Re: Sidecar question (was Re: Re: Service manual or schematics of the PC20-III)

From: Clockmeister <clockmeister_at_internode.on.net>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 10:07:43 +0800
Message-ID: <531D1E6F.1020100@internode.on.net>
On 10/03/2014 9:05 AM, hwarin@neuf.fr wrote:
> Hi, friends
>
> I'm also playing those days with "more than 8 bits" commodore systems. I've wake up my A1000 and it's sidecar (wanted to try a newly built XT2CF board from "Lo tech /Peacon LTD" and I'm facing with a quite enoying thing : My sidecar's 5 1/4 floppy drive (what operate perfectly well) acts as a 720Kb drive ! With a such behaviour, I can't transfer anything to/from the sidecar and the rest of the world ... Catweasel with a Teac FD55BR100U can't go over track 40, XP hangs while trying to read the floppy on a regular panasonic 1.2meg drive, even the M24 fails after reading track 0 (as expectable) !
>
> So, one question comes in my mind : Sidecars (and bridgeboards) are supposed to have 5 1/4 drives of 360Kb from all docs I've been able to find - How is it possible to have this one working in 720K ? I've found nowhere any jumper saying anything about this (only 1 to 4 floppy options - no size choice).
>
> Another question : I've tryed an A1011 from my CDTV as a secondary "PC" floppy ... It's correctly accessed/selected, but, no way to use/format a 720K DD 3 1/2 floppy. The same A1011, with tyhe same floppy works perfectly from the "A1000" side. Does anyone have a rational idea on this second point ?
>
> Next try will be to fit a regular 360K only floppy (no idea on what this side car will be able to do with it ... but I have really few hope)
>
>
> Any suggestion welcome !
>
>   
>


This probably isn't much help, but if you haven't got the Sidecar manual 
you can download a copy from my website. http://users.on.net/~clockmeister

Specifically,

http://users.on.net/~clockmeister/other/Amiga-A1060-Sidecar-manual/A1060man.zip


Just guessing, It's been too long since I messed with a Sidecar so I 
can't remember any specifics about it, but from memory mine only worked 
correctly with a 360k drive attached, and certainly didn't work with 
1.2mb HD 5.25" drive. It's not recommended that you use 1.2MB for 360kb 
discs period anyway, because the track width issues make it unreliable 
at best.

It seems it's detected as a PC 3.5" DD drive, is it being mounted with 
the correct definitions in the mountlist, if that's applicable?




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Received on 2014-03-10 03:00:07

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