24 Nov
2008
24 Nov
'08
10:50 a.m.
This weekend I was trying to get an old CPM system running with via its 8"
floppy disks. After troubleshooting it I found that the disk drive cabinet
contained a Shugart SA801 Drive with a 230v 50/60 cycle Reaction Motor
(capacitor start).
I scoped out the index pulse to verify and it was running about 1.2x faster
than it should (420 rpm versus the expected 360 rpm).
Is there anything I can do to get this drive operational other than to sell
it another who has a 230v/50 cycle environment.
The change in voltage is presumanbly not a problem (in that a small
autotransformer would solve that), the change in frequency is. Presumably
you have 60Hz mains and the drive is set for 50Hz.
There would seem to be 2 solutions :
1) Generate 50Hz mains somehow, You don't need much power, so a fairly
small inverter circuit would do it. This is probabably the more complex
solution, though
2) The motor says it'll run at 60Hz (and you've shown this). So a pulley
(annd maybe a belt) change would get the speed down. Making a pulley is
fairly easy o na lathe, perhaps you can find a local model engineer (the
sort of guy who makes steam engines, etc, a 'Home Shop Machinist' is the
same sort of thing in the States) who would do it in exchange for some
similar favour.
-tony