exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hey guys, I am trying to have either my gotek with the Flash Floppy firmware on it setup as an external drive from the Floppy port or an Epson 380 mech. which was the internal drive for the MSTE and has jumpers on it.

But I cannot get either to work as an external.. internal .. np.

This is the guide I followed for building the cable.

http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=26656

checked wiring I am good.

Jumpers on the Gotek, for internal I have nothing but S0 .. I assumed for exteral I move to S1.. but I have tried both.

Epson 380 I have tried in iD0 and ID1.. no go.

Ideas?

James

The gotek will work only if it's the bood drive (you need to boot with the file manager).
Internal must be id0, external must be id1.
Third thing, hd drives like the gotek have the ribbon cord inversed compared to dd drives like the smd380, even if you don't have a hd kit.
BTW this setup never worked for me either, the gotek needs to be the boot drive and it doesn't like to have a B drive, at least with the hxc firmware.

Well I have had the gotek working as the 2nd drive.

I am building my own cable. But now I have found that the wiring I have done might now be correct.

I want a cable that I can use with a drive or with gotek.
This is from the SF314 - notice how the drive select pins cross. Also the pin selection is not the same as the cable made up in the thread that I worked from.. pins 12 and 14 are not used on the sf314.. but on the Galax cable they are.

This is frustrating.

James

Why not just use the proper machine diagram on the bottom right of page 1 ?

http://dev-docs.exxosforum.co.uk/1040ST_ ... 6-1987.pdf

Wire the external drive is to 1.. Give external drive power and your done.

If your using a 1.44 drive then you will need to for the cable upside down. I don't use gotec, so don't know what it supports.

There shouldn't be anything more to it.

Well i guess 1 hard schemetic to read verses the sf314.

2. going to assume a 1040stf is the same as a 520stf, but not anywhere the same as a mega STE ( The machines I own)

3. I had it wired up like this, and it did not work. Not with the smd-380 mech anyway. Which works perfect as an internal or in the SF314.

James

ps. is w2 an actual switch? jumper points? how is w2 used?

I don't know about other drives personally or if they even work as drive B:. The only drives I would use is the MPF920, as I know they work without any faffing about. You need to start ruling things out, and currently you have to many "unknowns", which makes it near impossible to diagnose anything.

I would suggest you get a known working external drive and see if your machine is actually working properly before anything else. Then you can swap the drives about as you wish with a known good setup.

Yes my Sf314 works on any computer.. no issues. I have 3 more SMD-300s (1.44mb) coming in this week. They are the originals (300 series) that Mega STE used..

My issue now is, why does this cable work with the Gotek, but not the Floppy. The floppy works as an internal and as a drive in the SF314.

I think I am still missing something in the whole d0 d1 thing.. the gotek just gets by that.. the floppy does not like it. The floppy will access.. spin, but cannot seem to read correctly.

Thanks for the responses Chris.

James

It might be the old DMA type screwy issues as a side thought. Where the DMA databus needs some pull ups.. That's caused me issues with older drives on my ste machines. Similar circuit on mste.

Or you might simply not have enough gnd wires from your external drive to the mste. Try at least 4 gnd wires from drive to mste.

If you have drives working as internal and intermittent for external.. Then its probably not the drive at fault.

Longer the cable is the more chance of noise and issues. Keep cable short as possible.

Also make sure you use a good regulated PSU for external drive power. You should add some caps on the 5v drive end to be sure. 4700uf low ESR etc.

Bikerbob wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:34 pm Yes my Sf314 works on any computer.. no issues. I have 3 more SMD-300s (1.44mb) coming in this week. They are the originals (300 series) that Mega STE used..

My issue now is, why does this cable work with the Gotek, but not the Floppy. The floppy works as an internal and as a drive in the SF314.

I think I am still missing something in the whole d0 d1 thing.. the gotek just gets by that.. the floppy does not like it. The floppy will access.. spin, but cannot seem to read correctly.

Thanks for the responses Chris.

James

The drive of the mega ste was the smd-340. the smd-300 was used in the falcon.

yes I know .. thanks, I have 1 here that does not read proper anymore, I took it apart, cleaned the heads, checked everything I could see.. I am going to assume one of the heads is damaged. It works, accesses, I can read a directory, but I cannot .. it would seem read 2 sides of a disk.

BUT.. any SMD-300(series) can be used, some are DD some are HD, but all have the exact front plate that can be removed and swapped for the original.

James