After I practiced a bit on the broken 1541, I want to get back to my Commodore 8050 dual disk drives. They are massive beasts of steel. Each has a capacity 500KiB per disk side, giving a whopping 2MiB capacity if you swap disk sides.
#commodore #cbm8050 #floppydrive
This is a Commodore 1541C ASSY 251854 Rev A mainboard. It is from a parts drive, where I took of the servo controller for a different drive, and where the read/write head is dead (typical Mitsumi).
#commodore #c1541 #floppydrive
The quadrophonic Floppy orchestra. Using four 1541-II drives. Program by mac of tugcs.
#commodore #c64 #floppydrive
When I was a kid, I didn't know what the “thump thump thump” sound coming from a #floppy #disk drive was.
It also made a buzzing sound, which I figured was the head moving back and forth, but the thump was a mystery.
I'm still not sure, but I'm guessing it's the stepper motor moving by a single track. Am I right?
For Christmas from my Secret Santa I got a Qumetrak 142 floppy disk drive. It is a DS/DD 5,25" Shugart style drive.
#retrocomputing #floppydrive
FlatMac: Building the 1980’s Apple iPad Concept - The Apple FlatMac was one of those 1980s concepts by designer [Hartmut Esslingers]... - https://hackaday.com/2024/12/07/flatmac-building-the-1980s-apple-ipad-concept/ #3dprintedenclosure #reproduction #floppydrive #machacks #apple
Calling all #Dublin-based #retrocomputing #mastodaine !
Does anyone have a PC with a 5¼ inch #FiveAndAQuarterInch #FloppyDrive, ideally running #Linux, otherwise a #Microsoft #OS or even #GreaseWeazle, that I could use to image some old disks, please?
Sadly, that didn't go to plan. I appear to have killed my ten year old USB #floppydrive. It fails to read any media now, even known-good DOS/Windows-formatted FAT floppies that I'd flawlessly imaged a few years back.
I'll drop a post and some snaps later today outlining my #beltandbraces methods for recovering data on old #AtariST #floppydisks using a #USB #floppydrive, #GNU #ddrescue, #Hatari and the #SidecarTridge hard disk emulation.
The original #floppydrive in my #AtariST is irredeemably broken; the drive head ribbon cable had disintegrated.
The replacement I bought works beautifully so far. I've tested it with known clean floppies, and it's able to format them successfully, and I can copy programs and config from my #sidecartridge C: drive to A: and run from A:. So looking good overall.
Along with the Atari, I received about forty floppy disks. The disk surfaces look clean - no mould or any other dirt - but the cases seem to have evidence of gnawing.
Before subjecting my newly installed floppy drive to these disks, I sampled ten promising-looking disks in order to attempt to ddrescue their data. Only one was successfully recoverable. The rest are entirely unreadable. 
Stocked up on LAG570s. I still have a few BA6301, which is the other motor driver used in the Mitsumi 1541s. So I should be able to repair more failing drives.
#commodore #c64 #c1541 #floppydrive
Another broken 1541 is on my desk today. It is a Mitsumi drive, so a dead head is always a possibility. But this one has supposedly a healthy head -- for now! So what could be the issue?
I should really swap the cases of the top and bottom drives! Or what do you think?
And I am still missing a beige ALPS mechanism.
#commodore #c64 #c1541 #floppydrive
Today is the anniversary of the release of the Shugart Minifloppy SA400, the first 5.25" floppy disk drive. August 27, 1976.
I finally got a replacement shell for the broken Mitsumi 1541. It now has a replacement ROM, the dead head bodge, and finally a new shell. It doesn't match the color of the drive mech, but I already have dark brown ALPS drives in beige 1541 cases, so the other way around was still missing. :)
#commodore #c1541 #floppydrive
Some progress with the #Commodore #VC1541 - I added the reset bodge, socketed a few logic chips, and turned it on.
At first, the drive was spinning constantly, but all the logic signals looked fine, including the reset signal.
I then swapped the 6502 from a working 1541-II, and it worked again.
Now, I have a few mechanical issues. An inserted #floppy is thrown out again most times, and the tray doesn't latch in closed position easily.
#retrocomputing #Alps #floppydrive #repair
Good and bad news... the replacement #PSU works, and the repaired PCB seems to work, too.
But the bottom read head is now confirmed dead. I measured the coils directly at the head. Like before, only the erase coil is intact.
#Commodore #C1571 #floppydrive #repair #retrocomputer
After getting the #Commodore #C64 and #C128 running again, the next device to repair is the #C1571.
It had #corrosion and #rust on the main board and the power supply is beyond repairworthiness. I'd replace the latter with a #meanwell RD-35 with 5 and 12 volt output.
One #diode was rusty, a few traces needed #cleaning and five #resistor looked bad. Hope the black hybrid chip is still okay.
Sadly, the lower read head seems to be broken, my work might've been in vain.
#floppydrive #retrocomputer
New video:
Zombie Floppy: How To Revive A Broken 1541 Head
The Commodore 1541 floppy drive is a real workhorse, that was used by millions of C64 users.The Mitsumi drive assembly has the annoying fault to have their drive heads fail due to some wires going open inside of the read/write head. A clever user by the nickname of Ruuudi has designed a little bodge PCB to make the dead drive head work again:
