This document explains how to connect a 3.5" disc drive on your Spectrum +3
as the B: drive.

Basically it explains how I did connect a 3.5" to my +3, so :
		USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

04/94 - Thomas A. Kjaer
email: takjaer@daimi.aau.dk
Please report any bugs, additional informations and so via email.

Technically there is nothing to keep you from connnecting any type of disc
drive to your +3 computer, since the B: port on your Spectrum is a standard
Shugart port, which almost any disc drive uses. That means that you should
be able to connect 3", 3.5" and 5.25" drives to your Spectrum +3 without any
problems. The problem arises when you want to format the new disc, which
disc format should be used??? Well if you look in your +3 Guide on page 213
& 215 you'll see that the +3DOS recognise the Amstrad PCW DD DS DT format.
That format will give you about 706Kb on each disc! assumeing that you have
connected a DD DS DT drive on your +3 computer. So how do I format my disc
to this format ?? John Elliot has made a program DU50 which will do the job,
and I did a program which will format the B: drive to PCW format.
But then question about transfering these programs to your +3 computer arise,
and this is not easy to answer. Well if you use a MS-DOS machine there is
a Shareware program called 22DISK which will do the job.
"But I don't have access to a MS-DOS machine" I hear you cry, but don't
worry, in this packages there should be a file 'empty.p3d' which is a disc-
images of a empty 3.5" Amstrad PCW disc. Using the UNIX command 'dd' you'll
be able to 'format' an empty 3.5" disc for use in your Spectrum +3.
Make sure you really use a 720Kb DD disc (they are usually Blue) and then
type:
	dd if=empty.p3d of=/dev/fd0

Maybe you should make the operation system aware of that it's a DD disc, but
I don't know since I only tried this on a Linux box and a HP 700 workstation.
You'll now have an empty disc for your 3.5" disc drive on your Spectrum +3.
NOTE! On my Spectrum +3 I have to do the following to make it recognise the
B: drive.

	Remove any disc from the drives.
	Switch on the +3.
	Insert any disc in drive B: (the 3.5")
	Press the reset-button on the left side.

The last line on the start-up screen should now look something like:

(c)1982, 1986, 1987 Amstrad Plc.
Drives A:, B: and M: available.

Now select '+3 BASIC' and insert the empty disc in drive B: and type
CAT "B:"
which should result in:
No files found

706K free

If not there is something wrong, check that the DIP-switches on the 3.5"
disc is set properly (eg. as device 1 and so.)

If anything went right, you should now be able to use your new 3.5" drive.

In this packages there should be a file 'demo1.p3d' it's a PCW disc-image
containing demos by The Lords for the Spectrum found on 'ftp.nvg.unit.no'.
To try this disc use 'dd' again, 'dd if=demo1.p3d of=/dev/fd0'
insert the disc in your Spectrum, select +3 BASIC and type:

LOAD"b:"
LOAD"menu"

You should now be provided with a disc menu, from where you can select which
demo should be run.
Enjoy!!

Hopefully in the future, I'll come up with some utillities to transfer files
to these disc-images.
When I have talked to John Elliot, hopefully his DU50 will be part of this
packages.
NOTE! MS-DOS users can use the disc-images as well, they need a utility for
writing the images, 'RAWRITE.EXE' will do the job. When using this utility
make sure that the disc is formatted to MS-DOS 720Kb format.

04/94 - Thomas A. Kjaer
email: takjaer@daimi.aau.dk