20 Jan
2008
20 Jan
'08
2:45 p.m.
Hi,
I've been trying to create a working Sony MPF50W (as found in the HP1650B
Isd this one of the half-height units using many of the same parts as an
Apple 800K drive? In other words similar to the drive used in the HP9114B?
logic analyser) from 2 damaged units. One unit had a
fried board and the
What was fried? I think, given the choice, I'd have prefered to keep the
mechanics untouched (thus avoiding alignement problems) and chan ged
components on the PCB.
other unit had physically damaged heads. I moved the
heads and track 0
In theory if you change the heads, you need to do a radial alignment --
what most people mean by 'aligning a floppy drive). That said, I've
replaced the heads in a full-height Sony (as used in the 9114A), put the
alignment disk in and found it _well_ within spec. Maybe I was lucky, or
maybe, as I suuspect knowing Sony, the units are made to a high degree of
precision anyway.
sensor from the fried board to the other board and I
need to do 2 things: a)
confirm that the "new" heads are actually working and b) realign the track 0
One thing worth rememebring : Almost all the adjustments are
'interchenagablity adjustments' to make the disks used in that drive
compatible with others. If they're off, the drive can still format, read
and write its own disks. So take a blank disk and try to format it. If it
formats and verifies OK, or if it fails on the innermost few cylinders
only (maybe the track 0 sensor is so far off that the innermost cylinders
are 'off the end of the disk), then the heads are working. If it doens't,
you've got other faults to find.
sensor. I'm reasonably sure that the heads are
okay, they show continuity
on some of the pins, but I'm not 100% certain that is what I should be
If this is one of the drives covered in 'my' diagrams, I'll have shown
the head connections there. A head winding will test as a very low
resistance (dead short) on a meter. Just about the only thing that's not
connected to anything lese is the screen (shield)
The full-height Sony drives have the head switching diodes on the
flexiprint to the heads, which might confuse your tests. The half-height
ones have sepearate head tails from each head ans the swtiching diodes on
the main PCB.
expecting. I can't find any obvious sources of
information on where to
probe to see useful signals from the heads or find any procedure to align
If this is the drive I think it is, the analogue circuity is in one big
ASIC. There's an LC filter circuit hung off that. looking at 2
'equivalent' pins of that with a differential-input 'scope will show the
head signal.
The normal way to alignt the track 0 sensor involves the euse of a drive
exerchiser. What you do is move the sensor right out (to prevent it
stopping theh eads from stepping out when they get to what thr drive
things is track 0,), then, with 'standard' formatted disk in the drive,
step out until the signal is lost (that's one cylinder past track 0),
step in once, and move the sensor in until it just triggers. Then make
sure that the track0 signal is asserted on track 0 and not on track 1.
-tony