External SuperDrive - it worked. :)

[olePigeon]

I did try transplanting a Superdrive into an 800K enclosure, but it wigs out and doesn't work.

Didn't want to derail the trade thread, so I made a new on here.  On a hunch that the drive I put in it was bad, I tried a different 2MB floppy drive... and it worked!  So, yeah, you can take any old (and very common) Apple 3.5" A9M0106 floppy drive, then swap the guts with a SuperDrive.  Tested it on an SE/30 and IIci, worked great.  Used an extra one I had from a IIgs.

It's really easy, part for part swap.

I don't know if it'll work with a Macintosh 800K External Drive (A2M2053) or an Apple UniDisk 3.5 (M0131.)

 

[Bunsen]

Can you make all three disk sizes with it?

 

[unity]

I think the issue is normally the cable, as is the issue with internal drives. I *think* 800k are yellow ribbon, 1.4MB and 400k are red. Does the cable have a part number on it by chance?

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I have a box of external drives, of which several are SuperDrives/FDHD and a handful are 800K drives.  I can check this evening to see what's different between the two.

 

[olePigeon]

I was able to format 1.4MB, 800K, and 400K.  I'll take it apart again this afternoon and look at the cable.  Snap some shots, too.

 

[olePigeon]

Here's a picture.  I couldn't find a part number on the cable.  Floppy drive connector is on the left, the cable plugs in on the right.

I'm thinking about stealing the board from one of these and putting a bi-color LED in my IIci, that way I'd have LED activity for my internal floppy drive.  Unless it supports it by default, then, does someone know which wires on the cable I can splice to add an LED?

 

[uniserver]

i can confirm that you can put a Superdrive in the   Mac/Apple IIgs 800k external.  and it works great. 

i did this many years ago. many times.

 

[olePigeon]

I had done it once before with what I thought was a known good floppy drive, and it wigged out.  I decided to fiddle with it again and put in a 2M floppy drive, then it worked fine.  Go figure.

 

[CelGen]

I think the issue is normally the cable, as is the issue with internal drives. I *think* 800k are yellow ribbon, 1.4MB and 400k are red. Does the cable have a part number on it by chance?

There is no difference between the ribbon cables used on the 400k/800k/1.44mb drives. Don't even start digging that hole.

Also, I seem to recall the cabling and PCB in the external drives was entirely passive, so it's more a surprise nobody did this years ago (well, they probably did, but it's since been lost on a BBS somewhere)

 

[waynestewart]

The 1.4mb drive works as a replacement for the 800k drive in all the externals except for the 3.5" Unidisk. Tried that 20 years ago and had difficulties.

 

[CC_333]

Yes, I can confirm that the 800k drive is 100% passive. In fact, the external cable plugs into the drive itself!

And the cable issue is related to the 128-512-Plus; certain 800k drives will endlessly eject disks (the eject motor won't disengage) if used with the red stripe cables because certain pins need to be left disconnected, and the yellow stripe cables have those pins disconnected by default (they come stock in many Pluses that I've seen).

c

 

[unity]

There is no difference between the ribbon cables used on the 400k/800k/1.44mb drives. Don't even start digging that hole.

Yes there is, well documented in fact. Hell, even Apple mentions the issues that can come up with the wrong cable for the wrong drive.

https://support.apple.com/kb/TA32289?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US

 

[olePigeon]

So I took the board out of an external drive.  It tucks away nicely beneath the floppy drive on a IIci (there's plenty of room.)  It works great!  

Now I just need a bicolor LED.

A shame I didn't buy up a bunch of old 3.5" drives from the recycler.  They had a bunch of old, dingy, yellowed drives at one point for $5 a piece.

I think I might design and print a mounting bracket for it since it has mounting screws on the adapter board, clip it in somehow under the floppy drive.