4 Feb
2009
4 Feb
'09
12:21 p.m.
On Mon, 2 Feb 2009, Chris Elmquist wrote:
yes... I studied the OPA and OPB jumpers, hooked them
up, and no joy.
The actual density selector switch or optical sensor is missing from
the drives I received. So, there is no way for it to know that the
low-density media has been installed. It needs this input along with
the density select coming from PIN 2 on the interface to decide what
mode to go into. If all the parts were there, then the PIN 2 would
choose between 2.0 MB and 1.6 MB (raw) modes (and actually change the
RPM to 360 when going to 1.6 MB mode) but that would only happen if a
low-density disk could be detected.
Wow. The problem is not the missing switch - that can obviously be
jumpered. The first problem is that your drive does not HAVE a low density
mode. When they removed the switch, they also changed it from "high v low"
modes (2.0 v 1.0 raw) to "high density mode" v "NEC high density
mode"
(which would not use that switch anyway.
So, I think they have cheaped out on us with these
particular drives.
I mean, they are cheap to start with ($7 ea) but this appears to be an
extreme situation. I think they can only do high density, 1.44MB format.
and with some jumpering 1.3M Japanese high density
Are Teac drives getting that hard to come by?