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XF351 for sale on ebay


bob1200xl

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BE CAREFUL!!!

 

 

There are at least 3 variants of Atari ST (whether SF354 single-sided or SF314 double-sided) drives.

 

This message.....

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/211924-old-atari-sf354-hxc-floppy-emulator/?do=findComment&comment=2748354

 

....has pictures of them all.

 

NOW - I HAVE AVOIDED THE "SLANTY" DRIVE - that's the one with the obviously-slanted disk slot and eject button. Back in 1986-1988, we all recongnized this was a drive mech my Chinon (we used to call it SHIT-ON) where the read/write head was allegedly fastened to the hardware with a spot of glue that would eventually release. Leave it to Tramiel's Atari Corp. to continually seek lower bids, sacrificing quality all the way.

 

So, the FIRST Atari ST drive mechs (posted in the above-referenced post in the order of occurrence - Atari SF354, Atari SF314) were 1/2-height (but so huge in retrospect that you *want* to call them "full-height" - but the term is still relative to "full-height" mechs like the 5 1/4 in the Atari 810, so it really was "half-height." These original SF354 and SF314 drives had *really* noisy drive mechs, that actually "growled" while they ran. Big and old as they are, it has been my experience that they are nearly bulletproof; quality was built-in to the over-engineering that I have several examples in my possession to this day that function flawlessly, and I haven't encountered one that does not, but that individual experience may not be representative. NOW, these original drives utilize the STANDARD 34-PIN CONNECTOR. This makes it great to swap in an HxC Floppy Drive emulator, etc., but I realize that's of zero concern to fixing and unloading an 8-bit drive, so I digress.

 

The SECOND was the "slanty". I did - at one time - have a 1040ST (about 1989) with this drive, but I've never owned an external, and I moved to IBM PC before I experienced a failure, but I do understand it to be unreliable.

 

The THIRD was the EPSON mech (note: AT THIS TIME 1/3-HEIGHT like modern 1.44 drive), and I do beleive that this MOVED BACK TO the standard 34-pin (dual-row) connector, as I now have *several* machines with this drive. This is the 3rd one displayed in the above-quoted post.

 

As an ST (and A8, and whatever-else) user, I have specifically-avoided the drive mech that I think you seek. However, even NOS Atari SF354s (nobody wanted that shit in the ST world because it was single-sided, anyway) are rife on Ebay, and you just need to look for the "slanty" one, but THIS IS ASSUMING THAT ALL SLANTY ONES USE THE NON-STANDARD SINGLE-ROW CONNECTOR. I can tell you from personal experience that I have replaced both (1) the original "growly" behemoth with an HxC floppy emulator, and the 3rd "1/3-height" with an HxC floppy emulator. Had I owned a non-standard single-row machine (ST computer with internal drive) or drive (external drive), then I would have not been able to utilize the HxC.

 

You need to seek out the SF354 with the slanty drive, obviously, and this should be cheap. Now, the outlying question (as I have almost no experience with that drive) is WHETHER OR NOT ALL *SLANTY* SF354/SF314 USE THE SINGLE-ROW CONNECTOR. It is also worth noting that the "slanty/single-row-connector" SF354/314 also changed the power supply; they dropped one of the voltages (think it was 12V?) and reversed the gender of the connector to prevent the earlier power supply from being plugged into the new shit drives.... Someone more knowledgeable, please chime in and correct and add-to this....

 

edit: earlier, I said "polarity" of the connector, but I meant "gender."

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Yes, well... it isn't dead, just crippled. All the parts are there and it almost works.

 

It's a collector's item, not an everyday workhorse. If you want a 3.5 inch drive on an 8-bit, use an XF551 converted to a 3.5.

 

Bob

 

Well, just for the record, I wish you the best of luck. Lord knows I've paid a lot for paperweights just to say "hey, I got one"... Don't want you to think I was judging. If I honestly hadn't quit my job recently to go back to school and finish my degree 20 years later, I'd have been on this already. ;)

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BE CAREFUL!!!

 

 

There are at least 3 variants of Atari ST (whether SF354 single-sided or SF314 double-sided) drives.

 

This message.....

 

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/211924-old-atari-sf354-hxc-floppy-emulator/?do=findComment&comment=2748354

 

....has pictures of them all.

 

NOW - I HAVE AVOIDED THE "SLANTY" DRIVE - that's the one with the obviously-slanted disk slot and eject button. Back in 1986-1988, we all recongnized this was a drive mech my Chinon (we used to call it SHIT-ON) where the read/write head was allegedly fastened to the hardware with a spot of glue that would eventually release. Leave it to Tramiel's Atari Corp. to continually seek lower bids, sacrificing quality all the way.

 

So, the FIRST Atari ST drive mechs (posted in the above-referenced post in the order of occurrence - Atari SF354, Atari SF314) were 1/2-height (but so huge in retrospect that you *want* to call them "full-height" - but the term is still relative to "full-height" mechs like the 5 1/4 in the Atari 810, so it really was "half-height." These original SF354 and SF314 drives had *really* noisy drive mechs, that actually "growled" while they ran. Big and old as they are, it has been my experience that they are nearly bulletproof; quality was built-in to the over-engineering that I have several examples in my possession to this day that function flawlessly, and I haven't encountered one that does not, but that individual experience may not be representative. NOW, these original drives utilize the STANDARD 34-PIN CONNECTOR. This makes it great to swap in an HxC Floppy Drive emulator, etc., but I realize that's of zero concern to fixing and unloading an 8-bit drive, so I digress.

 

The SECOND was the "slanty". I did - at one time - have a 1040ST (about 1989) with this drive, but I've never owned an external, and I moved to IBM PC before I experienced a failure, but I do understand it to be unreliable.

 

The THIRD was the EPSON mech (note: AT THIS TIME 1/3-HEIGHT like modern 1.44 drive), and I do beleive that this MOVED BACK TO the standard 34-pin (dual-row) connector, as I now have *several* machines with this drive. This is the 3rd one displayed in the above-quoted post.

 

 

 

 

 

As an ST (and A8, and whatever-else) user, I have specifically-avoided the drive mech that I think you seek. However, even NOS Atari SF354s (nobody wanted that shit in the ST world because it was single-sided, anyway) are rife on Ebay, and you just need to look for the "slanty" one, but THIS IS ASSUMING THAT ALL SLANTY ONES USE THE NON-STANDARD SINGLE-ROW CONNECTOR. I can tell you from personal experience that I have replaced both (1) the original "growly" behemoth with an HxC floppy emulator, and the 3rd "1/3-height" with an HxC floppy emulator. Had I owned a non-standard single-row machine (ST computer with internal drive) or drive (external drive), then I would have not been able to utilize the HxC.

 

You need to seek out the SF354 with the slanty drive, obviously, and this should be cheap. Now, the outlying question (as I have almost no experience with that drive) is WHETHER OR NOT ALL *SLANTY* SF354/SF314 USE THE SINGLE-ROW CONNECTOR. It is also worth noting that the "slanty/single-row-connector" SF354/314 also changed the power supply; they dropped one of the voltages (think it was 12V?) and reversed the gender of the connector to prevent the earlier power supply from being plugged into the new shit drives.... Someone more knowledgeable, please chime in and correct and add-to this....

 

edit: earlier, I said "polarity" of the connector, but I meant "gender."

 

 

I have an old 1040ST that has a 'slanty' drive but it has a dual-row connector. Wrong for the XF351.

 

Yes, the XF351 has a pronounced 'growl' to it, and it is more of a 1/3 height drive.

 

Bob

Edited by bob1200xl
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Sometimes, I can get an idea of what something is worth by finding 'sold' items on ebay. Otherwise, it's what I would NOT pay for it - i.e. if I were bidding on it at auction, where I would walk away. Bottom line, I wouldn't pay $1,000 for it, either. (if I would, I wouldn't put it up for auction, would I?)

 

At any rate, there are only a few parts in this thing so it should be repairable. I thought it was working and it still sat up in the Attic for 10 years, unused.

 

Might as well sell it.

 

Bob

 

 

 

I'm not judging either, it is very rare, anyone got an idea how many were made ?

On the other side, 1000 bucks buys you an amazing nice working (Atari) arcade game....sorry that's my fetisj ;)

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A guy offered me a 1055 way back when. There was some question (in my mind) as to it's origin, so I turned him down. It was probably OK but I didn't want to encourage hanky-panky.

 

I was young and idealistic...

 

I have an 815 that works but that's about all.

 

Bob

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Long shot, but some belts can be rejuvenated a bit by boiling them for 10 minutes or so. The rubber absorbs moisture and loses elasticity. Boiling actually drives out the moisture (seems counter-intuitive but the high temps do it) and sometimes the belt is okay for a while afterward.

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I wish - the belt has reverted to dinosaur goo. It is at least 1cm too long now, has no tensile strength and is sticky as heck. I tried the #30 rubber band trick and the drive almost works with that, so I am hopeful that a new belt will fix it.

 

I am sure it will take some time to get a new belt so I am going to end the current auction. (I should have done all this before I listed it... sorry)

 

In the meantime, I'll take a lot of pictures and dump the ROM for you guys.

 

Bob

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I have an old 1040ST that has a 'slanty' drive but it has a dual-row connector. Wrong for the XF351.

 

Yes, the XF351 has a pronounced 'growl' to it, and it is more of a 1/3 height drive.

 

Bob

 

 

Well, so much for the idea, then, that "all slanty drives are non-standard single-row connectors." One thing that sucks about (particularly the Tramiel-era) Atari is how many times they've swapped vendors, etc., that such part-replacement can be difficult.

 

There *WERE* Atari ST floppy drives that used that single-row non-standard connector. Here is a post.....

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/163308-rear-pcb-board-inside-atari-sf-314354-external-floppy-drive/?do=findComment&comment=2016306

 

.....that proves the existence of that fact. I'd like to know what the power jack looks like on that board, if AA user save2600 still has it. As I was saying, some of the ST drives moved away from the 12V and changed the power connector. I thought this coincided with the move to the single-row (non-standard) connector, and the gender-reversal of the power connector. However, I think your XF351 appears to have the same gender as the "standard" (original) ST external drive. This is just too confusing.

 

Does the power supply for your XF351 put out both the 5V and 12V, and even if it does, does the drive mech actually use both of them, or just the 5V? I thought the ST drives with the non-standard single-row connector operated on purely 5V.

 

That's a really nice, rare drive, in any case. I'm surprised that they even managed to print up a box for something that was not released. I would have *surely* bought one, and it wouldn't have cost Atari that much to make them, as they're largely recycling ST components (case, mech, box, etc.). I suppose it was the existing 5 1/4 software base that ruled it out. Whoever the guy is who paid big bucks for the Atari 815 should buy this and put it next to the 815. That's what I'd do, if I had such a collection!

:)

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I found a belt at www.kenselectronics.com that fits just right.

 

Set the XF351 to D2:,

 

Booted DOS 2.0 in D1:.

 

Formatted a 3.5 in D2: and wrote DOS.

 

Set the XF351 to D1:.

 

Booted Dos 2.0 off of the XF351.

 

Works great!

 

I do not know, however, how to set it into DD or any other state (like high-speed SIO).

 

I'll put it back on ebay.

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Bob

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