If the index hole is in the wrong place you are trying to read a double sided disk in a single sided drive. The 85x has two index sensors to handle both. The 80x only has one. But if one only intend to format 3740 format (for use in a RX0x drive) then a Shugart 801 should be fine. One thing to remember is that not all floppy controllers is able to handle FM encoding and 250 kbit/s data rate. Check this page for more info http://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htmI didn't realize until I re-read the first post. I do happen to have an SA-801, but I have not yet been able to actually get it reading and writing discs. It may just be a bad drive.
Luckily, SA-801s seem to be the most common 8" drives I see on eBay. Maybe it's just because I am on mobile, but I am not seeing what country you are in, but I have seen both 120V 60Hz drives and 230V 50Hz drives, both new and used.
Your best bet would be to make a saved search on ebay for "Shugart" or "8 inch" in the vintage computers category, as doing so will tell you every time someone lists a shugart drive or an 8 inch drive. I would make the searches more specific, but a lot of people fail to include specific model numbers. This is how I just scored an 8" drive from a Fairlight CMI a few days ago.
Make sure that your saved search is also worldwide, because if not it will probably filter out the results from the USA, where I have seen most of the drives. I am sure that you are able to work something out with a seller to ship internationally if you give them a good enough reason (like paying a bunch for shipping )
Last thing, make sure to keep the index hole in mind. I am not familiar enough with RX discs to know where the index hole is, but I do know from my SA-801 that in the case of the IBM format, most of the discs I have will not read in the SA-801 as the hole is in the wrong place.
I now own three 8" drives and nearly 100 disks and I just learn this now, haha. I was under the impression that different formats had different index holes (like how my Tandy disk would read with the Shugart, but not my IBM disks), but this makes sense now.If the index hole is in the wrong place you are trying to read a double sided disk in a single sided drive.
Getting *any* 8" drive for $37 is an unbelievable screaming deal these days, you should thank your lucky starsI now own three 8" drives and nearly 100 disks and I just learn this now, haha. I was under the impression that different formats had different index holes (like how my Tandy disk would read with the Shugart, but not my IBM disks), but this makes sense now.
Well, at least that Shugart only cost me $37.
The things you find scanning ebay a few times every day at work... All of my 8" media has been gotten for less than or equal to $1 per disk this way, and I just picked up an assortment of 7 different 5.25" and 3.5" drives for $6 a piece last week.Getting *any* 8" drive for $37 is an unbelievable screaming deal these days, you should thank your lucky stars
DC motors on them ? If not, what do you about the EU drives being 50Hz rather than US spec 60Hz ?Not helpful at all, but clearly there are good deals to have in Western Europe. I purchased a pair of PDP11 compatible 8 inch drives in an enclosure about 6 months ago from France.
I was thinking the same things when I first looked at them, but these were rated for 60hz. These seem to have come out of a data center and I was wondering if converting entire data centers to 60hz was ever a thing.DC motors on them ? If not, what do you about the EU drives being 50Hz rather than US spec 60Hz ?
And just to clarify, the power supply for these was 60hz in the enclosure, but the drives were MITSUBISHI M2896-63 droves. so they're just +24 and +5.but these were rated for 60hz