12-08-2019, 12:03 PM
I bought a SCP a couple months ago - but haven't had time to give it a try till recently.
I bought it in hopes of archiving about 300 Atari disks (copies - not priceless originals) that I received with an 800XL on ebay a year ago.
I've attempted buying Atari 1050 drives on ebay - but never got them to work - so I decided to cut my losses and try an SCP with what I believe are good IBM compatible drives.
I have a variety of drives - both 40 and 80 track DD - no beige HD drives.
The three drives I have tried so far - all fail in the same way - the index pulse isn't found - which isn't surprising - since at the time I get the error - the drive isn't spinning.
Here is my typical setup - I have an identical looking IBM PC compatible floppy drive cable as shown in the SCP manual. Complete with annoying pin 1 orientation on the motherboard end - which
means I have to fold the cable over itself when inserted into the SCP - so it exits away from the 34 pin connector - and not over the board.
I do have the pin 1 on the cable (red stripe) oriented correctly.
I am powering the drives I have been testing with an external full size floppy drive enclosure from a TRS-80.
TRS-80 drives work fine in the enclosure - and I verified 5 & 12 volts being supplied to the IBM drive.
I am connecting the drive to the non-twisted end of the cable - and when SCP does a drive scan it says that is drive 0.
It can successfully perform a maximum track number scan and is able to differentiate between a 40 and an 80 track drive.
HOWEVER - whenever I attempt a copy operation - it fails miserably since the drive isn't spinning.
Now - I'm under the impression that if the drive is "Selected" properly from the controller - then only that drive will respond to track stepping requests.
So - it seems to me - that if it passes the maximum track count exercise - it should be properly configured.
Obviously, I'm making a lot of assumptions here - and probably wrong about some of them - since it's not working.
I'm currently using a Tandon TM65-2L which I believe someone reported as working.
Attached should be three pictures - one showing the SCP & floppy cable hookup - showing I have pin 1 correct. (The 5.25 floppy connectors at the other end are keyed so they only fit the correct way)
And two more pictures showing the meager jumper configuration options for this drive.
JP4 has position "0" jumpered and JP3 has A&B jumpered.
Drive showing Jumpers
Drive Top View
SCP Cable Alignment
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Jim
I bought it in hopes of archiving about 300 Atari disks (copies - not priceless originals) that I received with an 800XL on ebay a year ago.
I've attempted buying Atari 1050 drives on ebay - but never got them to work - so I decided to cut my losses and try an SCP with what I believe are good IBM compatible drives.
I have a variety of drives - both 40 and 80 track DD - no beige HD drives.
The three drives I have tried so far - all fail in the same way - the index pulse isn't found - which isn't surprising - since at the time I get the error - the drive isn't spinning.
Here is my typical setup - I have an identical looking IBM PC compatible floppy drive cable as shown in the SCP manual. Complete with annoying pin 1 orientation on the motherboard end - which
means I have to fold the cable over itself when inserted into the SCP - so it exits away from the 34 pin connector - and not over the board.
I do have the pin 1 on the cable (red stripe) oriented correctly.
I am powering the drives I have been testing with an external full size floppy drive enclosure from a TRS-80.
TRS-80 drives work fine in the enclosure - and I verified 5 & 12 volts being supplied to the IBM drive.
I am connecting the drive to the non-twisted end of the cable - and when SCP does a drive scan it says that is drive 0.
It can successfully perform a maximum track number scan and is able to differentiate between a 40 and an 80 track drive.
HOWEVER - whenever I attempt a copy operation - it fails miserably since the drive isn't spinning.
Now - I'm under the impression that if the drive is "Selected" properly from the controller - then only that drive will respond to track stepping requests.
So - it seems to me - that if it passes the maximum track count exercise - it should be properly configured.
Obviously, I'm making a lot of assumptions here - and probably wrong about some of them - since it's not working.
I'm currently using a Tandon TM65-2L which I believe someone reported as working.
Attached should be three pictures - one showing the SCP & floppy cable hookup - showing I have pin 1 correct. (The 5.25 floppy connectors at the other end are keyed so they only fit the correct way)
And two more pictures showing the meager jumper configuration options for this drive.
JP4 has position "0" jumpered and JP3 has A&B jumpered.
Drive showing Jumpers
Drive Top View
SCP Cable Alignment
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Jim