Closed CLOSED: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

RE: HD Floppy devices for the Amiga.

Chinon drives have always fetched a good price, as they are not made anymore & are very reliable devices comparde to Pee Cee floppy drives. I did offer SdG my FZ357-A at a loss & with nearly £15 for shipping alone, it makes it a silly price. However, there are alternatives to a Chinon HD Floppy if you don't mind a converted PeeCee affair. I would suggest contacting Marcin over @ eFunzine as he use to have these in stock quite regulary.

Again Heather, sorry I can't help yo on this occasion.

Best Wishes,

Charlie

 

[Justin]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

yo Heather you beauty you

take yer peepers round this one....


http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=3 ... oppy+drive

Cheers, JuvUK

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Yep, Charlie was definitely giving me a good deal by taking a loss on the disk drive but I didn't realize these original drives cost so much. I think the exchange rate adds a good bit to the cost as well. I'll check with the person Charlie suggested to see what I can find. Luckily, I don't really "need" a new disk drive since I have a bunch of externals and my internal disk drive is still working fairly well, but I would like to have one as a backup.

@JuvUK

That looks like a nice project but I was looking for a HD disk drive and that only functions as an 880k drive.

Thanks everyone!

Heather

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

I forgot to mention the fact a HD PC floppy when converted to use on an Amiga only works as a SD/DD 880k floppy device. I'm not entirely sure this is in all cases, but for the life in me, can not find reference to specific PC floppy devices working as a HD drive once put onto an Amiga. I'm sure I read something somewhere about this possibility, some time ago but getting old0r & all that.... oh:

Another thing to look at is this; In HD mode on the Amiga, it's speed perfomance is poor & even worse if addressing a PeeCee formatted floppy disk. If you think your floppy drive is playing up, remove it from the case & lift the lid off. Use one of those Air cans (put a mask on) & blow all the dust out. Then get a bit of lint free material, spray some isopropyl based electical clearner or such (should be self-evapourating) and carefully wipe the headsfrom left to right of the device. Not front to back or else you risk damaging the head. Then chuck her back together & you sould be good to go. Take note of the red wire orientation on the Floppy cable to the drive. Some IDC headers are not always keyed & you could have some frustations if you dont make notes as you go.
If you have no Air can or cleaner use a soft small brush & blow, but on this occasion, dare I say it....make sure your lips are, *cough* ....Dry. *cough*

I've saved countless floppy drives from the graveyard doing this. It's quite suprising what a little bit of early spring cleaning can do. The A4KD sucks through the floppy faceplate as well as drawing air from the ZORRO holed Backplane making the Floppy in this Amiga a bit of a dust trap.

I've lost nothing but still unhappy I can't budge on the price. Maybe I'll stick it the next A1200 I get ....should it ever happen.

Anyway, it's worth a shot if nothing else. Good Luck & Best Wishes,

Charlie

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Hey Charlie,

Since I've already pulled the floppy drive, I'll take your advice and let you know how it turns out. I always have cans of air at home since I work on computers constantly for other people that think they never have to open them up and clean them!

No matter what, I'll use my High Density drive sparingly since it is such an expensive replacement. I've got around 4 external floppy drives so I'll use those for loading things. There's not an easy way to make an external drive DF0 is there?

Take care,

Heather

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Making DF0: externally would not work unless you had Zero Floppy drives on the Amiga's main Floppy Header. However, this will work......

Strip one of your more battered looking External affairs & throw that in the Amiga as DF0: & make your HD Floppy drive DF1: No different to having 2 x HD drives or 2 x SS/DD drives.

The bummer is, most A4000s were shipped with incorrect floppy cables, having wires 3-5 twisted, instead of wires 4-6. These cables will work fine for a single drive, but will not communicate with a second drive fitted. To use two drives that are both jumpered as DS0, the floppy cable should have both wires 4-6 and 10-12 twisted. A cable with only wires 4-6 twisted will require the drives to be jumpered as DS0 and DS1. I'm referring to DS0 and DS1 as those are the values pressed into the back of the Chinon devices by the little black jumper. I expect your external affairs will suggest DF0, DF1 etc, so you would need to set 880k to DF0 & your tiring HD drive to DS0 on a cable with 4-6 and 10-12 twisted. You can pull the back of your IDC header off if you're careful & re-arrange the wires to suit.

Also, different brands of external floppy drive used different ways of interfacing on the back, but it is worthwhile checking all different brands you might have internally, & then pick the best/easiest donor.

HugZ

Charlie

*edit* I forgot to say, don't be put off at the lack of apparant screws on the external cases. More often than not, they are hidden under the devices rubber feet.

 

[Glenn]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Usally you can resurrect floppydrives by disassembling and carefully cleaning and oiling them.

However, you have to be careful, I seen people destroying their drives when trying to fix them.

I have resurrected both my A4000 and A3000 HD-floppydrives however, the one in the A3000 was bought cheap
from a person that told me it was broken, but I fixed it.

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Thanks Glenn. I'll be sure to be gentle with the disk drive when I clean it out.

Take care,

Heather

 

[gavilan]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Hi there, not trying to :hijacked: but..im curious...Kin, i have always read in all british Amiga mags i have (houndreds, believe me), about how good/reliable/strong were those Chinon drives.

Every now and then you can spot one on eBay, but im not 100% sure if they are good for the Amiga
I have worked for almost 7 years in a Journalism School, and i was in charge of the Computing section (which meant, among other stuff, to teach students to surf the net, to teach them how to use Word/Excel, i guess you get my point), but also meant i was in charge of fixing/building/destroying all kind of PC parts

Im 100% sure somewhere in my flat i have a dozen of Chinon drives.
How to know if they are Amiga compatible? Only the 2 models you mentioned to Heather are the good ones? Or can i do some "trick" in order to make other models to work with the Amiga?

Just a loong shot but...i would like to know, if no one is interested, how much $$$ you want for the drive and how much would be shipping cost to France (yes, my sister, once again, coming to rescue me)
:ROTFLOL2:

Cheers

Sebastian

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

I don't think SdG will mind.

Afaik, only the FB-357A & the FZ-357A are Amiga compatible. I don't know of any mods to make other Chinon devices work, but then I'm also not saying it isn't possible. I just don't know. I've sent you a PM RE the prices.

Cheers Seb,

Charlie

 

[AndyLandy]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Afaik, only the FB-357A & the FZ-357A are Amiga compatible

My A2000 has a Chinon FB-354, but I suspect that's only a DD drive.

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Yes Andy. Naturally, I was referring to the HD versions.

Afaik, the FB-357A was found in the A3000 as well. As a matter of interest, what is the height of the bezel plate on your FB-354?

Charlie

 

[AndyLandy]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Yes Andy. Naturally, I was referring to the HD versions.

I suspected you probably were.

Afaik, the FB-357A was found in the A3000 as well. As a matter of interest, what is the height of the bezel plat on your FB-354?

It's a deep (30mm) drive. For interest's sake, I also have a 25mm "Epson SMD-300" installed as DF1. It's mounted on a little metal plate that brings it up to 30mm.

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

As I suspected Andy. I did own an A1500 many moons ago & for the life in me, couldn't remember for sure. The FB-357A is the same height, but HD. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work on an A2000. Shame the front panel is cracked on mine, but it's fully functional. I have offered both the FB & the FZ to Sebastian. If you fancy the FB for a height match & some HD action, I'll get back to you via PM.

Charlie

PS & @ SdG

This is turning out to be a bit of a :hijacked: event. Sincere Apologies. :run:

 

[AndyLandy]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

@Kin -- I'm definitely interested. Currently looking at doing an A4000 tower conversion project, will need a disk drive for that. Feel free to PM me. and :thanks:

 

[SkydivinGirl]

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

Re: WTB: A4000 HD Floppy Drive

I've managed to get my drive working fairly well so I'll close this thread for now.

Thanks everyone!

Heather