Converting a PC Floppy cable to work with amiga floppy?

[carvedeye]

Is it possible to convert a pc floppy cable to work with an amiga 1200 floppy drive, the reason i ask is because i bought 1 from amigakit a while back to add my floppy drive to my now towered 1200 but cant seem to find it.

[carvedeye]

Any 1?

[tribz]

I think its fine to use as long as its not twisted (the older cables had twisted bits of ribbon). If its straight through, it should be fine.

[amigadave]

no difference in floppy cables that I know of

[Firedawg]

tribz is correct when he stated that the cable must have no twists as in a regular PC floppy.  A regular Amiga floppy has jumpers that are set to determine floppy origination 1 & 2, whereas the twist at the end of a PC floppy cable tells the floppy controller the signal coming back from the end floppy drive is "A" and not "B" (the connector before twist) ,due to fact that PC floppy drives do not have jumper settings.

  Just recently I needed a longer cable for my A1200, so I took a regular PC floppy drive cable (34 pin IDC Female)  opened the connector by  carefully unsnapping the tabs on the ends and gently pulling the  connector apart at the twisted end. I carefully flipped the twisted wires (10-16) back making sure to reseat the cable using the same connection points where the teeth of the connector had already been.  It works great.

Hope that helps......

Mike

[amigappc]

This helps even today. I was just searching for comparison because I will need longer cable for Gotek. Thanks.

[guest11527]

tribz is correct when he stated that the cable must have no twists as in a regular PC floppy.  A regular Amiga floppy has jumpers that are set to determine floppy origination 1 & 2, whereas the twist at the end of a PC floppy cable tells the floppy controller the signal coming back from the end floppy drive is "A" and not "B" (the connector before twist) ,due to fact that PC floppy drives do not have jumper settings.

Unfortunately, things aren't quite that simple. It really depends on the machine you want to put the floppy in. In an A2000, the internal floppy cable *does* have a twist, but only on a couple of wires that carry the SELx signal. The cable that runs from the motherboard splices a couple of lines off, twists them, then goes "somewhat twisted" into DF0:, then the twist is reversed, and the cable goes 1:1 to DF1:. A standard PC floppy cable won't work here.

I don't know how the cable works in the A500, maybe it's just a simple 1:1. But in the A2000 it is definitely not.

[GoldenImage]

There was a device called a catweasel that let you add extra ide and floppy ports. As far as I remember this gave you the ability to use standard pc floppy drives. It was made by individual computers. I Google searched them an found http://www.icomp.de

[danbeaver]

As FireDawg says, you can gently open the connector, make which ever twists the way you want and close it back; to be on the safe side, I put a drop of Super Glue on the clasp ends of the connector as the ones I have done over the years occasionally come loose.

[GoldenImage]

I also recall something about the make of drive having a disk check. It might involve moving a jumper on the drive. These might be used directly with amigas.  It's been nearly 20 years since I was working at the computer shop...so I could be totally wrong!

[kreciu]

OK. I just got brand new floppy cable for PC and connected to my Amiga:: DFO:Unreadable under AmigaOS3.9.

It is interesting because I can boot from that floppy drive and it seem to work fine, only under AmigaOS is not working properly. I'm using 1.76 floppy drive.

Can someone please help me? I'm not sure how to fix it.

[Jope]

Unfortunately, things aren't quite that simple. It really depends on the machine you want to put the floppy in. In an A2000, the internal floppy cable *does* have a twist, but only on a couple of wires that carry the SELx signal. The cable that runs from the motherboard splices a couple of lines off, twists them, then goes "somewhat twisted" into DF0:, then the twist is reversed, and the cable goes 1:1 to DF1:. A standard PC floppy cable won't work here.

The twist is normally only on pins 4-6 on the Amiga, it's for the drive LEDs (in use 0 and in use 1). DF0 should be on the middle connector of the cable before the twist, and DF1 at the end after it.

Selects are set with jumpers on the drive. If you can't use the drive jumpers, then an additional twist between 10-12 is needed.

I don't know how the cable works in the A500, maybe it's just a simple 1:1. But in the A2000 it is definitely not.

It is a straight cable in all wedge amigas and the A1000.

[kreciu]

I opened this old topic... (2014) not to create another one.

I just got single floppy tape and it shows DF0:Unreadable, BUT I can boot from it (any bootable floppy)!? I really don't know what to do. It works... but when I start system from hard drive it doesn't.

[goldfish]

I'm using pc cable in my a1200 tower as long as its a straight through cable no twist it should  be fine.

[kreciu]

I'm using pc cable in my a1200 tower as long as its a straight through cable no twist it should  be fine.

I have my old cable also without any modifications (as far as I can see) and works fine. New one doesn't.

I really don't understand why I can boot from floppy, but when I boot from hard drive it is "DF0: unreadable", one of the weirdest things ever... I looks like it is somehow system related, BUT if I boot from "Emergency Disc" with AmigaOS3.9... works GREAT!