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EEPROM error and 5" floppy drive — Parallax Forums

EEPROM error and 5" floppy drive

FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
edited 2005-07-15 00:10 in BASIC Stamp
Hi!
Basically 2 irrelevant questions.
1)Several times on attempting to download a program, I have recieved the error "EEPROM Verify failure" and the editor refused to
download. Upon a reset of the Stamp, the download worked fine.
2)This has nothing to do with the Basic Stamp, but I'll ask anyway... I have an internal 5"floppy drive and a whole pile of disks for it
(120, to be exact). I'd like to test the drive and check what's on all those disks, but i have no free slot. My question is if there is a
way toconvert the IDc output plug of the drive to rs232 or parallel?
There is a diagram of the IDC floppy pinout at http://pinouts.ru/data/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml
Thanks
Rafael

Comments

  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-07-13 12:44
    1) You may have a power connection issue with your BASIC Stamp. Check your connections and power supply.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • PLJackPLJack Posts: 398
    edited 2005-07-13 23:12
    flyingfishfinger said...
    with the Basic Stamp, but I'll ask anyway... I have an internal 5"floppy drive and a whole pile of disks for it (120, to be exact). I'd like to test the drive and check what's on all those disks, but i have no free slot. My question is if there is a way toconvert the IDc output plug of the drive to rs232 or parallel?
    There is a diagram of the IDC floppy pinout at http://pinouts.ru/data/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml
    Thanks
    Rafael

    Define "free slot".
    Are you talking about a cable, case space.....
    If you are thinking of converting it to an external floppy then I would find another way.
    In that case you would want to lean towards Parallel.

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    - - - PLJack - - -


    Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing left to add.
    It is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 02:08
    Well, these Dell computers (the ones that lie on the side) don't seem to have case space, and since my Dad doesn't want me messing around with the inside because it's his home work machine, I'd say I wanted to try to convert it to an external drive...
    Rafael
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 02:09
    Jon, you were right, I had a low battery.
    Rafael
  • PLJackPLJack Posts: 398
    edited 2005-07-14 10:07
    flyingfishfinger said...
    Well, these Dell computers (the ones that lie on the side) don't seem to have case space, and since my Dad doesn't want me messing around with the inside because it's his home work machine, I'd say I wanted to try to convert it to an external drive...
    Rafael

    Probably not going to happen with a 5 1/4" drive.
    In any case you would need the drivers to operate it externally.

    I would say your best bet is to take the floppies to your local computer store and have them copy the data over to 3 1/2" floppies. Or CDROM.

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    - - - PLJack - - -


    Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing left to add.
    It is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 19:21
    Ok then, thanks.
    But that's rather stupid, caus' a year ago when we moved here we had a computer that did have case space and connections, but we got rid of it because it was too slow (~800 Mhz). Now I'm stuck with 2 of those 5 1/4 drives and I can't use them!! GRRRRR!
    I guess nothing I can do, thanks for the advice.
    Rafael
  • Robert KubichekRobert Kubichek Posts: 343
    edited 2005-07-14 19:26
    flyingfishfinger said...
    Ok then, thanks.
    But that's rather stupid, caus' a year ago when we moved here we had a computer that did have case space and connections, but we got rid of it because it was too slow (~800 Mhz). Now I'm stuck with 2 of those 5 1/4 drives and I can't use them!! GRRRRR!
    I guess nothing I can do, thanks for the advice.
    Rafael

    I remember seing parallel port floppy drives, mainly for the 3.5 floppies, I wonder if it would be possible to hook up
    a 5.25 to one of these old units???


    Bob N9LVU scool.gif
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 20:40
    My math teacher had a USB harddrive, but it turned out internally (in the external case) to be a standard IDE connection.
    Where did you see the parallel drives?
    Maybe they have something similar!
    Rafael
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 20:43
    There is also a somewhat incomplete pinout of the card-type connector of the 5 1/4 drive at http://pinouts.ru/data/5_12_floppy_pinout.shtml
    Rafael
  • Robert KubichekRobert Kubichek Posts: 343
    edited 2005-07-14 20:51
    flyingfishfinger said...
    My math teacher had a USB harddrive, but it turned out internally (in the external case) to be a standard IDE connection.
    Where did you see the parallel drives?
    Maybe they have something similar!
    Rafael

    I used to have one a while back, now I know they make them for usb, there are some on ebay going for a few bucks right now...
    Mine was originally used for laptops... Its been a while, I would just hook up the 5.25 to a cable/power on pc and transfer all the files over to
    another media, that way you don't have to fudge something together.
    I also remember a floppy adapter cable to external floppy in case, but you would need shielded cables/adapter plugs.....
    I also have 2 of fthe 5.25s (360K, 1.2M) and a dual (1.2M 5.25, 1.4M 3.5) combo drive sitting in the cabinet right now....

    Bob N9LVU scool.gif
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 21:07
    As I said, my dad doesn't want me opening the case of his computer, so we're down to the idea of working with a laptop. I also looked at one of our USB 3.5" drives, and I saw this particular 3.5" drive has different connectors (only 4 data cables +2 power cables) from 5.25 drive (34 pins), so I wouldn't know how to refit it to the floppy drive card pinout, if that's what you mean (I'm knowledge deficient, being only 14).
    Rafael
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 21:10
    I checked ebay, and all the external 5" floppys were for Apples. I don't want a new drive anyway, as said I have 2 (internals) already.
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-14 21:18
    There are also some cables on there, but they are brand-specific...
  • Robert KubichekRobert Kubichek Posts: 343
    edited 2005-07-14 22:04
    flyingfishfinger said...
    As I said, my dad doesn't want me opening the case of his computer, so we're down to the idea of working with a laptop. I also looked at one of our USB 3.5" drives, and I saw this particular 3.5" drive has different connectors (only 4 data cables +2 power cables) from 5.25 drive (34 pins), so I wouldn't know how to refit it to the floppy drive card pinout, if that's what you mean (I'm knowledge deficient, being only 14).
    Rafael

    Most of the usb 3.5 floppy controllers are custom built and mounted directly to the floppy drive, however, some of the older models had a bridge chip that converted usb to a floppy interface, that was then connected to a standard 3.5 floppy, if you can find one of these, you can use it as an interface to your 5.25 floppy drives, then only problem is that the floppies you have must be 1.2 M (HD) or better I do not think that they supported (SD/DD) 360K 720K densities...
    And you must have the correct driver, and if that old, would be a DOS driver, and a DOS file transfer..... Also if you need to save the data, do it soon, as magnetic data on floppy discs ten to weaken with age to the point of being unuseable....

    Bob N9LVU scool.gif
  • FlyingFishFingerFlyingFishFinger Posts: 461
    edited 2005-07-15 00:10
    Well, I happen to have an old DOS machine (without USB, even without CD and internet, it runs Windows 3.1...), and I think all my old disks are HD. As for the data, when I was able to read some of them (I did not finish copying them) about a year ago, they were still ok, even though they're my dad's old ones. He says he doesn't need the data, so I'd be more interested in the technical side of the drive interface and to have something to play around with.
    Thanks
    Rafael
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