Falcon 030 Bad Floppy Drive - HxC Questions

[presario123x]

Hello,

 

I've recently acquired an Atari Falcon and the floppy drive seems to be bad on it (it starts reading floppies, but it gives a media not readable error, and then the floppy and main LED lights blink continuously). Tried to replace it with my HxC drive, but for some weird reason the power wires seem to be reversed (5V on the red one, not on blue). When switching the wires I get power on the HxC but the computer does not load anything (keeps saying the drive A has issues). Anyone experienced this or should the HxC work the same way as it does on the ST?

 

I am looking into buying an IDE CF drive but from what I've read I need to load the HD driver from floppy. Is this the case ? What are my options ?

Thanks

[presario123x]

I've just re-measured the voltages on the floppy power cables, and this is what I'm getting:

 

STfm:
------------
RED-BLK = 5V
BLUE-BLK = 12V


Falcon:
------------
RED-BLK = 12V
BLUE-BLK = 5V

 

 

The Falcon has an Epson SMD-300 floppy drive and the STfm has an Epson SMD-480L

[exxosuk]

Seems like the 12V and 5V are reversed on the Falcon then. I don't know why that would be, unless someone pulled all the wires out and put them back incorrectly. 12V into the floppy drive 5V rail will most likely kill the drive. Its also possible it may have killed the 1772 floppy controller (or ajax).

[KLund1]

Flip the wires back and see what happens. Hope it not kill the 1772, but they seem to be pretty tough with all the s**t I ahve put them though over the years.