PEB Help/Advise Please

[+Atari2600PAL]

37 minutes ago, jedimatt42 said:

It only creates an incompatibility with other people or yourself if you switch to an 80 track controller. So you have to ask yourself if that is an actual use case you have...

I have no plans to switch to an 80 track controller

 

Maybe I'll give it a go, for the sake of £50, if the needed cable mods aren't too difficult to get my head around

 

Thanks

 

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

12 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

I have no plans to switch to an 80 track controller

 

Maybe I'll give it a go, for the sake of £50, if the needed cable mods aren't too difficult to get my head around

 

Thanks

 

 

Actually I think I'll forget about 3.5" drives and just keep a long term look out on eBay for a couple of 40 track 5.25" to put in the external box as they should have drive selectors on them

[+OLD CS1]

9 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Thanks, the double stepping / incompatibility concerns me the most

If you are not sharing disks with anyone else who might have a different 3.5" setup, and you have more of the same kind of drive around in case this one fails, this should not be an issue.

[+Atari2600PAL]

4 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

If you are not sharing disks with anyone else who might have a different 3.5" setup, and you have more of the same kind of drive around in case this one fails, this should not be an issue.

Thanks.

 

I've decided to just fit 5.25 360kb drives in the external case (a lot less hassle, no fiddling with cable layouts or conversion frames, and I have a lot of spare 5.25 disks and only a few 3.5), have just ordered the first drive. May leave it at one extra drive and later fit a gotek.

 

Many thanks

[+Ksarul]

9 hours ago, jedimatt42 said:

It only creates an incompatibility with other people or yourself if you switch to an 80 track controller. So you have to ask yourself if that is an actual use case you have...

Exactly--the compatibility issue only raises its head when you are trying to exchange disks with other people, @Atari2600PAL. Both of your drives would work the same way, so there would be no issues when you were using it. Another note: old school external floppy power supplies/cases are starting to get a bit pricey in their own right, so you might not want to bin it just yet--you might find an interested buyer close enough to make shipping reasonable.

[+Atari2600PAL]

6 hours ago, Ksarul said:

Another note: old school external floppy power supplies/cases are starting to get a bit pricey in their own right, so you might not want to bin it just yet--you might find an interested buyer close enough to make shipping reasonable.

Thanks, hadn't considered it had any value.

 

[+OLD CS1]

6 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Thanks, hadn't considered it had any value.

Yeah.  I am thinking I might be able to retire on my Sun 411 and 911, SCSI CD-ROM, and external floppy enclosures.  And everyone said I was mad...

[+Atari2600PAL]

Could anyone please advise me where the termination should go if I have floppy drives attached to both the internal & external connectors on the FDC please?

 

Currently I have DSK1 & DSK2 internal & DSK3 (on order) will be external

 

I may also swap things around and put the current DSK1 & DSK2 back into their external case as DSK3/4 and put the on order DSK3 in the PEB as DSK1 (with, eventually, either a 3.5" or GoTek as DSK2)

 

Sorry again for all the questions

 

Many thanks

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

20 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Could anyone please advise me where the termination should go if I have floppy drives attached to both the internal & external connectors on the FDC please?

 

Currently I have DSK1 & DSK2 internal & DSK3 (on order) will be external

 

I may also swap things around and put the current DSK1 & DSK2 back into their external case as DSK3/4 and put the on order DSK3 in the PEB as DSK1 (with, eventually, either a 3.5" or GoTek as DSK2)

 

Sorry again for all the questions

 

Many thanks

 

Sorry, I mean't to add

 

The controller manual seems to say only DSK3 (or DSK4 in the alternative setup) should have a termination pack installed

 

I get that the internal/external connector are really just one and the same thing, but wanted to be sure that it is only DSK3 (or DSK4) I terminate, regardless of where it is on the cabling?

 

Many thanks

[+Lee Stewart]

4 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Could anyone please advise me where the termination should go if I have floppy drives attached to both the internal & external connectors on the FDC please? Currently I have DSK1 & DSK2 internal & DSK3 (on order) will be external. I may also swap things around and put the current DSK1 & DSK2 back into their external case as DSK3/4 and put the on order DSK3 in the PEB as DSK1 (with, eventually, either a 3.5" or GoTek as DSK2). Sorry again for all the questions

                     Many thanks

 

3 hours ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Sorry, I meant to add:  The controller manual seems to say only DSK3 (or DSK4 in the alternative setup) should have a termination pack installed. I get that the internal/external connector are really just one and the same thing, but wanted to be sure that it is only DSK3 (or DSK4) I terminate, regardless of where it is on the cabling?

                        Many thanks

 

Generally, you want the termination resistor pack on the drive at the physical end of the cable, regardless of its number.

 

...lee

[+Atari2600PAL]

1 minute ago, Lee Stewart said:

 

 

Generally, you want the termination resistor pack on the drive at the physical end of the cable, regardless of its number.

 

...lee

Trouble is the controller will effectively be sitting in the middle of the cables so I’ll have 2 ends?

 

From what I’ve read on here they aren’t seen as 2 separate cables so I assume there will only be 1 terminator

 

Many thanks

[+arcadeshopper]

4 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Trouble is the controller will effectively be sitting in the middle of the cables so I’ll have 2 ends?

 

From what I’ve read on here they aren’t seen as 2 separate cables so I assume there will only be 1 terminator

 

Many thanks

I want to say it needs to be at the end of both cables try just one and see what happens, if you get issues .. add the other

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

10 minutes ago, arcadeshopper said:

I want to say it needs to be at the end of both cables try just one and see what happens, if you get issues .. add the other

 

Ok thanks, will try that

 

While I decide if I want/need a Gotek I’ve ordered a new single 3.5” floppy drive (as it was only £15 delivered it’s disposable) to fit as DSK2 for a play with. Fitting it as DSK2 so I don’t have to fiddle with cables other than fitting an IDC plug to my floppy cable (hope I’ve got that right anyway)

 

many thanks

[+Ksarul]

On termination, you need the terminators at the end of each branch of the cable, so with internal and external drives, there will be a terminator at the end of each chain. Note: 3.5 drives have their terminators built in (and generally they are not removable, so they make good candidates for the end of a chain).

 

The other thing to note is that the standard controller from TI will only support three drives in its disk chain, while third party controllers (CorComp, Myarc, Atronic, BwG) support four.

[+Atari2600PAL]

2 minutes ago, Ksarul said:

On termination, you need the terminators at the end of each branch of the cable, so with internal and external drives, there will be a terminator at the end of each chain. Note: 3.5 drives have their terminators built in (and generally they are not removable, so they make good candidates for the end of a chain).

 

The other thing to note is that the standard controller from TI will only support three drives in its disk chain, while third party controllers (CorComp, Myarc, Atronic, BwG) support four.

Ok thanks. So making the 3.5 DSK2 will terminate the internal and what will become DSK4 is already terminated for the external. Just need to make sure I don’t mess up the order of the drives on the cable!

Im using a CorComp so have the 4 drive support

 

Many thanks 

 

[+arcadeshopper]

4 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

Ok thanks. So making the 3.5 DSK2 will terminate the internal and what will become DSK4 is already terminated for the external. Just need to make sure I don’t mess up the order of the drives on the cable!

Im using a CorComp so have the 4 drive support

 

Many thanks 

 

doesn't matter what drive number you set it too, only matters its the last thing on the cable 

[+Atari2600PAL]

1 minute ago, arcadeshopper said:

doesn't matter what drive number you set it too, only matters its the last thing on the cable 

Ok, thanks 

[+Atari2600PAL]

I replaced the Idc connector on the existing drives ribbon cable with an edge connector for fitting to the external connector on the FDC (I now wish I hadn't shortened the ribbon previously!) and put the drives in the external case as DSK1 & DSK4 (for now)

 

That was a huge mistake as they didn't work (lights came on, but no disk movement)

 

When I checked the voltages the 5v line was ok, but the 12v was showing as 3v (and now 0v), am ditching the box as I don't trust myself with 240v stuff (I know I should of checked first but it was ok when I stored it a few months ago)

 

So for the time being I'm officially tipi only as I don't want to reverse the ribbon cable changes, for now at least

 

Will wait for the replacement 5.25 and 3.5 drives to arrive this coming week to fit in the PEB and then try to find an external box (or something) to fit the old drives in

 

c'est la vie

[+Atari2600PAL]

Change of plan

 

Have refitted the drives back in the PEB as DSK1 & DSK3

 

Have a dual external box coming this week that currently contains a 5.25" floppy (will be DSK4) along with a GoTek (will be DSK2) in it (will need to change the connector from IDC to edge connector to fit the FDC though)

 

If I don't get on with the GoTek I'll fit either the spare 5.25" or the spare 3.5" and resell the GoTek

 

Thanks again for all the advise

[RedBaron]

I have a Gotek USB floppy drive, but I cannot seem to get it to read or write to a USB flash drive.  Can anyone help me to get this going?  Thank you Ricki

[+arcadeshopper]

12 hours ago, RedBaron said:

I have a Gotek USB floppy drive, but I cannot seem to get it to read or write to a USB flash drive.  Can anyone help me to get this going?  Thank you Ricki

first off.. 

what firmware are you using?

are you creating disk image files and putting them on the flash drive? then accessing them through the gotek? or just trying to read/write to the drive itself? (note: it only works with disk image files) 

pictures? errors? details?

 

[+Atari2600PAL]

After a lot of swapping around I finally settled on DSK1=5.25 (PEB), DSK2=GoTek (PEB), DSK3=5.25 (External), DSK4=5.25 (External Beige)

 

Had to make my own ribbon cable out of the cable that came with it and sort out the jumpers and termination

 

The only strange thing is that when I use the CorComp Manager to catalog a disk that is zeroed for P-Code the manager complains the disk is too large for the drive, so I need to go back and test formatting a DSDD Disk in case it's not just p-code but a bigger problem

 

EDIT: P-code disk problem has gone away (no idea what that was about, maybe boot order or something)

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

7 minutes ago, Atari2600PAL said:

That is a nice external drive case.

[+Atari2600PAL]

2 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

That is a nice external drive case.

It's a Cumana drive case for a BBC Micro, fits nicely on top of PEB

 

It's a bit of a shame the case cover is beige, but I guess I could respray the case a better match to the PEB sometime if it starts bugging me

[+Atari2600PAL]

Today I've replaced my 32kb card with a 1mb sams card (many thanks @arcadeshopper)

 

Will be giving "Stevie" (amongst others) a try out soon (have only checked it loads ok so far)

 

But I noticed when the PEB is switched on the sams card LED remains "lit" until the console is also turned on at which point it goes off until used, is this normal behaviour please? Just curious

 

Many thanks