FC5025 USB 5.25 floppy controller - first report

No, they're just palin unidirectional buffers, open collector outputs. Look up the 7406 (inverting) and 7407 (non inverting) data sheets. I am sure they're on the web somewhere (I've not checked, I've got several paper TTL data books here). The lines to a floppy dirve do not reverse direction. Eachg signal is either controller to drive (for example, the drive select lines, write data, write gate, step, direction, etc) or drive to controller (e.g. read data, index, track 0, etc). You need to buffer the signals from controller to drive, certainly. I'd use a circuit like this for each signal -- and put it close to the controller board. : +5V --- | / 1k \ / | | |\ Controller output signal -----+----||>--------------- Drive input signal |/ 1/6 7407 buffer Each 7407 will buffer 8 signala. The 1k resistor is a pull-up and is necessary if teh controller has open-collector outputs (as it should do, bit I bet some don't). ou need to fit the 150 Ohm terminating resistors in the drive, which will act as pull-ups on the 7407 open-collector outputs. You can probably get away with leaving the input signals alone. If you want to do things properly, you might try putting a termination resistor between each input signal and +5V at the controler end of the cable. If the cotnroller has 1k pull-ups, then try a 180 Ohm resistor (180 // 1k gives about 150 Ohms). If you are a purist (as I guess I am :-)), you might try something like : +5V --- | \ / 150 Ohm \ / | |\ |\ Drive output----+---|#>o---|#>o------Controller input |/ |/ 2/6 74LS14 Schmitt trigger inverter Each 74LS14 contains 6 schmitt trigger inverters, you need 2 for each signal (since you don't want ot invert the signal, and AFAIK there is no non-onverting schmitt trigger in the TTL range). So each 74LS14 will buffer 3 signals. Again, you want to put this as close to the cotnroller as you can. -tony