8 inch floppy notes

From: Bill Sudbrink <bill_at_chipware.com>
Date: Thu Dec 31 14:52:02 1998

Using the CP/M FAQ I built a 34 to 50 pin
converter. A couple of notes:

1) read the whole FAQ. The wiring
   instructions in Q14 don't take into
   account the IBM-PC "floppy twist".
   Q16 gives the wiring that worked for
   me. Spent an hour scratching my
   head on that before I read further.
   Primary indicative behavior: seeks
   with no head load, software reporting
   access attempts with no head load.

2) The Radio Shack General Purpose
   Component PC Board (Cat. No.
   276-168B) makes a great platform
   to build the converter on. Took me
   about an hour to solder it up.

3) There seems to be a bug in 22DISK
   versions greater than 1.31. The directory
   read code does not seem to use the
   seek delay. Either that or it simply
   misses a head step. It always reports
   cylinder 2 read errors. Despite this, it
   can format, read and write just fine. It
   just can't display directories. Spent
   another two hours on that. BTW older
   versions of 22DISK can be found with
   FTP searches, sorry I don't remember
   where I got 1.31 (I downloaded 5 different
   versions from different sites).

Bill Sudbrink
Received on Thu Dec 31 1998 - 14:52:02 GMT