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                          Generic
              3.5 Inch Double Sided Disk Drive
                            for
                     The 520/1040 Series
                            by
                      James Lacassagne

Purpose: This document is a description of the hook-ups and mod-

        ifications that I found necessary in adding a 3.5 inch
        double sided drive to my Atari(tm) 520. It is intended
        solely as a guide to anyone who is interested in saving
        a few dollars by using an "industry standard" drive in 
        place of the Atari SF314.

Warning: This installation seems to function properly for my sys-

        tem, but I cannot guarantee anything. Also, the only way
        that a saving will result is if a suitable power supply
        is already available, or can be obtained at a very low
        price.

Requirements: 1 3.5" Double Sided Drive w/ Installation kit @ $130

               (The Unit I used was a Toshiba(tm) ND-352 
                which came with a multi-purpose mounting
                kit. BE SURE that the unit is XT compat-
                ible!!(720 K etc))
            1  5v/12vdc Regulated Power Supply             @ $ 25
               (The supply must be capable of supplying
                5V.+/-5% @200 mA and 12V.+/-5% @300 mA.
                I saved some money here by using the same
                supply that I used for adding a 5 1/4 in.
                drive as described in numerous articles
                in magazines and on Bulletin Boards.)
            1  34 pin Card Edge Connector                  @ $  3
               (Yes, This is the "industry standard"
                used on all XT's and Clones. I got mine
                at Radio Shack (P/N____________).)
            1  Standard Atari(tm) 3.5 in Disk Drive Cable  @ $  8
               (Preferably, one of the After Market types
                6' or so in length.)  
            1  Disk Drive Case                             @ $  ?
               (This is optional--I still haven't found
                a good cheap one, but the drive seems to
                work fine.)

Procedure: There are two ways to proceed with this project depending

         on whether you want the new drive to be A or B. The Drive
         B method is the simpler, so I will start with it.
         Cut the Standard Drive Cable in half (Save the other 
         half for another project--maybe!)
         Strip back about 2" of the outer insulation from the 
         cable. Do Not cut off the shield wire (a layer of wire
         woven around the multiple conductors in the cable). 
         Carefully unweave the shield, and twist it to form a
         wire of its own.
         Since the 34 pin connector that I used was designed for
         ribbon cable, some ingenuity is required here. Each pin
         on the connector ends in a V shaped stud designed to 
         separate the ribbon cable wire and cut only its insul-
         ation when the cover is forced in place. Since most of
         the wires in the cable go to the top row of the con-
         nector (the even numbered pins) and the shield goes
         to the bottom row, along with the wires from pins 3 and
         7 of the Atari connector, I divided them accordingly and
         routed them above and below the connector cover. Very
         carefully, I pushed each wire far enough into the cor-
         responding Vstud to hold it in place. I then forced
         the cover down, forcing the wires the rest of the way
         into the V. By trial and error I found that the two 
         ground wires (pins 3 and 7) in the cable did not provide
         a sufficient ground path, causing unreliable drive oper-
         ation. I overcame this by (gasp!) tying the shield to
         ALL of the odd numbered pins on the connector. (That's
         what the twisted shield wire is used for.) Carefully 
         lay it over the bottom row of Vstuds before putting 
         the connector cover on. The Connections Follow:
           (NOTE: the colors mentioned are for an Atari Cable
            You should check if you are using an After Market
            Cable.)
           34 pin conn.   Atari conn.   Signal     Color
               2              *         media chng
               4             N/A        in use
               6             N/A        d4 sel
               8              4         index      yellow
              10              5         d0 sel     green
              12              6         d1 sel     violet
              14             N/A        d2 sel
              16              8         motor on   brown
              18              9         direction  orange
              20             10         step       grey
              22             11         wrt data   pink
              24             12         wrt gate   lt. blue
              26             13         track 0    lt. brown
              28             14         wrt prot   lt. green
              30              1         read data  red
              32              2         side 0     white
              34              *         rdy/med ch
             (any             3         logic gnd  blue
             odd)             7         logic gnd  black
         Assemble the Disk Drive and Adapter kit. It should have
         come with a power cable adapter with a std XT con-
         nector on the end. You can either buy a mating 
         connector or cut it off and splice directly to the wires.
         (Generally, pin 1 (red) is 5V, pin 4 (yel) is 12V, and
         pins 2&3 (blk) are Ground.) The Installation Kit may
         refer to a jumper on pin 34, but this can be ignored.
         Now, the only modification to the drive can be made.
         On the Installation Kit PC Board, a Jumper must be 
         soldered between pin 2 and pin 28 of the Drive Con-
         nector.(This is the one that actually connects to
         the Disk Drive. It is identical in pin layout to the
         Std connector, with pin 2 on the top left as you look
         at it.) This connects the Media Change signal on pin
         2 to the Write Protect signal.(Thanks to Analog2 for
         pointing me in the right direction on this one.) 
         These are both open collector, active low signals, and
         can be safely wired together.(wired or configuration)
         This should be all that has to be done to make the
         drive work. Simply plug the cable into the OUT con-
         nector of the first drive or the 1040, and away you
         go.
         If you have a 520 and want this to be drive A, the
         procedure is the same, except DO NOT CUT THE CABLE
         IN HALF. Instead, strip a 3-4 in. section in the
         center of the cable, Cut and unweave 1/2 of the 
         shield. Lead the wires over the Vstuds as before,
         but cut the wires from the Atari connector pins 5&
         6.(computer end) Pin 5 wire is connected to the Std
         connector pin 10 and pin 6 wire is connected to the
         remaining end of pin 5.(The part that will go to the
         second drive.) This brings the ds1 signal to the
         ds0 pin on the second drive, just like Atari does it.
         You can cut off the remaining pin 6 wire if you like, 
         since it doesn't get used. Don't forget to attach the
         shield to the odd number connector pins.
         If you have understood and followed my directions, the
         drive should function properly. If not, there is not 
         much that can cause damage. My version will read and
         format and write to double and single sided disks 
         without any problems. If you encounter any difficulty,
         I can be contacted through Delphi as JIMSL or Com-
         puserve No. 72257,1613.
         Atari, Radio Shack, and Toshiba are Registered Trademarks.
/home/gen.uk/domains/wiki.gen.uk/public_html/data/pages/archive/computers/addrive.txt · Last modified: 1999/10/13 05:05 by 127.0.0.1

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