+slx Posted May 19, 2019 Share Posted May 19, 2019 https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/37199 A homemade XF551 clone with 3,5" drive. About 100 EUR shipped. With no Ebay listings at all for SF354/314s that would be a lot easier than using the conversion board. Tempting, but what would I use it for in the Age of SIO2everything and SIDE? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted May 19, 2019 Share Posted May 19, 2019 In my opinion, no use. That's why I think is important to get a sf314: so you get no only the functionality, but also the cool factor of the XE grey design. And that is a big part of the retro experience 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZuluGula Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 (edited) This XF551 clone is made by zaxon, 3.5 drive can be replaced by 5.25 one. http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15941 Edited May 21, 2019 by ZuluGula Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+ZuluGula Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 He just made a smaller, internal version of the drive. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_The Doctor__ Posted May 22, 2019 Share Posted May 22, 2019 He just made a smaller, internal version of the drive. Sweet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowy80 Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Hi I prepared a short video with a floppy disk drive test by Zaxon. The film will be available on Tuesday. English version Polish version I invite you to watch the material. Regards Paweł 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 (edited) 32 minutes ago, nowy80 said: Hi I prepared a short video with a floppy disk drive test by Zaxon. The film will be available on Tuesday. English version Polish version I invite you to watch the material. Regards Paweł Is this the 320XE that was talked about on Facebook ? My apologies 320XE is Lukasz Masko Edited August 21, 2019 by Lastic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 8 hours ago, nowy80 said: Hi I prepared a short video with a floppy disk drive test by Zaxon. The film will be available on Tuesday. English version Polish version I invite you to watch the material. Regards Paweł I have to ask the question, because a lot of AtariAge members got burned by a member going by Zaxon some years ago, is this the same person? He made a lot of promises for various projects wanting pre-order money, then never delivered or only completed a few orders. I was one of the lucky ones. But most weren't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 2 hours ago, Dropcheck said: I have to ask the question, because a lot of AtariAge members got burned by a member going by Zaxon some years ago, is this the same person? He made a lot of promises for various projects wanting pre-order money, then never delivered or only completed a few orders. I was one of the lucky ones. But most weren't. Thanks for the reminder. I was on the multi month "waiting list". Still, unlike sloopy(2 VBXEs paid for 9 years ago and an Amiga paid for last September) he did deliver in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 Being a newcomer on the scene, I can't share previous experiences. In my case zaxon was responsive,sent me the PCB instantly after payment . I purchased it here : https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/37217 He also sent me detailed instructions after the sale on how to connect the wiring http://www.eightbitclone.com/xfwew.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowy80 Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 I bought the XF551 clone and floppy disk emulator for CPC6128. I've never had a bad experience with Zaxon. I don't know if we're talking about the same person. Under the video material is available email address to Zaxon. If anyone has questions, they can be sent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 On 5/19/2019 at 2:14 PM, manterola said: In my opinion, no use. That's why I think is important to get a sf314: so you get no only the functionality, but also the cool factor of the XE grey design. And that is a big part of the retro experience On behalf of all ST owners, please take all of the SF354s instead. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 It looks like he's substituting a WD1770PH for the normal WD1772PH floppy controller. Wonder how? My experiments indicated that you could use the WD1770PH with a 5.25" drive, but when I tried a 3.5" drive I had to use the WD1772PH. Conversely you could use a 8.0MHz OSC with the 3.5" drive, but you had to use a 8.333MHz or equivalent OSC circuit with the 5.25". Looks like he's dividing down the 32MHz OSC to 8.0MHz. Interesting...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manterola Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Dropcheck said: It looks like he's substituting a WD1770PH for the normal WD1772PH floppy controller. Wonder how? My experiments indicated that you could use the WD1770PH with a 5.25" drive, but when I tried a 3.5" drive I had to use the WD1772PH. Conversely you could use a 8.0MHz OSC with the 3.5" drive, but you had to use a 8.333MHz or equivalent OSC circuit with the 5.25". Looks like he's dividing down the 32MHz OSC to 8.0MHz. Interesting...... He mentioned in his page that the wd1770 DO work with 3.5" drives, just not using the HyperX firmware, so I assume that a 3.5" mech with wd1770 and Woodley 3.5 firmware should work... I don't have wd1770 to do tests... Edited August 22, 2019 by manterola Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowy80 Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 39 minutes ago, manterola said: He mentioned in his page that the wd1770 DO work with 3.5" drives, just not using the HyperX firmware, so I assume that a 3.5" mech with wd1770 and Woodley 3.5 firmware should work... I don't have wd1770 to do tests... I have also WD1770 installed in XF551 (3.5 "drive). I use HyperX firmware and I have some problems. Under HyperX and SpartaDos X saves floppies on 720KB. The problem is with reading such floppy disks. I show this problem in my video. In the future I will change the coaster to WD1772. The tested floppy disk drive has a bios switch installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 25 minutes ago, nowy80 said: I use HyperX firmware and I have some problems. Under HyperX and SpartaDos X saves floppies on 720KB. In my video, I'm able to format 720K floppies with what appears to be non-Hyper-XF firmware (this is confirmed by writing 700K of data to the desk and verifying it back), but the SDX formatter complains about the 80 track setting when formatting the disk. I take it this goes away with the Hyper ROM? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 WD1770PH is much more common and cheaper to get than the WD1772PH. Might be worth it to try and use only the Atari/Woolley firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowy80 Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 17 minutes ago, flashjazzcat said: In my video, I'm able to format 720K floppies with what appears to be non-Hyper-XF firmware (this is confirmed by writing 700K of data to the desk and verifying it back), but the SDX formatter complains about the 80 track setting when formatting the disk. I take it this goes away with the Hyper ROM? I checked on SpartaDos X using HyperX / modified bios XF551. I was able to format 720KB floppy disks on both bios. However, I had a problem reading 720KB floppy disks on HypeX (WD1770). I change the bios with a switch. Modified Bios and HyperX formats easily with 80 tracks. HyperX reads such disks with errors. I have a bios switch on the front of the floppy disk drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 1 hour ago, nowy80 said: I checked on SpartaDos X using HyperX / modified bios XF551. I was able to format 720KB floppy disks on both bios. However, I had a problem reading 720KB floppy disks on HypeX (WD1770). I change the bios with a switch. Modified Bios and HyperX formats easily with 80 tracks. HyperX reads such disks with errors. I have a bios switch on the front of the floppy disk drive. I had no trouble reading and writing the disks with what I assume to be the stock drive firmware (can't check now, since the device is half way to Belgium). It was only the formatter that produced a cosmetic complaint, but everything still worked. So I guess the Hyper-XF ROM gets rid of the warning, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 Does anyone have any documentation on the drive he is using? I can find fairly cheap used drives on Ebay, but most do not have the flex ribbon cable attached and that seems to be the only connection to the drive itself. So apparently it's carrying power and data. It would help to have a pinout on the drive connector. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 Here is the topic on which various info about the PCB and diskdrive are discussed. https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=pl&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=http://www.atari.org.pl/forum/viewtopic.php%3Fpid%3D251335&xid=25657,15700021,15700186,15700190,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265&usg=ALkJrhjE7kLOvXOAAmHP-JXsJ-B-JCcl0Q#p251335 And the pictures Zaxon sent me in order to assemble it http://www.eightbitclone.com/xfwew.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dropcheck Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 Hi Lastic, Did Zaxon indicate how DF0 was set on the FD3238H drive? Can you ask him? For some reason I can't register in the forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 2 hours ago, Dropcheck said: Hi Lastic, Did Zaxon indicate how DF0 was set on the FD3238H drive? Can you ask him? For some reason I can't register in the forum. Good evening, I communicated with Zaxon via the website where he sold his PCB sellmyretro.com . https://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/details/37217 I will ask him for the info you requested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lastic Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 @Dropcheck Zaxon replied me with the following : Drive is intact, drive number is set by jumpers on my XF551 board. http://www.eightbitclone.com/xfwew.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+kheller2 Posted August 27, 2019 Share Posted August 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Lastic said: @Dropcheck Zaxon replied me with the following : Drive is intact, drive number is set by jumpers on my XF551 board. http://www.eightbitclone.com/xfwew.html I think the question being asked was how was the floppy drive itself modified for "drive 0" operation -- not how the XF clone enumerates itself on the SIO bus (1-4). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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