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Brand and settings floppy disk card.

Robin4

Experienced Member
Joined
Sep 25, 2011
Messages
497
I have bought a High capacity floppy disk controller card from ebay.

I have searched for information on stason.org.. But i cant find nothing about this floppy drive card..

I have tested this card and the bios seems to be fine to me.. The logo pops up and thats all.. He said he cant boot from the floppy disk..

I want to have a little bit more information about those cards..
Some cards do have settings, others dont..

I already tried some different bioses on my other cards.. And it seems to my they dont work propally as they need to do..

I already backuped the bios in de case something will crashed here..

Could some regonize this floppy drive controller card?

$(KGrHqR,!hQE1fCtgBlSBNnkS,!l!g~~_3.JPG


Above on the left it having some jumpers like:

A / B / C / D / 8

What are those jumpers for? For make the drive letter and device active?
Or just what you want to set as Primairy drive??

And can someone tell me what that 8 is use for?

Is it right the C / D are ment to use 4 kind of floppy drives on this controller?

And on the upper right theres a block of 8 jumpers?
Is this used for setting it op to 360KB / 720KB / 1.44MB / 1.2MB

Is it possible to setup drive A: as 1.44MB and drive B: as 1.2MB drive??
 
I'd surmise that at least some of the jumpers are used for setting the address that the card will use, allowing for use with on-board FDCs.

As to your other questions, I've never personally setup a 4-floppy system. I'd think that setting up drive 3/4 as DD or HD would be done with device drivers at startup (in lieu of a BIOS) rather than a "hard coded" jumper setting on the card itself.

Maybe you've just given me another "weekend project" for the ever-expanding list of projects... :)
 
There is a part number stenciled on the board, it's in the glare so I can't read it. I assume you searched for it.
Kipp
 
The Zilog FDC (Zilog's version of the NEC µPD765A) does indeed handle high-density--indeed it started out as an 8" drive controller and was only later adapted to 5.25" drive use. It's the people who developed the support circuitry on various early FDCs that didn't bother about supporting high-density. But this one should be fine.

You'll note that each of A B C D jumper sections has two jumpers per drive letter--these determine the type of drive that you're using. Try all 4 combinations of the two jumpers to get your system to boot.
 
@Maverick1978

I never worked with those old controller cards either.. But i want to have full support of HD drives on my 8088 computer.
I dont like have it a part of using an newer 16-bit controller board and using some software that would enable HD floppy disk support.. But iam a little bit affraid that i demolition something on this card, because those controller cards are very hard to find.. But ill still keep finding, till i find a working one thats pleased me..

@krebizfan

If theres no bios, then you could have been right.. But those cards having a bios, because the main bios of the mainboard doesnt have support for hd floppy disk drives..

@kyeakel
I tried that all ready to search with google on those numbers, but cant find anything about it. Thats not strange because its 23 /24 years old hardware..

@Chuck(G)

Its allready set on drive A when it arrived. But wont read the floppy drive. I also did disconnect it from the 1.2MB drive and only connected it on the 1.44mb one..
When i started the computer it gave me an white text bar from the bios, but wont load any further..

Could a wrong setting kill the card? Because some settings are manufactured set.. So i dont want to play with does..
 
@Chuck(G)

Its allready set on drive A when it arrived. But wont read the floppy drive. I also did disconnect it from the 1.2MB drive and only connected it on the 1.44mb one..
When i started the computer it gave me an white text bar from the bios, but wont load any further..

Could a wrong setting kill the card? Because some settings are manufactured set.. So i dont want to play with does..

Take a close look at that header. Note that there are two sets of pins per drive. That means that you have 4 combinations of jumpers for each drive: off-off/off-on/on-off/on-on. Each one of these combination denotes a different drive type connected to the controller (e.g. 360K/720K/1.2M/1.44M).
 
I dont get it..

You can only put the cap on one jumper set (2 legs) or take it off..and there a 4 devices / drives.
A/B/C/D


Or is C the same like A:
and B is the same like D:

So it should like:

A: 720KB
B: 360KB
C: 1.44M
D: 1.2M

Do you have a drawing how to set Drive A: -> 1.44MB
and set Drive B -> 1.2MB

That right upper jumper block is that only for setting the cards address?

Do i need to use it when iam going installing an harddisk in this system?
 
Last edited:
Okay, let's try again.

Note that you have a 2-drive card--the extra header and DC-37F connector near the bracket are missing for the C and D drives (old PC system, ABCD could be floppies; now C: is always the hard drive, but it wasn't always thus)

You're also missing driver chips at U27 and U28, so you've got a 2-drive controller (yes, it probably could be converted into a 4-drive board).

So now, let's go back to the headers. Note how they're boxed off into sets of 2 by the silk-screening on the board. The first box is for drive A:, the second for drive B:, the third for drive C: and the fourth for drive D:. Since this is a 2-drive card, the single set of pins at the first half of box C is just a storage position for a jumper. Note that the second half of the box and the whole box at D is unpopulated--they don't do anything.

That leaves you four header pins at boxes A and B. As I've said, the way those boxes are jumpered (00,01,10 or 11, where 1 = jumper on and 0 = jumper off) tells the BIOS the drive type. So, for box A try all 4 variations until you get something that boots.

Clear?
 
Maybe a drawing will help bridge the language gap.

The drawing below is for the Multi Unique FDC card.
See how there are two jumpers for A: and two jumpers for B:

muf_jumpers.jpg


Your card also uses two jumpers for A: and two jumpers for B:

Compared to the Multi Unique FDC card, your card will use different jumper settings for 360/1.2/720/1.44
We do not know what they are.
 
Old ISA cards usually have jumpers to set the port address. On this card, port setting seems to be the pins at JP4. If configured for 4 drives, it might use 2 port addresses. Since this is only populated to drive 2 drives, probably only jumpers 1 and 2 of JP4 will determine the port address.

The card will conflict with another device if it is jumpered for an address that is already in use by the other device.

If you put the card in the ISA bus of a working machine, you should see in the BIOS startup screens whether there is an address conflict with another device. Try different combinations at JP4, positions 1 and 2, until the card is recognised without a conflict. Then you will know what jumper position sets what port address. If you have a Windows ISA-bus machine, the Device Manager in Control Panel can make this easier.

When you are sure the card is at a non-conflicting port address, then you can test the settings for size of drives A and B (JP2, jumpers 1-4) as described by Chuck and Modem7.

Rick
 
Is the port address the same adresses what scsi adapter use to like:

c800
CA00
CE00
DE00

I further understand the part that this pcb has a 4 drives lay-out but actually its an 2 ports / drives controller card..
I only need to read more times what you guys wrote about that pin setting on the upper left side..

About that JP4 port address side. It has 8 numbered pins.

So those should be the mention adresses here above what i have wrote..
 
About that JP4 port address side. It has 8 numbered pins.
So those should be the mention adresses here above what i have wrote..
We do not know. We can only guess.
You need to find technical documentation for the card. That documentation will have the jumper settings.
If you can not find the technical documentation, then you will need to experiment.

In future, it is a good idea to only buy cards that you can find technical documentation for.
 
I dont think i would find documention about this controller card. Its 24 years old hardware. Most of those information is already wiped.. I will experiment soon as possible..

In future, it is a good idea to only buy cards that you can find technical documentation for.

But those cards you will almost never find, thats that hard part of it. And mostly they ship those cards only to america only.. And its more rare to get it in my country..

Iam very happy that i could find one.. So then you have to choose, take it or leave it..
 
Maybe a drawing will help bridge the language gap.

The drawing below is for the Multi Unique FDC card.
See how there are two jumpers for A: and two jumpers for B:

muf_jumpers.jpg


Your card also uses two jumpers for A: and two jumpers for B:

Compared to the Multi Unique FDC card, your card will use different jumper settings for 360/1.2/720/1.44
We do not know what they are.

So

Drive A uses: Pin setting A / B

Drive B uses: Pin setting C / D ??

But if i should put the cap on the above or the under pin, then its not connecting anything??
 
So
Drive A uses: Pin setting A / B
Drive B uses: Pin setting C / D ??
Sigh...
No, drive A uses the four pins labelled A, and drive B uses the pins labelled B; pins C and D are not used since your card does not have the optional hardware installed for those drives.
But if i should put the cap on the above or the under pin, then its not connecting anything??
Yes, that is the equivalent of no connection in the diagram above (which you should rotate 90 degrees to match your board).
 
But those cards you will almost never find, thats that hard part of it. And mostly they ship those cards only to america only.. And its more rare to get it in my country..
There is a place here in Australia that sells documented 4-drive floppy cards:

http://www.a1usedcomputers.com.au/shop/prodView.asp?idproduct=315

This is the card that I use. It comes in original box with instructions.
The jumper settings are printed on the card.

I have only found one problem with it: "Using this card on a 640K 5160 motherboard (05/09/86 BIOS), I cannot boot from known good 1.44M sized MSDOS boot diskettes."

The company must sell to other countries, because on the website is "Each year, we reward our top 100 International clients with our Desk calendar as a Thank You!"

The company also sells a different 4-drive floppy card, but I have little experience with it:
http://www.a1usedcomputers.com.au/shop/prodView.asp?idproduct=292
 
Ok its clear now but no it doesnt have an 4 jumper block as you discribe.. or 2x2 as you describe above this post..

And i have the good news.. Its actually working now... All what i did was disable (take the jumper off) the first jumper on A..

If A only was enabled it couldnt reading anything.. If only B was enabled it only could read 720KB floppy, with 1,44mb floppy it gave me a read failure.. But i havent tested that much.. So i dont know now the actually drive type what now is set..

Is there a really good program, or diagnostics that can regonize the size type iam using..

The other good news is, is that this floppy card reads very fast compared with the other cards i have.. there is no lag/suttering at all.

So i think that jumper A block and B block is actually for drive A..
And C and D is used for drive B..

If you leave all caps off it would be set to HD floppy ( i think) otherwise it should be 720KB or 360KB..

I only need diagnostics util to find out if iam where right..
 
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