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YD-580 weirdness

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Exceter

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I'm trying to install 2 YD-580 360k half height floppy drives into my IBM 5150 so that I can have a hard drive in one bay and still have 2 floppy drives. However, when I try to access them, both floppy drives act in unison. Even when the BIOS probes them, both fire up at the same time. When I boot into DOS and go to A: the same thing happens. Is there a jumper setting on the drives I need to change?
 
Probably the wrong cable. Are you using one with or without a twist? There are indeed jumpers to change depending on the cable used, but if you can, it's probably easier to just swap the cable.
 
Timo W. said:
Probably the wrong cable. Are you using one with or without a twist? There are indeed jumpers to change depending on the cable used, but if you can, it's probably easier to just swap the cable.
Click to expand...

You need a twisted cable regardless, but it's more likely IMO that he does have the correct cable and his new drive came preset to DS0
 
The original 5150 didn't use a twisted cable (but you can use one, of course), that's why I asked. I own one myself. Drives must be jumpered for DS0 and DS1 and the last drive must have the termination resistor installed.

His drives are most likely configured the same, coming from a later system, so they need a twisted cable or one of the drives must be correctly jumpered to work as DS1 and one as DS0.
 
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Timo W. said:
The original 5150 didn't use a twisted cable (but you can use one, of course), that's why I asked. I own one myself. Drives must be jumpered for DS0 and DS1 and the last drive must have the termination resistor installed.

His drives are most likely configured the same, coming from a later system, so they need a twisted cable or one of the drives must be correctly jumpered to work as DS1 and one as DS0.
Click to expand...

I don't see how that could be possible. The IBM FDC uses separate MOTOR ON signals on pins 10 and 16. If you used a straight through cable and adjusted the DS jumpers appropriately, the A drive motor would never start. The drives expect MOTOR ON to be at pin 16 regardless of the DS jumper setting.
 
I have a twisted cable. The issue appears to be that I had installed it with the twist on the floppy controller instead of on drive A. I'm able to access both drives now. The only weird thing remaining(which is unrelated to my original issue) is that the drives don't always grab the disk correctly. They'll make an unbalanced sort of sound and fail to read a known good disk. However, if I re-insert the same disk 2-3 times then the unbalanced sound will go away and the drive will quietly read the disk. Do I need to oil something?
 
The clamp may no apply enough pressure to the disk. I don't know the YD-580 disk drives you have, so no idea how the clamp is constructed there. On many drives, the lever rotates a rod with some plastic thingy attached that moves down the clamp. Over time and usage, the plastic gets worn and the clamp is no longer moved down enough to hold the disk tightly. That's something to check.
 
The YD-580 clamps tend to get a bit sticky with age. Look at the top of the mechanism above the centering ring where the C-clip is. Wiggle all that stuff around thoroughly and clean any dust or debris in the area. Also clean the "leaves" of the centering ring itself and the spindle hub below it to help reduce any interference there.
 
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