[Coco] Cleaning Coco disks (gene heskett)

[Steven Hirsch]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012, gene heskett wrote:

> On Sunday, January 22, 2012 12:39:46 PM Steven Hirsch did opine:
>
>> On Sun, 22 Jan 2012, gene heskett wrote:
>>> I've threatened to make a test jig I could clip onto the drive
>>> connector so I could start and stop the motor and step it in and out,
>>> but life kept getting in the way so it was never done back in the
>>> 80's when it was needed.  Ideally it should also include a slow,
>>> about 1 second counter that always sends like 31 pulses out, but only
>>> 30 in, so that it will be banged against the Trk0 detector.  The auto
>>> step one way or the other won't muck the scope trace observations all
>>> that much, particularly if your sweep is triggered by the index
>>> pulse, but it will serve to keep the drive from sitting on the same
>>> track for long periods of time, both wearing out the track, and
>>> causing multipass erasure so that eventually your good disk is
>>> destroyed magnetically.  Head magnetization state is generally not a
>>> factor in the real world.
>>
>> I was lucky enough to score a Teaco drive test rig for $5.00 at a
>> hamfest. It does exactly what you describe.  Just invaluable for
>> servicing Olde Drives.
>
> Some people have ALL the luck.  :)

Compared to Left Coast residents, this is a real vacuum for hobbyists and 
classic computer buffs.  So, it's neat when things work out.

This past fall, I picked up an 18-ch 100Mhz. TechTools logic analyzer for 
$45 at the same hamfest (Deerfield, NH).  What a cool toy.  Always wanted 
one, but couldn't rationalize 100s of bucks.



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