[sebhc] Shugart 400L Drive

[Lee Hart]

Mark Garlanger wrote:
> Does anyone know if I should be able to use the Shuart 400L floppy as
> a replacement for the H-17-1 drives? I'm having some problems with a
> pair I got off of ebay. I thought I would be able to use them since
> they appear to have the same specs as the Wangco and Seimens drives
> with just a different door latch. I had read that they have 40 tracks
> instead of the 35 that the older 400 model had. When I received the
> drives they had an additional 2" x 2.5" board (with a CAP, a diode,
> several resistors, a 74LS86 and a 74LS00) which converted a twenty pin
> connector into the standard edge connector and power cable. I removed
> this and was able to properly connect it in my H17 case to my
> hard-sectored controller. The id was set to 1 (third drive), another
> drive is the last drive on the cable and has the terminating resistor
> pack. When I try to boot from them, the light comes on, but I receive
> a '?Boot error' message. It doesn't make any clicks like my other
> drives do. The disk is spinning, but I don't hear any head movement.
> This behavior is the same on both drives. Does anyone know if these
> drives are not compatible with the heath controller? Or maybe some
> other setting is off, both drives did come with the ID set to 1, but
> one drive had a '1' sticker on the front and the other had a '2'
> sticker? Or maybe I got two bad drives?

Do you have the HDOS "H17" diagnostic program? It runs the drive through 
  its paces, and tells you its maximum step rate, etc.

Just about any 5.25" drive will work on the H8 and H89; the challenge is 
to figure out the jumpers, and get them set the way the Heath hardware 
expects. This means individual drive select lines, head loads on select, 
and motors all started by the motor control line.
-- 
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget the perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in    --    Leonard Cohen
--
Lee A. Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, leeahart_at_earthlink.net

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