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Astra 2001 conundrum...


dafivehole

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So I got this dual drive from another member on the forum and they never really had the time to "play with it."  The only thing confirmed before I got it was that it "turned on."  Once I got it, there were things rattling around inside the case so I took it completely apart and found multiple broken voltage regulators that I replaced.  I took pictures before and during this "frame off restoration" so that mistakes wouldn't be made...

 

Now the perplexing part, I got everything put back together except for the power switch wire and the red light wire... both come from the front of the drive and connect to the PCB at the rear for power.  I've been talking with an incredibly helpful fellow on FB who has the same drive but his wiring (colors) connected differently on the PCB than mine did when I got it.  After doing the restoration on this bad boy, the last thing I want to do is connect a wire incorrectly and fry the whole damn thing.

 

What makes this interesting is I have very little knowledge of electronics... I can solder just fine but things like checking continuity, etc are way over my head.  Any suggestions?

 

Thank you,

Roger

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If you've got 4 unknown connections but you know that there's 2 for power switch and 2 for status LED then you can't get things too wrong.

 

The GND will likely be common, the "wrong" thing you might do is connect an LED backwards which in some cases will fry them.

Continuity check is something a cheap multimeter will do for you.

 

As preliminary to hard wiring stuff you can trace tracks by hand + use the DMM to determine things.  Ground will usually have continuity for the entire circuit as well as generally having thicker traces or at leading to them.

 

An unknown node you can often trace to an IC or component which will often be helpful in determining it's function.

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Hi,

 

   You might want to check you have the same revision PCB as the guy on FB. I usually take lots of pictures of the front and back of the PCB of any drive I get, there is some variation, at least in terms of 1050s. On the other hand, it's unusual for manufacturers to change the order of connectors, but it's something I would check for, just in case.

 

   The power light isn't essential, the drive should run fine without it, but I would guess the red wire would go to the +pin in the picture.

 

   Can you get pictures of the wiring for the other guys drive? Atari weren't consistent with the colours of the wires used in the SIO connector, so I guess it's no surprise if other manufacturers weren't consistent either. If you can follow a wire from pin 1 on his drive to one of the components you need to wire up, etc., etc.,  you'll probably be OK copying it (but see the caveat above about same version PCBs). 

 

   In terms of restoration, sourcing and ordering replacement parts, etc., you can get a digital multimeter for not very much at all, they're a wise investment if you want to avoid any magic blue smoke inconvenience.

 

  Is there any chance you can post more pictures of the drive, I've never seen one before, and I'm guessing other AtariAge users would also be interested.

 

   Hope the drive powers up OK at some point in the future!

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@Technoid Mutant It's an Astra 2001 dual drive unit.

 

Some more discussion and pics of it are in @dafivehole's post in the Buy & Sell forum:

 

Based on a previous ROM dump from an Astra 1001, it's likely functionally almost identical to a PERCOM drive. But i'd love to see a dump of the ROM from this unit as well to compare.

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31 minutes ago, dafivehole said:

From a technical standpoint, I didn't think it was relevant but here you go... BTW, please feel free to read the posting title... More often than not, they can be very educational.

 

IMG_20190820_191906386.jpg

OMG. Absent reading the title though, it was  a good guess, the Big D.  I wanted one of these sooo bad,  but they were about the same cost as a couple of USDoubled 1050's.

 

Looks like a pair of Tandon belt-driven mechs.  Same as the 1050, and a world of other drives.  The PCjr drives used a like mech, the belts are thank God still very available.  Never needed one though, the belts seem to store very well.

 

Edited by Technoid Mutant
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