PC Floppy disk conversion

[spaceman88]

I found a JU-257-203P and tried to use it in my A4000. I found a thread on EAB about modifying a JU-257A606P but can't find anything on my particular drive. I changed the RY/DC to RY and "1" to "0". If I put WB 3.1 in the drive and turn the computer on it will boot no problem, but if I remove the disk and replace it with something else the WB 3.1 icon remains on the screen (not detecting disk swaps). Will the jumper from DC to pin 2 fix this problem? This looks MUCH harder on my drive then on 606P drive. Has anyone modified the 203P drive?

[Dazxy2001]

i think thats normal, if i boot my 1200 from floppy is does the same thing and leaves a wb disk icon on screen

[Digiman]

Do new disk icons appear on the Workbench screen and allow you to open them?

[spaceman88]

Do new disk icons appear on the Workbench screen and allow you to open them?

No, whatever disk that is in the drive when I start the computer works perfectly. When I swap disks the old icon remains and the new disk is not seen. I just took apart my brothers old 486 PC and found a Chinon FB-357 and a JU-257-134P both of these work exactly like the first one. Maybe all PC drives will work this way until the proper mod is done. The 357 is easy to work on but I can't find the RY/DC etc. marked. I don't know how to get the JU-257's apart without destroying very fine ribbon connectors.

[amiman99]

I made a write up on FZ-357 drive in here: http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60055
See if it helps.

[psxphill]

Maybe all PC drives will work this way until the proper mod is done. The 357 is easy to work on but I can't find the RY/DC etc. marked. I don't know how to get the JU-257's apart without destroying very fine ribbon connectors.

Before you mod a PC drive disk change is on pin 34. You can use a cable/motherboard hack to connect it to pin 2 (the later is what amiga technologies did). However this won't work with alot of games due to the missing ready line. By jumpering the drive to put ready on pin 34 you just need to find the disk change and put it on pin 2, you can go from the jumper pad to do it. Everything you're experiencing is normal for how you've got the drive setup.
 
My Amiga Technlogies A1200 came with a JU257A605P, which I seem to remember was a bit of a pain to hack. Partly because I didn't want to break it and partly because there were no guides for that drive at the time. They look fragile but if you're careful then you should be fine.
 
http://www.softpres.org/article:hard:modifying_the_pansonic_ju-257a605p_fdd
 
http://amiga.serveftp.net/FloppyConversion.html

[spaceman88]

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the help. I manged to get the 203P drive working (it helped when I figured out pin 1 was not pin 2 !!!). I'll play around with the other drives later. BTW it only takes about 30 seconds to take apart a drive now, a lot faster than the first one :-).

[marcfrick2112]

Glad you got it working...

Odd, that I got my A1200 tower with a hacked floppy cable, I just buy PC floppy drives as replacements.... Yet, I have NOT had any issues loading any games...
Granted, I use WHDLoad mostly... but "theatre of death", an NDOS PAL game boots fine from the PC drive... and MANY other games , as well.. all my originals, anyway... which are CONSIDERABLE!

weird...