Wow! This is awesome news!! I am a bit of a Commodore floppy addict also, and feel the same way you do. I love putting a demo in and enjoying it. I’m so happy there may be hope for any of my heads that die in the future. I have a couple 1571 also, so hope it does end up working for these drives.
I was playing around with developing a new SD card solution that interfaces to one of the VIAs. It is perfect for drives with broken heads. When using it you can get the real heads to move and the real disk to spin but the data comes from the SD card. This way it feels like you are fully using the original drive. Externally you could not tell if the data is coming from the actual disk or the SD card.
You can buy right-angle 4-pin connectors. You could use one as an adapter in between the socket and new circuit to have it lie flat. You should be able to close the case with no soldering or jumper wires if what I see in my mind actually works. A bit of Kapton for insulation at most.
16:49 Twisting the stepper motor more than the distance covered by a siingle step (i.e. a full half-track) is pointless as the next headbump will reset the adjustment. You need to look at and adjust the track-0 head stop instead.
I think that is what I did in the end. Not sure about the terminology but I adjusted at which point the metal band in the head assembly is attached to the spindle of the stepper. This helped getting the offset of 2 tracks eliminated.
Good stuff. Very thorough review as usual. I have my CBM disk drives tucked away in storage, and at least some of them has the Alps mechanism, but now I'm curious to check if they still work... Do we know this drive head issue only plagues a certain era/type of 1541s, or might affect 1541/IIs, 1551s, 1571s as well?
1541-II are less often affected, but they still have this issue especially for Mitsumi mech. Chinon ones seem pretty reliable. 1571 also have this issue, which is even worse as they are more rare but can be repaired using this method as well. 1551 are basically 1541, so probably same issue
Hi, the system that revives the D500 head is interesting, but could you share the operating scheme of this modification? I would like to bring back my old 1541 with the broken head. Great work, many enthusiasts will be happy with it.
Nope, I haven't designed it and also I'm no electrical engineer, so couldn't even if I wanted to. The author will eventually provide a batch of PCBs and sell those at the price of the BOM over at forum64.de though. Feel free to register there and wait for the order to happen.
@@root42 Ouch. I guess I'm too late to the party. Do you know where they found the heads and how much they cost? At some point it's probably just cheaper to buy a ALPS drive.
That's a very cool and super smart idea on how to get some life out a bad head! Subbed!
Wow! This is awesome news!! I am a bit of a Commodore floppy addict also, and feel the same way you do. I love putting a demo in and enjoying it. I’m so happy there may be hope for any of my heads that die in the future. I have a couple 1571 also, so hope it does end up working for these drives.
I was playing around with developing a new SD card solution that interfaces to one of the VIAs. It is perfect for drives with broken heads. When using it you can get the real heads to move and the real disk to spin but the data comes from the SD card. This way it feels like you are fully using the original drive. Externally you could not tell if the data is coming from the actual disk or the SD card.
There is already a similar solution:
github.com/fook42/1541-rebuild
But it won’t move the heads I think.
You can buy right-angle 4-pin connectors. You could use one as an adapter in between the socket and new circuit to have it lie flat. You should be able to close the case with no soldering or jumper wires if what I see in my mind actually works. A bit of Kapton for insulation at most.
Cool, hopefully many drives can be recovered and work for a bit longer.
Nice repair video. Thanks for sharing
16:49 Twisting the stepper motor more than the distance covered by a siingle step (i.e. a full half-track) is pointless as the next headbump will reset the adjustment. You need to look at and adjust the track-0 head stop instead.
I think that is what I did in the end. Not sure about the terminology but I adjusted at which point the metal band in the head assembly is attached to the spindle of the stepper. This helped getting the offset of 2 tracks eliminated.
Nice T-Shirt ;)
Good stuff. Very thorough review as usual. I have my CBM disk drives tucked away in storage, and at least some of them has the Alps mechanism, but now I'm curious to check if they still work... Do we know this drive head issue only plagues a certain era/type of 1541s, or might affect 1541/IIs, 1551s, 1571s as well?
1541-II are less often affected, but they still have this issue especially for Mitsumi mech. Chinon ones seem pretty reliable. 1571 also have this issue, which is even worse as they are more rare but can be repaired using this method as well. 1551 are basically 1541, so probably same issue
Hi, the system that revives the D500 head is interesting, but could you share the operating scheme of this modification? I would like to bring back my old 1541 with the broken head. Great work, many enthusiasts will be happy with it.
Nope, I haven't designed it and also I'm no electrical engineer, so couldn't even if I wanted to. The author will eventually provide a batch of PCBs and sell those at the price of the BOM over at forum64.de though. Feel free to register there and wait for the order to happen.
I think it is a 2 coil inductor connected to the good side of the read head in parallel. Great idea, I'll try that myself.
Could you please post a link to the shop selling the Newtronics NOS heads?
They are sold out, sorry. It was PolyPlay
@@root42 Ouch. I guess I'm too late to the party. Do you know where they found the heads and how much they cost? At some point it's probably just cheaper to buy a ALPS drive.
Hallo.
Please, do an alignment how to video.
Tchüss!!!!
Okay, will put it onto my todo. I think I showed that in a livestream...
@@root42 Danke mein herr :)