Date   : Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:17:08 +0100
From   : mike@... (Mike Tomlinson)
Subject: Master Compact Drive Cable

In article <4A57190C.1060006@...>, Andy Ford
<acorn@...> writes

>new IDC floppy connectors 
>are expensive and I have about used up all my new spares now.

They can be re-used if disassembled with care.  Use a stanley knife to
(gently) release the locking latches on the side, and lift off the top,
exposing the IDC pins and the cable.  Pull the cable slowly off the pins
using a sideways rolling motion.  Don't pull straight up or you'll just
pull all the pins out of the plug body.

>I cannot actually read any existing ADFS discs now at all, they all 
>respond with a Broken Directory message.

You've connected something to the drive's write line that you shouldn't
have (probably -WD or -WG), so it's scribbled over whatever track the
heads were resting on at the time, more than likely track 0.

>I "think" I have it either a pin out (ie: fitted too far across)

It wouldn't work at all if you did that.

> or I am 
>missing something (as from all the photographs I have seen, there is a 
>small link between a couple of pins on the data cable)

That's probably to activate the LED. My memory suggests that it's one of
the wires passed through the IDC connector and folded over to connect to
another pin, or the next pin over, at the Compact end.  There is/are
also cut(s) in the cable.

I had a look at the diagrams but couldn't figure it out (too early and i
haven't had coffee.)  Can't you get someone with a Compact to take a
photo of the cable ends and mail it to you?  A picture speaks a thousand
words.

Is the internal cable in the drive unit (from the backplate connector to
the drives straight-through without any funnies?  If both drives really
are set to DS1 there _has_ to be a twist in the cable, or some other
modification, for it to work.