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Canon MDD-210 floppy drive manual needed

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musicforlife

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I have got this Canon floppy drive and there's plenty of dip switches but I have no idea what is their functions. I could find only one site offering the manual but only for a fee :x

MDD-210: 40 TRACK, DOUBLE SIDED, CAPACITY 500K, or 200K ON BBC MICRO.

STANDARD 34-PIN INTERFACE COMPATIBLE WITH: BBC MICRO, TRS-80, VIDEO GENEI, NASCOM
NUMBER OF HEADS: 2
TRACKS PER HEAD: 40
K BYTES PER DISK: 250 (FM), 500 (MFM)
BYTES PER TRACK: 3,125 (FM), 6,250 (MFM)
6ms TRACK-TO-TRACK
DIRECT DRIVE DC MOTOR


Sooo... this drive is not IBM PC compatible? Do I have now nothing but expensive paper weight??? I never learn...


Anyway, also when checking MDD-211 model manual, it looks like it can format 320kb but not 360kb or how it goes???

http://www.vintagecomputer.net/fjkraan/comp/trs80/doc/Canon_MDD211_221.pdf
 
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It should be able to produce 360 kB disks; the manual was prepared before IBM came out with PC-DOS 2.0 which increased capacity. Though pairing "IBM conformance" with 16 256-byte sectors is a recipe for confusion.

Set the drive select correctly (as the second drive*) and see if it works. If you have issues, it may be necessary to check other switches.

* Canon seems to count from 1 so I think the DS2 would need to be selected.
 
I can format and read 360kb disks but occasionally it says "can't read" but it goes away after opening and closing the hatch again. My unit was supposely new and never used before, and it looks like it.

The seller claimed that it's not IBM PC compatible.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Unused and new doesn't mean that the lube is in good shape. You may want to clean the carriage rails--I've had that happen with NOS drives.
Click to expand...

The drive is quiet so I don't expect that it would require lubrication. There's some weird mechanical switch mechanism inside that everytime when it starts to access disk or stop action, there's a loud "click" sound (everytime the light comes up and goes away). Usually if I make a command after the stops, the re-access gives me "drive not ready" error but if I respond soon enough that it doesn't go off with a click, it works normally.

Whys is that and what is this mechanism? EDIT: Aah, it's the locking mechanism of the hatch! It locks the hatch that it can't be opened while it access the disk. I only wonder why it gets that "drive not ready" error all the time when getting the "first time access".
 
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Yay, I got the manual finally and only because someone was kind enough to send me one from their collection. Damn there's no clear indication of the jumpers but just too-difficult-to-read diagram of the jumper switches.

I can send the manual for anyone who would like to see it. It's quite technical and interesting. Is this the only floppy drive with solenoid-locking hatch?


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Not by a long shot--door-lock was available as an option on many 8" and 5.25" drives. When I get one like that, I just remove the locking mechanism--usually just a solenoid.
 
Here's the manual: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgumcmq5t...y Disk Technical Guide (1983)(Canon).pdf?dl=0

Could someone read it and confirm me whether there's something that would make this "non-ibm compatible" as the original seller claimed.

Also, when using this drive in IBM PC, I can't get the previous issues of "drive not ready" at all. It gets access all the time just fine and does everything correctly without hiccups. The previous computer was PentiumII/Win98 (using pure DOS). Also, what is this size? Half-size? It's taller than normal 5.25" but in IBM PC there's no space for any other drive so that's not half-size?

DSCN6523.jpg
 
Two things-- you want to set the jumpers so that SW3-3 is on and SW3-4 is off to leave the head permanently loaded (PC doesn't use the head-load signal).

If you're going to use the drive on a 5170 or later, you'll want to take some tape (clear packing tape is fine) and insulate pin 34 on the edge connector. The Canon drive uses this for "drive ready", but the PC uses it for "Disk Changed", which is, I think the cause of your problem with Pentium system. Normal Shugart SA-400 drives don't have any connection to this pin at all.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Two things-- you want to set the jumpers so that SW3-3 is on and SW3-4 is off to leave the head permanently loaded (PC doesn't use the head-load signal).

If you're going to use the drive on a 5170 or later, you'll want to take some tape (clear packing tape is fine) and insulate pin 34 on the edge connector. The Canon drive uses this for "drive ready", but the PC uses it for "Disk Changed", which is, I think the cause of your problem with Pentium system. Normal Shugart SA-400 drives don't have any connection to this pin at all.
Click to expand...

Now when I made the SW3 changes, it tries accessing the disk everytime when I close the hatch. After closing the hatch, the led goes on for a short moment. Does it look for index hole or?

Also, I was a bit hasty. With IBM PC I can still get occasionally "invalid media or track 0 bad - disk unusable" error when formatting a disk but as soon as I try again, it works fine.
 
No, that's as it should be. Most 5.25" drives don't have head-load mechs--the heads are always loaded when the door is closed. If you don't like the head-load mech on all the time, you can jumper it to "motor enable", but that will be a bit of a hack--but it will work.
 
So what are the name of those 2/3 size units like this floppy drive? Was it standard?
 
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Disk Trends refers to the Canon 5.25" drives as one-third height. BASF briefly licensed the Canon design. Oki, Epson, and TEAC had similar height 5.25" drives; actually a tiny bit smaller.

Was a minor standard showing up in Epson QX-10, a smattering of portables, and as part of some combo (5.25" plus 3.5") drives.
 
krebizfan said:
Disk Trends refers to the Canon 5.25" drives as one-third height. BASF briefly licensed the Canon design. Oki, Epson, and TEAC had similar height 5.25" drives; actually a tiny bit smaller.

Was a minor standard showing up in Epson QX-10, a smattering of portables, and as part of some combo (5.25" plus 3.5") drives.
Click to expand...

I finally found what was the original computer for these drives:

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=100
 
Teac offered the FD-105 third-height drive. Not a common item by any means, but it's shown in my Teac marketing brochure. It was a direct-drive model, so no belts.
 
MDD-210 Floppy drive manual. Please can I have one?

MDD-210 Floppy drive manual. Please can I have one?

musicforlife said:
Yay, I got the manual finally and only because someone was kind enough to send me one from their collection. Damn there's no clear indication of the jumpers but just too-difficult-to-read diagram of the jumper switches.

I can send the manual for anyone who would like to see it. It's quite technical and interesting. Is this the only floppy drive with solenoid-locking hatch?


View attachment 44300

View attachment 44301

View attachment 44302
Click to expand...

Primarily I'm looking for the jumper settings. Perhaps I can decipher them.

Best,

Jeff
 
I hate waking up and bringing up an old POST.
But I have been searching for the Canon MDD-210 Floppy Disk Technical Guide for days now, and if anyone has a pdf /scanned version of it handy and would like to share it I would appreciate the help.
 
musicforlife said:
Here's the manual: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgumcmq5tzv66gp/Canon MDD-210 Floppy Disk Technical Guide (1983)(Canon).pdf?dl=0

Could someone read it and confirm me whether there's something that would make this "non-ibm compatible" as the original seller claimed.

Also, when using this drive in IBM PC, I can't get the previous issues of "drive not ready" at all. It gets access all the time just fine and does everything correctly without hiccups. The previous computer was PentiumII/Win98 (using pure DOS). Also, what is this size? Half-size? It's taller than normal 5.25" but in IBM PC there's no space for any other drive so that's not half-size?

View attachment 1021277
Click to expand...
musicforlife, do you still have a copy of the manual?
 
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