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Hi there.
I have DragonDOS floppy controller, but no Dragon Floppy unit, and I don't have the flat cable either.
What I do have is a 5.25 floppy (Panasonic JU-455-5CGN), that I believe is a SS/DD drive.

Here are the specs: I also have a nice external enclosure with power supply for it.

Will it be possible, if I get the right flat cable, to use this drive with the DragonDOS controller?

I can't say for sure, but if a DD drive works in a PC, then it should work with DragonDOS.

I used a number of 5.25" and 3.5" DD drives from PCs without any problem.

I vaguely remember sharing disk drives with a BBC Master as well. The interface seems to be fairly standard.

Yeah, I guess it's worth a try... I just have to find a suitable cable

Regarding the cable.....
Is it a matter of just taking a 34 pin ribbon cable, and clamp on 34-pin edge connector plugs on both sides (the 5.25 drive has a 34 pin edge connector, just like on the DragonDOS cartridge), taking care of getting pin 1 right? Or do I have to make some "special arrangements" with the pinout?

....anyone with the knowledge?

Sorry Tom, I did mean to get back to you and then got completely distracted...

I'm fairly sure I used straight cables to connect PC drives to a DragonDos cart. (i.e. all pins connected, pin 1 to pin 1 etc).

I just had a look at the pinout on the DragonDos schematic and it looks like it's the standard Shugart interface, so a straight cable should work with most SD & DD drives.

There is very likely to be a jumper setting in the drive to choose the drive number. Some drives I've seen allow you to set number 1-4, others only allowed number 1 or 2.

Hi Tom!

Making the cable you need should be quite easy. You need two standard PC floppy cables (the ones with connectors for 5.25" and 3.5" drives).

- Open the end edge connector and revert the cable twist. Then you have to twist cables 10 and 12 (Need to confirm this later tonight), and put the connector back.
- Take one edge connector from the second cable and put it at the beginning of the cable.

That way you can connect the cable to the original DragonDOS controller or a new clone controller, and you can use it for 5.25" and 3.5" drives. The twisted end will be Drive 1, and the non twisted one Drive 2.

I'll make some pictures of my cable tonight for your reference.

You should also take into account that you may need to recalibrate your controller, as drives with slight different speeds may not be able to work properly.

The cable is intented to be used with unmodified PC drives, but you can use it with a standard Dragon disk drive by attaching it to the non-twisted connector.

Thanks for your input guys. Pictures would be great!
Now I have something to "work" on

Tom

Hi Tom!

Sorry for the delay! I made a diagram based on the cable I made, so feel free to try it and share your results.

As my cable is exactly like that, but without the 5.25" connectors for the drives, it should work right away, but I prefer to have some confirmation before adding it to the wiki DIY section.

Cheers,
Rob

Rob!
Thank you so much.

I'm waiting for some additional connectors, and when I get them I'll modify the PC cable I have got, and try it out. I will share the results here. I'm a bit concerned about that re-calibrating of the controller, though....

Tom