CBMSTUFF FORUM - Hardware

SuperCard Pro Advanced

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:49:41 -0400

Hello,

On the main website, there is a button saying SuperCard Pro Advanced will be available, but I cannot find any additional information about it. Is it still under development, and is it perhaps known what will be the difference between this Advanced version and the already known SuperCardPro model?

Thanks

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

Sun, 27 Jun 2021 10:40:21 -0400

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

5.25 Tandon weird issue

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 13:05:34 -0500

I picked up some used 5.25 drives and one is a Tandon that I think is a TM50-1 drive. There's several Tandon labels on the drive and none have a model number. It has the look and feel of the TM50 drives including needing a U19 jumper for DS0/1 select.

It of course it needed the lead screw and head rails cleaned and lubed upon arrival.

Testing the drive after cleaning and replacing a 4.7 uf cap (busted by heavy handling) and SCP shows that it is a low density 48 tpi drive. Max. track utilities test is 43 or 44 tracks, erase function erases 0-39 tracks correctly using the full stroke of the head, media test is a bust since I'm using a known damaged diskette (used for 1st testing a drive), but it attempts to test 0-39 tracks if I take the time to tell it to ignore all the errors. Drive speed is 300 -301 RPM. So far all seems okay or within reason? However, if I try to make a copy the drive the SCP seems to be double stepping the head and it crashes into end stop at about track 22 as indicated on the SCP software.

Utilities moves the head correctly, but copy goes nuts and double steps the head. What am I missing?

Thanks,

Don

floppy track and head physical locations

Fri, 17 Jul 2020 18:27:39 -0400

Where is track 0? near the inner hub, or outer rim/edge of the disk?

Where is head 0? The top or the bottom of the disk?

When I find problems, it's helpful to know exactly where on the disk to look, and where to clean.

Thanks,
Keith

Ways to implement a selectable 3rd drive

Thu, 21 May 2020 08:19:34 -0400

I am working on an enclosure for my SCP and one thing I want to do is have a means to easily connect an external drive. I have found the SCP makes for a nice way to test drives when repairing them.

Thinking of the various ways to do this the most straightforward would be to mount two IDC type, DB37 connectors on the case breaking the path of the cable to Drive1. A simple loop back cable would normally be in place to use Drive1 and when removed you could plug in the external drive. This is simple but takes up a bit of panel space for two large DB37 connectors. I suppose a small PCB holding two boxed male pin headers could be used instead of the DB37s.

Another option would be to just intercept the Drive1 select line and use a 74LS153 to toggle where it is routed, to internal or external drive. Looking at the SCP PCB (a picture only as I am at work) it looks like Huey and Lewy are buffering the signals to/from the bus so this would probably work OK. It would require a PCB, some 34pin headers, but only one external DB37. Thinking about it now two of the free pins on the DB37 could be used to sense when an external drive is connected so you would not need a select switch. is there any electrical downside to this I have not considered?

Thanks!

Supercard PRO availability

Fri, 06 Mar 2020 22:11:57 -0500

anyone know when the supercard pro will be available again? or better still if someone has one for sale?
Richard

Supercard Pro Availability

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 20:03:56 -0500

Timeline for when Supercard Pro will be available for purchase again?I just bought a drive and a case for it,now i just need to purchase the actual card.Thanks

Looking for affordable head cleaning tips/recommendations

Tue, 14 Jan 2020 11:47:27 -0500

In another thread, Jim pointed out:

> That "unknown" dump has massive amounts of smeared flux, which usually means that the head is dirty. Keep in mind that you should be cleaning the heads just about every single time you dump a disk!

I was able to buy a new-old-stock disk head cleaner for about $20 on eBay. Its instructions say I should only use it a maximum of 15 times. So I've been using it a lot more sparingly than between every disk since they seem hard to find and keeping the price+shipping under $20 even was a bit of a haggle.

How are people keeping their drive heads clean while imaging hundreds of floppies? Is it okay in practice to keep using the head cleaner disk until it is visibly filthy, or at least more like 50 times rather than 15? Or can I glue some felt to a popsicle stick or something instead of relying on a supply of these Rare Antique Vintage cleaner kits?

Why would you want to set 96TPI drive to 48TPI

Mon, 13 Jan 2020 20:14:53 -0500

I have not been able to find this addressed on the forum but it may well be. They may also be silly questions

Q1) Why would one want to set the jumper on a 96TPI 5 1/4" drive to 48TPI. Does this control the step size on the drive only? In other words, if the jumper is set at 48TPI and you ask the drive to step to the next track it will step twice as far as if it were jumpered to 96TPI?

Q2) Density setting. My drive, Panasonic JU475-4 does not have a separate density setting. If the drive has no such setting is this then a function that can be 'soft configured' by the PC or SPC? What does this density setting do? Does it actually change the read/write heads drive characteristics? Or is it just a way to fix a drive to only work with a certain type of media?

Q3) For the JU475-4 you remove the GX jumper so that it does not try to use the index sensor. This lets you image the backside of a C64 disk without a second index hole. Does this imply that if you have a commercial disk and need to image it in INDEX mode (rather than SPLICE) that you would need to install the jumper (or use a switch)?

Thanks!

Anyone using a Panasonic JU-455?

Sat, 11 Jan 2020 20:18:54 -0500

I like how the Panasonic 5.25" floppy drives are made. I'm wondering if anyone is successfully using a Panasonic JU-455. I only saw a couple of posts mentioning them one seem to indicate it worked fine and another seemed to indicate it did not.

The JU-475-5 I just got works great but I also want to get a 360K drive to use for my C64 disks.

Thanks!

Jumpers for Panasonic JU-475-3

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 19:02:09 -0400

What are the best jumper settings for this drive?
I have the default as shown in the image on and the drive can not make a D64 image for me.

Thank you

PANASONIC JU-475-3.JPG (Size: 282.69 KB / Downloads: 26)

Noticed the 'IEC' header on PCB

Fri, 02 Aug 2019 10:54:26 -0400

Got my SCP yesterday and noticed that there is a 2x3 2mm pitch header labeled 'IEC'. Is this perhaps for a future feature of allowing the SCP to talk on Commodore's IEC bus?

Mitsumi D509V3 drives

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 06:01:53 -0500

Hello,

I'm waiting for two Mitsumi D509V3 drives and my idea is to use to backup C64 & PC disk (also to write images, of course).

I think the best will be to configure one for C64 use and the other for PC (on the same cable), but I don't have idea about the jumpers of these drives.

Can anyone help me?

SCP => PC unit => C64 unit

Thanks & Best Regards

SCP Hardware Questions

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 15:52:13 -0500

Hello

What's the utility of the "Power Jumper"?

1506.jpg (Size: 69.77 KB / Downloads: 13)

Also, the mSD card slot will be useful in the future as storage unit for dumps and write <-> read operations?

Best Regards

Mac support?

Wed, 02 Jan 2019 16:58:02 -0500

I have some Amigia disks to rip and my computer is a Mac. I’m running the latest version of Mac OS. Thanks!