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Author Topic: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable  (Read 2312 times)

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Offline yaddaTopic starter

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WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« on: January 17, 2015, 12:56:06 AM »
So, I'm in a bit of a jam.

If you've ever had a Catweasel Mk4Plus, you'd know that it only works with the original floppy cable that came with it, else it'll misidentify the drive attached to it and fail to read or write disks.

I recently had the itch to get back into Amiga stuff, but unfortunately I seem to have misplaced this cable.

Does anyone have a Catweasel Mk4Plus they're not using who wants to sell me their cable? To clarify, I mean the 3.5 inch floppy cable, not the little tiny 5.25 inch adapter cable.

If needed, I'm comfortable buying the entire kit as well, as long as I get the cable.

Thank you in advance.
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2015, 01:03:24 AM »
The cable looked identical to a 34-pin PC floppy cable to me; I sold my 2 cards in favor of a MK2 as I didn't have a PC with  WinXP 32-bit, and hated emulation on a PC.
 

Offline yaddaTopic starter

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2015, 01:08:49 AM »
It looks the same, yeah, but from what I've read online, if you try using a different cable (and this is happening to me), it misidentifies the drive as a 5.25in drive instead of a 3.5in drive and can't read or write anything.

Thanks anyway!
 

Offline magnetic

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2015, 01:09:46 AM »
yadda

you are probably not going to find anyone willing to sell a catweseal. Have you contaced individual maybe jens can make u a cable? Or amigakit?
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Offline yaddaTopic starter

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2015, 01:15:47 AM »
How would I go about getting contact information for Individual? Their website currently lacks any support system beyond the wiki.
 

Offline Oldsmobile_Mike

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2015, 01:29:58 AM »
Quote from: yadda;781867
How would I go about getting contact information for Individual? Their website currently lacks any support system beyond the wiki.

Looks like they've redone their website recently.  The shop page is very nice.  Hell, it makes me want to spend money.  ;)  Found this quote:  "We will shortly add a way to open support tickets on this site. That's one of the things that don't work yet. Bear with us..."

I sent them a ticket back on their old page and Jens responded very quickly.  He doesn't have an account here anymore but I think he's over on EAB or that German site (A1k)?  Try messaging him there.  Good luck!
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Offline yaddaTopic starter

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2015, 02:06:11 AM »
Sent Jens a message, hopefully I get an answer. Until then, if anyone is feeling altruistic, I'll be here.
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2015, 02:22:55 AM »
The pin out of the cable has no way of telling what type of drive it is connected to; the drive itself, as I recall, sends this info back on its first initialization by the controller.  On the amiga, the drive spins at least once and a binary code is sent back to ID it.

Kernal manual on hardware
 

Offline spirantho

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2015, 07:31:29 AM »
I've never heard of this problem, and always use a standard cable (or my adapter cable to let me use 3" drives).... but then on AmigaOS 4 you set the drive type in the prefs program.

Are you using it on a PC?

I've never heard of a drive identifying itself anyway - even PCs can't do that, you have to tell them in the BIOS. Are you sure you're not just missing a setting in the software?
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Offline danbeaver

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2015, 08:27:51 AM »
Quote from: spirantho;781892
I've never heard of this problem, and always use a standard cable (or my adapter cable to let me use 3" drives).... but then on AmigaOS 4 you set the drive type in the prefs program.

Are you using it on a PC?

I've never heard of a drive identifying itself anyway - even PCs can't do that, you have to tell them in the BIOS. Are you sure you're not just missing a setting in the software?
Well, I don't know about PC's but the Amiga does it as I described above; certainly there is no cable line for the type of drive.

Commodore Amiga Book: Amiga Hardware Reference Manual (1985)(Commodore) Page 357, Appendix I for Device ID:

https://ia801709.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/7/items/Amiga_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1985_Commodore/Amiga_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1985_Commodore_jp2.zip&file=Amiga_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1985_Commodore_jp2/Amiga_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1985_Commodore_0364.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0
« Last Edit: January 17, 2015, 08:44:00 AM by danbeaver »
 

Offline klx300r

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2015, 03:36:04 PM »
@ yadda

I've used generic cables for both my 5.25 and 3.5 drives for my CWMK4+ with no issues.  If you tried one that didn't work then it was most likely defective
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Offline yaddaTopic starter

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2015, 06:03:45 PM »
I've tried multiple cables, and other people have reported this issue, so I'm at a loss then. Note I'm trying to use it on PC with the imgtool3 software that Individual has on their website, which has no option for choosing the type of drive, only the type of floppy you're attempting to read or write.
 

Offline danbeaver

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2015, 10:29:43 PM »
Can you show a picture of the cables you have used?
 

Offline Dragos

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Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2015, 09:11:36 PM »
I asked Jens, here is his response:

The cables aren't very special: The motherboard-to-controller cable is a 1:1 34-pin IDC cable, and the controller-to-floppy cable is a standard floppy cables that was shippid in billions with PC motherboards back in the days when floppy drives were in every computer.

hope this helps,
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Offline danbeaver

Re: WTB Catweasel Mk4 Plus floppy cable
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2015, 02:42:13 AM »
Have you tried the CW MK4 in an Amiga?  I used one in my X1000 and it worked fine; after all, PC's are pieces of junk.