Repairing and Servicing a 3" Floppy Disk Drive
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- Support Noel's Retro Lab on Patreon: / noelsretrolab
Featuring a mummified disk drive belt and creating a write-protection pin on the fly. This is the procedure I recommend for repairing and tuning up 3" drives. This drive comes from an Amstrad CPC 6128, but 3" floppy disk drives are also found in other computers like the Spectrum +3 or the Amstrad PCW and the same applies to all of them.
Amstrad CPC RPM measuring program:
www.amstradtoda...
On Spectrum +3 press BREAK on startup for firmware tests, which include measuring RPM.
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#amstrad #spectrum #floppydiskdrive
Noel, i just _have_ to say that your repair & servicing videos are among the most excellent i have ever seen!
Thank you! Really glad to hear that.
Couldn't agree more and love seeing these old computers being saved for many more years to come.
You all prolly dont give a shit but does someone know of a tool to log back into an Instagram account..?
I was stupid forgot the account password. I appreciate any help you can give me!
@Colten Westin Instablaster :)
@Forrest Quinton Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
The beginning of a legend
Haha, there are so many cringe things in that video... But it's a good example of how you can start making videos before you know what you're doing 😃
Thanks for the tip on the pin! It came right out when I was replacing the drive belt!
When talking about the write-protection pin, I should have mentioned that not all 3" drives use that switch and pin mechanism to detect write-protection. Some of the older models use an optical sensor, in which case you can flip the drive over without fear of losing any pieces. You can tell easily by looking for that switch under the board.
So they went cheap over time
Super video - thanks for including where the write protect pin goes !
Thank you. Your video helped me with this "pin situation" ;)
I had a Schneider Euro PC, but friends had Amstrads and Commodores. I love watching your videos. Calm,collected,clean, i get a feeling like watching a real hero saving those pieces of memories. I especially like the way you keep digging into the root of each problem. I rarely write a comment on youtube, but i felt i had to. I hope you keep up. Vasilis from Greece, 41
Thank you so much for the comment! Much appreciated.
the damned write pin😀, now i know from where is popped out, thank you by my cpc6128
I love your calm style Noel, please do more Amstrad related material, or if you don't have any how about doing a video explaining how you test boards with your multimeter
Thanks! I do have more Amstrad videos in the works. Coming soon! As for how to test boards using the multimeter, check out the C64 repair part 2 (czcams.com/video/QmU9u27u5zk/video.html). There I specifically talk about how you can use the multimeter to test for activity on a line... only to then realize that I was tricked by that when I looked at it with the osciloscope. So yeah, you can use it, but it's less than ideal.
Thanks. Great video. I have to do I on my 6128 and my 464 disk drive
Thanks for this , a previous video helping me out disappeared, real glad I found yours. 2x belts and done within 1 hr. Thanks new sub from me! Good work and tha ks for sharing and helping us all service our old tech.
You're very welcome. I'm glad it helped! (and yikes, I think that was my first-ever video!!! 🤣).
Thanks for that Video. The tip with the write protect pin saved my life .. I had the exact same issue (bought it and pin missing). So I used a pin header and bend that one pin.
also, thanks for the info about the pin, i didn't know about it and it'll help for my coming 'new' amstrad soon.
you taught me so much! please more of these videos. i love watching and learning from you!
Thank you! Will do!
Good video and very good explanations.
I'm really enjoying all you videos. Great stuff.!
Very didactical content for us Amstrad users. Nice video! 👍
Also for us ZX Spectrum +3 owners :D
Fran Blanche swears by sewing machine oil because it's low viscosity and therefore it has a lower tendency to gum up mechanisms. Can't say I've used it myself but it seems good advice for any delicate/precision oiling jobs.
That makes a lot of sense for the moving parts of a floppy disk drive. I'm saving that one for future reference because sometimes I feel that lithium grease is just a tad too thick at lower temperatures (and maybe it's totally fine).
YAY! A new favorite channel for me to enjoy and learn from! I just subscribed, and I’m looking forward to watching EVERY single video! Question: So this is actually a 3” drive and not the long standard 3 1/2” drive? I didn’t even know that 3” existed. Fascinating! Thanks for GREAT content! 😊😊😊
Welcome on board! I'd like to think that my quality bar has risen since I started, so some of these first episodes are a bit rough around the edges. You may want to start from the most recent one and work your way backwards 😃
Yes, this is a 3" drive, not the common 3.5" one. Rumor has it that Sugar got them really cheap in some deal, and shoehorned them in all his computers. Another rumor also says that the CPC 6128 was intended for the US market and flopped before arrival because it was using that disk format. Oops!
yes, the 3.5" floppy drive was designed by Sony, while the 3.0" floppy was created by another japanese company (Hitachi or Matsushita, I can't remember). It was created as a cheaper competitor to Sony's drives, but came out too late as Sony started giving licenses for other manufacturers to produce 720KB and 1.44MB 3.5" drives under licence (with Sony remaining the only vendor of 2.88MB 3.5" drives). The prices of floppy drives started to fall during the second half of the 1980s, making the 3.0" uncompetitive. Amstrad's Alan Sugar negociated a bargain deal to get hold of millions of 3.0" drives for his Z80 machines.
I still think it's a good video 🙂
Gracias Noel.
Hace 4 días cambié la correa de mi cpc6128 (que llevaba como 25 años guardado en un altillo) siguiendo algunos tutos de youtube. Todo iba bien, hasta que al dar la vuelta
a la unidad con la placa medio despegada, ví que cayó una especie de aguja metálica que no supe de dónde ni cómo XD. Después de muchas vueltas decidí montarlo todo
sin esa pieza, y aparentemete todo funcionaba bien (no se me ocurrió hacer una prueba de escritura en el disco) y guardé la pieza por si acaso. El caso es que para estas cosas soy un poco obsesivo y no dejaba de pensar en que no lo había dejado bien y me estaba volviendo loco XDD.
Gracias a este vídeo ya sé dónde va el pin y te aseguro que voy a desmontar el drive otra vez y ponerlo en su sito, y voy a dormir mejor (y no es broma).
Un saludo.
Jaja... me alegro!
Buenas! Una pregunta: dimensiones de la correa? Gracias!
Nice tutorial.
Hi and good day
I have been a fan of yours since almost the beginning, and thanks to the great work you do on CZcams, I have been able to recover several 8-bit machines. Although I am a Spectrum fan, I always liked the CPC 6120, after 30 years of having seen it, I have one recovered, but the floppy drive resists me, a 150A. The belt changed, the motor turns, but the head motor does nothing. I know that these motors are irreparable, but I am trying to locate a replacement unit, or be able to repair this one. Could you help me? Any information will be welcome.
BEST REGARDS
Thanks for the video =)
My pleasure!
Nice again Noel.
BTW, I got an old PCB from AMSTRAD. I don't know from what machine it is. It has a Z80A, an NEC 765, and 16 DRAM chips, with 512kB of RAM. I think it was from a CPM computer sold as typewriter. Do you think it is good for something more than spare parts? (The Z80 is socketed and tested ok, the rest i'm not sure)
7:34 is the board sodered to the drive and can't be removed?
Yes, it actually is soldered there with a few cables. Check out my video where I repair a ZX Spectrum +3 with the same kind of drive. There I end up taking the board completely apart to test it on another drive, so you'll see how it's hooked up.
Hi Noel! New subscriber here 😀 where do you buy the right belts?
Hi! I got them a while back from Ali. They sell them in mixed-size bags for very cheap, so you only end up with a handful that fit, but it's still worth it. The important thing is that they're flat cross section, not square or rounded like the tape deck.
Also a question Noel: How do you get the RPM tool on a disk. i mean.. i can download the software but what then :)
Haha, good question! I have it on the Dandanator ROM cartridge, so I can always load it. That's ideal. On disk is also useful, but only in those times that the disk is actually working.
Noel loving the videos, great channel my friend. I have a question for you though. I got a cpc 6128 a while back. Its great. Only problem is the drive. One in three times it will perform the "cat" command correctly the rest of the time it gives just read errors. Read errors also if I try to cpm a disk or run" a program. I've tried most of the obvious stuff like changing the belt, cleaning the read/ write head and lubing with vasaline. Any ideas?
I'm glad you're enjoying the videos! Your poor drive sounds like it has some issues. Which error do you get? The disk read fail one? Are you 100% sure the disks are working fine? They'll often go bad and cause error messages like that. It could be the sensor for track 0, but that will depend on which errors you get. I hope to cover that one in a future video. Let me know and good luck!
@@NoelsRetroLab I got read errors when I tried to load, and write errors when I tried to save programs. The disks are also used pre-owned so I'm only about 15% sure on those :) Wont get to take another look until next weekend but I'll keep hacking away at it. Thanks for your help I'll keep you posted.
@@NoelsRetroLab Noel, good news this weekend. I disassembled the electronics of the drive and resoldered any joints that looked to be suspect. This changed nothing, still the same disc read errors. Then I tried something that I probably should not have. I marked the position of the stepper motor and removed it. I then took a look to see that it was not broken or damaged on the inside. There was a little gunk in there. Could have been grease, but it looked like gone off rubber. I removed as much as I could and reseated the motor assembly. I tried the "cat" command, read error, moved the motor a fraction clockwise and continued until "cat" worked then I tried to run a program, read error, turned the motor a fraction clockwise "cat" and run" and finally success. Of the eight disks I have seven work well rarely a read error with "cat" now but it still happens from time to time (I suppose there is still some fine tuning to be done). BTW the drive is an EME-156. Again many thanks for the video it has been a real help to me ;)
hi very good video i need youer help please i have a ddi-1 for my cpc464 iv put a new belt in the belt spins but still come up with disk missing i dont thing the setup morter is working any help on this pleases thank you
It could be lots of different things unfortunately. I recommend reading this thread carefully: www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/hardware-related/fixing-floppy-drives/100/ Things to try out: try a different drive (to narrow it down to the drive or the controller and/or cables, make sure it's getting 5V and 12V (sometimes the transistors that provide the 12V fail), make sure the RDY signal is being set correctly and gets all the way to the controller. Feel free to post on that thread with your findings and you'll get more help. Good luck!
Are the PCW drives compatible electrically with the single sided drives?
Good question. I don't know! I would guess yes, but someone else would have to confirm it.
@@NoelsRetroLab thank you so much, I'm trying to hook one up to a DOS PC, and the answers I've gotten have been a mixed bag.
@@NoelsRetroLab your video has been very useful! Now I know where to put that pin!
@@NoelsRetroLab the one I've got is the EME-232V , a much later revision I'm worried about the motor not being aligned like in your other video, as the drive was disassembled when I got it.
Hi Noel on mine the motor moving the head is not working, how do you deal with it ?
Start checking that the head motor is getting proper voltage (they often have dry joints in the power connector), and then check to see if it gets signals to move. If it does, then it might be something more complicated in the drive board.
@@NoelsRetroLab Thanks for the reply, i have read that there is a mod with a 3.5 floppy disk, is this a working mod just in case the 3 disk is beyond repair at least for me ?
A _white_ drive belt? that is highly irregular... I suspect someone has used a regular rubber band to replace the original belt (pfffttt)
Yeah, it looks that way!
First 0 dislikes vid :/ how
Haha, probably because it was my first video and people were going easy on me 🤣