Falcon Floppy Replacement

[Fletch]

I needed to replace the floppy drive in my Falcon and I found an ALPS drive at the office to try to fill the void. I desoldered the DS1 default setting and soldered a jumper for DS0.

 

Seemed to work out just fine, except whilst changing disks. The Falcon does not recognize that I have changed diskettes. I'm assuming there is some other jumper setting that needs to be altered, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Pete

[ParanoidLittleMan]

This is known problem with Atari ST and compatible machines. They need special floppy drives, while most of available, and practically all new floppy drives are not such.

Details here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/flomodam.html

Since you are skilled with soldering possibly may solve this. Otherwise need to hunt for Atari compatible floppy drive.

[Fletch]

I do seem to recall that now. I guess I'll deal with it for a bit.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

-Pete

[tjlazer]

Epson SMD-300/340 is a drop in replacement!

[Fletch]

Epson SMD-300/340 is a drop in replacement!

Just ordered one from some dude on the Evilbay. Thanks for the tip.

[Caterpiggle]

Hello tjlazer ,

 

I need an help for my Falcon 030. I had been trying to get work with internal floppy drive. All the models : EPSON SMD-280, SMD-400 and SMD-300. and none of THEM are working at all. Only 280, 400 does spinning the disk , that's it. 300 does NOT SPINNING at all. What is the problem ??

I noticed that 300 have special device ID blocks there. I will send the image soon on 300 model. 280 & 400 does not have any device ID.

I even use clean Isotropyl alcohol 70 % on both head and reader. Still not working at all again.

 

I forget to add, is that true because mouse/joystick port A does not working properly can also effect on internal floppy drives ,too ???

Edited March 21, 2015 by Caterpiggle

[Justin Payne]

Can anyone tell if those jumpers are correct for Caterpiggle's SMD-300? I found a link to what those jumpers are but I don't know if that's correct for a Falcon.
I don't know about the other version of the drive. All I've seen that people talk about putting in their Atari's are the 300's and 360's.

[Justin Payne]

So, I'm attempting to test the SMD-300 in a PC. Here is how the jumpers are set.

• 14-15 (Drive select DS0)
• 5 - 13 (Mode switched by HDI input
• 1-2 (2m mode set by HDI input)

Best I can figure out is that HDI = High Density and one would think the "I" might equal "input" but then I see the HDI followed by the word, "input" so..who knows.

In any case, if this should work in a PC, with those jumpers set, then this thing is broken.

 

Oh, and...

 

This is known problem with Atari ST and compatible machines. They need special floppy drives, while most of available, and practically all new floppy drives are not such.

Details here: http://atari.8bitchip.info/flomodam.html

Since you are skilled with soldering possibly may solve this. Otherwise need to hunt for Atari compatible floppy drive.

 

Your link be broken.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Justin Payne

[tjlazer]

See if the info on this page helps!

 

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17963

[tjlazer]

See if this helps too:

 

[Atarieterno]

So it it works perfectly on my Mega STE with 1'4 Mby and detects the change disk and any function. Normal flat cable (uncrossed).
Regards.