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Help with DSDD Floppy Disk Drive Setup


TI-GAMER

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I have some Qumetrak 142 360K Floppy Disk Drives that I want to setup with my 80 Track Disk Controller Card. If I remember correctly doesnt one of these drives need a resistor or something moved for the controller to see them as Disk A and Disk B or Disk 1 and Disk 2? If this is the case, do you have any idea which resistor on the drive it is?

 

Thank You

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I have some Qumetrak 142 360K Floppy Disk Drives that I want to setup with my 80 Track Disk Controller Card. If I remember correctly doesnt one of these drives need a resistor or something moved for the controller to see them as Disk A and Disk B or Disk 1 and Disk 2? If this is the case, do you have any idea which resistor on the drive it is?

 

Thank You

 

should be your blue jumper by the edge connector.

 

DS0 = dsk1

DS1 = DSK2, etc..

 

 

Since this is a 360k drive, you want to make sure that the drive you have it configured for that the FDC is set for 40 track.

 

I am assuming you have an upgraded myarc controller card so you should be able to turn the specific dipswitch to 'OFF' for 40 track or 'ON' for 80 track.

 

hope this helps.

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Just to clarify: "80 track" does not entail DSDD (in particular when it is just a TI disk controller).

My error... I should of said 80 Track in the Title instead of DSDD. I noticed that as soon as I hit post LOL

These Qumetrak drives support both 40 and 80 Track so I would like to pair them up with the 80 Track TI Controller Card.

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I will be using a TI Disk Controller with the 80- TRK Upgrade Kit installed in this Box. I have a Corcomp with some Shugart drives in my Main Box.

 

The 80 track upgrade for the TI disk controller will cause an 80 track drive to be DS/SD and will equal 360k max.

 

Depending on the DSR that is loaded on the TI Disk controller will depend on where or even if you can hook up a 40 track drive.

 

There are multiple DSR's for the upgrade that can cause all 3 drives to be 80 track or a combination of 40 and 80 specific for the drives you specified.

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A Qumetrak142 is NOT an 80-track drive as controllers define them. It is a 40-track drive that has two sides, for a total of 80 tracks. When it says it supports 40 or 80 tracks, what it really means is that it will work as a single-sided or as a double-sided drive. A true 80-track drive has 80 tracks per side (for a total of 160 tracks).

 

That said, these will work as 90K or 180K drives with your setup--as 40-track drives.

 

The next problem is the drives themselves--you CANNOT put two Qume drives in the PEB. They draw too much power. If you want to use more than one, you need an external case.

 

My first DSDD drives were Qumetrak 142s. I quickly replaced them with TEAC FD-55B drives (and if you want a 720K drive equivalent to use in 80-track mode, you need a TEAC FD-55F drive). Stay away from FD-55G drives--they won't work either.

Edited by Ksarul
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They each pull almost as much power as a full-height drive. That will wipe out your 12V supply. . .and the motors will be slower than they aught to be, so you will get lots of weird disk errors. I know this from experience. . .bad experience.

I appreciate the advice and completely trust you as you know a lot more than I do. I am just confused as my Shugarts work real well together without having any issues and the Qumetrak Drives look like they have very similar power requirements. My Shugart pull .6A and .6A with no problems while the Qumetrak would do .8A and .6A. Do you have a preferred 5.25" Brand and Model that you recommend for a Dual Drive setup?

Edited by TI-GAMER
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Duh!!! LOL

I need to pull my head out of my A??

I was not factoring in the fact that we are using 2 drives at the same time. I was thinking only a .2A difference but that is only with 1 drive.

I feel pretty stupid now :?

So if I setup a 2nd box with Dual Drives you would recommend another set of Shugarts or do you prefer another model drive instead?

 

Thanks for the advice ;-)

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I use

 

Duh!!! LOL

I need to pull my head out of my A??

I was not factoring in the fact that we are using 2 drives at the same time. I was thinking only a .2A difference but that is only with 1 drive.

I feel pretty stupid now :?

So if I setup a 2nd box with Dual Drives you would recommend another set of Shugarts or do you prefer another model drive instead?

 

Thanks for the advice ;-)

 

i use the TEAC FD-55B for my external 40 track drives and they work great. I have converted all my software to use 3.5 80 track floppies, but keep the 40 track drives external for copying and backwards compatibility.

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Thanks for all of the advice. I dug and dug through all of my spare parts and had some Teac FD-55GFR which wont work for this purpose. I found a spare Shugart SA455 drive which should work fine so I need to find one more to pair up with it. Ebay here I come!

 

I have someone who made me an offer in trade on my Qumetrak drives so I might take him up on that. Still working out the details.

Edited by TI-GAMER
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Thanks to Ksarul advice as far as power requirements and everyone else's help I changed things up a bit.

I did not want to put a lot of money into this project as this is a 2nd PEB and I had a spare Shugart SA455 laying around and managed to find another one for very cheap at a local Electronics Store who is known to have all kinds of stuff from back in the day. (Unfortunately I have never seen a TI-99/4A there)

After digging through the manual here http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/r/sa455.pdf it states that in a DUAL Environment a Resistor pack needs to be removed on the first drive (DSK 1) but unfortunately I cannot locate it and it does not show where that Resistor Pack is located in the manual as far as I can see. Does anyone happen to know where this Resistor Pack is located? I am reading the information provided on Page 25.

 

http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/r/sa455.pdf

Edited by TI-GAMER
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Thats funny as I actually watched that video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6trfLkNqDU

Great Video and very well done!!!

The resistor packs are a set of resistors that need to be physically removed from the physical drive itself and I dont think they are in the same spot on the TI and Shugart drives as the whole layout looks completely different.

Edited by TI-GAMER
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