--- "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 7 May 2003, Nick Garnett wrote:
> > Does anyone know the whereabouts of any working 8" floppy
> > drives?
> Have you considered substituting 1.2M 5.25" drives?
> Once you make the appropriate cables and jumpering, they will usually
> work as a drop-in replacement, with NO software changes.
Serious question (not meant to merely contradict Fred), what would it
take to do that for an RX01 or RX02? The drive mechanism itself in
a DEC 8" drive has no electronics - it's a motor, a head loading relay
(the drive motors spin whenever the unit is powered on, unlike modern
equipment), a couple of sensors and a head cable. All of the "work" is
done on the board above the drives.
Even getting past electrical issues, one trick would be how to low-level
format the disks.
Among other reasons for doing it is that I have an RX01 that came from
a client with a siezed rotation motor on one drive and a siezed head
positioner motor (with attendant incinerated head motor driver
transistors) on the other drive. Yes, I can repair the transistors and
move one good motor to the other mechanism, but it means that I have 1/2
of a full RX01.
-ethan
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com
Received on Thu May 08 2003 - 13:10:01 BST