Thinkpad Dock I with a 5.25" floppy drive \ VOGONS

Thinkpad Dock I with a 5.25" floppy drive

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First post, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-06-29, 12:12

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Finally got the 5.25" 1.2 Mb drive working with a Thinkpad Dock I in pure DOS. The Thinkpad connected is a 760LD, but I expect it to work fine with any laptop supported by this docking station.

The drive is Epson SD-700. It's a slim drive, and can fit into the dock. Mine came with a standard face plate, so I have to cut it and paint it black. But there are drives with slim face plates, and not only of this brand.

The controller card is Adaptec AHA-1542CF SCSI/Floppy controller . It is configured to an alternative flopy address 370h in it's BIOS. Memory address for card BIOS is C8000h. Jumper settings as follows.

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jumpers card.png

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The drive is connected to the connector before the twist, jumpers on the drive are set for drive B.
And the key is this DOSFDRV.SYS driver that allows access to the drive connected to the secondary address.
https://www.vcfed.org/forum/forum/techn ... post919840

Eventually it shows up as drive E and works along with the existing 1.44Mb A drive.

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Reply 1 of 13, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2021-06-29, 14:00

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That is a nice looking 5.25" drive, with a pretty neat eject mechanism. It doesn't seem like they're terribly common, so it would be a shame to cut the bezel.

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Reply 2 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-06-29, 15:58

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I agree with that, and I'm still trying to find another drive with a slim bezel.

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Reply 3 of 13, by dinth

Posted on 2021-06-29, 15:59

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I never seen a 5.25" drive with an eject button. Were those common?

Reply 4 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-06-29, 16:53

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dinth wrote on 2021-06-29, 15:59:

I never seen a 5.25" drive with an eject button. Were those common?

They were not common. Looks like it was typical mostly for slim (1 inch thick) drives . Like Canon MD-5501 or TEAC FD-155GF.

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Reply 5 of 13, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2021-07-01, 01:20

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That's awesome! Glad the driver is working for you!

Reply 6 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-07-01, 08:17

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-07-01, 01:20:

That's awesome! Glad the driver is working for you!

Thank you for the driver, maxtherabbit! It would not be possible otherwise.

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Reply 7 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-07-09, 10:41

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-07-01, 01:20:

That's awesome! Glad the driver is working for you!

Just wondering, what if I connect a second drive to the secondary controller? Guess i have to load the driver for it too. Is it going to work?

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Reply 8 of 13, by maxtherabbit

Posted on 2021-07-09, 23:21

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Bondi wrote on 2021-07-09, 10:41:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-07-01, 01:20:

That's awesome! Glad the driver is working for you!

Just wondering, what if I connect a second drive to the secondary controller? Guess i have to load the driver for it too. Is it going to work?

Yes it will work if you load two instances, but there is a bug where you cannot copy files directly between the two managed drives.

In the next version I plan to make it so one instance of the driver can handle multiple drives and circumvent the problem.

Reply 9 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-07-11, 08:53

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-07-09, 23:21:

Bondi wrote on 2021-07-09, 10:41:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-07-01, 01:20:

That's awesome! Glad the driver is working for you!

Just wondering, what if I connect a second drive to the secondary controller? Guess i have to load the driver for it too. Is it going to work?

Yes it will work if you load two instances, but there is a bug where you cannot copy files directly between the two managed drives.

In the next version I plan to make it so one instance of the driver can handle multiple drives and circumvent the problem.

Thank you for the reply. The "bug" is not critical in my case. But It's good to know the new version is planned.

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Reply 10 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-09-02, 11:38

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I found a non-working SD-700 drive that was already partially cannibalized, but had the face plate. So I modified it for my needs, made it slim and black. Turned out pretty well IMO. Will post the final look of the dock later on.

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Reply 11 of 13, by Pierre32

Posted on 2021-09-02, 11:45

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Bondi wrote on 2021-09-02, 11:38:

I found a non-working SD-700 drive that was already partially cannibalized, but had the face plate. So I modified it for my needs, made it slim and black. Turned out pretty well IMO. Will post the final look of the dock later on.
IMG_3174.jpg

Ideal outcome, and very nicely modified.

Reply 12 of 13, by Bondi

Posted on 2021-09-03, 11:45

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Pierre32 wrote on 2021-09-02, 11:45:

Bondi wrote on 2021-09-02, 11:38:

I found a non-working SD-700 drive that was already partially cannibalized, but had the face plate. So I modified it for my needs, made it slim and black. Turned out pretty well IMO. Will post the final look of the dock later on.
IMG_3174.jpg

Ideal outcome, and very nicely modified.

Thanks, Pierre!

And here is the final result.

Just for fun I hooked up the PCMCIA FDD and all three drives work together.
I also tried the external IBM drive. For some reason it did not work simultaneously with the built in stock drive. Changing the setting to swap A and B drives just makes the situation reverse - external works, built in doesn't. But the 5.25 anf PCMCIA drives work anyway.
Theoretically I could connect a second drive on the secondary controller, but there is no room for it in the dock.

PCMCIA Sound Cards chart
archive.org: PCMCIA software, manuals, drivers

Reply 13 of 13, by bjt

Posted on 2022-02-03, 11:26

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Nice one!

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