Micropolis drives (was: Micro-Expander disks

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Tue Apr 17 17:15:26 2001

The early Micropoli that I'm familiar with do not look anything like a
Tandon. They are designed to operate horizontally, but will work on their
sides. The disk goes in through a slot, and then the entire mechanical
carriage is pushed down by pressing down on a small panel in/below the
middle of the slot. Pressing the same panel again permits the carriage
assembly to pop back up and partialy eject the diskette. The "Type I" was
48tpi SS?, and the "Type II" was 100TPI.

Since this is a completely different door, and therefore a different
model, it could very well be 96TPI.

How about connecting it in place of a 720K (even on a PC configured for
720K 3.5") and seeing whether the disks that it formats will interchange
with a Tandon TM100-4, Teac 55F, or Shugart/Matsushita/etc 465?

--
Fred Cisin                      cisin_at_xenosoft.com
XenoSoft                        http://www.xenosoft.com
PO Box 1236                     (510) 558-9366
Berkeley, CA 94701-1236
On 17 Apr 2001, Frank McConnell wrote:
> "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> wrote:
> > On 16 Apr 2001, Frank McConnell wrote:
> > > Hmm, here I sit looking at one of a pair of Micropolis model 1115-VI.
> > > It's a 5.25" full-height drive, serial 0372.  Someone (not me) helpfully
> > > wrote on it with a marker:
> 
> > They might be right.  I had heard that Micropolis came out later with a
> > 96TPI, but I've never seen it.  The date code and the double sided is
> > consistent with that.  Is it really 2 sided?  What kind of door assembly
> > does it have?
> 
> Looking at it from the front, it looks like a typical full-height
> Tandon as seen in an IBM PC or Shugart drive.  Flat door, closes down
> over center of slot.  A printed-circuit board covers the top of the
> drive.  I think there are two sets of head leads that disappear into
> the interior.  The door, when closed, has a flange that pokes through
> a slot in the board to interrupt an optical emitter/sensor pair.
> 
> What's funny is that the top hub appears to be fixed.  The bottom hub is 
> mounted to a sort of sub-frame that pretty much covers the bottom of
> the drive, and it pivots (drive shaft, drive motor and all) about the
> middle of the outer frame as you close the door.  
> 
> Of course, this makes looking into the interior of the drive more fun
> than usual, because it's completely surrounded by stuff.  
> 
> > But they might be mistaken, and have ASSUMED 96TPI due to it not being
> > 48TPI, and/or having about 80 tracks.  I've even seen people label 720K
> > 5.25" drives as being 1/2M, "because it's NOT a 360K".
> 
> Yep, that is what you got me thinking.
> 
> -Frank McConnell

Received on Tue Apr 17 2001 - 17:15:26 BST