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My Epson QX-10 lives! Sort of.

OOOOhhh buddy...

The last time I had that problem, the head had come off the transport and was getting in the way!

Hope that is not the case THIS time! :eek:

Good luck! :D
 
The QX-10 powers up and boots VAL-DOCS off of the left hand disk drive, but then it asks for the data disk to be in the right hand disk drive. Unfortunately, the disk won't go all of the way into the drive, it hangs up with about a 1/4" to go. Anybody familiar with this before I tear into it?
Click to expand...

Yep, the QX-10s do get problems like this. The PUSH button will only operate when the disk is completely inserted. The resistance comes from the mechanism unlocking the button. The grease becomes more viscouous?, the force bigger.

There is also the opposite problem, the disk won't come out because the lock won't release (when you 'unPUSH' the button.

The proper solution is to disassemble the drive, relace the grease and assemble is again. I have the technical manual (http://electrickery.xs4all.nl/comp/qx10/doc/), but I did not attempt it yet. The same drives are used in the TF-20 drive.
 
That's good to know, I was waiting for more info before randomly tearing into it. I need to put the Titan PC card in it anyway. The left drive was hanging a little, but it loosened up. Thanks, fjkraan.
 
It's really great to find somebody else who has got a QX10, I've got all the manuals and service info. plus some software.
We used to program cobol on it in the good old days, there was time to make a cup of tea while the compiler was running. we used index linked files for news agents round lists and they are a bit hard going for a Z80.
the floppy drives are linear motor actuated.
don't know quite why it looks for a data disk unless there is a application starting automatically
cheers Geoff
 
well well well .... seems there is another

well well well .... seems there is another

you know what,
see a blog i've made (hosted by the french museum of old computers) on an QX-10 , yes.

i'm really ashamed (now) to have built it in french (so sorry for translation) but see the picture and all the story (especially the floppy drive that i totally dissasembled, greased, head cleaned, etc etc... with the help of original japaneese doc)

note 1: i explain that EPSON have really did the best 5"1/4 drive of the world, because they replaced the dirty worm gear used in all 5"1/4 by a mechanism used in hard disk drive, to move the head. That (and the pulley on the belt) explain that you can read some disk after 25 years, and not the one you write.

the mechanism to move the head is called a voice coil motor ( it's a electro-magnetic device which involve a coil on on some microphones). The result is a maximal precision and a very fast device (see track access time) for floppies.

note 2 : see the powersupply section ( as i had an US one, i had to do some reverse engineering on the schematics to rebuilt the track to have a french one -- smarter power bi voltage !!! )

note 3 : i also explain how to replace the battery from ni-cad to nimh one (with same constants, reasult is identical)

Two last things ...

if you want some disks, my qx perfectly copy one ... it's free for qx fans ;-)
send me disks if you want (i've cpm, turbo pascal and some others)

if you have some infos about how to add a native hard disk 10M drive (qx seems to support one ), i would be glad to learn how-to connect such one hard drive.

(my apologies for the long mail ...but it was too fun to find epson fan)

best regards
ludovic.

blog follows
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/

go to "remise en marche"
click on numbers down on the page or go directly to

NI CAD BATTERY
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/6-Remplacement-de-l-accumulateur-NI-CAD_a9.html

POWER SUPPLY
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/7-La-carte-d-alimentation-Q10PS_a10.html


DRIVES
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/9-Nettoyage-des-lecteurs-de-disquettes-5-1-4_a12.html

and as THE DRIVE DIDN'T WORK SO MUCH round 2 ....
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/Eps...rofondeur-des-lecteurs-de-disquettes_a17.html

SOME CPM
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/1-Manipulation-de-CP-M_a19.html

MULTIFONT CARD
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/2-La-carte-MULTIFONTS-et-le-MFBASIC_a20.html

INTERNAL CLOCK WITH BATTERY
http://www.museeinformatique.fr/EpsonQX10/3-Mon-horloge-interne-me-dit-que_a21.html

(not not hold 2K, but save clock...)

NEXT TIME i'll add
- some manipulation i did with linux and a ttys0 serial connection with CP/M term command (vt100)
- some turbo pascal stuff i did
- perhaps the TITAN PC card ( i've got one ) (u know , to transform the QX in a 8088 - sob .... ^_^ )
- a project to connect a zip on parallel port of the qx
 
An Epson QX-10 is on my "wanted" list. Hopefully one in my part of the world will show up one day.

Tez
 
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