Fit an Amiga 600 floppy drive on the AKAI S900

This is the experience of a guy that succefully fitted an Amiga 600 floppy drive on an AKAI S900.


Just use the original cable that's inside the AKAI and it works straight away!


When you open the case it looks like it's necessary to remove the main board and the front panel before being able to remove the floppy drive, but with a little care it's possible to unfit just that kind of dissipator on the right by unscrewing the 4 screws on the right side of the rack and unplugging all the wires.


Maybe it's not very nice to see if you don't build a front cover or something but it works flawlessly and since Amiga 600 drives are cheap and easily found on Ebay this solution it's worth considering before going for an original replacement drive.


Thanx to Breska for the information and the photo!

PS: I've been reported of a voice that US Amiga drives are different from european ones. It seems like that only the euorpean ones are working with the AKAI S900. We haven't been able to check this yet but I'd advise to make sure you use an european drive.


17 commenti:

Paul Barton ha detto...

Interesting thread on possible floppy disk emulation. could be available for the s900 too!

http://www.vintagesynth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45592

KONEY ha detto...

Great new! I'll keep an eye to the thread, thanx!

Bresk ha detto...

here's anoter alternative...
I'm waiting for one.

http://amigaga.chez-alice.fr/contacts/annonces_en.htm

Unknown ha detto...

I recently installed a european amiga 600 drive and found although it read the disks it wouldnt format or save information properly. I was running os 1.2 could this have something to do with it? the original drive wont work either though so it might be a problem with my system.

KONEY ha detto...

the original drive gives same sympthoms? read ok but bad write?

Unknown ha detto...

The original drive allows you to format and write but won't read the information, either with the akai or omniflop, the amiga wont even format. decided to sell the unit, its just too much hassle. Thanks for responding :)

matia ha detto...

i'm just wondering what is the exact floppy replacement drive needed for the 900. i am having a problem with my 900 basically corrupting samples after editing. basically, the sample gets recorded just fine, but when you try to trim with the remove before start and after end a bunch of noise is added to the sample! same happens when you try to reverse the sample. it reverses it but adds a lot of noise. i've heard that the floppy drive messes with the ram which is why i want to replace the floppy. if this is a different issue please let me know.

-matia

Anonimo ha detto...

Hi. floppy drives which are also compatible are the samsung sfd-321b. all you need to do is solder the jumper on the circuit board ds0 and remove ds1. Then if you trace pin 34 you will find that it has a jumper (solder pad) across the diskchange path.Remove this and solder the jumper across the ready (rdy) path. put it back together and fit it. i have done this on an mpc60. s950 and s900. So now you can use hd disks (with tape over the hole) and they will work properly.

tIB ha detto...

Drive frustrations here...
Write head fell off my original mitsumi, tried an amiga drive off the web but didnt work... route66 sold out of the original drive.
If anyone has any ideas on where to find a compatible drive Id love to know.
Will try that samsung suggested too, thanks. :)

Anonimo ha detto...

No No No, these drives will not work on an Akai S950. They will however work on the S900 with some mods.

Anonimo ha detto...

hi,

you can find a drive here.
http://floppy.shugart.free.fr/contacts/pa_en.htm

tIB ha detto...

Thanks, Ive given them a mail :)

tIB ha detto...

Just installed the drive from the guy at the above link... it works! Highly recommended. Thanks for the link. :)

Anonimo ha detto...

Toshiba ND3564 will work in an S900 but the jumpers must be set as follows: 8-7, 5-6, 4-1

Anonimo ha detto...

CHINON FZ-357 jumps need to be set.
these are smos -/+15 volt custom drives and you set the jumpers according to the proprietary format that was being used before standard Pc drives.
When you get one, you need to reset the jumpers (2x7 pins) on the rear.
This early drive is quite flexible, pre-dating jumperless PC standard drives. Info on the jumpers is also marked on the case of the drive as well. (See Fig. 1.) You need to reset three jumper pin blocks, and remove any extra ones. The first one to set is to make the drive the first (and only drive). Put the pin block on for "DSO". Next set a pin block for MM.
Lastly set a pin block for RDY. No pin block on the TTL/CMOS.

Fig. 1
[ ] [ ] [ ] [X] [] [X][ ]
[ ] [X] [X] [X] [] [X][ ]
DSO MM RDY

INSTALLATION

You should get a technician to do this. Do not attempt this without proper training, etc. Not liable for your actions or what follows, etc. You are on your own.

Now, this is what I did. Unplug the S900. Beware of static. Remove top (screws side and back) and rack ears. Carefully remove the four screws that hold the drive in place (bottom of case, left front). Next remove the four pins holding the power supply to the left side of the case frame.
I carefully pushed it aside (power supplies are dangerous right?) and left it connected. I had problems unfastening the cables to it. If you do uncable, using masking tape to label both sides of the connections. Check the fuses while you are there. I always give a slow visual check before each stage. No magnetic screwdrivers either, right?

The drive sits below the power supply. Disconnect white power cable
from the old drive and the ribbon cable. Remove old drive. It is screwed to a mounting cradle that is what attaches to the 4 bottom case screws. Remove the cradle (4 screws) and attach the cradle to the new drive. Yes, it is a smaller drive, but it fits the cradle and the old screw holes.

Re-attach the white power cable The ribbon cable is easy to put on backwards (green light stays on the drive on power up if you did that).
The #1 pin is the bottom left of the back of the drive, so your cable should match that. On mine it meant the arrow on the cable went face down to the bottom of the case.

cheers from Sealion in Victoria BC

Chim_Chim ha detto...

Hello, just wanted to confirm I was also able to modify a samsung sfd-321b drive to work ($6 ebay!) on my S900 as described above. The DS jumper was actually just a blob of solder, desolder from DS1 and place a new blob between DS0. The DC/RDY jumper was a Zero ohm SMD resister and a little more tricky, had to carefully desolder with a copper braid and resolder at RDY.

Anonimo ha detto...

I was able to replace the original floppy with a Nec FD1231H. You need to jumper the ds0 and then lift the jumper at pin 34 and connect pin 2 where you lift the jumper. These Nec drives are highly available