Thanks all.
Thanks again,
Ian.
Looks like the Einstein has a standard Shuggart interface. The drive select jumpers work as you would expect (none of the old twisted cable nonsense) and all drive motors spin together. Having checked the connector pinouts between the Einstein and the BBC model B (which you could argue I should have done before randomly sticking things in sockets) the only differences are that the Einstein doesn't have the 8" floppy lines on pins 2 and 4, and the Beeb doesn't have drive select 2 and 3 on pins 14 and 6.With this there is one common motor on / load head control signal and up to four independent drive / device select control signals.
The PC has a similar interface, but actually uses drives that use the Shuggart interface. The PC can only support up to two drives /devices. There are thus only two drive / device select control signals. There is an independent motor on / load head control signal for each of the two drives. This is part of the reason that the data cable has a twist in it.
The other difference with drives made or intended for use with a PC, is that they typically are produced with their drive ID set to one.
The time delay between the system stepping the heads may be too short, is there a setting in the Einstein software for this?
The config tools only seem to allow selection between drive formats (40/80T SS/DS), no fine tuning. But this is a great new line of inquiry - sounds like something that can be fixed with a hex editor and a bit of knowledge (and I have one of those things).Is there any XTAL settings/timeouts that need adjusting?
My experience is with the Amstrad CPC and for that at least the 5.25" drives can take longer to become ready vs the 3" and 3.5" drives and the motor on timeout, head load timeout and step rate settings for AMSDOS and CPM needed to be adjusted. The symptoms seem similar to those you are having with the Einstein.
Thanks again,
Ian.
Statistics: Posted by simmo1010 — Fri Jan 03, 2025 10:47 pm