FWIW. I think that you will probably be able to FORMAT the 3.5" disk via the Cumana interface if you _cover_ the indexing hole and thereby ensure that the dumb device isn't confused when it tries to format the HD disk as a 720K disk ...
On Tue, 5 Oct 2010 10:52:05 +0300 Petri Pellinen <[email protected]> writes: > Hello everyone, > > I received my shiny 23 year old Cumana disk interface for the QL > yesterday and am now trying to wire it up to a 'modern' 3.5" pc > floppy > drive... So far, the results have been mediocre at best. I have > QDOS-formatted a DD floppy on the Q-emuLator but when I hook up the > drive to the Cumana interface on the QL I can't read or format the > floppy disk. The drive is obviously selected when I do a "dir > flp2_" > (or "dir flp3_" depending on whether I use untwisted or twisted > slot > on the cable) because the indicator light in the front panel goes > on > but I get a "not found" error when doing a "dir" and "format > failed" > when trying a "format". > > I did a bit of research on the pinouts and it seems that the > "standard > shugart" interface is anything but standard, There seem to be quite > a > few variations of the signal assignments in the machines of the > eighties. One interesting article by a fellow Finn is over here: > http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/diskstepper.html > > On Dilwyn's site there is a Cumana manual which does not document > the > pinout on the i/f card and a "Generic disk interface manual" which > does have a pinout diagram. The interesting bit in this diagram is > pin > 16 which is listed as "load head" whereas on the pc floppy drives > pin > 16 is used for "Motor on B". Even more interestingly, the generic > pinout diagram does *not* have a "motor on" pin at all ! > > Does anyone know if the pinout in the generic document also applies > for the Cumana interface and whether pin 16 really is "load head" > on > the QL? > > If this is indeed the case and there is no separate "motor on" > signal > on the QL interface then I guess I need to do a bit of wiring to > enable "motor on" when I get a "drive select" signal. > > Best regards, > Petri > _______________________________________________ > QL-Users Mailing List > http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm > > ____________________________________________________________ Mortgage Rates Hit 3.25% If you owe under $729k you probably qualify for Gov't Refi Programs http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4cab66385feaa1f559m07vuc _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
