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Floppy drive repair: Epson SD-521

tingo

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Messages
1,520
Location
Oslo, Norway
My Tiki 100 (Norwegian machine with CP/M 2.2 compatible os) has two floppy drives: Epson SD-521 (5.25 inch, 40 track, 360k). But only one of them works. So far I've done a visual inspection, as well as a visual comparison of the drives in operation. Both drives spin when accessed (with a floppy in the drive), but on the faulty drive the head doesn't move. Nothing looks wrong with the faulty drive, and when it is without power, I can easily move the head assembly back and forth. With power on, I feel the resistance from the stepper motor.

Before I dig further into this, does anyone have service manuals or repair tips for these drives? I didn't find anything when searching, so it is probably a long short, but still.
 
My Tiki 100 (Norwegian machine with CP/M 2.2 compatible os) has two floppy drives: Epson SD-521 (5.25 inch, 40 track, 360k). But only one of them works. So far I've done a visual inspection, as well as a visual comparison of the drives in operation. Both drives spin when accessed (with a floppy in the drive), but on the faulty drive the head doesn't move. Nothing looks wrong with the faulty drive, and when it is without power, I can easily move the head assembly back and forth. With power on, I feel the resistance from the stepper motor.

Before I dig further into this, does anyone have service manuals or repair tips for these drives? I didn't find anything when searching, so it is probably a long short, but still.

The Epson QX-10 service manual has a chapter on the SD-321 drive which might be good enough for your needs. That's the best I can offer.
 
The Epson QX-10 service manual has a chapter on the SD-321 drive which might be good enough for your needs. That's the best I can offer.

Thanks - that seems useful anyways, so I'll keep a copy.
As it turns out, I don't need a manual for the SD-5210 drive. Today I connected it up to a FluxEngine, and ran some tests.
RPM test
Code:
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine rpm
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
Rotational period is 200 ms (300 rpm)
test voltages
Code:
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine test voltages
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
Output voltages:
  Both drives deselected
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.46V / 5.00V
  Drive 0 selected
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.45V / 4.48V
  Drive 1 selected
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.46V / 4.48V
  Drive 0 running
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.45V / 4.52V
  Drive 1 running
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.46V / 4.49V
Input voltages:
  Both drives deselected
      Logic 1 / 0:  4.90V / 4.99V
  Drive 0 selected
      Logic 1 / 0:  4.98V / 4.98V
  Drive 1 selected
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.02V / 4.90V
  Drive 0 running
      Logic 1 / 0:  4.99V / 4.99V
  Drive 1 running
      Logic 1 / 0:  0.01V / 4.91V
seek test
Code:
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 5
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 20
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 29
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 35
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 38
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek -t 39
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine seek
Using FluxEngine with serial number A303021311160884
with all that working there was only one thing left to do - try to read a floppy
Code:
tingo@z30b:~/personal/projects/psoc/fluxengine/tmp_tiki$ ../fluxengine read ibm -s :t=0-39 -o 525-tiki_100_400k_test.img -f 525-tiki_100_400k_test.flux
[..]
Autodetecting output geometry
H.SS Tracks --->
0. 0 ........................................
0. 1 ........................................
0. 2 ........................................
0. 3 ........................................
0. 4 ........................................
0. 5 ........................................
0. 6 ........................................
0. 7 ........................................
0. 8 ........................................
0. 9 ........................................
1. 0 ........................................
1. 1 ........................................
1. 2 ........................................
1. 3 ........................................
1. 4 ........................................
1. 5 ........................................
1. 6 ........................................
1. 7 ........................................
1. 8 ........................................
1. 9 ........................................
Good sectors: 800/800 (100%)
Missing sectors: 0/800 (0%)
Bad sectors: 0/800 (0%)
writing 40 tracks, 2 heads, 10 sectors, 512 bytes per sector, 400 kB total
I also verified that the image (or at least the directory of the image - I used cpmls from cpmtools) was readable.
So now I must check and repair the cable or the machine instead. Fun times.
 
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