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Powered 26Pin to 34Pin Adapter

Started by Charlie, 16:01, 26 September 19

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Charlie

Hi all, another little something to share.
The fellow parents out there may be as surprised as me to hear my 15 year old daughter is interested in retro computers, maybe even stranger is her liking for CP/M type machines and old typewriters. With that in mind I've been fixing an Amstrad PCW10 for her - she seems pretty pleased with it.

One would think a PCW10 would be a good choice but among other issues is that darn powered 26Pin floppy interface... Well I lashed up an adapter for it, the results below:
-As designed it should plug directly in to a Gotek's floppy and power headers with a suitable 26Pin connector on the other side
-WARNING!!! The powered 26Pin floppy standard is NOT the same as the 26Pin connector found in the CPC range.

I've flashed the Gotek with this awesome firmware: https://github.com/keirf/FlashFloppy/
Do be sure to include the example FF.CFG file in the root of your thumb drive with the line:
pin34 = auto
changed to
pin34 = rdy
...to prevent angry beeps.
I think I need some way to convert this machine to expect 3" floppies instead of 3.5" ones - to many of the disk images I've found, especially games, just don't want to know.

PS
You don't actually have to have the board made if you don't want to - a bit of veroboard, soldering, and using the schematic as a guide will do fine.
Charlie.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The Qube Server

JohnElliott

QuoteI think I need some way to convert this machine to expect 3" floppies instead of 3.5" ones - to many of the disk images I've found, especially games, just don't want to know.

This sounds like the 48tpi vs 96tpi thing - once CP/M has determined that a drive is 96tpi, it'll assume 180k floppies are 48tpi and double-step them. Which is true for 3" drives, but not for 3.5" drives. XLOGIN at http://www.seasip.info/Cpm/software/amstrad.html includes a driver (DLOGINPW.FID) to force everything to 96tpi; I wrote it for use in JOYCE, but it may help in this case too.

It shouldn't affect self-booting disk images, though, because they ought not to realise the drive is 96tpi in the first place.

JonB

Nice one Charlie

I have here a 34 way adapter for a 9512 with the power connector swapped round on-board for a 3.5" drive that is likely the same as your design, I have not reverse engineered it yet. Too busy with my car..

JohnElliott

Maybe something like this one on eBay?

Charlie

Thanks for the tips chaps, I appreciate it.  :)
Charlie.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering? The Qube Server

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