Well, there are all sorts of potential issues at play here. The seller can't be 100% trusted as he has motivation to say it was working (obviously), plus--now that the pictures work--I'm very inclined to say that at least the floppy cable is not stock, if not the floppy drive.teevee wrote:The cable look exactly like that, please see picture above (If it works).
2. Why would the HxC give me a different message on the 3200XL screen compared to the normal floppy drive and no floppy at all?
3. I asked another friend who had an Akai s-3000XL and he said that he gave up the floppy drive as the maschine rejected all his floppies, while SCSI was smooth operation.
I will give it a try with “Generic Shugart” HFE file Interface mode and S1 (Jumper setting).
• If ribbon cable is connected normal (not reversed), then the small front led light is dimmed and we receive the “Drive Not Ready ! Disk removed?” message
• If I reverse the ribbon cable, then the led light is normal and we receive the ”No disk” message.
One reason is that floppy cables with such a hardwired twist are usually connected with the untwisted end on the motherboard and the twisted end is connected to either a single or the first floppy drive (out of a max of two that can be connected). The cable twist on the motherboard is unorthodox.
Is the floppy cable double-ended or triple-ended? In other words, there should be a straight end, a twisted-end, and possibly another straight end.
What brand/model is the floppy drive? This will tell us if someone naively tossed some generic PC drive in there, etc.
Usually what happens when the floppy cable is mis-pinned so that pin 1 is NOT facing the power connector is that the activity LED on the floppy drive is stuck on. The drive powers up and the LED is stuck on, but there is no way for it to work because all the data lines are in the wrong places.
If the floppy cable is reversed at the motherboard end then reversing it on the floppy end too will obviously reverse the reverse (making it straight thru again).
The Gotek is configured by the DS0/DS1 jumper and through its interface type, so it's behavior is variable. The floppy only behaves one way because its signals are always the same no matter what. It will be stuck at DS0 or DS1 (PCs @ DS1, others may be DS0, especially in samplers) and the ready / diskchange / density select, etc. lines cannot be altered. The Gotek pins can act any number of ways--which is what makes it super-awesome.
I would personally do this:
Take the floppy cable end with no twist and put it on the floppy connector on the motherboard, making sure the striped line goes to Pin 1 (which should be indicated by a number silkscreened onto the motherboard). See if the pins on the floppy drive are explicitly numbered, and put the striped line of the twisted end on Pin 1, if not, put the striped line closest to the power connector.
See if the LED stays stuck on. It will probably not be on, but the drive won't be recognized--at the very least because of the twist--and also because it may be a PC drive with the wrong signals.
If the LED is stuck on then reverse the cable at the floppy side. That should be the proper orientation.
Now it depends if the drive is compatible or if it's just a generic PC drive. If it's a PC drive then you should abandon the drive and focus on the Gotek.
If it's not a PC drive (and you want to test with it or use it in the future) then CAREFULLY take apart the floppy cable connector on the twisted side, CAREFULLY undo the cable twist, CAREFULLY push the cable back on the "teeth" (making sure it's lined up properly), and CAREFULLY reassemble the floppy cable connector. Be as gentle and precise as possible!
If the floppy drive is a compatible drive and isn't broken then everything should now be working.
If the floppy drive now works then make the Gotek DS0 and "Generic Shugart", and you'll probably be in business.
If it's a PC drive and/or you don't want to correct the cable (probably "safer" and easier, albeit not stock) then set the Gotek to DS1 and "Generic Shugart" and connect the striped side to Pin 1, just as I mentioned in the previous post.
Really the only thing making this complicated is because you aren't the original owner and can't verify if anyone has tinkered with it, if it was working, or if the floppy drive/cable is even compatible. If it was known working or at least had documented issues, it'd be a lot easier to troubleshoot.