exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hello !

I just bought and received (quickly! thanks a lot Exxos :)) this item https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/#0037 to replace the internal floppy drive of my Falcon.

But... when I turn on the Falcon, the floppy led lights up for a while, but no floppy icon on the desktop.

Even if it is written here (https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=12&t=49) that this is done when you buy the floppy on the site (first line), maybe the modification has not been done? Could you check if you have done it before sending it to me? Could I open the disk to check (without losing the warranty :)) ?

...and just to be sure : to be used with an Atari Falcon, the link must be on JC30 and not on JC31 ?

Thanks :)

Sinis wrote: 16 Nov 2021 20:32 Even if it is written here (https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=12&t=49) that this is done when you buy the floppy on the site (first line), maybe the modification has not been done? Could you check if you have done it before sending it to me? Could I open the disk to check (without losing the warranty :)) ?

Modification would not have been done. I used to do it but I just never have time anymore. So rather than just sit on the pile of floppy drives, I just sell them "as is" now.

Thank you for your answer.

The price of the success ! :D

I'll try to do it.

Well, I made the mod (I'm so proud with my little hands :)), and it's ok.

BUT...

I've got a problem and I would like to know if somebody has got an idea :
- I bought a new floppy drive because the Falcon was unable to read or format 95% of disks... Some (a few) were ok, but very few of them. I really thought the original floppy drive was tired.
- BUT with the new one, it's exactly the same. Lot of floppy disks are not readable, even not formattable.

Those floppies come from different sources, some I bought recently, some I had, even original ones. I can understand that lot are "broken" due to time, but why not formattable ???

So, here's my question :
do you think there is something "hard" (or soft ???) into the Falcon I can check, or repair, or change, that could create this issue ? It looks crazy for me, as if it was the cable or the controller, nothing should be ok ; it's not what's happening here, as some floppies can be read, some programs can be executed.

...it's a pity : I need to create (and read) a floppy to reset the NVRAM/RTC I just bought and installed.

THANK YOU :)

Falcon suffers from no pullups like the ST. Though I've never got around to doing a guide to fix that problem, but if look at the fixes topic for 1772 pull up fixes, its the same circuit as on the falcon, so I assume that's the problem.

I had a problem with my falcon that the drive would only work for about 30mins, then get worse and worse as it was turned on. Though I've not had time to look into it directly.

@Sinis My Falcon used to show the same kind of problems, but they got better when I re-capped the PSU and re-capped the floppy drive. In the end I replaced my floppy entirely with a 'FlashFloppy' drive and never had a problem since - I think because the FlashFloppy is more modern, draws less power etc etc - sorry I know it is frustrating, but I probably would have recommended you go the Flash-Floppy route. If you had old disks with data on that you need to backup, you could do with an external floppy drive in your PC.

Something like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254310725464

Sinis wrote: 23 Nov 2021 10:28 Those floppies come from different sources, some I bought recently, some I had, even original ones. I can understand that lot are "broken" due to time, but why not formattable ???

If you can't read discs, the first question I'd have would be are they game discs? The HD drive in my Falcon never got on with most ST compatible game discs. The copy protection was a no-no.

But, since you can't format them, I'd be looking at what's common. The most obvious thing would be the floppy cable and its connector. Mine's a bit flakey after 20-mumble years of abuse (and I tried to unplug it from the motherboard at some point in the past, not realising it wasn't unpluggable). Could be worth reflowing the solder joints on the motherboard end, checking continuity of each of the lines (boring, sorry) and trying the discs with the floppy positioned in various creative ways to apply twisting and tension to different parts of the cable.

I'd say it's worth trying before going down the path of piggybacking pull ups or changing out chips.

The shorter way would be to try it with a flashfloppy gotek, as others have suggested. They work well and have their own pull-ups, I believe, so they'll help you rule out problems quickly, but obviously it's an expense.

BW

Given 2 drives have the same behaviour, the Gotek route is likely your best shot before breaking out the soldering iron, as it will be a quick and easy test since they have their own pull-ups.

Next up I'd suggest that you do continuity checks on the cable to be sure they are actually connected, and also check the soldering under magnification for signs of cracking. It will also be worthwhile doing resistance checks, simply because if there is an internal failure at some point, it may buzz out, but the resistance may be high.

An example of this is the Atari 1050 FDD I recently looked at. The switch that tells the drive a disk is inserted worked, but something felt 'wrong' I checked the NC (NormallyClosed) contacts and they showed zero resistance.

When I checked the NO (Normally Open) contacts, when the switch was operated and they closed, I was getting around 68R. It might not sound a lot, but my good drive was reading zero when the switch was operated. I got a replacement, and that also read zero, and once replaced the mechanism behaved much better.

My point it, it isn't an obvious thing to look for, but it can make a difference.

Perhaps also check to see if the disk controller chip is overheating, as it may indicate a marginal part.

A diag cart would be useful too if there is a Falcon one, since it will allow you to run consistent repeatable tests.