Thanks, I actually had some 720k disks from way back so didn't have to use the tape trick.
I salvaged yet another floppy drive from one of the old carcasses at the office and this one actually works! It seems that the cumana interface is very finicky about the kind of drive it talks to (which is totally understandable for a board from the 80's). So it seems that pin 16 indeed is "motor on" on the cumana interface and the problem was not the pinout. I don't know what the moral of the story is but I'm a happy floppy-drive using qler :) Thanks to everyone for tips and suggestions! Best regards, Petri On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 8:52 PM, Al Feng <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
