[Coco] Re: Re: FD-502 controller problem

[Charlie]

Thanks all for the replies.

I used some solder on the worn looking contacts, and then the controller 
could DSKINI 0 just fine.
Everything seems to work good but I found anything written to drive 0 is 
unreliable. I get IO errors
trying to read things copied to the drive, sometimes. Again switching to my 
Disto controller all is fine.
My drive 0 was purchased from CLOUD-9 only a little more than a year ago 
(new old stock?) and
I really doubt that it is bad. I will stop being lazy and take the cover off 
the drives and swap the cables
see if another drive behaves the same. Otherwise I will have to search ebay 
and keep my eyes out for
another controller.

-Charlie


"Phill Harvey-Smith" 
<afra at aurigae.demon.co.uk> wrote in message 
news:446E0815.4040201 at aurigae.demon.co.uk...
> Mike Pepe wrote:
>> Charlie wrote:
>>> Gene and Phil, Thank you for the replies!
>
> Phill :)
>
>>> It is not a cable / drive problem as switching to my Disto SC II 
>>> everything
>>> works fine.
>>> It has to be something specific with the 502 controller.
>>
>> All the signals that run the drives are in a parallel bus configuration, 
>> except for the drive select signals. If there were a major issue with the 
>> controller it should affect all drives the same way.
>>
>> The only thing that would be worth trying would be to replace all the 
>> 7406 (or 7416) chips on the controller and see if that helps.
>
> Yeah might be worth checking/changing them.
>
>> If not maybe the big 373 latch chip has a bad output for drive 0's select 
>> line.
>
> But wouldn't a bad drive select affect reading too ? I thought Charlie 
> said that it would load games and stuff ok.
>
> Phill.
>
> -- 
> Phill Harvey-Smith, Programmer, Hardware hacker, and general eccentric !
>
> "You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge" -- Rush.
>
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