A very odd drive
Beside my original BASF 6106 I have a second drive, which looks almost exactly like the 6106. However, this drive is from SIEMENS and is completely hardwired, i.e. it has not a single jumper! Absolutely nothing! Another difference is the open front flap (figure 3).
It has the designation "MD-Laufwerk", i.e. MD-drive, where MD could mean "mini disk". In the past the floppy disk drives were called as follows: 8 inch - floppy disk / 5.25 inch - mini disk / 3.5 inch - micro disk.
Another identification is the labelling: V22999-Z-A152-5 (see below).
In figure 5 you can see the stepper mechanism. The spiral wheel for positioning the head and the return spring.
Technical specifications
The BASF 6106 (LSI) is a wonderful old floppy drive with a real HEAD LOAD. When the read head accesses, there is a really loud crack.
| Formfactor | 5,25" |
| Capacity | 180 KByte / SSDD / (1 x 40 x 9 x 512 = 184.320 Byte) |
| Sides (Heads) | 1 |
| Tracks/Side | 40 |
| Sectors/Track | 9 |
| Byte/Sector | 512 |
| Height | 53,5 mm (The height of a standard 5.24" drive is 41.3 mm) |
Jumper Settings
There are no jumpers to set! The drive selection at JJ1 (1-2, 3-4 / DS0 + DS1) is a bit odd, but works in combination with SELECTED HEAD LOAD (2D: 5-6, 11-12).
Since this drive has no jumpers, you can't connect it as easily as the original BASF 6106. The problem lies in a special feature of the BASF 6106. This drive needs the signal HEAD LOAD on line 2. I don't know this feature from any other old floppy drive. So what to do? The signal HEAD LOAD can be replaced by the signal MOTOR ENABLE (PC-34). But how to get the signal 10 or 16 from the PC-34 Interface to Signal 2 at the Shugart-34 Interface. See next figure.
See the bridge from left no. 10 to right no. 2, the blue cable. I also use a similar cable bridge connection to connect my 8 inch drives with Shugart-50 interface with my PC's (PC-34).
In this picture you can see another special feature. I created the so-called twister with the signal bridges. The signals 10, 12, 14 and 16 are fed in on the right side in 16, 14, 12 and 10. Why is this necessary? Because the Siemens 6106 is hardwired to drive no. 2 (DS1).
| Shugart-34 | Signal | PC-34 | Signal |
| 10 | DS0 | 16 | MOTOR ENABLE B |
| 12 | DS1 | 14 | DRIVE SELECT A |
| 14 | DS2 | 12 | DRIVE SELECT B |
| 16 + 2 | MOTOR ENABLE | 10 | MOTOR ENABLE A |
Where was this drive used?
Although this drive is basically a BASF 6106, it appears at SIEMENS under the designation V22999-Z-A152-5. For example, two units of this drive were used in the Teletex machine T4200. Furthermore also in the Telex unit T1000S. I got this information from the i-Telex Group.
YouTube: Siemens Teletex T4200 Test. In the video you can see the drives very well.
Manuals
- Manual LSI (en) (5,1 MByte) / Jumper matrix at page 3-10