PC Floppy modifying to use with Amiga500

[SilverZguru]

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

[SilverZguru]

Hi all again!

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:


then there's floppy drive's "jumpers":


and there's just picture of the drive:


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

[SilverZguru]

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

[SilverZguru]

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.
Thanks in advance!

-Eemil

[SilverZguru]

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

[SilverZguru]

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

[SilverZguru]

Hi!
I am using mod, where you need to solder jumpers called J2 and J18, because I have made in japan version.

[SilverZguru]

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 (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

[SilverZguru]

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!

[SilverZguru]

Hi!
Here I come with 6 new FDs
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

[SilverZguru]

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!
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:


2. RY's and DC's hole:


3. My PC's Panasonic drive (right) compared to original Amiga 500's Panasonic drive (left)


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

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

Thanx!
-Eemil

[SilverZguru]

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