictured in this other thread and check for similarities with your own:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=43265

A few other variations in the Sony MPF920 series are featured there.

[Jope]

Verified Sony MPF420-1 modification:
http://jope.fi/drives/mpf420-1/

This isn't a very common drive in consumer equipment I'm afraid, I plucked two of these from junk routers that were from the early 90s..

(If someone has a copy of my old drives/index.html, please send it to vjouppi@sci.fi. I managed to delete the old one by accident. :-)

[orange]

um, so is there a list of all 'modifiable' drives so far? (the ones with true RDY signal)
I'm particularly interested in NEC models, have a few of them.

[Antti]

Originally Posted by Jope

(If someone has a copy of my old drives/index.html, please send it to vjouppi@sci.fi. I managed to delete the old one by accident. :-)

Did you try google cache?

[salax54]

@prowler: sorry for the delay mate, i have been uber-busy!
This is the pcb:



Let me know what you think of it

[andreas]

Originally Posted by paulo_becas

Here's two pics that may help you with two diferent D359T6 PCB i found them on the web, hope this helps.
It's in German but the pics speak for themselves, i'll try to photograph mine and post it later on.

I'll translate the red text so that everyone of you guys know what these guys did (NOTE: I consider the IC pin 2 connection needed for the D359T6-2 board model VERY difficult, because it's veeeery fiddly: a tad too much solder and your IC will be short-circuited, aka gone!! Personally, I'd rather get myself a -1 model to circumvent this step!)

German text says:
(for ALL boards)
- Cut both DS0 and DS1.
- Join DS0 to DS1 track.
- Connect DCH to Pin2

(for MITSUMI D359T6-1 board ONLY)

- "Move" RDY/DCH resistor.


(for MITSUMI D359T6-2 board ONLY)

- Connect RDY to pin 2 of integrated circuit (NCL036)

[Jope]

Originally Posted by andreas

a tad too much solder and your IC will be short-circuited, aka gone!!

Just use desoldering braid to suck it up. The chip isn't gone unless you power it up with the short circuit still in place.

[Eclipse]

Has anyone tried a modded drive as a replacement for an external? It should work.

[Jope]

Yes, several. No different to an internal drive. Most externals are set as DS0, check first..

[salax54]

I have been attempting to modify a Teac drive, an FD-235HF A291-U5.
Here's the board: http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...35HFA291U5.jpg
Have been discussing this over at AmiBay, at this thread : http://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?t=9934 where you can see the modifications i made. However, nothing has worked yet..
This is the same pcb after hack: http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...4/TEACHACK.jpg
I also have a Nec FD1231H if anyone has ideas for modding it.
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...NECFD1231H.jpg
Thanks in advance!

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by Jope

Yes, several. No different to an internal drive. Most externals are set as DS0, check first..

It works.....but
It will work fine as a standard external drive and even x-copy works. What will not work of course is Cyclone using the dongle.

[TomCrazy]

Just a quick question when it comes to the original Amiga diskdrives...

Has anyone here ever ordered this diskdrive from Amigakit?
http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/...roducts_id=294
If so, is this a real Amiga diskdrive and not a modified PC diskdrive? Does it have a ready-signal connected to pin 34, so I can just plug it in and use it with any trackloaded program without modifying it?

The reason I'm asking is that I would like to find a new (or used, it doesn't matter as long as it's working) original diskdrive for my C= A1200. I ordered an A1200 diskdrive from another computer store, but received a modified PC diskdrive in the mail that didn't even have the ready-signal on pin 34. In fact, there was no ready-signal at all to be found on that diskdrive's PCB.
I don't want to get ripped off again like that, so it would be great if anyone could verify that the A600/A1200 diskdrive that Amigakit is selling is in fact a true Amiga diskdrive with a ready-signal connected to pin 34.

Thanks!

[orange]

@Tom
I think someone moaned here about amigakit selling modified PC drives. IMO, you should ask them directly.
but, please try the diode thingy: http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=2181
its easy and I'm curious what doesn't work with it..

[paulo_becas]

Originally Posted by orange

um, so is there a list of all 'modifiable' drives so far? (the ones with true RDY signal)
I'm particularly interested in NEC models, have a few of them.

I've modified a few Nec drives (all the same model) actually My A500 is equipped with one that i modded.
Here's the pictures.




It's a bit tricky, you have to be really steady when soldering to the main chip.
I've modded a few different brands and this is one of the drives that works very well one of the best and very common and easy to find.

Hope this helps

[TomCrazy]

@orange
Thanks for the advice. I will write an email to Amigakit and ask them directly before ordering. I think doing so might be the safest way. Let's just hope they will be honest in their reply. (This will be the first time I'm ordering something from them.)

I've already tried the diode hack on my C= A1200, but in a different way. That cable is set up to work with any unmodified PC diskdrive. The way I tested it was by modifying a PC diskdrive and then connect the diode between pin 10 and 34 on the diskdrive itself. In regards to connection, this is exactly the same thing as connecting "pin" 10/12 to "pin" 34 on the floppy cable and then use it with an unmodified PC diskdrive.

It's possible that doing this hack will have different result on different systems. I have not been able to test it on any other system than my A1200. And on my A1200, I got a lot of write errors in Workbench all the time and other strange error messages like "Object already exists" while copying a file to an empty disk.

I explained about the most probable reason for this behavior in the thread about Stedys floppy adaptor, and what needs to be done to solve it.

[cpiac64]

i found 2 JU257A606P L, the main is different, next time i insert a photo.

i switch dc-rdy, ds0-ds1 and insert 3 resistor (zero ohm) at r56 r57 r58 and i test on amiga and work fine