Meantime, fixing RX50's.

Chris Zach cz at alembic.crystel.com
Tue Nov 19 19:07:07 CST 2019


So while trying to figure out this XXDP format error (the FCT Write 
protect enabled one that's stopping me from formatting an RD54) I spent 
a bit of time copying the floppy to a backup disk. My RX50 was *very* 
flakey, throwing errors so I pulled it to see what was up.

Opened the unit and sure enough: The disk head could use a cleaning, and 
more important the little pad on the other side came off when I touched 
it. Apparently the glue holding it in has decayed in the past 30 years. 
Drat.

Used isopropyl and q tips to clean the heads, then broke a Q tip in half 
and put a bit of cyanacryllic glue on the tip, then transferred it to 
the pad holder, then put the pad back on. Pressed down and breathed on 
it to give the glue some moisture and waited an hour. Did same to other 
head.

RX50 now works perfectly, and I was able to make and boot a backup. So 
if your RX50 is flakey check to see if the pads are still on the head 
assembly, it's possible it is loose or fell off (if fell off look around 
in the RX50 for it, probably in there somewhere)

Never dull. Now to figure out this write protection issue: I have set 
the drive to unit 4 (well 3 in the 0-3 world), set the RQDX3 to pins 1 
and 2 on the write precomp jumper, and it still comes up but thinks the 
drive is write protected.

Drat.


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