[cctalk] Re: Dysan Alignment and Performance Testers

On Wed, Oct 2, 2024 at 4:53 AM Bill Degnan via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: I only ever try to align a drive using an 'catseye' alignment disk. I have a little drive exerciser unit badged 'RS'[1] which will let me move the head around to seek to the alignment pattern track on the disk, etc. I can use that with a normal 'scope. [1] One of the large industrial electronic component suppliers in the UK, been around for not quite 90 years. 50 years ago they were 'Radiospares' which gives an idea how they started. But more often I use a thing called a 'Microtest'. This is a module containing an 8035 microcontroller, ADC and a serial port. It works with any IBM PC (I think the minimum spec is 256K RAM, any video card even MDA, and an RS232 port). I use an old Amstrad PPC640 'laptop' where the second floppy drive has been replaced by a DC37 socket. Basically you connect the drive-under-test to the PC as B:. Then plug the Microtest unit into the PC serial port and run the Microtest software. You select the drive type from a menu, it then shows a layout of the drive PCB (using the IBM line-drawing characters) showing where to connect 5 leads from the microtest unit (ground, index, track 0 sensor, differential outputs of the read amplifier). You can then do various tests -- spindle speed head alignment, index position, track 0 sensor position, etc) some of which use the standard catseye alignment disk. -tony