26 Sep
2008
26 Sep
'08
1:43 p.m.
Now who was it that did those slimline 5.25"
drives (slightly less than 1/2
height) with the eject button (rather than handle) on the front? My brain's
trying to tell me those are BASF too*, but I could be wrong. I know I have
some in storage back in the UK, and they're not very reliable either.
* Although maybe they're Epson; the system manufacturer that they came from
were as fond of Epson as they were BASF...
These sound like Epson (all apart from the uneliability part, I've never
had problems with them). Epson made a 1/2 height drive with a
conventional stepper motor positioner (used in many Torch machines,
includinf the XXX) and also a 1/3 height drive used in the QX10 (and the
TF20 floppy unit for the Epson laptops) that had a voice coil positioner,
a bit like a miniature RK05 (!).
The only curious thing about the latter is that they have a belt driven
spindle (prsumably to get the height down, there wasn't space to fit the
motor in-line with the spindle. And that spidle motor has some curios
feature, I forget what, but I do rememebr having to dismantle the FG
(tacho) coil to extract the ends aftre they broke off when I was doing
somethign to the motor....
-tony