That happens to be the exact external FDD that I have. Mine was made by Datel, but the case looks identical. I dropped a Gotek in mine and it works a treat, plus I was able to use the cable as a template to build an external FDD cable for my STs.
Apologies, I haven't had time to watch your video fully, where did you get to? Does it work?
IMHO, definitely worth saving, even if just as an external FDD, but I see no reason a Gotek wouldn't work in there.
rubber_jonnie wrote: 06 Oct 2021 13:56
Apologies, I haven't had time to watch your video fully, where did you get to? Does it work?
IMHO, definitely worth saving, even if just as an external FDD, but I see no reason a Gotek wouldn't work in there.
Hiya,
The electronics & cable were fine & happily powered and connected to a Gotek, but the main drive unit, despite the mechanism seeming in great nick, span up but wasn't recognised.
Cursory (external) inspection didn't turn up any obviously blown components and there didn't appear any jumpers to play with. I switched the drive unit and reassembled.
I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to floppy drives, so am not sure if its' worth going back to debug it further. I did wonder if perhaps it had been changed in the past as it yielded the same symptoms as putting a PC (S1) drive into it, but haven't pursued that either, pending input.
rubber_jonnie wrote: 06 Oct 2021 13:56
Apologies, I haven't had time to watch your video fully, where did you get to? Does it work?
IMHO, definitely worth saving, even if just as an external FDD, but I see no reason a Gotek wouldn't work in there.
Hiya,
The electronics & cable were fine & happily powered and connected to a Gotek, but the main drive unit, despite the mechanism seeming in great nick, span up but wasn't recognised.
Cursory (external) inspection didn't turn up any obviously blown components and there didn't appear any jumpers to play with. I switched the drive unit and reassembled.
I don't really know what I'm doing when it comes to floppy drives, so am not sure if its' worth going back to debug it further. I did wonder if perhaps it had been changed in the past as it yielded the same symptoms as putting a PC (S1) drive into it, but haven't pursued that either, pending input.
Any thoughts appreciated!
BW
Yeah, they're pretty simple electronically, just a wiring harness and a regulator for power. Mine took a Gotek no problem, just had to set the jumper to S0, no others required, and it works great with my 520ST. What I should do is dig out a spare grey case as the black Gotek I used looks a bit ugly!!
The obvious thing to do is take the drives apart and clean them. Clean the top and bottom head and relubricate the mechanical parts. Also clean the small switches that detects that a disk is inserted. You could also change caps in the drive.
But then again, how much stuff do we have on real disks that we use? I have all my stuff on HDD and gotek.
DoG wrote: 06 Oct 2021 15:39
The obvious thing to do is take the drives apart and clean them. Clean the top and bottom head and relubricate the mechanical parts. Also clean the small switches that detects that a disk is inserted. You could also change caps in the drive.
But then again, how much stuff do we have on real disks that we use? I have all my stuff on HDD and gotek.
I have a pile of discs that came with the STE I bought (and nothing else that has a real disc drive), so the thought of a working external is nice.
In this case it's not 'drive not ready' or a 'disc reading error' or similar -- the drive isn't recognised at all. It spins up on reboot, but trying to open drive B at all gives the 'Insert B into A' prompt.
So this is a bit upstream from the heads or the disc detect switch, I think.
Heads could be misaligned or maybe track 0 is not detected? There is also some programs that can test if the drive spins at 300rpm so you know that is working at least. That can make the bitstream go wacko.
It isn't much else you can check really. Fixing misaligned heads is not worth the effort. You will go crazy before it is fixed.