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Kaypro II drive problem

Drive Fixed!!!

Drive Fixed!!!

Just thought I'd update this thread with the news that the offending drive is now working! This is a case where I needed a little "on-the-spot" help from my friends and it was Philip Avery (pavery on this forum) who provided the assistance and the tools.

Chuck(G) said:
Check the hub clamp. One that's deformed or broken will sometimes clamp a diskette off-center and create all manner of trouble.
Click to expand...

This was indeed one of the issues. Not a broken disk clamp, but one with a ring of grey deposit around it (see blog entry below). Philip feels the lumpy bearing was binding and causing the clamp to slip & work in the hub. This caused variations in rotational speed & explain the numerous read/write errors received.

The radial alignment was also way out.

These two conditions explain the symptoms discussed in this thread. It's all fixed and working now! Many thanks to Philip and others who threw in suggestions. I know far more about drives that I used to!

Details of the diagnosis and repair have been written up as a blog entry.

Tez
 
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Good to hear that you managed to save the beast!

You know, during the first years of the 5.25" drive, hub clamps were one of those things like laptop hinges. Shugart owned the patent on the most reliable clamp and was loathe to license it. So every manufacturer had its own variation on the idea.

Micropolis probably made the most bullet-proof drives, but had one of the lousiest clamp designs. If you get a batch of old 5.25" floppies with wrinkles around the hub area, they probably came from a Micropolis drive. Eventually Micropolis figured out that briefly running the motor when a disk was being inserted helped a lot. At about the same time Dysan started adding that little reinforcing "doughnut" to the hub hole.

By the time 5.25" 1.2MB drives showed up, the clamping business had been sorted out, so the ring wasn't really necessary--although a few manufacturers continued to add them to HD media.
 
Dr_Acula said:
"All fixed and working"

That is great news. Do you now have the ability to get software onto that machine and run some programs etc?
Click to expand...

Yes. Dave Dunfield's disk images contain a lot of software. At some stage, I'll experiment with a serial port link to the PC, and see if I can transfer other programs that way.

A few more projects to get through before that though.

The aim is to have copies of the "Perfect" suite of software that was bundled with the machine. I'd like a copy of mbasic on there too. I think one of Dave's disk has this program on it.

Tez
 
Scanning

Scanning

Sure, send it over. I'm gonna try a different approach to scanning and it'll be interesting to see if it works out.
Anytime I spend scanning it is probably going to be less than trying to find a working link to it online anyway. As long as I get them done by March 17th, that is.
I also want to try to run some OCR on them to get a text file along with the scan since I'm tired of flipping through pages of scanned images looking for something.
patscc
 
patscc said:
I also want to try to run some OCR on them to get a text file along with the scan since I'm tired of flipping through pages of scanned images looking for something.
Click to expand...
Just curious, but what software do you use to combine the scanned images + OCR text?

Steve
 
The altair simh has mbasic including the bascom compiler as well. I'm sure I've seen the manual somewhere on the net. I'm still excited about the Kaypro's sbasic. It is the easiest language I've ever used and that is compared to mbasic, vb.net, c and assembly. Does it belong on your machine given this:

S-BASIC is a native-code compiler for a "structured" dialect of
the BASIC programming language for 8-bit microcomputers having a
Z80 CPU and running under the CP/M operating system. S-BASIC
achieved a reasonably wide distribution as a result of being
included with the bundled software for the Kaypro II, IV and 10.
(Its creator, Gilbert Ohnysty, became Kaypro's chief of software
engineering).
 
patscc said:
I also want to try to run some OCR on them to get a text file along with the scan since I'm tired of flipping through pages of scanned images looking for something.
patscc
Click to expand...

patscc, if you scan at a high resolution you can get a PDF which is searchable. It's been a while since I've looked, but I/m fairly sure an option exists for the likes of Adobe acrobat which allows for a PDF of this nature (rather than converting to text).

Tez
 
Terry Yager said:
Will you be needing that manual too? Perhaps Pat will consent to scan it, if I send it along. (I also have the Perfect Software manual for the Kaypro 1, but we don't want to put too much burden on poor ol' Paddy, now do we)?

--T
Click to expand...

Yes, I'd be interested in any downloadable manuals, mbasic, Pefect software or sbasic.

Sbasic certainly looks interesting.

Real copies of these manuals seem very rare.

Tez
 
Hello,
im an kaypro II owner.
i read the repair blog for the tm100.
i ve one question about the alligment.

what mean this:
This I determined from measurements during past service 'sessions' with my Model III. Adjusting the Adjustment Cam, after loosening the retaining screws (as detailed in the TM100 manual) brought up a nice big signal.
Click to expand...
Where are the retaining screws?

My problem is:
An floppy which is great from an image with drive b, cant read from drive a.
although an floppy which is great from an image with drive a, cant read from drive b.
the kaypro wont boot from drive a, so i change the index00 position.
if i turn the screw back it wont read any floppy.
thanks a lot
greetings
 
You would be best to find a TM100 manual (online?) which illustrates & details drive alignment procedures. The relevant parts of the manual are included in the TRS-80 Model III manual - hence my referral to my service sessions with my Model III. In the above blog I'm essentially doing what the manual says, but substituting a rare & expensive 'alignment disk' (which I don't have) with another Kaypro disk.

Have you an oscilloscope? Adjustment of radial retaining screws is pointless without one.

Your alignment problem is most likely radial, not the index 00 position. Try and put that back where it was.

Philip
 
hello again,
i ve different manuals.
tm100-14 product specification and users manual
tm 100 disk drive operating & service manual
tm100-2/2a technical service data for your disk drive.
i still searching for the alligment description

i ve found this desc.:
3.6.1.2 RADIAL TRACK ALIGNMENT
1) Select HD "0".
2) Loosen (do noit remove) the two module retaining screws on the bottom of the chassis, and the one at the top rear of module
Click to expand...
But where are two module retaining screws at the top rear of module???
 
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prinz3nroll3 said:
hello again,
i ve different manuals.
tm100-14 product specification and users manual
tm 100 disk drive operating & service manual
tm100-2/2a technical service data for your disk drive.
i still searching for the alligment description

i ve found this desc.:

But where are two module retaining screws at the top rear of module???
Click to expand...

Ok, besides the two screws underneath, there is only one retaining screw at the top rear of module. It is beside the Adjustment Cam. All three of mine were dabbed with green paint. My TRS-80 Model III manual has clear diagrams showing this - I'm surprised the original docs don't

Philip
 
pavery said:
Ok, besides the two screws underneath, there is only one retaining screw at the top rear of module. It is beside the Adjustment Cam. All three of mine were dabbed with green paint. My TRS-80 Model III manual has clear diagrams showing this - I'm surprised the original docs don't

Philip
Click to expand...
hello,
i ve found the 3 screws. the first sector are great -> more than 0,3V peak peak
but behind sector 30 the signal is lower 0,3V.
format A: /1 works without an error
i copy at the disk command.com and imd.com
i can run command.com but imd (imagedisk start and an error occur)
i think there is an problem at the sector > 30.
what can i do?
will the sector00 adjust help?
thx a lot
 
Ok, it's normal for those later tracks (>30) to read lower as there's less media passing under the head per track.

I'm assuming that you're aligning Drive A & that Drive B is fine. It is most necessary to bulk-erase a floppy, then format it in Drive B (in your case). Did you do this? I bulk-erase by passing a strong magnet all over the disk. It's necessary to do this so you don't pick up any previous tracks written to this disk when you're studying it on your scope.

You could well be a track out. Not only can a maladjusted Track00 sensor do this, but I *believe* the cam adjustment can adjust to the wrong track as well.

To verify that you're reading all 40 tracks, I step from Track 39 to Track 00 and ensure there is a signal on the scope for all tracks. Hence the need for a bulk-erased disk. If you're a track out, you won't be able to see either Track 00 or alternatively Track 39. When on Track 00, the Track00 sensor should be active.

I don't know if you're able to do this stepping on a Kaypro, Tezza & I didn't have the software, hence we used the TRS-80 Model III.

Philip
PS. I'm away from email Mon-Thur this week.
 
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