Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re: 8250 LP Double disk drive for the commodore 64

--- Lance S <semlj001(a)hotmail.com> wrote: Looks like this: http://www.zimmers.net/cbmpics/deieee3.html Right? We are all talking about the same thing, but the drive by itself hooks to a PET. Your father must have a cartridge for his C-64 that provides an IEEE-488 port. One possibility is if you can't find an 8250LP is to get a regular 8250 (using the same connection). Dunno if an SFD-1001 would work or not... the DOS is not the same, so if your father's application depends on certain features of the drive itself, it might or might not be a reasonable substitute. There was a discussion about 8250LP repair on the CBM-Hackers list last year. This article is interesting: http://www.softwolves.pp.se/misc/arkiv/cbm-hackers/6/6731.html It suggests that the "fragile" part is a 6530 - a part made by Commodore that was always customized for its particular application. I've seen them on the KIM-1, in many Commodore disk drives and a few other places. Apparently some drives (perhaps the DOS 3.0 ones) used a daughter card in the 6530 socket with a 6532 (which is generic) and an external ROM. Dunno what's wrong with your father's drive, but if you can get in front of it, turn it on and watch for flashing lights. In many cases, that can narrow down the problem to a few chips. If it doesn't flash at all (i.e., it acts totally dead), that helps, too. Likewise if you can power it on, "talk to it" (read the error channel), but not read or write drives. Depending on the fault, it might actually be easier to fix than replace. Most "technicians" these days only know how to swap out entire boards or entire boxes. If it _is_ a 6530, that's kind of a problem... It's theoretically possible to fabricate a replacement, but I'm not sure the CBM community knows enough about that particular model to describe a functional replacement. A 4040? Sure. Maybe even an old-fashioned 8250. Not positive about the 8250LP. Cheers, -ethan