How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

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rcamp48
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How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rcamp48 »

Hi:

How do I hook up my modified Sony MPF920 as an external drive in the external enclosure. I have tried plugging the ribbin cable in one way, the drive spins forever, the other way it does not work at all, the drive has been jumpered as DS0. What do I have to do to get it to work properly as Drive B. Woking on it this afternoon. 4:32 PM here. Thank you for any advicethe drive does work as an internal drive, I am using a Gotek as drive A. Russ
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by exxos »

Try DS1...

There was a long thread about all this a few days ago in fact, Seems to have been a lot of confusion over it all, not sure what thread or if it was full sorted out or not.. think it was one of RJ's threads.
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viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
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rcamp48
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rcamp48 »

I did for some reason the drive turned on as normal but the Atari still only saw one drive either with the Gotek or the modified drive in drive A
Russ
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by JezC »

Hi,

Is this the thread you were referring to?

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =12&t=1531
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by exxos »

JezC wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:34 pm Is this the thread you were referring to?

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =12&t=1531
That was it!
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rubber_jonnie »

Yep, that was me :) Hope it helps. The salient points are:

"Small update. I now have the enclosure properly working with a replacement floppy drive.

The drive is set to DS0 by jumper. I also tested with a Gotek also set to DS0 in place of the floppy and it also worked ok, and I was able to copy files etc between the Gotek at drive B: and the internal floppy at drive A:"

Make sure you have the cable orientation correct, as the pin assignments can vary from floppy to floppy, in that pin 1 can sometimes be at the other end of the plug on the floppy. The Gotek is a good example of this. First make sure that the edge of the cable with the red stripe is closest to the pin marked 1 on the floppy drive.

It isn't a given that pin 1 will always be on the same side of the connector onthe floppy so you must check.

Also, is the external cable in a genuine Atari enclosure? If you have an SF354, it was for single sided drives and may not work for you. In an odd nomenclature twist, the SF314 was double sided.

If it's a cable you made yourself, then check your wiring against a known good external drive schematic.
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rcamp48
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rcamp48 »

Yes it is an original enclosure, an SF314, it recognizes a modern floppy drive as a second drive but the computer only picks up one drive the internal drive , the modern drive is set as ds1 and turns on then off as expected but could the drive enclosure be set up as ds0 ? Russ
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rcamp48 »

Is this the right controller for an SF314????
SF314 and power supply
SF314 and power supply
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by tzok »

There is NO controller inside SF314, only some versions of single sided SF354 had some controller card inside. Here you have only voltage filtering circuit and a pass-through board.

...and yes, this is the correct board for SF314. And this is the earliest version of SF314.
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Re: How do I Hook Up an External MPF920 as Drive B

Post by rubber_jonnie »

So if its just a pass through board, set the FDD to be DS0. That's what I had to do on my Datel drive which is also a pass through. The Sony drive needs to have a link changed with a soldering iron as per here: http://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/d ... d/main.htm
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