Atari dual 3.5" and 5.25" drive enclosure - made my own!

[macsonny]

Hi All,

 

Thought a few might be a bit interested in this project. Having built up two of @Dropcheck's ver 7 controller boards I wasn't sure what to do with them. Had some help here on getting the ROM to make it work with a 3.5" floppy and then after working out which drives work with the card, decided to install it all into a enclosure that could take 3 full height drives. I chose a bigger case so I had room to mount boards and run cables.

 

I had to design a 3D printed rear plate that also had "arms" to mount the floppy driver boards. The rear panel needed a bit on angle grinding. Not my best work but this can all be cleaned up when I get some time (code for I'll never actually do it!).

 

End result - a single case running a 3.5" floppy and a 5.25" floppy both of which are ID selectable, both work simultaneously and both boot an Atari floppy.

 

It was a bit of fun and I learnt a lot. Special thanks to @Dropcheck who helped with the controller boards.

 

I've attached a few photos of the build. Again, ignore the crappy rear panel metal work that needs to be cleaned up.

 

Now for my next porject. yet to be decided

 

 

[Peri Noid]

Did you consider building a single-PSU construction? I can see, you used two completly independent XF551 boards. Double logic is necessary in this build but why a double AC PSU?

[+kheller2]

I thought there was an XF551 upgrade that let you use a 5.25 and 3.5 at the same time but as D1 and D2.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering. As the firmware would need to deal with both, but the D1/D2 I'm sure existed.

[_The Doctor__]

CSS

[Dropcheck]

4 hours ago, Peri Noid said:

Did you consider building a single-PSU construction? I can see, you used two completly independent XF551 boards. Double logic is necessary in this build but why a double AC PSU?

This would necessitate a redesigned drive pcb for each drive and then some kind of power pcb board that could deliver power to both.  Kinda of gets complicated.  Not that it can't be done. 

 

This appears to be a simple AC input wiring that then is run to each board's AC input.

 

I would love to see a reimaged make of CSS's board mod.  Although I don't think you could run both drives at the same time unless they were both 5.25" or both 3.5".

[+kheller2]

According to the docs, you could run 3.5 and 5.25 at the same time.

https://mathyvannisselroy.nl/css_docs/XF Dual Drive Upgrade.pdf

 

[Dropcheck]

28 minutes ago, kheller2 said:

According to the docs, you could run 3.5 and 5.25 at the same time.

https://mathyvannisselroy.nl/css_docs/XF Dual Drive Upgrade.pdf

 

deleted

 

Edited June 3 by Dropcheck

[+Larry]

I've got one of those CSS XF-Dual drives.  There have been several threads about this dual drive upgrade.  Here is one of them:

 

 

I've always liked this particular combination 5.25 + 3.5 drive, but I still prefer a 1050 Happy to the 5.25 XF drive -- the Happy is so flexible.

[Peri Noid]

2 hours ago, kheller2 said:

According to the docs, you could run 3.5 and 5.25 at the same time.

https://mathyvannisselroy.nl/css_docs/XF Dual Drive Upgrade.pdf

 

But it requires a specific upgrade.

 

BTW, are the schematics of this upgrade available anywhere? It would be good to have them for archivisation purposes at least - if not to build such double drives.

Edited June 3 by Peri Noid

[macsonny]

9 hours ago, Peri Noid said:

Did you consider building a single-PSU construction? I can see, you used two completly independent XF551 boards. Double logic is necessary in this build but why a double AC PSU?

I did consider it but I have an Atari dual power supply and decided to take the easiest option and use that to power the two seperate boards. I decided to keep things simple.

 

[macsonny]

4 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

CSS

I did read about the dual drive CSS but it seems no-one has re-created this so no other dial drive designs to the best of my knowledge?

 

[macsonny]

2 hours ago, Larry said:

I've got one of those CSS XF-Dual drives.  There have been several threads about this dual drive upgrade.  Here is one of them:

 

 

I've always liked this particular combination 5.25 + 3.5 drive, but I still prefer a 1050 Happy to the 5.25 XF drive -- the Happy is so flexible.

I kind of agree. Whilst I built this unit for a bit of entertainment it really is just so I could have a cool dual drive system. I'm a huge fan of MegaSpeedy giving me the flexibility to configure for any drive type and I usually leave it in "Happy mode". I do like the look of the XF551 compared to the 1050 but no one came out with a cool upgrade like MegaSPeedy for the XF551 orther than a few ROM upgrades like Hyper X+.

[macsonny]

2 hours ago, Peri Noid said:

But it requires a specific upgrade.

 

BTW, are the schematics of this upgrade available anywhere? It would be good to have them for archivisation purposes at least - if not to build such double drives.

I too would love to see if the CSS dual drive could be re-created from schematics.