Rounded floppy cables

[motorollin]

Will a rounded floppy cable work with an Amiga 4000 floppy drive? I know the connectors will fit but I'm just not sure if the cables are wired up the same.

--
moto

[orange]

yes, all you need is untwist them

[motorollin]

Thank you! Did you take the connector apart and recrimp it, or just cut the cable and re-connect the wires in the correct order?

--
moto

[orange]

I opened and recrimped the connector, its easier and neater. All you need is two cuts, IIRC I included the GND lines on sides when doing the swap (so that the middle is wider).

[motorollin]

orange wrote:
I opened and recrimped the connector, its easier and neater.

Fair enough - I will try to do the same.

orange wrote:
All you need is two cuts

What do you need to cut if you re-crimp the connector?

orange wrote:
IIRC I included the GND lines on sides when doing the swap (so that the middle is wider).

Can you elaborate on this please? I don't understand what you mean.

Thanks again

--
moto

[orange]

Well I didn't actually recrimp it. I used the same holes, if you understand me. (after opening connector) I had to cut the little plastic tape that holds all wires together so that they are split in three groups. Then just twist the middle group of wires. use colors to see which ones need to be untwisted, I think its pins from 10 to 16 according to this

All odd wires are GND, if you include them in swap, the middle group becomes little larger and more 'stable'..

[Oli_hd]

Will a rounded floppy cable work with an Amiga 4000 floppy drive? I know the connectors will fit but I'm just not sure if the cables are wired up the same.

Ive just done it for my A4KT (It runs straight over the top of the CPU card so the round cables really are a must.
The board connector and the first connector was wired one to one so no problem there, the only thing is the lead I got was to short so I had to fix the last connector, I took the two top clamps off (one to hold a pull tab), both lost at least one tab so I glued it back on.
the rewiring was easy, the cable end was what seemed to be laminated with some plastic to keep it spaced, I removed the plastic cover from the pins I wanted to move over and then moved the wires over, tested it with the multimeter and plugged it in.

Worked first go

Oh and as for rewiring it, round cables seem to use multi coloured cabled so its as easy as match the wire colours.

[motorollin]

So just to clarify, the floppy cable (for an Amiga) should be connected straight through on all pins - right?

--
moto

[Oli_hd]

So just to clarify, the floppy cable (for an Amiga) should be connected straight through on all pins - right?

Correct (Thats what I did)
there is a jumper on the board to set the drive to the first or second drive where as PC drives twist the cable to signal the difference.

[motorollin]

Cheers guys.

Oli_hd wrote:
there is a jumper on the board to set the drive to the first or second drive where as PC drives twist the cable to signal the difference.

Couldn't I just leave the cable as is and then set the drive to DF1, and let the twist in the cable switch it back to DF0? Or is the twist not compatible with the Amiga?

--
moto

[Oli_hd]

Couldn't I just leave the cable as is and then set the drive to DF1, and let the twist in the cable switch it back to DF0? Or is the twist not compatible with the Amiga?

Nope, sorry. The Amiga expects a flat cable, I dont know if there is a floppy select on the Amiga cable vs the PC one or what but crossing it over simply doesnt work.

[motorollin]

OK no worries. Doesn't seem like too big a job to take the connector apart and turn the twisted cables around.

Thanks again guys!

--
moto

[motorollin]

Are the wires inside a ribbon cable numbered consecutively? IOW can I just count from wire 1 to wire 10, then count from there to wire 16 to find the wires I have to reverse?

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moto

[motorollin]

Never mind. I tried to take the connector apart and swap some of the wires, but it was so fiddly I lost my temper and the cable suffered a fate worse than death.

I'm going to get a PC floppy cable with the twist and crimp a male connector just after the twist, making a very short M-F floppy cable with a twist in it. This will then function as an adapter so a new, non-mutilated rounded floppy cable will work on the Amiga.

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moto

[taunusand]

motorollin wrote:
Are the wires inside a ribbon cable numbered consecutively? IOW can I just count from wire 1 to wire 10, then count from there to wire 16 to find the wires I have to reverse?

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moto

Yep, I would also like to know that :-)