[Coco] FD-50X Drive manuals

[Mike Pepe]

Bill, hope you said some extra prayers, I think your CoCo collection is
possessed!

A couple of things to note:

1- you can't exclude a problem with the CoCo itself at this point
2- The old full height TP drive is probably a lost cause due its many
mechanical and analog adjustments. I wouldn't bother with it just yet
3- The FD502 service manual is useless without a ton of specialized
equipment.
4- The stepper motors are bi-phase, so when you say you hear 18 clicks
you may be hearing 35 tracks, but only every alternate step is audible.
5- The round FD502 cables are subject to failure. I've seen a couple of
broken ones so far. The flat ribbon cable may be bad also, but I doubt
all 3 cables are bad in exactly the same way.
6- bad media? Are you formatting HD floppies? Does the problem persist
on different media?

I would open the covers up on the 502's and watch the show. Most
importantly if the head restores itself to track 0 once the format
process is completed.

The format process is pretty much blind. As long as the controller is
seeing index pulses from the drive there's really nothing I can think of
that would cause it to bomb out in the middle of the process (other than
loss of index pulses)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-
> bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Bill
> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:48 PM
> To: 'CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts'
> Subject: Re: [Coco] FD-50X Drive manuals
> 
> Well, aligning the cable is not hard. If it's not properly placed, the
> drive
> light comes on and stays on till it's corrected.
> 
> I've already cleaned the rail, and that solved nothing.
> 
> I don't mean to be rude, but it's after 11 pm here, and I must get to
> bed.
> That's one of the disadvantages of growing old; your body will only
> take so
> much activity for one day.
> 
> With church tomorrow, I'll be back from 1 pm Eastern Daylight Savings
> time
> until 4 pm.
> 
> Thanks for your help, see ya tomorrow
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-
> > bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Tim Fadden
> > Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:31 PM
> > To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> > Subject: Re: [Coco] FD-50X Drive manuals
> >
> > Another thought.
> >
> > The card edge connector on the drives, and the controller will have
a
> > slot towards one side of the connector.  Also one side of the cable
> > will
> > have a colored band.  Make sure the colored band has the same
> > orientation on all of the connections.  IE: colord band signifies
pin
> > 1,
> > slot on card edge designates side of connector where pin 1 is
> located.
> > Make sure all the 1's are together !.
> >
> > Another common problem on old drives is that the carriage that holds
> > the
> > heads, gets gummed up, and prevents the heads from moving in and out
> > freely.
> > This can be seen by watching the head as a dskini is performed.
> listen
> > to the clicks. the head should increment each time you hear a click.
> If
> > not, its gummed up. If so, turn of the power from the drive, remove
> the
> > floppy disk. spray some WD40 on a q-tip or some such, and wipe down
> the
> > rail the head moves on and then physically slide the head back and
> > forth
> > a few times. DONT spray directly on the drive! You don't want it
> going
> > all over the place, this is not good.
> >
> >
> > Tim
> >
> >
> > Bill wrote:
> > > Well, I unwittingly purchased 3 different disk drives, and none of
> > them
> > > work. They all act pretty much the same, and I was hoping to get
> some
> > kind
> > > of an idea what to do to possibly fix the problem.
> > >
> > >
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: coco-bounces at maltedmedia.com [mailto:coco-
> > >> bounces at maltedmedia.com] On Behalf Of Tim Fadden
> > >> Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:52 PM
> > >> To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
> > >> Subject: Re: [Coco] FD-50X Drive manuals
> > >>
> > >> What information are you looking for?  How to fix the floppy
> drive?
> > >> Make
> > >> drive cables? disk basic commands?
> > >>
> > >> I have two different versions of the Disk system manual,
> controller
> > >> schematics etc. Just what are you trying to do?
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Coco mailing list
> > > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> 
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