how to connect an standard 3.5 Floppy Drive to my 130XE?

[31336haxx0r]

Bob Woolley patched the original XF551's code to use 3.5" floppies, christened the XF351. As the XF uses off-the-shelf parts, it is rather easy to replicate it. One member of this board already did just this: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/184814-xf-551-troubleshooting/page__view__findpost__p__2377794

 

This is probably the easiest way to use 3.5" floppies on the 8 bits. It's probably cheaper also than buying a used XF551 off ebay...

[+Allan]

Bob Woolley patched the original XF551's code to use 3.5" floppies, christened the XF351. As the XF uses off-the-shelf parts, it is rather easy to replicate it. One member of this board already did just this: http://www.atariage....ost__p__2377794

 

This is probably the easiest way to use 3.5" floppies on the 8 bits. It's probably cheaper also than buying a used XF551 off ebay...

 

But if you don't have an XF551 sitting around it makes it kind of expensive thing to do.

 

I'd love to be able to use one of the ST drives with the 8-bit computers. They are a lot cheaper and easier to find plus they match the XE models.

 

Allan

[venom4728a]

I have an xf-351 its supports 3.5@720kb, What I want is the ability to use HD Drives and HD Discs 5.25@1.2mb and 3.5@1.44mb, bothe hd drives and discs are cheaper and easier to get a hold of. Plus I could use the double drive i have a pic posted of above.

 

I also have most of the newer drives sio2sd, sdrive nuxx, sdrive maestro, ide plus etc etc, but still need to use floppy once in a while.

 

I think I remember reading that MetalGuy66 has had good luck using the HD drives as DD with some minor mods, but thats still leaves us using the more expensive DD discs.

 

Robert Miller

[Fox-1 / mnx]

But if you don't have an XF551 sitting around it makes it kind of expensive thing to do.

 

I'd love to be able to use one of the ST drives with the 8-bit computers. They are a lot cheaper and easier to find plus they match the XE models.

 

ST Drives are useless. These are just bare mechanics with a power supply stuffed into one box. To use these you still need a controller. I use ST drives but connected to XF551 PCB's.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/gallery/image/5391-atari-xf551-dual-mech-in-atari-1050-case/

Edited January 18, 2012 by Fox-1 / mnx

[+Allan]

But if you don't have an XF551 sitting around it makes it kind of expensive thing to do.

 

I'd love to be able to use one of the ST drives with the 8-bit computers. They are a lot cheaper and easier to find plus they match the XE models.

 

ST Drives are useless. These are just bare mechanics with a power supply stuffed into one box. To use these you still need a controller. I use ST drives but connected to XF551 PCB's.

 

http://www.atariage....tari-1050-case/

 

I don't know if this would even be possible but could you build a controller box with a SIO plug on one end and ST drive cable connector on the other?

 

Allan

[+bob1200xl]

Probably the best bet is to modify a 1050. A normal 5.25 will fit with just a little sanding, as will a 3.5 with an adaptor. The 2793 can be set up to run HD drives and stock Atari formats at the same time. Making a whole new board would be great, but expensive - something like a Happy board would be more reasonable.

 

The real question is: Why? Just for media?

 

Bob

[Fox-1 / mnx]

I don't know if this would even be possible but could you build a controller box with a SIO plug on one end and ST drive cable connector on the other?

 

That's what the HDI is. It's a PCB on where you plug-in your bare mechanics. An external ST disk drive is a bare mechanic which just happens to use an unconventional connector. The official produced one even has an ST floppy connector on the back IIRC.

 

b.t.w: more HDI info in this thread: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/158701-hid-disk-interface/

[+Larry]

There is another IC on the HDI that was obsolete when the original HDI drives were produced. IIRC, it was the ram I/O timer chip, and there was one particular maker's chip that could be overclocked -- a 1 MHz chip that had to be run at 2 MHz (or 2 MHz to 4 MHz -- don't recall). Probably 20 years ago, I tried to buy an HDI, and IF I could find the chip, then I could get an HDI made for me. No chip to be found -- no way, no how.

 

I don't know what XF551's are going for on eBay these days. Last I checked, it was in the $80-$90 range. B&C sells reconditioned XF551's for $150. He sells pcb's (populated) for for $75. Unless you are very technically adept, building you own from scratch is probably way more trouble than it is worth.

 

There was also another guy that built and sold "XF552" boards that used the Hyper-XF rom. He sold other Atari stuff, too, but I can't remember his "business name."

 

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, it will surely be an expensive pursuit.

 

-Larry

[carmel_andrews]

just buy yourself a floppyboard (i think the BB had a floppyboard but you could only use the BB floppyboard with the BB)

 

I do have a floppyboard but it doesn't work, i think there were two versions, the 360k and the 720k versions (for single and double sided 3.5 and 5 1/4 drives), i got mine from microdiscout/derek fern...I think they were based on the percom floppyboards which i guess were widespread in the US (since percom were largely unknown over here)

 

I also remember that computerhouse UK (who did the o/s controller card) also marketed a floppyboard, which allowed you to use both ST and Amiga floppydrives (i am guessing 3rd party) with the A8....never saw it though

[Mathy]

Hello Carmel

 

There was only one version of the FloppyBoard. It can handle just about anything up to 1.44 meg.

 

Mathy

[BillC]

There is another IC on the HDI that was obsolete when the original HDI drives were produced. IIRC, it was the ram I/O timer chip, and there was one particular maker's chip that could be overclocked -- a 1 MHz chip that had to be run at 2 MHz (or 2 MHz to 4 MHz -- don't recall). Probably 20 years ago, I tried to buy an HDI, and IF I could find the chip, then Erhard would get one made for me. No chip to be found -- no way, no how.

 

I don't know what XF551's are going for on eBay these days. Last I checked, it was in the $80-$90 range. B&C sells reconditioned XF551's for $150. He sells pcb's (populated) for for $75. Unless you are very technically adept, building you own from scratch is probably way more trouble than it is worth.

 

There was also another guy that built and sold "XF552" boards that used the Hyper-XF rom. He sold other Atari stuff, too, but I can't remember his "business name."

 

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, it will surely be an expensive pursuit.

 

-Larry

The Rockwell manufactured 2MHx 6532 RIOT is still available in limited quantities, at least there are 4 sellers on eBay with the Rockwell R6532AP, the A specifying the 2MHz version. There are another 2 sellers with the R6532AP, no manufacturer specified.

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=R6532AP&_sacat=0&_odkw=r6532AP&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313

[+Larry]

Found some docs from a person that produced the HDI for ABBUC.

 

The chip is 65SC32-P2.

 

I quote: "This chip must be from producer CMD (California Micro Devices) and it must have been produced in Taiwan. Why? This chip may only be used with 2 MHz but in the HDI it is used at 4 MHz..."

 

The letter is dated 1994. Of course, things change, and someone might get lucky with another chip.

 

-Larry

 

 

 

There is another IC on the HDI that was obsolete when the original HDI drives were produced. IIRC, it was the ram I/O timer chip, and there was one particular maker's chip that could be overclocked -- a 1 MHz chip that had to be run at 2 MHz (or 2 MHz to 4 MHz -- don't recall). Probably 20 years ago, I tried to buy an HDI, and IF I could find the chip, then Erhard would get one made for me. No chip to be found -- no way, no how.

 

I don't know what XF551's are going for on eBay these days. Last I checked, it was in the $80-$90 range. B&C sells reconditioned XF551's for $150. He sells pcb's (populated) for for $75. Unless you are very technically adept, building you own from scratch is probably way more trouble than it is worth.

 

There was also another guy that built and sold "XF552" boards that used the Hyper-XF rom. He sold other Atari stuff, too, but I can't remember his "business name."

 

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, it will surely be an expensive pursuit.

 

-Larry

The Rockwell manufactured 2MHx 6532 RIOT is still available in limited quantities, at least there are 4 sellers on eBay with the Rockwell R6532AP, the A specifying the 2MHz version. There are another 2 sellers with the R6532AP, no manufacturer specified.

 

http://www.ebay.com/...6.c0.m270.l1313

[31336haxx0r]

My rationale for using the XF551 as a base is simple. It uses stock PC compatible drives. Atari ST drives, like the SF314 the OP wants to use, are PC compatible drives. A SF315 could be adapted to work with XF551 electronics easily. The XF uses a WD1772 FDC, just like the Atari ST, from which it can be sourced if one doesn't happen to find one on ebay or something. There are several methods out there that enable the ST to use HD disks by overclocking the WD1772, running it with 16 MHz instead of 8 MHz. Apparently the WD1772 can run asynchronous. That means it can use a different clock source than the processor controlling it. So no worries about timing there except increasing the step rate time from 3 ms to 6 ms which can be done by patching the XF's firmware just like patching older TOS versions on the ST.

 

My idea is to put the XF electronics replica I mentioned above into a housing like that of the SLMC804 or XEP80 (same design as the SF314 housing), fitting a 14 pin DIN connector to it for connecting the SF314 and a SIO cable. As for a power supply, I'd use an SMPS like the ones used for external USB hard disks (small inexpensive, easy to get, more than enough power).

[31336haxx0r]

Crap, I can't edit my post anymore.

 

I think I'd go klingon on that new XF housing and fit a load of LEDs for diagnosis and generally knowing what's going on. Power, read/write, write protect enabled, media density (single, double, high), track 0 sense and stuff like that comes to mind.