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Sol-20 with Helios II drive

I also replaced some caps as suggested in Martin's guide linked in this thread and fired her up. I don't really know what it's supposed to sound like but it seems to be okay. Corey, did you have a video (with audio) on yours? If not, I'd love to see one

I can take a quick video on the weekend. Remember you will need to make the extenders power cable so that you can align and tune the drive. If you don't get a cable there isn't enough room to work. If you don't do that work you drive may seem to work or not work at all but I can pretty much guarantee and disk you make and use will not be interchangeable.

Also be careful, if certain cable ends points like the eject switches touch the chassis you will fry the drive.

Also did you repack the bearings????

Cheers,
Corey
 
I can take a quick video on the weekend. Remember you will need to make the extenders power cable so that you can align and tune the drive. If you don't get a cable there isn't enough room to work. If you don't do that work you drive may seem to work or not work at all but I can pretty much guarantee and disk you make and use will not be interchangeable.

Also be careful, if certain cable ends points like the eject switches touch the chassis you will fry the drive.

Also did you repack the bearings????

Cheers,
Corey

I have PT DOS disks from two systems plus the factory PT DOS disks so I can check alignment to make sure they all work.

As for bearings, I did not repack them. Sometime you just have to leave well enough alone so you don't do any further damage so I'll go this way for now. I do know what the Seagate ST-506 drives sound like so I can tell what bad bearings sound like with those, it's just hard to tell without comparing another. I followed the procedure in the manual to check the spindle bearings and it looks good but knowing the sound is helpful too.

I may need some advise on the eject button wires. I removed the front face plate on the drive (for the third time) and ripped the wires off accidentally. Doh! The face plate is so heavy, I didn't even notice. It seems that two of the wires on each eject switch is grounded. When you get a minute to check, is this consistent with yours? If so, which lead does the non-grounded wire go to? I'm assuming the momentarily closed lead.
 
I don't recall about the wires. Won't be able to open the drive easily for a few days based upon how it is setup physically I may have pictures, but I'm pretty positive this is something using either the drive or Helios schematics would be easy to determine.

Cheers,
Corey
 
A picture is worth a thousand words...

PTDOS SYST.jpg

Still have to make sure it's totally fine but she boots! And I was able to fix the eject wires once I fixed a shorted cap. All caps that were recommended were replaced. The drive is almost silent as the fan is louder so I think the bearings are fine.

I'm glad I made it this far with Martin Eberhard's patience :)
 
Congratulations. Martin is the best.

I guess I should make you a copy of CP/M 1.4 for Helios and send it along. Don't forget to put Martin's xmodem stuff on PTdos. Then we can all send each other programs.

PM me with your address.

Cheers,
Corey
 
Thanks guys.

I made a quick video of the internals of the Helios II disk drive verifying a disk for anyone who is interested in the PerSci Model 270 drive mecahnism that the Helios II uses. It's weird that it doesn't just move from track to track but I guess it is better calibrated in the way it checks the disk.


Enjoy.
 
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