|*||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||*|¢ |*| XF551 8-BIT HARDWARE MOD |*|¢ |*| A Project by Mike Stevens |*|¢ |*||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||*|¢¢ (Reprinted from the Puget Sound ¢Atari News, April 1990), and by THE ¢OL' HACKERS ATARI USER GROUP, Inc. ¢with THANKS¢¢ Well, I think I've found the ¢ultimate disk drive for the 8-bit ¢computer. I'm the AUGIE 8-bit ¢Librarian and that means I handle a ¢lot of disks which takes a lot of ¢time and disk space. Since time is ¢money, as the saying goes, I am ¢always on the look out for anything ¢that will save me some of either. ¢Well, when I heard about the XF35 kit ¢from Innovative Concepts, I was a ¢little skeptical. But I thought, "If ¢it works, boy, oh boy, will I have it ¢made!" The IC ad said, "Now XF551 ¢owners can convert their drive to the ¢newer 3.5" format and have a massive ¢720K of storage! Works with MYDOS, ¢SpartaDOS, and the SpartaDOS X ¢cartridge. Excellent for BBS use, ¢hard drive backup, or use as a ¢mini-hard drive!" The kit includes an ¢upgrade ROM chip, adapting cables and ¢complete instructions. The 3.5" drive ¢was not part of the kit nor did I ¢need it to be. Here in Southern ¢California we have a lot of ¢electronic swap meets and the one I ¢went to for my 3.5 drive is the ¢"General Dynamics HAM Radio swap ¢meet". At this swap meet you can find ¢almost anything in the area of ¢electronics, computers and ¢accessories. I found a seller who had ¢three Cannon 3.5" DD-DS disk drives ¢that he was willing to just about ¢give away. So I gave him $10.00 for ¢all three. One worked perfectly, ¢another one wouldn't format every ¢time but otherwise worked fine, the ¢last one will be good for parts. ¢Anyway, after a phone call to IC, and ¢a week's wait, I had my kit and all ¢the rest of the parts I needed to ¢install the new 3.5" drive in my ¢XF551. Everything went in just like ¢it was supposed to. I'm sure glad ¢that IBM parts are all pretty much ¢standardized. One change I would ¢recommend, however, is not ¢desoldering the cable connector from ¢the printed circuit board. You're ¢just asking for problems if you ¢aren't really good at that sort of ¢thing. Instead, just pry the top clip ¢off of the connector and firmly press ¢the new cable (the one in the kit) ¢into place. Then put the clip back on ¢the connector. It is really that ¢simple. The kit instructions gives ¢you the option of either leaving your ¢5.25" drive mechanism in the case and ¢installing the 3.5" drive externally, ¢or replacing the 5.25" drive ¢mechanism with the 3.5" drive by use ¢of an adapter. I chose the internal ¢option because I already own an AMDEC ¢with four IBM type 5.25" DD-DS disk ¢drives attached to it. In fact the ¢XF551's drive mechanism is now number ¢one on the AMDEC. The instructions ¢were clear and easy to follow. I ¢really appreciate someone who takes ¢the time to write good directions, ¢since it makes all the difference in ¢the world between a project like this ¢being a pleasure or a nightmare. In ¢this case I'll brag about these ¢instructions and say that they make ¢this Mod 'a piece of cake'. Now to ¢the good stuff: Using the modified ¢XF551 or XF35 as it's called. I can't ¢say enough about the practical ¢aspects of this drive setup. After ¢some experimentation I decided to use ¢SpartaDOS and DiskCom together for my ¢software. What I wanted to do was ¢have the club's library available ¢anytime without having to carry three ¢or four hundred disks around with me ¢all the time. As it worked out I've ¢been able to put four to five ¢double-sided 5.25" disks on each 3.5" ¢disk. The combination of SpartaDOS ¢and Disk Com means that I can read ¢and duplicate in virtually any ¢density or DOS situation I come ¢across. I love it! I now only need to ¢keep sixty or so 3.5" disks handy and ¢they are little disks at that. I ask ¢you, can it get any better? It's ¢easier than carrying around a hard ¢drive. Let's see.... 737K times 60 ¢plus disks, ummm, well I'm sure it's ¢more than 30 megs. Another really ¢great application for the XF35 is in ¢telecommunications. SpartaDOS plus ¢the Express 212 program handles the ¢XF35 drive like a dream. I can up- or ¢down-load huge files (compressed ¢ARCed or text) with the greatest of ¢ease. By the way, Text Pro 3.2r also ¢loves the XF35. I haven't begun to ¢scratch the surface of the potential ¢applications for this wondrous ¢modification. "XF35" where have you ¢been all my 8-bit life? I just love ¢it!¢¢Taken from the newsnet system, and ¢transferred by Mike Blenkiron. Tidied ¢by Dean Garraghty.¢¢ HHHHHHHHHHHHH END HHHHHHHHHHHHH
