Panasonic 8" Floppy Drive

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Sun Nov 21 17:39:58 1999

On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Olminkhof wrote:

> I've found a box with 2 x 8" floppy drives. . . . external to some unknown
> computer.
>
> The box is a Panasonic JB3038P and inside are 2 X JA751 drives.
> The drive connectors and the cable coming out of the box are all 50 pin,
> exactly like an internal SCSI cable. Unfortunately it isn't recognised by a
> SCSI controller, at least not without fiddling with parity and stuff like
> that.
>
> Does anyone know what this might have been for?
>
> SCSI 8" floppy drives would have been great cos I don't think I'm ever going
> to find a compaticard !
>
> Hans
 
You may not even need a CompatiCard, depending upon the disks that you
intend to read. You 'wire weave' a cable between a 50-pin SA800
connector and the usual 34-pin FDC connector using the information
below:
 
********************************************************************
 
 The following table is extracted from the CompatiCard manual:
 
      Card 34 37 50 8 Inch Drive
Signal Name Pin Pin Direction Pin Signal Name
========================================================================
Programmable 2 3 ---> 2 Low Current
Index 8 6 <--- 20 Index
Drive Select 1/3 12 8 ---> 28 Drive Select 2
Motor Enable 1/3 16 10 ---> 18 Head Load
Step Direction 18 11 ---> 34 Direction Select
Step Pulse 20 12 ---> 36 Step
Write Data 22 13 ---> 38 Write Data
 
Write Enable 24 14 ---> 40 Write Gate
Track 0 26 15 <--- 42 Track 0
Write Protect 28 16 <--- 44 Write Protect
Read Data 30 17 <--- 46 Read Data
Select Head 1 32 18 ---> 14 Side Select
 
Connect odd number pins of 34 pin connector to odds of 50 pin connector
Connect pins 21/37 of the DB-37 to all the odd pins on 50 pin connector
 
************************************************************************
 
If the disks you intend to read are double density a HD (1.2mb/1.44mb)
capable FDC should work fine. If they are SD, you may be in some
difficulty. However, there are 8-bit HD capable FDCs with onboard BIOS
that are capable of handling that also.

                                                 - don
Received on Sun Nov 21 1999 - 17:39:58 GMT