Recapping floppy drives

[troed]

(a.k.a, bring back the dead)

I have two piles of floppy drives in the closet. One of drives that no longer work, one of working drives. Usually I try really hard to source Epson 340 drives so that I can move the front bezel and eject button from the dead 380 to them, but after a while I run out of donor 380s as well as new 340s ...

... so, I really need to start getting that pile of non-working drives back up and running. I guess that in more than 50% of cases it should be solved by recapping, but there's a lack of info online from those who have done so. I thought this forum would be a good place to start ...

Currently I'm looking at doing Epson 480, 380 and a Sony MP-F11W (?). For many of them I've documented that they have "flaky motor on signal" which sounds like a dead ringer for caps ...

[exxos]

I did this one..

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... ?f=17&t=96

Though a lot of drives I have seen don't any anything but ceramic caps. Mostly dirty heads, or I think the 380's the heads seem to go out of alignment somehow. Though feel it could be the drive going out of tolerances and the "gain" of the head amp needs increasing. Though i never found any info on the chips I looked for, so difficult to diagnose the circuit in that respect :(

[troed]

I did this one..

Perfect!! I'll start with the Sony then :D

[Neffers]

GadgetUK on that there Youtube has done a few vids on floppy drives in general, he explains a lot and has been successful on many occasions. Might be helpful in general in addition to Exxos's thread.

[Steve]

I wrote this post about cleaning floppy drives on the atari forum:
http://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... own+floppy

I fixed both my Falcon and TT floppy drives doing this. I didn't need to recap.

[troed]

Went to work on a Sony that almost never managed to get the motor running. Didn't have any SMD 10uF at home so I used two electrolytic 47uF on the same spots as described by exxos. Seems to have made the trick. Only doing it on the motor on signal and not the 5V supply didn't get there the whole way*.

Thanks for the very nice guide :) Next up, Epson 480 ...

*) This computer hasn't had its PSU recapped and there's some very slight dimming on each floppy step

[Methanoid]

Polite request for a guide for SMD-380

[DoG]

Which version do you have? C103558-00x. X=a number which I know there are at least three versions of. 001 and 002 seems to be the same PCB and 003 is refined with less caps.

[Methanoid]

Which version do you have? C103558-00x. X=a number which I know there are at least three versions of. 001 and 002 seems to be the same PCB and 003 is refined with less caps.

002... dont suppose with your clear knowledge you know where I can find a manual/service/schematic with values of caps etc also? I cannot solder but I have a friend who might :lol:

[DoG]

Which version do you have? C103558-00x. X=a number which I know there are at least three versions of. 001 and 002 seems to be the same PCB and 003 is refined with less caps.

002... dont suppose with your clear knowledge you know where I can find a manual/service/schematic with values of caps etc also? I cannot solder but I have a friend who might :lol:

Epson SMD-380 (C103558-001 and 002):

C01 = THT 56uF, ⌀6,3mmx7mm, 2,54mm pitch, 16V
C02 = THT 10uF, ⌀4mmx7mm, 1,5mm pitch, 16V
C1 = THT 22uF, ⌀5mmx9mm, 2,54-5,12mm pitch, 10V, Non polarized
C2 = THT 22uF, ⌀5mmx9mm, 2,54-5,12mm pitch, 10V, Non polarized
C3 = THT 22uF, ⌀5mmx9mm, 2,54-5,12mm pitch, 10V, Non polarized
C7 = THT 4,7uF, ⌀3mmx7mm, 2,54mm pitch, 16V

Pitch is the leg spacing on the capacitors. C01, C02 and C7 is polarized electrolytic capacitors. C1-C2 are not. All caps are through hole technology. Some are soldered to SMD pads on PCB so you need to bend the legs to make it reach the pads and get the caps to lay flat on the PCB.