8 Apr
2007
8 Apr
'07
9:46 p.m.
On 8 Apr 2007 at 21:05, Philip Pemberton wrote:
I can step the head in and out fine, and the motor
seems to be spinning (the
drive's activity light is on at least). What I can't get is any form of output
from the drive - even /INDEX is stuck floating high (FWICT it should pulse
once for every revolution of the disc, i.e. about once per half-second or so).
Actually, about 5 times per second.
Some drives won't output any signals until the onboard controller is
satsified that the drive is ready (i.e. that it sees an index pulse
every 200 msec). I don't know if Sony's one of them, but I've seen
it. Similarly, the drive must be satisfied that the disk is seated
in the drive. I've got a Toshiba floppy drive that has a problem
seating the diskette firmly and it simply returns--nothing and the
FDC thinks that the drive's not ready.
So, the first thing I'd do is check to see if the drive thinks
there's a diskette inserted.
You can step the heads in and out because there's no requirement that
the drive be ready (or even have a disk inserted) before the heads
can be moved.
Cheers,
Chuck