Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

HxC Floppy Emulator on IBM PC and compatible support
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Arcerias
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Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:19 am

Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Arcerias »

Hello,

Recently purchased an HxC emulator in hopes of reviving an old Compaq with an easier method of interfacing with modern hardware. However, the HxC emulator does not seem to want to play nicely with the drive on the other edge of the ribbon, a Mitsumi 5.25-inch floppy drive which I've kept in the machine to interface with the piles of legacy media I still have.

I've checked the cable and it is twisted at the end. What happens is that both drives seem to want to assign themselves as A: and the motherboard does not autodetect drives. Or seemingly doesn't care to. I need to find out how to set one drive (preferably the HxC) to work as A: and the other (preferably the Mitsumi 5.25) as B:. I've been fiddling with the jumpers of the Mitsumi and the DIP switches of the HxC to seemingly no avail. If anyone has any help to give, I'd appreciate it. I'm at my wit's end at this point and I didn't have many of those left!

Thanks for all your help!

Jeff
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Re: Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Jeff »

Which switch setting are you using ?

Arcerias
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:19 am

Re: Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Arcerias »

For the HxC, I've configured as per the manual with Drive A set with a twisted cable. ID1 is the only DIP switch currently on. The Mitsumi drive was set to D1, High-Speed, High Density mode. I'm under the impression the twist in the cable is what's causing those settings not to conflict. I've ordered another cable to test to rule out hardware failure. When connected solo, the drives both work great.

Jeff
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Re: Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Jeff »

Yes the pc floppy ribbon twist purpose is to use the same setting on all drives. This way the drive affectation is done with the floppy ribbon.

Arcerias
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:19 am

Re: Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Arcerias »

Mmhm, I understood that part. Is there anything I should be doing differently to use the drives on the same cable? I have an ISA floppy controller I could slot in if you think it might fix the problem.

Arcerias
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2021 6:19 am

Re: Chaining HxC emulator and real floppy produces conflicts

Post by Arcerias »

The new cable allows the motherboard to see both drives. Thanks for your response!

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