Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Hardware Issues and discussion => Topic started by: SilverZguru on March 13, 2012, 07:48:09 PM

Title: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 13, 2012, 07:48:09 PM
Hi!
Is it possible to modify Samsung SFD-321B REV.L to use as DF0 (internal drive) of Amiga 500? I know that there are many threads how to mod SFD-321B, but components are totally in different places, beacause they are different revision.
Thanks in advance!
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: Rebel-CD32 on March 13, 2012, 09:06:34 PM
I don't know how to modify them myself, but one of these would work: http://www.amigamaniac.com/pc2afda.html
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 19, 2012, 02:33:20 PM
Hi all again! :D

I found an old floppy drive. It's called "Chinon". I think that Amiga's internal floppy drive is same brand. I took some images from it, there's the back label of the floppy drive:
(http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3273/chinonlabel.jpg)

then there's floppy drive's "jumpers":
(http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/6223/jumpers.jpg)

and there's just picture of the drive:
(http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/7903/driveg.jpg)

So, how to mod this drive, or do I need to even mod this, because this contains the jumpers for DS1, DS0, DC, RDY... etc.

Thanks in advance
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: LoadWB on March 19, 2012, 02:52:14 PM
Okay, I've removed this once already, but I'm pretty certain the FZ-357 is a native Amiga drive.  Then I remembered the 354s, then I got hella confused.  So, I present this page in my defense/for the prosecution:

http://www.freewebs.com/computolio/amiga_floppy_compatibility.html

Ah, if only "modern" floppy drives were so easy configure (look at all those jumpers.)

Mind you, things are going to get rougher as time goes on and floppy drives are not so easy to come across.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 19, 2012, 02:57:02 PM
Quote from: LoadWB;684396
Ah, if only "modern" floppy drives were so easy configure (look at all those jumpers.)

Mind you, things are going to get rougher as time goes on and floppy drives are not so easy to come across.

Whoa! Didn't know that! Odd, that my PC's floppy drive was Chinon. Incredible! But, this one IS HD floppy drive! And then how to place the jumpers, that it works correctly in Amiga?

Thanks

-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: LoadWB on March 19, 2012, 03:00:43 PM
Quote from: SilverZguru;684397
Whoa! Didn't know that! Odd, that my PC's floppy drive was Chinon. I knew that the Chinon brand is used in Amiga, but I didn't know that this is the same model! Incredible! But, this one IS HD floppy drive! How can amiga's FD be HD?? And then how to place the jumpers, that it works correctly in Amiga?

Thanks

-Eemil


Amiga supports HD floppies, just that the Amiga drives ran at 1/2 speed when using an HD disk as Paula can't handle the doubled data rate of HD media.  I use HD drives in all of my Amiga units (500+, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000.)
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 19, 2012, 03:08:38 PM
Quote from: LoadWB;684399
Amiga supports HD floppies, just that the Amiga drives ran at 1/2 speed when using an HD disk as Paula can't handle the doubled data rate of HD media.  I use HD drives in all of my Amiga units (500+, 1000, 1200, 2000, 3000, 4000.)


But do you know how to set jumpers? I want to test my FD and see will it work. :D
Thanks in advance!

-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 19, 2012, 04:42:44 PM
Check this link for floppy drive infos: http://www.freewebs.com/computolio/amiga_floppy_compatibility.html
I have seen the jumper settings somewhere...let me look...
Found it, You have to close DS0, MM, RDY and TTL/C-MOS

Also, if that does not work then you need to do this:
http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60055
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: motrucker on March 19, 2012, 06:48:25 PM
The Chinon FZ 357 should not be high density. It's the FZ 357 A that's high density.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 19, 2012, 06:51:47 PM
Hi!
Got it working now! BUT.... After I opened the case and did the mod, my Chinon makes TERRIBLE sound :( Is it some mechanics? How can I fix it, if it is?
There's Youtube video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBey7KCDAw4&feature=youtu.be (I hope that video shows correctly)

Any ideas? I just want to get that working after I did the mod and still... This Chinon fits perfectly to Amiga 500's case! :(

Thanks!!!
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 19, 2012, 07:25:53 PM
Quote from: SilverZguru;684414
Hi!
Got it working now! BUT.... After I opened the case and did the mod, my Chinon makes TERRIBLE sound :( Is it some mechanics? How can I fix it, if it is?
There's Youtube video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBey7KCDAw4&feature=youtu.be (I hope that video shows correctly)

Any ideas? I just want to get that working after I did the mod and still... This Chinon fits perfectly to Amiga 500's case! :(

Thanks!!!
-Eemil

First try to elevate the drive a little bit, the wheel may scrape at the bottom.
It sounds normal if the disk is BAD. Did you try another disk?
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 19, 2012, 08:15:26 PM
Quote from: amiman99;684418
First try to elevate the drive a little bit, the wheel may scrape at the bottom.
It sounds normal if the disk is BAD. Did you try another disk?


I tried elevate it, but it didn't help. And it does this same thing on PC and also on Amiga. Tested many disks. Also this workbench disk works PERFECTLY on my old drive. :( Any ideas? Could it be bad solder, or bad mod? Or is it just mechanical?
Thanks in advance!

PS, before when I tested it on PC (no mods) the sound was normal. Now I get errors on PC that it doesn't detect the drive or sometimes it detects :(
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: motrucker on March 19, 2012, 08:50:55 PM
Which mod did you use on the drive?
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 20, 2012, 05:59:35 AM
Hi!
I am using mod, where you need to solder jumpers called J2 and J18, because I have made in japan version.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 20, 2012, 04:55:13 PM
There maybe few possibilities that the drive is not working, like solder is not making contact, solder may touch other components (so verify your solder blobs), verify that the jumpers are correct, and maybe your drive just does not like to be in Amiga.
BTW, same drive in my A1000 is very noisy, but it works.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 20, 2012, 07:17:57 PM
Quote from: amiman99;684495
There maybe few possibilities that the drive is not working, like solder is not making contact, solder may touch other components (so verify your solder blobs), verify that the jumpers are correct, and maybe your drive just does not like to be in Amiga.
BTW, same drive in my A1000 is very noisy, but it works.


Hi Amiman99!
I have checked blobs, but it looks fine. Jumpers are of course correct, because it worked (I mean it had ready signals and everything). Also, I have tested drive in PC with PC's jumper settings. In PC, it did same. Same irritating clicking noise and reading errors. (This drive crashed my PC)
AND I love Chinon's noisy sound :D (I heard it when drive was in PC before modding) But now, after mod, this sound is not same, unfortunately. Now my drive's sound is like a "click click" when it supposed to be "brrr" I love noisy drives!! It gives me more nostalgic feeling! :)

I think this drive is now just a trash. Need to find new Chinon (And finding that will be hard! or at least it supposed to be) :(

Thanks!
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 20, 2012, 08:56:09 PM
Here is another link you can use (in German): http://www.pitsch.de/stuff/amiga/floppy.htm

It does have your Samsung drive, 3 revisions.

PS. after reading this guide http://eab.abime.net/archive/index.php/t-30944.html it tells you to remove J20 to get it to work in Made in Japan drives, I'm not sure if I did it, but if this does not work the you can put it back.
So try it. (BTW, I dont know what J20 does to the drive)
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: Ral-Clan on March 21, 2012, 02:15:21 AM
I viewed the YouTube video.

To me it sounds like there is a gear that is slipping.

Maybe the worm screw that advances and retracts the head mechanism has become buggered.  I think there is a metal gear that drives it or vice versa.

You can take the metal shielding off the top (usually two small screws) and test the drive....then at least you might be able to see what is happening to the drive mechanism when it tries to move the read/write heads.

Anyway, it sounds like a mechanical problem to me.  Maybe it was something slipped inside it when you were holding it to do the soldering (although normally something like this wouldn't happen).
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 21, 2012, 03:19:52 PM
Quote from: ral-clan;684584
I viewed the YouTube video.

To me it sounds like there is a gear that is slipping.

Maybe the worm screw that advances and retracts the head mechanism has become buggered.  I think there is a metal gear that drives it or vice versa.

You can take the metal shielding off the top (usually two small screws) and test the drive....then at least you might be able to see what is happening to the drive mechanism when it tries to move the read/write heads.

Anyway, it sounds like a mechanical problem to me.  Maybe it was something slipped inside it when you were holding it to do the soldering (although normally something like this wouldn't happen).


Hi Ral-clan!
I have compared this floppy drive to working one by putting working drive to my PC as B:\ and then this Chinon as A:\ (And I of course set the jumpers for PC) I watched at it, an I didn't saw anything that could be slipping here. The problem is the motor. Motor didn't do same job than the working one did. I just can't explain very well, because of my english. I just have no idea what's wrong, but sound isn't normal and drive has Read/write errors all the time. Is it time to give up?
Thanks!
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 26, 2012, 05:03:14 PM
Hi!
Here I come with 6 new FDs :D
Got them from recycling centre. I took many Panasonics and then one Teac and HP. Other Panasonics are probably trash, but one of them looked nice. Model is called JU-257A605P. It looks good, because here are screw places, where I could put my Amiga's original internal drive's rails. Is it possible to mod this drive? There aren't any jumpers or settings rear of the drive.
Also it would be nice if I could mod other Panasonic or Teac, because I need modded drive also for external drive.

Teac is model: FD-235HG

Thanks
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 26, 2012, 06:36:12 PM
The ways I would look for a floppy drives is to write down drive model numbers of the floppy drives that were successfully converted.
That way you will know what you are dealing with. check out my links in previous posts.
The models you wrote are close, but not exact, so you ma have some problems.
I think that the journey in getting them work is more exiting then actually using them, so have fun with them.
I'm not a floppy drive expert, but few things you need to know before being successful is to:
1. Make sure that the drive makes "click" noise, like is trying to see if the drive is in.
2. When the drive sees a disk then it needs to pass that info to Amiga.
3. Make sure you can select DF0, DF1 and so on.

There are probably more, but these look like are the main ones.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 26, 2012, 07:03:52 PM
Quote from: amiman99;685515
The ways I would look for a floppy drives is to write down drive model numbers of the floppy drives that were successfully converted.
That way you will know what you are dealing with. check out my links in previous posts.
The models you wrote are close, but not exact, so you ma have some problems.
I think that the journey in getting them work is more exiting then actually using them, so have fun with them.
I'm not a floppy drive expert, but few things you need to know before being successful is to:
1. Make sure that the drive makes "click" noise, like is trying to see if the drive is in.
2. When the drive sees a disk then it needs to pass that info to Amiga.
3. Make sure you can select DF0, DF1 and so on.

There are probably more, but these look like are the main ones.


Hi, my floppy drive expert! :D
I wanted to attach some pictures. I watched the lower case, and saw that there is little switch to select D0 or D1. Switch was in D1 selection. So, I changed switch to D0, putted to Amiga and turned on. It loads disks, BUT the ready signal is missing. (No clicking sound or X-Copy :() But, then I saw another hole, where read RY, DC. There must be the switch to select between RDY and DC!!! But... There wasn't... WHAT??? How can I select that? Do I need to solder? (Of course...)

But anyway, there are the pics:

1.  D0 and D1 switch:
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/7117/d1d0w.jpg)

2. RY's and DC's hole:
(http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1161/260320121250.jpg)

3. My PC's Panasonic drive (right) compared to original Amiga 500's Panasonic drive (left)
(http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2811/origvspc.jpg)

Good thing in this drive is the compatibility with original drive. Original drive's eject button even fits in this drive :D

And now I'll need to check your post... :)

Thanx!
-Eemil
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: amiman99 on March 26, 2012, 07:15:13 PM
These drives look very similar, flip the PCB and see if there is a solder connections for the missing switch, you may be lucky.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: SilverZguru on March 26, 2012, 07:41:14 PM
Quote from: amiman99;685519
These drives look very similar, flip the PCB and see if there is a solder connections for the missing switch, you may be lucky.


At the PCB, I can see 3 solder points and 2 empty holes, where switch's solder points should be. But are these 3 solder points the right ones? There doesn't read anything or there aren't any marks like R40 etc. But next to those connections, there is one "capacitor" and more solder points and there reads R52 and R53.

Phew! Maybe I should attach more pictures... But I'll do that tomorrow (because in Finland it's going to get late...) Or not so late, but I'm too tired or just lazy to do it now :)
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: mohican on March 26, 2012, 07:45:43 PM
@SilverZguru:

There are two types of Panasonic drives in connection with eject button ... the drive on the right picture is compatible with the A1200's eject button.
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: RiP on December 09, 2016, 08:55:43 AM
Possible to modify this? :hammer:

(https://6-t.imgbox.com/zIALqpIl.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/zIALqpIl)

(https://1-t.imgbox.com/sD6uHi1w.jpg) (http://imgbox.com/sD6uHi1w)
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: spaceman88 on December 09, 2016, 01:12:48 PM
Yes, EAB has a thread on it (and others)-  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

Go about half way down the page for the SFD-321
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: RiP on December 09, 2016, 02:25:37 PM
Quote from: spaceman88;817501
Yes, EAB has a thread on it (and others)-  http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=30944

Go about half way down the page for the SFD-321


But mine is different :confused:

What about Mitsumi Model D353M3?
Title: Re: PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500
Post by: spaceman88 on December 09, 2016, 04:33:15 PM
Quote from: RiP;817503
But mine is different :confused:

What about Mitsumi Model D353M3?


Yours is a different revision. If you can find the DS0 jumper, RDY and DC you can modify it, if not your probably out of luck.