Re: Commodore 65 and 1581 incompatibility

From: silverdr_at_wfmh.org.pl
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2015 20:28:12 +0100
Message-Id: <868D7EA8-E0D8-4538-974F-EAF11CD325A0@wfmh.org.pl>
> On 2015-11-19, at 18:27, Michał Pleban <lists@michau.name> wrote:
> 
> Hello!
> 
> silverdr@wfmh.org.pl wrote:
> 
>>> Hm I understand you mean removing the drive from 1581 and transplanting
>>> it to the C65?
>> Yes, that's what I mean.
> 
> I opened the computer and the drive, but the mechs do not seem
> interchangeable. The mech in 1581 is labeled F-354E and the mech in C65
> is FB-354C. The connector is different, the eject mechanism is also
> different.

Are you sure the connector is different?! Isn't it a 34 pin Shugart type connector?! Obviously I can't now look into my C65 now to verify this ;-) In 1581 any "Amiga drive" can be used. Definitely the infamous FB-354, which I suspected it to be in both cases. Mechanically the Amiga 500 drives fit. Sometimes the eject button has to be replaced.

> Anyway, I reseated the mech connector and the FDC chip, and now I can
> format disks on the C65 and the 1581 reads them fine. However, the drive
> in C65 is unreliable, when I insert a disk sometimes it refuses to read
> it, or it gives weird errors like "disk is write protected". I think I
> would like to replace it, but where do I get a FB-354C?

OK, I found this:

http://www.softwolves.com/arkiv/cbm-hackers/16/16508.html

So indeed there is a different connector. Yet I would be rather surprised if they made a very special drive. My guess is that they combined the power with signal lines on one cable but still kept the Shugart interface intact. If this is true then you should be able to adapt (including the eject button exchange) any FB-354 as found in A500s

-- 
SD!


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Received on 2015-11-19 20:00:09

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