[rescue] Anybody remember MFM? (Durango Poppy II problem)

[Curtis H. Wilbar Jr.]

Yes, but as memory serves this was a blasted PC thing....  IBM was
attempting to make it so that users/service techs would not have to
change jumper settings on devices.... IMHO a poor idea.

Most non PC applications used straight through cables, and targetted the
drives as they were meant to be targetted.

If that system has a twist in the cable, and that twist is applicable to
the drive connector plugged into it, the drive will probably need to be
the second MFM drive, not the first (because the twist will flip that
first and second drive).

If you have no twist, it should be set to the first target.

-- Curt

>From: "Michael Free" <mfree80286 at adelphia.net>
>To: "The Rescue List" <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Anybody remember MFM? (Durango Poppy II problem)
>Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 13:16:15 -0400
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>IIRC the 34 pin cable has a twist in it that identifies the drive at the end
>of the line.
>
>>From a 1992 Winn L. Rosch hardware guide: There's a twist in connectors 25
>through 29 on the control cable (34 pin) denoting drive #1. There's also a
>drive select jumper somewhere on the hard drive.
>
>Mike Free
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Mike Hebel" <nimitz at nimitzbrood.com>
>To: "The Rescue List" <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 1:01 PM
>Subject: Re: [rescue] Anybody remember MFM? (Durango Poppy II problem)
>
>
>> On Wednesday, August 6, 2003, at 11:58 AM, Mike Hebel wrote:
>>
>> > On Wednesday, August 6, 2003, at 09:31 AM, Michael Free wrote:
>> >
>> >> The olden way was to send some bits to a certain port on the MFM
>> >> controller
>> >> card and that would set the card to low-level format the drive.
>> >>
>> >> Two connectors and a 50 pin.... are you sure it's not 2 ~16's and a
>> >> 34? that
>> >> would be the normal M.O. for an MFM drive controller, IIRC the 34 is
>> >> the
>> >> data line and the two 16's are drive control lines, one for each
>> >> drive.
>> >>
>> >
>> > Something just occurred to me.  There are two cables on the drive yes?
>> >  You checked that the main cable was in the right connector?  You also
>> > checked that the data cable was on the right connector on the board?
>>
>> Scratch this.  Just found the post with the pictures.  Although it does
>> beg the question as to if that machine needs special cables.  It's been
>> so long I can't recall if MFM cables had a twist or not in them.
>>
>> Mike Hebel
>>
>> -- 
>> Medieval Combat anyone? http://www.kingsofchaos.com/page.php?id=694655
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Curtis Wilbar
Hawk Mountain Networks
rescue at hawkmountain.net

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