TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 (edited) 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. Edited June 28, 2015 by TI-GAMER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Just to clarify: "80 track" does not entail DSDD (in particular when it is just a TI disk controller). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 I have it setup as 80/80/40 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 (edited) 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 June 28, 2015 by Ksarul 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 I have some Dual Shugart's in my main box which work good with the stock Power Supply and the Qumetrak specs look very close as far as Amperage requirements. What makes the Qumetrak suck more power? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazoo Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 I have it setup as 80/80/40 You can only use one of your Qumetrak drives as DSK3. then. You may want to change to the 40/40/80 eprom set so you can use your drives as DSK1. and DSK2. Gazoo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Here's a link to the manual for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Each drive uses .8A on the 12V rail. . .and it isn't good to go much over about 1A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 (edited) 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 June 28, 2015 by TI-GAMER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 You can only use one of your Qumetrak drives as DSK3. then. You may want to change to the 40/40/80 eprom set so you can use your drives as DSK1. and DSK2. Gazoo In this configuration the 80TRK drive would have to be external correct? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 Using two drives adds .4A to the 12V rail--and that is enough to push it over the edge (1.6A for two Qume Drives (bad) or 1.2A for Shugart (good)). 4 tenths of an amp makes a real difference here. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 28, 2015 Author Share Posted June 28, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shift838 Posted June 28, 2015 Share Posted June 28, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I personally use the TEAC FD-55B drives, but any pair of drives that has a combined draw of about 1.2A or less will work fine. . .just check the manuals. I know Panasonic drives work fine, as do EPSON and BASF drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) 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 June 29, 2015 by TI-GAMER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) 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 June 29, 2015 by TI-GAMER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 I did a video on this... Pretty sure it was on a TI drive though, so might not do you any good. You can search youtube for "TI-99 disk drive" and find it pretty easily. But as I said, might not do you any good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) 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 June 29, 2015 by TI-GAMER Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opry99er Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 10-4. Glad you found the vid. Sorry it wasnt more useful for you in your present situation. Perhaps if you de-cased the drive and posted some pix, you might get some expert advixe. Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TI-GAMER Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 They are not encased fortunately which makes it easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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