So the 3.5in drive for my beloved 664 died. :( (Actually, my entire 664 died. But I have a spare one... without drive.)
Has anyone got one they might sell me, with power supply and everything? Needs to have a side switch too, I guess.
Richard
Aw poor 664... :( What happened to it? Would you give it away for spares?
If you already have the case, power supply, ABBA switch etc., then I think your best bet would be to find a suitable PC drive (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Modify_PC_floppy_drives), modify it and then put it back into your case.
Gryzor - I'll check but I think I skipped it. We moved house last year and I tried to slim down my CPC collection to the ones that still worked. Kept all the discs though - there's oodles of software there I'd like to make into .DSKs and upload...
redbox - I think you overestimate my ability to wire things up. :)
Quote from: ChaRleyTroniC on 18:49, 01 March 10
there's oodles of software there I'd like to make into .DSKs and upload...
Including the full completed version of Palatine (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Palatine)? 8)
Ahhh nothing better than a truckload of 3" disks to try... :)
Well, if you do find it, I'd be interested, got a dead 664 sitting there :(
Quote from: ChaRleyTroniC on 18:49, 01 March 10
Gryzor - I'll check but I think I skipped it. We moved house last year and I tried to slim down my CPC collection to the ones that still worked. Kept all the discs though - there's oodles of software there I'd like to make into .DSKs and upload...
redbox - I think you overestimate my ability to wire things up. :)
I use one of these to connect my drives up.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=10946
Works perfect, has the edge connector which can fit cpc6128, then the IDC connector for 3.5" drive.
This may be suitable.. not sure:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=161
Getting a suitable 3.5" drive *will* be the main problem.
It mentions 720K so it *may* work, but I doub't it.
And then maybe one of these for power?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=37702
Ok, so all of this is not cheap when put together...
But this is essentially my setup for my second drive. I do also use it for power for a CPC too, but you need to be careful with the order things are switched on.
Quote from: ChaRleyTroniC on 18:49, 01 March 10
Gryzor - I'll check but I think I skipped it. We moved house last year and I tried to slim down my CPC collection to the ones that still worked. Kept all the discs though - there's oodles of software there I'd like to make into .DSKs and upload...
redbox - I think you overestimate my ability to wire things up. :)
Maybe go to one of those French meetings and they could dump the lot for you?
So is Palatine finished?
Why not release the 512K version, it is ok for emulation ;)
Kevin - interesting. It's still more hardware work than I'd like to do (and no side switch) but might be possible, I guess.
Palatine's certainly not finished - like I say I don't have a CPC that can read the discs right now, and it's only in the last couple of weeks that someone has released a decent enough emulator for the Mac (for which many yays). But I wouldn't mind doing some more work on it. If I can remember any Z80. :)
The best 3,5" you can buy is this:
http://cgi.ebay.es/SAMSUNG-SFD-321B-LEB-FLOPPY-DRIVE_W0QQitemZ260557073138QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_FloppyDiskDrives_SM?hash=item3caa696af2
This drive supports ready signal.All you have to do is bridge a little resistance.
In my case.I which I made was directly bypass the pins from the drive.Instead of destroying the cable.
And for the power supply i use the modulator mpv 001.It's very easy Welding inside.
But if you can not weld, there are stores that sell kits on ebay.
Quote from: arnoldemu on 11:23, 02 March 10
And then maybe one of these for power?
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=37702
Quote from: dragon on 11:28, 04 March 10
And for the power supply i use the modulator mpv 001.It's very easy Welding inside.
A lot of people seem to use a PC PSU to power their floppy drives, but I was thinking that something like this (http://www.xoxide.com/12vdc-psu-4pinmolex.html) would be a better solution. You can use the one molex to power the floppy drive through a simple converter cable.
I can't find a UK version though. Anyone else seen one?
Hell's teeth!
I just delved through the boxes again and found an old 3.5in disc drive which I'd left for dead.
Messed around with the power supply a bit, experimented with the lead one way up and then the other... and it works. I just loaded PowerPage 128 off 3.5in disc to prove it.
The side switch has fallen off but I reckon I can probably find a replacement switch somewhere or other. Or just do the old ParaDOS poke.
Quite chuffed. ;D ;D
(Incidentally, on the subject of power, Rob Scott hotwired my previous drive - the one that really has died - from the main CPC power, as he reckoned there was enough spare. It worked fine for many years.)
Quote from: ChaRleyTroniC on 16:04, 04 March 10
Hell's teeth!
I just delved through the boxes again and found an old 3.5in disc drive which I'd left for dead.
Messed around with the power supply a bit, experimented with the lead one way up and then the other... and it works. I just loaded PowerPage 128 off 3.5in disc to prove it.
The side switch has fallen off but I reckon I can probably find a replacement switch somewhere or other. Or just do the old ParaDOS poke.
Quite chuffed. ;D ;D
(Incidentally, on the subject of power, Rob Scott hotwired my previous drive - the one that really has died - from the main CPC power, as he reckoned there was enough spare. It worked fine for many years.)
Excellent news!
Palatine will be finished before the end of 2010!!!!!! ;)
Don't get your hopes up! But that said, having managed to jury-rig a side-switch by disassembling an old Hackit (Hackit was crap anyway), I've just assembled and run the Palatine menu for the first time in years. That scrolling is wicked smooth. :P
(http://www.systemed.net/cpc/pics/palatine.jpg)
(that's not the menu, that's another of the parts)
And here's my old CPC collection while I was in the process of taking it apart to find out what worked...
(http://www.systemed.net/cpc/pics/cpcs.jpg)
Quote from: ChaRleyTroniC on 17:16, 04 March 10
And here's my old CPC collection while I was in the process of taking it apart to find out what worked...
Nice collection. Shame about the MacBook ;)
It's older than that, it's an iBook!
God, it's like a CPC graveyard! *shivers*
Hey, while a 3"5 topic is on.
while at Madrid, DeepFB tried to instal a "built in" 3"5 on one of my 6128+...(put in place of the original 3")
It seemed that finding a really compatible one what harder than expected.
Do you know about this ?
what models do you know to be 100% compatible ?
Quote from: MacDeath on 19:44, 17 March 10
what models do you know to be 100% compatible ?
According to the wiki, the Samsung SFD-321B (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Modify_PC_floppy_drives) is the best option.
There is a list of other compatible drives in Kevin Thacker's site. (http://www.kjthacker.f2s.com/docs/2nddrives.html)
The Samsung 321B seems to be the best option but not the only one.
Well, will have to look at it with DeepFB but the thing was that the Amstrad PLUS may need a model with an inferior power consumption.
As the Powersupply may be inferior to CPC's one (only 5V and 1 cable)
We really tried a lot of models supposed to be CPC compatibles... but are they really PLUS compatibles ?
Some of them working on CPC...but not on my PLUS.
Quote from: MacDeath on 08:05, 18 March 10
Some of them working on CPC...but not on my PLUS.
Probably because the power supply to the disc drive in the Plus is lower (i.e. it doesn't have the seperate one like on a classic CPC)...?
Quote from: robcfg on 00:14, 18 March 10
There is a list of other compatible drives in Kevin Thacker's site. (http://www.kjthacker.f2s.com/docs/2nddrives.html)
The Samsung 321B seems to be the best option but not the only one.
The kjthacker.f2s.com website will be closed soon. You can now use direct links using www.cpctech.org.uk
so:
www.cpctech.org.uk/docs/2nddrives.html works fine :)
Quote from: arnoldemu on 10:45, 18 March 10
The kjthacker.f2s.com website will be closed soon. You can now use direct links using www.cpctech.org.uk
so:
www.cpctech.org.uk/docs/2nddrives.html works fine :)
Also, some drives can be modified to work on the CPC.. but you need to be good with soldering because it means moving tiny surface mount resistors around ;)