Conference 7.286::atarist

    Do you need the pinout for the ST or for the IBM drive?
    
    	Ray

    
    RE: -.1
    
    I would need the pinouts for both actually so I would know what
    to attach to what pinwise.  A simple
    
    ST          IBM
    ---------------
    
    3            6
    7           10
    
    
    etc. would do (above example represents nothing).
    
    thanks
      
    chad
    

    I can give you the ST pin out, I don't know about the IBM pin out.
    
SIGNAL NAME	ST	IBM
-----------	---	---
Read Data	 1
Side 0 select	 2
Ground		 3
Index Pulse	 4
Drive 0 select	 5
Drive 1 select	 6
Ground		 7
Motor On	 8
Direction In	 9
Step		10
Write Data	11
Write Gate	12
Track 00	13
Write Protect	14
    
    	Ray

    RE: .-1 
    
    
    Thanks  that will help.
    
    Any hints on the best place to get a generic drive?
    
    CHad
    

This is not a recommendation, but I recently received a flyer from
"Unitech" that included "Generic" 3� DSDD floppy disk drives that were
"on sale" for something between $130 and $190.  These are available
with and without controllers for the IBM PC.  (Cheaper without.)  I
don't have the current flyer handy, but I found an old one in my car
this morning that lists address and phone numbers as follows:

Danvers: (617) 750-3600
Cambridge: (617) U-N-I-T-E-C-H
Natick (617) 651-2725

I've been in the Natick store.  They seem to be a place where you can
buy a PC ala-carte.  What I mean is that you purchace the cabinet,
power supply, keyboard, mother board, monitor, disks, peripheral
controllers and cables all separately, and snap them together into a
working system.  I found the concept amusing.  There are several
offerings in each category.

    Re: .4
    
    See my note on Tech Specialties.  They supposedly have some good
    deals on NEC drives while they last.  They can also provide all
    the mechanicals/connections.
    
    						-Dave

Well, I never did add the second drive.  I will some day.  I'm actually
thinking of getting a 720K 5.25" drive and using it to backup my someday-to-be-
bought harddrive.  I have hundreds of 5.25 inch floppies laying around waiting
to be used as backup media.

My real question is, what brands of 3.5" drives are to be avoided/which ones
are good?  I am going to replace my internal ssdd drive asap.  It trashed
my Master Tracks Pro disk last night and was really flaky.  My friend just got
a Mega 2 yesterday anyway and I want to be able to transfer disks so I need
to get a new drive anyway.  

I've seen a NEC for 119 (in STart)
            Toshiba for 89, 109
            Mitsubishi 86
            Teac 79
	    Fujitsu 84
            Sony 129
            
Jade has a name not given for 99

I want a drive that has speed control and will read the 82 track 11 sector 
disks.  If you know any of these don't please respond.  All prices above were in
BYTE except for the one NEC in STart "made for the ATARI".

Thanks
CHad

    
    
    I have just upgraded using a Panasonic (aka Matsushita) drive, obtained
    by mail order for 59 pounds.
    
    I found it necessary to do the diode modification mentioned elsewhere
    to make the disk change detection work corretcly. (diode required as
    follows   
                          pin 28 -----|>|-----pin 2)
    
    
    One thing that threw me for a while was the presence of a small (2.5" x
    2.5") pcb mounted on top of the screening ironwork. My eventual
    conclusion was that it is really there to make ATARI drives work
    correctly. What an expensive way to design a computer!
    
    Plugging the ribbon cable from the main board directly into
    the new drive worked perfectly.
    
    Some minor surgery on the case and it was up and running.
    
    Brian