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Hardcore Floppy Drive restoration

Started by Bryce, 21:32, 25 January 17

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||C|-|E||

But not as cool as nixie tubes!  :D

Gryzor


Bryce

Don't get me started on Nixie Tubes! The one's I ordered in December never made it to me and the seller had to give me a refund :(

Bryce.

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Ups! that is quite crappy!  :( Every time I think about them I remind myself that I need to restore the Toshiba calculator. The nixies on it are a bit dim, but I hope that is just the PSU and it will not be necessary to order new tubes  :-X I don´t think it was used much because soon after (around 10 years or so) the calculators on a chip appeared and I guess that it was replaced by one of those, much more reliable. I can imagine that daily running the set of tests provided in the instruction manual just to know that your operations were right was not particularly appealing :laugh:

Bryce

Quote from: ||C|-|E|| on 13:30, 03 February 17
Ups! that is quite crappy!  :( Every time I think about them I remind myself that I need to restore the Toshiba calculator. The nixies on it are a bit dim, but I hope that is just the PSU and it will not be necessary to order new tubes  :-X I don´t think it was used much because soon after (around 10 years or so) the calculators on a chip appeared and I guess that it was replaced by one of those, much more reliable. I can imagine that daily running the set of tests provided in the instruction manual just to know that your operations were right was not particularly appealing :laugh:

If they are all equally dim, then it probably just needs the voltage adjusted. Most Nummeric Nixies need around 170VDC to work properly, however I prefer to keep the voltage around 165VDC so that they will possibly last a bit longer.

Bryce.

||C|-|E||

I will need to check it again  :) . The machine has been on a box for a couple of years but I recall that they were all similarly dim, yes. I also remember that all the logic was sound, at least when I ran the tests myself. However, it takes forever to warm up until the tubes glow, although I guess that this is expected. The reason I did not start with it is that I suspect that it is going to take a great deal of time to finish the restoration. The machine is quite scary when you look inside, the absence of chips really makes it crazily complex  ???

Gryzor


Bryce

I think we need a separate "General Retro repair / gallery" thread :)

Bryce.

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Quote from: Bryce on 13:58, 03 February 17
I think we need a separate "General Retro repair / gallery" thread :)

Bryce.

I agree  :D . But, just for Gryzor, this is the machine:



internally it is quite complicate because of the way the logic is implemented. I could only find this two low res pics:







Bryce

Quote from: GeoffB17 on 18:57, 30 January 17
If it's any help, I have a 'spare' 9512 CP/M boot disk I could send you.   I cannot use it myself as such, I was just thinking that one day, if I needed to, I would reformat it as a std SS disk, but that's unlikely.

I've had all the files copied off, so what's on the disk isn't important.

Just my small contibution?

Geoff

Hi Geoff,
     the disk arrived last night. Thanks. I'll give it a try at the weekend. However I think I need ParaDOS installed to read it on a CPC, so I need to do that first.

Bryce.

tjohnson

#60
@Bryce did the EME-232 just work in a 6128?  I'm testing one from my 9512 in my CPC and I only get disc missing.  The disc is spinning.  I noticed upon powering on the CPC the motor steps forward a notch, doesn't seem to track to trk0.  Just noticed it's an EME-232v

Bryce

To be honest, that's quite a while ago, I don't remember. What I do remember is that it was quite complicated and it involved ParaDOS.

Bryce.

tjohnson

Quote from: Bryce on 00:03, 10 December 20
To be honest, that's quite a while ago, I don't remember. What I do remember is that it was quite complicated and it involved ParaDOS.

Bryce.
Not to worry definately something about the CPC, I tried it in my 8512 and it worked of sorts, I was struggling to read any disks now seems to have completely failed, not even recognised by the PCW now so looks like it's for the bin.

tjohnson

@Bryce bizarrely it was the b793 transistor that failed on the drive, I used the one you sent me about 2 years ago to repair it!


I can only assume the drive is fixed for b drive which is why it won't work on the cpc when I connect it to the internal cable.  I don't have an external cable compatible with the 26pin connector so I'll have to make one I guess, I really need to try and calibrate the drive so I can get my 9512 working again.

tjohnson

I managed to get the drive calibrated using my pcw8512 and some original disks.  It was quite time consuming constantly making tiny adjustments until it could read a disk flawlessly.  Then testing copying disks and whether the other driver on my 8512 could read it.  Got there in the end.

tjohnson

Quote from: tjohnson on 11:27, 13 December 20
I managed to get the drive calibrated using my pcw8512 and some original disks.  It was quite time consuming constantly making tiny adjustments until it could read a disk flawlessly.  Then testing copying disks and whether the other driver on my 8512 could read it.  Got there in the end.
Argh spoke too soon, after reassembling the whole 9512 it's not quite right, it's a damn ball ache to get the drive out of this thing as it sites on the bottom so I need to take monitor out, and the main pcb.  It might be the incentive I need to install a gotek in this machine.

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