5.25 drives for the ST's

[walter_J64bit]

OK, I don't much about 5.25 drives for the ST's other than some were made for the system. Did Atari make a 5.25 drive for the ST? What is the mode number?

Edited October 2, 2015 by walter_J64bit

[Fletch]

Atari made the PC551 for their line of PCs. I think you can use that with an ST as well.

[ParanoidLittleMan]

I have some experiences with 5.25 inch floppy drives attached on ST. And not really good ones. First problem is step rate of 12mS required. That's possible with some SW. Bigger problem is higher load of some lines on floppy connector - what causes unreliable work, and in worse case damage of PSG chip in Atari. I addes some line amplifiers because of that.

I'm sure that Atari never made any 5.25 drives for ST.

[walter_J64bit]

I have some experiences with 5.25 inch floppy drives attached on ST. And not really good ones. First problem is step rate of 12mS required. That's possible with some SW. Bigger problem is higher load of some lines on floppy connector - what causes unreliable work, and in worse case damage of PSG chip in Atari. I addes some line amplifiers because of that.

I'm sure that Atari never made any 5.25 drives for ST.

By, any chance was one the drives you used was an I.B. drive? I did some more digging and found that Atari did make a 5.25 drive (PC551) but it was for PC's that they made it is compatible with the ST, like you said you need SW to run it with the ST.

http://www.atari-wiki.com/?title=Floppy_Disk_Drives

Edited October 5, 2015 by walter_J64bit

[ParanoidLittleMan]

It was couple of regular drives, what people had in their PCs (not Atari PCs). I would not take what Wiki claims for 100% true. Main thing is that Atari self never manufactured drives. They just took it from some manufacturer - and in those time Japanese were most spread, and added power + case, cable. You risk damage in your Atari ST if connect 5.25 floppy drive.

[+DarkLord]

Didn't the original 8bit emulator for the ST include an option for a cable that

connected an 8bit specific 5.25 inch drive to the ST? Got that memory in my

head for some reason.

[walter_J64bit]

Didn't the original 8bit emulator for the ST include an option for a cable that

connected an 8bit specific 5.25 inch drive to the ST? Got that memory in my

head for some reason.

Yup.

 

http://www.emulators.com/xformer.htm

Edited October 7, 2015 by walter_J64bit

[+DarkLord]

That was it (about half-way down on the page).

 

Thanks for the link!

[Chandler]

see ebay item no: 151820211298

[+CyranoJ]

I've still got my 5.25 drive for the st. Still works as well. Had a switch fitted to the st so i could swap the drives and boot from it.

[walter_J64bit]

I've still got my 5.25 drive for the st. Still works as well. Had a switch fitted to the st so i could swap the drives and boot from it.

Hi, CyranoJ

What drive do you have?

[+CyranoJ]

I think it's a Cumana 40/80 track switchable - looks like the ones that people used to hook up to BBC micros.

 

I'd have to check.

 

Yep, it's one of these.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFgxMjQw/z/d6MAAOSwRLZUGJw9/$_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F