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adding activity LED to an internal ST-225 drive

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First post, by feltel

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I got myself an Turbo XT clone system. Other that it is (was) dusty and grubby it seems to work. I cleaned it thoroughly and am now in the process of reassembly. The no name MFM controller card does not have an header for the HDD activity LED. The ST-225 drive is mounted in a way that it does not have a drive bay cover with LED cutout. Instead the case has an HDD LED. The LED cable was snipped some time. There must be a way of connecting the LED to the drive, but how? Looking closely I can see some solder work on one pin of the ribbon cable connector, but according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ST506/ST412#Connector_pinouts this pin is only a GND pin. Next to pin 16 there is also solder work, but I dont want to connect anything without knowing what to do.

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Reply 1 of 4, by TheMobRules

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I don’t have an LED header on the MFM controller of my XT clone either. So I desoldered the onboard LED of my ST-251 and replaced it with a 2-pin header that I can connect to the front panel of the case.

Reply 2 of 4, by Grzyb

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I would search for another controller card.
There's surplus of controllers, as they hardly ever fail - contrary to drives.

Nie tylko, jak widzicie, w tym trudność, że nie zdołacie wejść na moją górę, lecz i w tym, że ja do was cały zejść nie mogę, gdyż schodząc, gubię po drodze to, co miałem donieść.

Reply 3 of 4, by Horun

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If the ST225 has a LED connection spot it would be on PCB at the front of the drive, not the back and there is no LED connection thru the cable connections. If no connection found then a different XT mfm controller is the only option as mentioned.
added: very few XT 8bit mfm/rll adapters have a LED header (WDs WDXT-GEN2, WDXT-GEN2 PLUS, WDXT-GEN2R do, the Seagates ST10/ST11/etc do not AFAIK)

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 4, by feltel

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The drive itself has an LED on the front side. I could grab the signal there, but the LED would be dim I think, as the original LED is lit too. I dont want to take the drive apart to remove the original LED. The controller (WD1002A-WX1) has no LED header as far as I know. It has an DC power connector for whatever reason.

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