Amstrad PC1512

[manicminer]

Greeting,
Soon I will buy a Amstrad PC1512 and I was wondering if I was able to swap the 5.25" B: drive with a standard 1.44Mb and use a 720kb DD floppy disk.

Best regards

 

[reenigne]

Congratulations! That machine holds many fond memories for me - it was our family computer for 7 years or so and I learnt to program on it.

Unfortunately I think you'll need a genuine 720Kb drive to use 3.5" disks with this machine (or any other XT class machine) as the 1.44Mb drives (even when reading/writing 720Kb disks) produce data faster than the disc data separator chip can cope with. See http://www.retroisle.com/amstrad/pcs/Technical/Hardware/DiskUpgradeOnPC1512_1640_2086.php for more details about that.

For a while I used the PC1512 with most of my data and programs on a headless 486 machine connected to the 1512 with a serial cable and using InterLnk/InterSvr. It worked quite well, and the serial cable was not significantly slower than floppy disks. Maybe that arrangement would solve your problem as well (whether it's increased storage or interoperability with later hardware).

 

[angel_grig]

Ηello!Here is a link from a greek forum for adding a 3.5 drive to an amstrad 1512: http://www.retromaniax.gr/vb/showthread.php?11106-1.44-Disk-Drive-%F3%F4%EF%ED-AMSTRAD-1512&highlight=1512.He tried 3 drives that worked:EPSON SMD 1300, ALPS ELECTRIC DF534H090F,and another one of an unknown manufacturer.In order to replace drive B: you have to remove the 5.25" connector from amstrad's cable and replace it with a 3.5" connector (the red cable goes to pin 34).If you want more details you can ask at the forum (there is an english section) or I can translate for you.

 

[Druid6900]

Why not just use a 720K floppy drive and a male card edge to female pin connector adapter or a 5 head floppy cable (has female card edge and pin header connectors for both drives) ? A set of 3.5" to 5.25" brackets and you're good to go with no cable hacking.

 

[JohnElliott]

Why not just use a 720K floppy drive and a male card edge to female pin connector adapter or a 5 head floppy cable (has female card edge and pin header connectors for both drives) ? A set of 3.5" to 5.25" brackets and you're good to go with no cable hacking.

The floppy cable on the PC1512 is soldered to the motherboard, so replacing it isn't straightforward. And even if you did replace it, the PC1512 doesn't use cable twists to select drives, so you can't easily replace its cable with one that has a twist.

 

[JohnElliott]

Unfortunately I think you'll need a genuine 720Kb drive to use 3.5" disks with this machine (or any other XT class machine) as the 1.44Mb drives (even when reading/writing 720Kb disks) produce data faster than the disc data separator chip can cope with. See http://www.retroisle.com/amstrad/pcs/Technical/Hardware/DiskUpgradeOnPC1512_1640_2086.php for more details about that.

I'm pretty sure I've had a 1.4Mb drive working as B: on other XT-class machines (with 720k discs), so it ought to work on the PC1512 as well. A 3.5" 1.4Mb drive with a 720k disc ought to transmit data at the same speed as a 3.5" 720k drive with a 720k disc.

 

[DRomero]

I have tested three modern 1,44 floppy drives working as B: on my PC1512 and they work ok. The data transfer is the same as an 360K drive but they work fine.

 

[nokia9110]

I'm curios, this machine will work with D.O.S. 4.2 in stad of 3.2?

 

[pearce_jj]

Probably, but DOS4 was fairly well avoided, 5 might be a better bet.

 

[nokia9110]

What is wrong with 4?

 

[3pcedev]

Mainly bugs and compatibility issues with certain things. It was basically just a bad version. Run either DOS 3.3 or DOS 5.0 - both should work fine with your hardware.

 

[konc]

Mainly bugs and compatibility issues with certain things. It was basically just a bad version. Run either DOS 3.3 or DOS 5.0 - both should work fine with your hardware.

Agree in every word. 3.3 for being closer to the original, 5 for gaining some flexibility.

 

[MCbx]

How about 5.0 compatibility with desktop supplied by OEM and mouse driver? I remember there was GEM desktop with proprietary mouse driver.
I have a 1512SD in which in 1980s someone installed a 3.5" MFM hard disk on the rear, leaving the 5.25" bay free.

 

[mrwebber35]

I found a Amstrad PC1512 in a scape pile that didn't have a monitor. You can imagine the effort to get that to work with a VGA or SVGA upgrade. Got it going now but the effort never ends. The Microscribe 21 mb HD is not "fitted" and downloading the Diagnostic Disk for the PC might not get it up and going again. The disk might not be spinning or fitting it requires the card mentioned on it's document folder. Anyone know how to get this card? The Amstrad doesn't see the HD right now. Tests are on going at this point. The 5.25 floppy wasn't working but did a repair and it now gets me using that Diagnostic disk anyways. I will probably post on here once things improve. Great hobby this!