21 Sep
2014
21 Sep
'14
2:45 a.m.
On Sat, 20 Sep 2014, Ali wrote:
Do you still have the pin out for the IBM 51TD drive?
According to the
CCTalk archives you had been looking for it and seem to have found it off
list. I'd love a copy of the pin outs if you have it and/or any advice on
how to wire the 36 pin connector to a 34 pin FDD (or better yet the 37 pin
external dsub) connector. This is the 8" drive I have access to and was used
in the 5120, 5322, and the 6580 and System/36 AFAIK. It would be great if I
can get PC HW (i.e. the std. IBM controller card or the CompatiCard) to
drive it. Thanks.
Forget it, that won't work:
1. You would need additional circuitry to control the drive. As an
example, the IBM disk drive needs the four stepper motor phases for head
movement whereas the Shugart interface only provides a step pulse and
direction signal. The IBM drive are much "dumber" than Shugart drives.
2. To read IBM floppies with a PC you ultimatively need a controller that
supports FM and MFM. Along with that you need either a tool that
understand the IBM disk structure or something like ImageDisk if you only
want to image the floppies.
Christian