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Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:47 pm
by acsi
I recently acquired a Dragon single disk drive and now have one of Zaxxon's interfaces to hook it up to my Dragon's.

However as expected its not working correctly and a DSKINIT1,1,40 results in a ?RF ERROR.

I can confirm the 5v and 12v lines are working fine and the disk actually spins and head moves.

I have cleaned the head rails and the head itself but still get the same result.

Any help appreciated for the next step required to get it working again

Thanks

Re: Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 10:20 pm
by robcfg
I had the same issue with my Dragon drives and the original controller, but they worked ok with my clone DragonDOS controller.

The controllers have some calibration to do, so maybe yours isn't calibrated to suit your drive.

May I suggest you modify a standard PC floppy cable like this and test it with a 3.5" PC drive?

Remember to put some tape on the right hole of the disk if you use a 1.44MB disk so that the drive sees it as a 720KB one.

If it works, it's indeed a calibration problem. Otherwise, it may be that your drive needs some service.

Re: Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:15 pm
by acsi
Thanks,

I have tried with another single sided drive and a 3.5" drive and get the same result.

So how do I configure the Zaxxon controller? :?:

Re: Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 11:46 pm
by acsi
OK This is interesting.

Before putting this aside for another day I decided to try it with my Dragon 64 and it works perfectly.

Now I'm happy the drive is going (especially as I got it for next to nothing) and confused that it won't work with my Dragon32.

Edit

Hmm well it was working with the 64. writing files etc with no problems.

Now its just failed again after I decided to test it with the 32 again. I get ?CC and ?RF errors.

Works fine on both with my HxC drive though.

Re: Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 12:01 pm
by admin
Its a calibration error - On the original DragonDOS interface there are two variable resistors that can be used to calibrate the interface. Its not an easy job and needs a scope and the data sheet. Much easier to change the drive to something else like HxC.

Re: Dragon Disk Drive

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 2:53 am
by acsi
Thanks. The interface works fine with my HxC. And at least I know the Dragon drive works.