NEC PC-8201 and PICdisk

[curtis]

Okay, just picked up a couple of 8201a's and a PICdisk.

All appear to be in great shape, however, when I go through the initialization process for the PIC, it seems to recognize it, but the disk just turns, and turns, and turns, and turns, and turns, well, you get the picture.

I'm strongly suspecting the stepper motor is toast as it spins really nice, but there is absolutely no indication of reading activity.

Anyone familiar with the PIC?

Any bets that I could POSSIBLY swap out the current drive for a more modern version at least for troubleshooting purposes?

I'm pretty sure it's a SSSD system.

Curtis

 

[curtis]

A little more information.

I managed to get it opened up (who designed this thing? What a mess!).

Confirmed the stepper motor is definitely NOT moving.

The drive is a Teac FD-35e. It's single sided, so I THINK I can just pop a regular low density drive in there and see what happens.

BTW. A little research also showed this is the same primary drive used by Bondwell in the BW-2.

 

[curtis]

Update:

Tried a couple of known good DSDD 3.5" drives with the exact same result. Light comes on, but no motor turning.

Looks like the control board had a bit of a problem.

Thinking I may pass this one on to someone who has the time and patience to figure out what went wrong.

It is a pretty neat unit. Just wish it worked.

 

[geoffm3]

Good luck to you. I had a PC-8201a system with the serial disk unit and I never could get it to work. The computer was great though... lot of fun. I even had the video display adapter that plugs into the side.