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[SpooNMan]

I just purchased a Super Magic Drive SMD800 unit without any cables etc..

Can someone please help me out with a way to get roms loaded on this? I am familar with the SWC copiers and would like to get floppies working on this.

Does anyone know if I can use any external parallel floppy drive with this? I used to swap out PC floppy drives with the Super Wild Card (another FFE product) so I am hoping so.

I have seen a Compaq External FLOPPY DRIVE CABLE PARALLEL LAPTOP
and Compaq External Floppy Parallel C6200 CHEAP NR on ebay for pretty lost costs.

any help would be most appreciated. thanks!

[kyuusaku]

You cannot, the SMD doesn't even use a parallel port floppy drive, it simply connects the drive to the copier using the same connector as a parallel port.

Your options are to either buy a FFE floppy, build one, or use the Magic Drive's parallel port with uCON64 or VGS.

[SpooNMan]

[kyuusaku]

Yes, I know for a fact it won't work, it most certainly is not a parallel port floppy which would contain a floppy controller and microcontroller and require PC side drivers/loader too. The FFE floppy just carries signals from the Magic Drive's floppy controller to the drive and contains a power circuit, I've reverse engineered it.

I don't know where you could just buy a FFE floppy, I don't think anyone would part with theirs and not the copier itself. What you could do is solder a 34 pin floppy connector to the inside of the Magic Drive and tap power for the drive somewhere else (external power supply). To use it you would have to keep the lid off, but its the easiest way for you to get a floppy.

If you don't have a parallel port you'd have to buy a parallel port expansion card. If I had a new motherboard without one I'd try the SIIG PCI Express parallel card.

[SpooNMan]

[kyuusaku]

Open up your Magic Drive and look at the DB25 connector labeled "DISK", the lines from that connector pass through two rows of 17 holes on the PCB, the square hole is pin 1, that's where the floppy connector goes.

You could use the SWC to power the floppy, disconnect the floppy from the SWC, connect it to the SMD but keep the power cable connected from the SWC. You'll have to keep the SNES powered on, but it'll work.

I do know most copiers inside and out, I've spent countless hours studying them.

[SpooNMan]

I don't actually have the SMD in front of me just yet. I bought it and am waiting for it to be shipped. Please let me know if I circled the right part on this picture


I think standard floppy drives use 34pins. Do I just ignore the last 6?
http://pinouts.ru/Storage/InternalDisk_pinout.shtml

I can't of a way to power it though. If I knew the pinout of the external ports maybe I could tap into the power to power the floppy. I wish I knew more about this stuff.

Going back to the discussion of external floppies. How does the official SMD external differ from something like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=300164378578&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:PIC&ih=020 ?

I also wonder if this http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150115602825&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=005#ebayphotohosting
would let you tap into the power supply of the SMD and I could rewire the floppy directly to the SMD mobo.

Also, are the BIOS's of these systems updateable?
Thanks

[kyuusaku]

Hmm, I forgot about that. IIRC 6 of the pins are not connected to anything, or are VCC and GND, those would be the ones to ignore. (BTW, you don't want to tap any more power from the console, it's already overloaded.)

If you can find a 5V DC power adapter you can use that to power the floppy.

Like I said earlier a parallel port floppy actually contains a microcontroller ("computer on a chip") and floppy controller. The floppy controller translates digital data into analog signals on the disk and the microcontroller relays information to/from the PC via the parallel port to the floppy controller.

The FFE floppy on the other hand is just a standard PC floppy drive in an enclosure with a power supply. The connector just connects the floppy drive to the floppy controller on the SMD's PCB, it doesn't have any sort of interface.

If you feel like doing extensive reworking, you could use a parallel floppy for it's enclosure and power supply and turn it logically into a FFE floppy. I don't know at all why you'd want to wire the floppy to the motherboard...

Magic Drives have their BIOS stored on EPROM. EPROM are not in-system programmable, they need to be erased with an ultraviolet light and reprogrammed. There's really no point to upgrade though unless you have a really old BIOS without disk functions.

[kazmat]

Long time ago, I made external drive for FFE console copier.

From my note,,,

You need

Any PC 3.5 inch FDD
5V 1A power supply
Case

making cable

FFE D-sub 25 pin ------------FDD 34pin

1, 18-25-----------------------ALL ODD pin (GND)
2-------------------------------8 (Index)
3-------------------------------26(TR00)
4-------------------------------28(WP)
5-------------------------------30(RD)
6-------------------------------34(DC)
7-9----------------------------No Connection
10-----------------------------10(DS1)
11-----------------------------16(MOTOR ON 1)
12-----------------------------22(WD)
13-----------------------------24(WE)
14-----------------------------No Connection
15-----------------------------32(HS)
16-----------------------------18(DIR)
17-----------------------------20(STEP)

I hope you can build.

[SpooNMan]

[zuao]

Hello everybody! I have managed to fix my long time dead SMD800 (eated by battery acid), after reversing the floppy connections I found that there are 2 errors in the diagram presented here. Here is my pinout (working perfect with bios 3.1g):

1, 18-25-----------------------ALL ODD pin (GND)
2-------------------------------8
3-------------------------------26
4-------------------------------28
5-------------------------------30
6-------------------------------34
7-9----------------------------No Connection
10-----------------------------12 <- (not 10!)
11-----------------------------16
12-----------------------------22
13-----------------------------24
14-----------------------------2 <- (not disconnected!)
15-----------------------------32
16-----------------------------18
17-----------------------------20

I hope this helps someone!

[Mystic_Merlin]