Hello.
As title says, I finally managed to hook up a 3.5 drive to the DDI-1 (on the cpc 464).
However I wonder if i can set it as drive a without cutting the precious wires on the original ddi 1?
Thanks in advance.
@littlangel (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3779)
What is the brand of Drive and its Model number.
Keep Safe
Ray
Quote from: littlangel on 07:30, 23 July 20
Hello.
As title says, I finally managed to hook up a 3.5 drive to the DDI-1 (on the cpc 464).
However I wonder if i can set it as drive a without cutting the precious wires on the original ddi 1?
Thanks in advance.
https://github.com/lambdamikel/CPCDiskAdapter
Are you continuing to use the 3" drive as well as the 3.5"?
If so, I'm trying to work out how to make my 3" drive on a pcw8256 into the b drive too.
I've had a bit of a look about on the 3" drive to see how to get the DS1 signal (drive B) rather than the hard wired DS0 (Drive A), but hoping someone who has previous knowledge of it might be able to confirm if i'm in the correct area or not.
Then the 3.5" drive should have a jumper setting on the back (hopefully) where you can set it to master (DS0/Drive A) rather than slave (DS1/Drive B), if it's not already. They usually are set to master as standard.
With the adapter board above, it doesn't matter how the drive is jumpered. You can reroute the signal such that DS0 <-> A, DS0 <-> B, DS1 <-> A, DS1 <-> B, any way you like. No modification to the drive required.
Hi @littlangel (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3779)
Did you get any further with this?
I'm still in the process of testing my board out that should let me use an unmodified 3.5" drive and DDI-1 interface.
Got to a point where the device seems to be initialising but i'm not able to read the disks yet.
I'll key you up to date if I get this working, or you can see my post on here.
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/possibly-killed-my-ddi-1/ (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/possibly-killed-my-ddi-1/)
Quote from: geebus on 13:14, 07 August 20
Hi @littlangel (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=3779)
Did you get any further with this?
I'm still in the process of testing my board out that should let me use an unmodified 3.5" drive and DDI-1 interface.
Got to a point where the device seems to be initialising but i'm not able to read the disks yet.
I'll key you up to date if I get this working, or you can see my post on here.
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/possibly-killed-my-ddi-1/ (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/possibly-killed-my-ddi-1/)
Hey there! Well afraid to damage my ddi-1 and also because I'm lazy, I didn't mess with it much more so it's still drive B. But I had the idea of just using a floppy extension cable and cut the wires on that one. I guess that would work?
You'll still need to mod the DDI-1 internally or find a way to power the DDI-1 as it normally gets its power from the FD-1.
Bryce.
I thought making the drive A or B was just a matter of the connection you used from the end of the DDI ribbon?
Quote
DDI Modification
The Problem
The Amstrad DDI-1 Disc Interface was made to be used with Amstrad FD-1 Floppy Drives only. To deter users from using other drives Amstrad implemented two features to make standard PC drives incompatible:
The 34way cable to the floppy uses a non-standard pinout.
The DDI-1 gets its power from the FD-1, which a standard PC Drive can't do.
http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/DDI_Modification
Quote from: geebus on 11:04, 12 August 20
I thought making the drive A or B was just a matter of the connection you used from the end of the DDI ribbon?
The DDI-1 controller needs to get its power from the CPC then. By default, it gets it from the drive over the ribbon cable (-> bad idea). Disable this.