Introduction The disk drive port is a
versatile port that can be used for more than disk drives. It supports data rates of 250,000 and 500,000 BAUD and it is DMA driven. You can add extra floppy disk drives, for Amiga, PC, MAC, C64 and a few more and some interesting interfaces. The problem with using this port is that the software to use it will be complex (at least in my opinion) The Amiga use the Shugart bus for the disk drive interface, the same on PC's do, so with a small interface circuit, you can add a PC floppy drive as a replacement (though not high density). External disk drive connector  Note: / indicates an active low signal
Type | Pin | Signal | Description | Input | 1 | /RDY | Disk ready signal |
Input | 2 | /DKRD | Read data from disk | |
3 | GND | | | 4 | GND |
| | 5 | GND | | |
| 6 | GND | | | 7
| GND | | Output | 8 | /MTRX | Motor On/Off | Output | 9 | /SEL2 | Select drive 2 | Output | 10 | /DRES | Disk reset (turn motors off) | Input | 11 |
/CHNG | Disk change. Logic 0 = no disk. | | 12 | +5V | 250 mA max. | Output | 13 | /SIDE | Side selection (top or bottom) | Input | 14 | /WPRO | Disk is write protected | Output | 15 |
/TK0 | Disk head at track 0 | Output | 16 | /DKWE | Switch to write mode | Output | 17 | /DKWD | Write data to the disk | Output | 18 | /STEP | Move the read/write head | Output | 19 |
/DIR | Direction of head movement, low = move toward centre. | Output | 20 | /SEL3 |
Select drive 3 | Output | 21 | /SEL1 | Select drive 1 | |
Input | 22 | /INDEX | Index signal from the drive | | 23 | +12 Volts | 160 mA max. |
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To search aminet for floppy disk related files, click here Aminet Files,
DriveTest.lha Short: Controls & shows floppy drive signals.
- This programs allows you to directly control signals to floppy drives
- Shows which signals drives give to your Amiga
- GUI interface
- Very useful for repairing external/internal drives etc.
- System pure - when running, drives are allocated by disk.resource TrackDiskSync.lha Short: Recalibration tool for floppy drives
Requires: Kickstart 2.04 or better. One working floppy drive. A joystick. Phillips screwdriver set. Nail polish.
Introduction:
This little tool can be used to re-calibrate floppy drives manually. This does not mean that I recommend doing so. In case you're "mechanically declined", you should leave this to an expert, or should consider buying a new drive. In case the drive is broken, it is broken, and this tool won't help much.
De-calibrated drives show the following symptoms: They read disks written by themselves fine, but fail to read
other disks reliable, and disks written to by the decalibrated drive do no longer work reliable in other disk drives. In case the drive just doesn't work at all anymore, something more is broken. In either
case, you run into the risk of damaging your hardware even more. Note that I cannot give any guarantee whatsoever that this program and the hints given here are correct, free of errors, etc... The entire risk is up to you.
If you break your drive or your computer, tough luck! I refuse to take any responsibilities.
PCFloppy2Amiga.lha Short: =Use 1.44 PC drives as Amiga HD drives.=
PCFloppy2Amiga is a package describing how the author made a DD (880 KB) floppy drive and a HD (880/1760 KB) floppy drive using a 3.5 inch PC 1.44 Mb floppy drive.
There is also documentation on how to connect 5¼" drives (440/880 KB).
It consists of:
- AmigaGuide file + iff pictures
- DRIVEID program to check the identification of
the drive in the amiga.
- DriveSpeed to check rotational speed of your drive
- DriveTest archive included.
The drives are completely compatible with the standard amiga (HD/DD) floppy drives. There is no need for drivers if you use kickstart 2.x and higher. Floppy_fix.lha Short: Fix for the floppy problem of newer Amiga 1200
This text and picture shows how to fix the problem that newer Amiga 1200 (of Amiga Technologies) has with NDOS disks and df0:, with a little explanation of why they fail.
Maybe Amiga Technologies could add this hack to his manufacturing process, and so return to the Amiga the high
compatibility that it always had ;-)) By Ian Stedman, 19th July 2002 | 
