3.5" drive (Sony MPF920-1) goes berserk when I connect it

[dada78641]

Hi all. I've used my SuperCard Pro for a little while now, I've been able to successfully image all my 5.25" floppies with it. Now I'm trying to image some 3.5" floppies (I imaged them before using ddrescue but now I want to redo them hopefully a bit better). However for some reason I can't seem to get my 3.5" drive working with it.

Whenever I connect my 3.5" drive, it just goes berserk. The light goes on and it starts running the motor forever. Note that this happens before I even start the program. It's basically as if it's being fed too much power or something.
I should say that it has been a while since I've confirmed this drive to be working (when I used ddrescue earlier I used a laptop's internal drive) but currently I don't really have a computer that I can connect it to. The drive is a Sony MPF920-1 which I think is a confirmed compatible drive.

I've tried flipping around my power connector but I can only get it to either not work at all (stays powered off) or it goes nuts.

Here's some pictures of my setup:








I'm assuming I'm just doing something really wrong here, but can anyone tell me what it is?
Thanks for any help

[admin]

Either you have plugged the ribbon cable in backwards, the jumpers on the drive are set incorrectly, or the drive is just bad. It shouldn't do any head movement at all with just power and the SuperCard Pro board plugged into it. If you did plug the ribbon cable in backwards then it likely damaged the SuperCard Pro board. Make sure you pay attention to the pin 1 (red stripe) orientation on both the SuperCard Pro board and the drive. You could try plugging the drive into the last connector on the cable instead of the middle one. That will reposition the SEL line, which is like moving a jumper for the drive selection.

[dada78641]

Hi there. It's been a while since I've been on this forum. I put my archiving work on hold.

As you say I probably just inserted the cable incorrectly. I guess I probably damaged the board. Is there any way I can tell for sure if that's the case? When I try to start up the SCP program it says it can't find the board, even though the board looks like it always has and shows a green light.

Thank you

[admin]

Finding the board and finding a floppy drive are two completely different things. It should always find the board. Make sure that the USB drivers are installed correctly and you don't have some type of anti-virus that blocks the USB port (most anti-virus programs can do that).

Look at HUEY and DUEY chips. If you see any type of burn mark or odd spot, then the chip is damaged - but that will not cause a "board not found" message.

[Jeff_Birt]

Hi there. It's been a while since I've been on this forum. I put my archiving work on hold.

As you say I probably just inserted the cable incorrectly. I guess I probably damaged the board. Is there any way I can tell for sure if that's the case? When I try to start up the SCP program it says it can't find the board, even though the board looks like it always has and shows a green light.

Thank you

For problem of SCP board not being found see this thread: https://www.cbmstuff.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=922

[dada78641]

Thanks again for helping me out.

I actually was able to get the software to see the board again. I tried Jeff_Birt's suggestion, although there actually was no driver to remove listed for some reason. I'm not sure if that's bad, but I was able to use it before—all my archiving software is on its own VM so I think it hasn't been touched since last time. Either way I was able to get the board to be seen.

I'm still unable to get floppy drives to be seen, unfortunately. I can't even get them to show signs of life. When I apply power to my 5.25" drive it starts spinning but that's it, and it doesn't work or get detected when connected to the SCP. The Huey/Duey chips don't look like they're damaged to me, but maybe I'm not seeing it?




Maybe they did get damaged and it's just not visible though. I definitely installed the cable wrongly earlier, my 3.5" drive doesn't have a foolproof connector.

[admin]

A 5.25" drive requires external power - those can NOT be powered by the SuperCard Pro board itself, only (most) 3.5" drives can. Huey/Duey look ok. I have never seen a case where these are bad that didn't have obvious burn marks in the chips, but I suppose it is possible. I can still repair these boards, I just can't get anymore made of this design until March 2023 due to the chip shortage.

[dada78641]

When I archived my 5.25" floppies I powered the drive by using a SATA/IDE to USB controller which has a molex connector (since I couldn't quite figure out a better way to do it), which provides 12V power. So it's strange, but I'll give it another try later to see if I can get anything to work.

[admin]

Anything powered off of a USB interface is going to be 5V, not 12V and even if there was a booster to go from 5V to 12V there is no way that you could power a 5.25" drive because it needs 1A of 12V power to spin the motor. You would need to use a PC power supply or something similar to power a 5.25" drive.

[dada78641]

I should clarify, what I meant was the SATA/IDE to USB controller has its own separate power supply which allows it to power larger drives. I already used that to image most of my 5.25" floppies. Either way since the 3.5" drive isn't showing signs of life when I connect it, I'm guessing it's probably just not working properly anymore
Goes to show, always be careful connecting a drive when it doesn't have a foolproof connector.
Thanks for helping debug the issue, appreciate it.