Jan, you are my savior! I did everything but the front switch maintenance, and the floppy drive kept acting weird. Used some contact cleaner, and it works like new!
Yup, after watching your useful video I did the same for two spare A600/A1200 drives I have (smd caps inside) and now all it's working flawlessy! Cheers, M
I have bought used chinon just like the one you have repaired in this movie - however it turned out to be faulty. It was supposed to be ok so I ahev entered into a vicious exchange of arguments with the seller - I was so angry he sold me the faulty drive tha t I thnk I didn't think straight (I guess it happens to all of us some times). After a while I saw your video and ...it has calmed me down and directed towards easy going and methodical way of eliminating the possible cause. It was the pin detecting the drive insertion - I have cleaned it a then completed the other steps (no recap at this time) and IT WORKS like a charm! THANK YOU for your videos - literally I wouldn't even tried to repoair the drive if it wasn't for you :)
Ik heb zelf een Chinon drive hersteld met de optie's die je liet zien Jan ! gelukkig werkt het weer. switches schoonmaken en de caps vervangen. kopjes schoonmaken en draait weer als een zonnetje. Elco's en condensatoren zijn een veel voorkomend probleem in alle apparaten
Awesome , my floppy was in failure state since 20 years, i always boot on hardrive but i don’t have so much stuff on it (like games). I had the same frontal switch issue like you had. Thanks so much
My chinon FB354 rev E even after the recap and thorough cleaning of the heads and switches for floppy detection continued to give the NO READY SIGNAL error. So the amiga didn't react to the insertion of the floppies. Checking the contacts with a multimeter I discovered that a zero-ohm resistor on the track of pin 34 (jp4) was completely gone. I replaced the resistor (which acts as a jumper) with soldering and the drive worked 100% again
Thanks very much! I even did disassembled the micro switches and cleaned it with a fibre pencil and did all the other things (replaced caps, lubricated and cleaned heads). The floppy now works as it were a brand-new one. Thanks for your hints.
Oh, glad the video was helpful to you. I wonder how long it takes until my micro switch stops working again and I have to properly disassemble it, too. ;)
I see you clean flux residue with a tooth brush (and probably IPA). In my experience this just dilutes the flux and spreads it thinly over a larger area. I have to use a combination of swabs or Kimwipes to actually get the flux away from the board, otherwise everything gets slighly sticky and dirty after a while.
Hi Jan thanks for your wonderful video as usual I have exactly the same drive I have cleaned the heads and it works,,, If I leave it overnight or A-day or so I put a disc back in and it doesn't read any discs, After 5 or 6 attempts the drive works perfectly, I have Regreased the Worm , And cleaned the switch contacts,,, Same again it works but the next day the same again happens I have yet to change the capacitors next If it doesn't work after that then it's something else thank you
I hope replacing the capacitors fixes it! Might very well be that's the issue. Bad caps often cause random intermittent faults like you describe. Fingers crossed!
I have the same drive and cleaned everything properly like shown in this video but did not replace the caps. I still get read errors with most disks. Can a faulty cap cause these read errors? Thanks
You do? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the caps were bad because it was a common problem. I can understand that. Methodical procedure demands that the caps be tested 1st to be sure. Would have been nice to see exactly with proof is all I'm saying.
I have an A500Plus with one of these drives. After recap it is as if it does not get any power. Any idea what I should troubleshoot for? It was my first Amiga since 1993, and it has not been preowned. I know the floppy drive used to work before i shelved the machine back in 1997 or something. Hope you can give me some tips.
i have FB-354 for an older A500....i replaced the caps...but it did not change the initial problem that nothing happens when i power on the Amiga. i am pretty sure the power to the drive is ok since another drive seems to get power. This one gives no reaction or ticking standby sound. Any suggestion what to troubleshoot? i get the kickstart 1.2 screen...
I liked Nibble Copy which is I think 4 bits instead of a byte that has 8 bits. You could backup floppies from all other computer systems. And the extra track 81. 😇
I even had the original X-Copy hardware dongle back in the day which allowed for even "deeper" nibble copies. Virtually no copy protection could stop me. ;)
Jan Beta Nibble copy did indeed copy the unbreakable. With MS Dos no back up could be created but Nibble from Amiga did. Had a disk for MSX worth 25 dollar today, could only be back upped with Amiga Nibble. Was a speech sampler disk with most sophisticated MSX copy protection.
Thanks for this! Really good intro into repairing these. Going to try everything bar the cap replacement and see how we go! Don't suppose you've repaired an A570 before? I have one but it's not loading the caddy.
Jan, what were the symptoms? I have the same drive, it is clicking OK, but when i insert disk head does not move. Workbench pops " not a dos disk". Per visual inspection capacitors seems OK. Any ideas?
Hey Jan. I have a couple of questions.. :) When I clean drive heads, I have been using benzine. It has worked pretty well overall, but is it too strong for that purpose? Thinking of getting some isopropyl instead. And that little handy spray pump.. Did you get that online? If so, could you perhaps throw a link my way? Thanks as always, for your helpful videos! :)
+Casual Commodore I would not recommend benzine because it really is a bit strong for that purpose. It might dissolve some of the glue or plastics nearby if it gets there. Isopropanol doesn't hurt plastics much at all if you don't soak it. It's also the industry standard for cleaning read/write heads since forever, so it's most likely a good choice. ;) Make sure to get 99.9% which is the cleanest type you can get. 70% works fine but can leave stains sometimes so it's not quite as good for delicate stuff like this. The little spray pump is actually an empty deodorant bottle I kept. All the bottles I saw for sale were made of plastic and this one is glass so I prefer it. :)
Thanks for the video, I'm trying to fix my A500. If I put a disk in, sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't unless I manually spin the wheel with my finger. It will then work until the motor stops, and I have to spin it again. Have you ever seen anything like it?
I wonder if you can use tooth floss to clean that motor spindle instead of a cotton bud, to be able to get into the grooves of the spidle when cleaning it?
Hello jan and thanks for the video..this is the same internal drive i amusing in one of my amiga500s and it has weird issue...it will not function upon first turning on the amiga but it works perfectly when i reboot...i get the usual clicking sound upon starting but nothing works until i reboot the amiga.....any ideas please...?.....danke.
What problem will the drive typically have when those capacitors are bad? What exact problem did this drive have based on those (specifically spindle, stepper, etc.)?
As far as I know, the caps in the drives are usually connected to the motors, so the failure mode is the motors not running at the correct speed. Which results in disks not being recognized/read errors and other random behavior. Difficult to tell and very much depending on the drive model and how bad the capacitors are. I had the drive in my A1200 failing recently, it behaved like it should but it didn't read disks at all. Turns out it was the one little cap that's on the PCB.
@@JanBeta: Thanks. But a lot of times we can run a DC motor without any capacitor, and given a certain voltage it stays at that speed. Why does this setup need any capacitors to help that?
Hi Jan, vielleicht kannst Du mir helfen. Habe ein Amiga erworben, aber mir fehlt eine Workbench Diskette und auch sonst zickt das Laufwerk etwas. Bin ziemlich neu in dem Thema, aber auch kein Elektriker und traue mich da nicht ran. Vielleicht können wir mal reden? Gruß Florian
I have same Chinon (China quality?) drive that is busted. It makes loud noises when the head moves and reads disks badly. Randomly it sometimes loads disk a bit and sometimes it won't even begin to load it. Mostly it gives guru meditation. Another Chinon I have runs fine on that machine. I tried to clean reading head with alcohol and added some grease to that corkscrew thingy but it didn't help. Would replacing those few caps help or is it too far gone?
Hi Jan love your videos. I'm having a problem and can't pin down what's going on. I can't get any floppy work on my A500. I have a Chinon FB-354 that is completely dead in my A500. I put new caps in it and still get no activity at all. I hooked it up to a regular pc just to double check for any signs of life and I do get activity from it. So I figured it must be the A500 board but before I went poking around on it I converted a Mitsumi D359M3D and a Samsung SFD-321B to work on the A500. I get activity out of of them but neither will load anything on the A500 and the other thing that has me puzzled is that I get no signs of life at all out of the Chinon when it's hooked to the A500 but I do when it's hooked to a pc. In short I get activity on all 3 on pc but only the 2 converted ones on the A500 but they won't load anything. Do you have any ideas on what to check next ???
Did you check the power supply? Maybe the converted drives give some signs of life because they operate the motor from different voltages. I had an A500 where the drive didn't work and the only fault was a bad connection on the 12V line in the power jack.
I have an Amiga 500 and it refuses to boot the disks I have It just displays the kickstart logo I fixed a cap on the drive that had leaked and that didn't help The guy I got it from tested it successfully a few months prior I'm not sure what's wrong Any suggestions?
I'm Curious: was the drive giving read errors before replacing the capacitors? I mean, they are someway connected to the data line or they are just involved in the motor/power circuit? I'm asking this because I got several drives that even after a good cleaning, of th head still give me read errors, but I never considered replacing caps since I've always thinked as a unusual and unuseful practice on a disk drive.. so please illuminate me... what's the purpose of the recapping? :)
salvob Google for 'Wikipedia Capacitor Plague' it will learn you everything about capacitors and how it hunts old but modern technology. Wikipedia has excellent articles and sources.😎
GaryKildall thanks for your reply, I know about capaciror plague, I just like to know if the replacement was done by precaution or he had verified that the capacitors was faulty before removing and if they was involved in the data feed transmission system or just in the power circuit
I have the same problem. To format or copy I have to press the disk down slightly so it writes to the disk. If I dont press it down it says 'disk is right protected' .What should I use to clean it and do I have to remove the disk drive from the computer? Great video.
Thanks! It should be possible to spray the litte switch while the drive is in the computer if you are careful. You should use some mild "tuner spray" type of contact cleaner that does not harm plastics. Most stuff is far too aggressive and often seems to work at first and then gradually eats its way through plastic parts or even the contacts in the switches itself. I use Teslanol Oszillin T6 (which is available in Europe but near impossible to get in the USA, I think). For the USA and Canada I'd recommend getting DeOxit stuff.
No, I have one complete A500 and I think that's enough for me (plus, I don't have much space). The one from this video will probably be my test board for some time. Thanks for the tip though! :)
That's not a trivial task with an A500 as it doesn't have any native IDE or SCSI support. There are add-ons and cards available but my knowledge is pretty limited in that respect. Would be interesting to look into it but I doubt that I will be able to do a video about that anytime soon, I'm afraid.
I now there are solutions for de floppy drive, but I like to connect the open-source community to the vintage computer community. So think like arduino FDD emulator.
+SkuldChan42 Haha, so the one pronunciation I didn't try. ;) Measuring the caps would have been interesting. I guess they'd measure okay though. I'm still a fan of recapping as "preventive maintenance".
Do you know if these drives need the 12v ? I’m trying to get it to work from external floppy interface on Amiga 2000 but no activity so wondering if it’s a power issue.
@@JanBeta do you know if I can supply the 12v safely off the external floppy connector on the back of the Amiga 2000? I see a 5v and a 12v on two of the pins.
@@JanBeta great thanks. I could not find any info on these drives anywhere. Nor any info on the connector. Also found it odd that the EFI - External Floppy Interface only supplies 5v and claims it works with Amiga drives and PC drives. Surprised I seem to be the only one online asking about this issue. I checked the Amiga forums… I’ll give it a try tomorrow. Thanks!
@@JanBeta that worked! Thanks Jan! Btw I’ve subbed to your channel for years. Along with all the other guys on RUclips doing retro electronics. I do some things as well some vids on my channel you might like to check out. Thanks again. Time to make a 3d printed floppy enclosure!
i have the FB-354AA, looks the same. Mine was installed on an Atari SF314. My drive won't light up and won't read disks. But I can slightly hear it trying to do stuff. Power supply gets 12v and 4.94v on the other pin, not quite 5v. Does that matter? I have tried other PSU, other 1040STe, and no luck. Might be the caps i guess.
4.94V should be absolutely fine. Usually the components have 5-10% tolerances. My guess would indeed be the capacitors or something mechanical. I’ve rarely seen anything else break on these drives.
@@JanBeta thanks for the reply. I have a drive i pulled with loose solder joints . They are where the smaller connector are. Maybe the same is happenening with this Chinon so i will check that too. I will order the caps ASAP. Also, do you know where i could start with my 520STm that boots to only a black screen?
Lithium grease is much better, because it doesn't attract dust. It is so-called dry-grease. On the other hand a silicone grease is one of the most dust-attracting.
The Amiga version is pretty obscure because Nintendo threatened to sue Rainbow Arts over the obvious Super Mario "references". The C64 version was out for a couple of months I believe while the Amiga version was taken out of stores right after it was released. Original versions are pretty much unobtainium. ;)
@@JanBeta yeah I only had the super mario brothers version of it on C64 which is where someone hacked in actual mario graphics into it. I always thought it was a mario game. I never realized it was supposed to be different until much later.
Judging by the blackness of the original lubricant it probably wasn't silicone originally, but graphite grease instead. It is commonly used for mechanical mechanisms but is electrically conductive so you need to be careful where it is used in electronics applications. In a mechanism like this where it is not exposed to high heat or excessive amounts of dust or liquid, it should effectively last forever. The silicone should work fine, but I thought you might be curious to know. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_lubricant#Graphite
+Jeremy Levi Ah, didn't know that graphite was used in these drives at all. Would have thought it's impractical due to the conductivity. Interesting point.Thanks for sharing. :)
It really depends on the grade of graphite grease. For example, the kind made for lubricating locks that comes in a little puffer tube is a very fine powder (it looks like tiny flakes of grey-silver metal), but if you puff it out onto your finger it smears easily into a uniform layer, feels very frictionless, and isn't gritty at all.
They are quite robust, especially compared to the 5 1/4 drives. Most are easily fixed, I think. Even clumsy Jan only managed to completely kill one of these (I ripped it apart to hastily and broke some traces on the PCB)... Most are quite easily fixed, I think. ;)
Thanks! Building a wood case is a nice idea. Maybe I'll try something like that for another video. This drive went to an A1010 external case in the follow up video. :)
Of course, I enjoyed and learned from you. Odd, when I searched "T6 Oszillin Kontakt- und Tunerspray" on eBay.ca the first item was a poster of anime girls in bikinis.
+MindFlareRetro Haha, thanks. The bikini girls poster will probably not do very well for cleaning contacts. If I ever find a place that sells Oszillin internationally, I'll let you know.
Mh. Had a look around on various sites and it seems to be only available in Europe. I had better luck searching for "Teslanol" which is the brand name but still couldn't find it anywhere near you. It seems to be very similar to "Deoxit" spray though (which is what I initially wanted to buy bc I saw people using it on RUclips but couldn't find it here).
MindFlareRetro Oh, that's a fair bit more expensive than Teslanol (I think I paid around 8€ for 200ml). From what I've seen in videos, it has the same effect Deoxit has. And also doesn't destroy anything (and I used it on everything from old amps to connectors in my car).
Habe es schon gereinigt und auch schon den Lesekopf des floppy Drive gereinigt. Hat nichts geholfen. Muss es wohl fetten und den Lesekopf starker reinigen. Wenn das nicht hilft werde ich den Lesekopf aus einem ausbauen und in meins einbauen dann wird es vielleicht funktionieren.ich hoffe du kannst mir helfen. Grüße aus Deutschland Germany Germany
Hello! These 6 driives accumulated in the decades from genuine Amiga times until today. So the first two where from an AMiga 2000, the 2nd pair was used on the Amiga 1200 and the thrid pair was to be used on the Amiga 600 I own now. All these drives started to have read/write errors and within some minutes could not read anthing at all, so it seemded rather clear, they where dirty. So I cleaned the head and they wouldn't even recognize a floppy anymore. The Amiga 600 that I currentlly have, actually had CIA problems. but the drives worked there, too, despire the CIA having two iterrupted lines (because of mainboard corrosion caused bay capacitors). But I fixed that and the drives still aren't working anymore :(
@@JanBeta: Right. But the reason I said that is because you said something that made it sound like you thought they were separate things: "Q-tips or cotton swabs."
Jan, you are my savior! I did everything but the front switch maintenance, and the floppy drive kept acting weird. Used some contact cleaner, and it works like new!
Yup, after watching your useful video I did the same for two spare A600/A1200 drives I have (smd caps inside) and now all it's working flawlessy! Cheers, M
Wow, glad I could help bringing the drives back to life! :D
I have bought used chinon just like the one you have repaired in this movie - however it turned out to be faulty. It was supposed to be ok so I ahev entered into a vicious exchange of arguments with the seller - I was so angry he sold me the faulty drive tha t I thnk I didn't think straight (I guess it happens to all of us some times). After a while I saw your video and ...it has calmed me down and directed towards easy going and methodical way of eliminating the possible cause. It was the pin detecting the drive insertion - I have cleaned it a then completed the other steps (no recap at this time) and IT WORKS like a charm! THANK YOU for your videos - literally I wouldn't even tried to repoair the drive if it wasn't for you :)
Ik heb zelf een Chinon drive hersteld met de optie's die je liet zien Jan ! gelukkig werkt het weer. switches schoonmaken en de caps vervangen. kopjes schoonmaken en draait weer als een zonnetje. Elco's en condensatoren zijn een veel voorkomend probleem in alle apparaten
I just wanted to thank you, using your video I have just been able to resurrect a dead Chinon A500 floppy drive! Thanks for a great video :)
Awesome , my floppy was in failure state since 20 years, i always boot on hardrive but i don’t have so much stuff on it (like games).
I had the same frontal switch issue like you had.
Thanks so much
My chinon FB354 rev E even after the recap and thorough cleaning of the heads and switches for floppy detection continued to give the NO READY SIGNAL error.
So the amiga didn't react to the insertion of the floppies.
Checking the contacts with a multimeter I discovered that a zero-ohm resistor on the track of pin 34 (jp4) was completely gone.
I replaced the resistor (which acts as a jumper) with soldering and the drive worked 100% again
Thanks very much! I even did disassembled the micro switches and cleaned it with a fibre pencil and did all the other things (replaced caps, lubricated and cleaned heads). The floppy now works as it were a brand-new one. Thanks for your hints.
Oh, glad the video was helpful to you. I wonder how long it takes until my micro switch stops working again and I have to properly disassemble it, too. ;)
I see you clean flux residue with a tooth brush (and probably IPA). In my experience this just dilutes the flux and spreads it thinly over a larger area. I have to use a combination of swabs or Kimwipes to actually get the flux away from the board, otherwise everything gets slighly sticky and dirty after a while.
Nice work. I have that same drive, spent ages trying to fix it and gave up in the end. Might dig it out again. 👍
Thanks! Hope yours is fixable. :)
Hi Jan thanks for your wonderful video as usual I have exactly the same drive I have cleaned the heads and it works,,, If I leave it overnight or A-day or so I put a disc back in and it doesn't read any discs, After 5 or 6 attempts the drive works perfectly, I have Regreased the Worm , And cleaned the switch contacts,,, Same again it works but the next day the same again happens I have yet to change the capacitors next If it doesn't work after that then it's something else thank you
I hope replacing the capacitors fixes it! Might very well be that's the issue. Bad caps often cause random intermittent faults like you describe. Fingers crossed!
Thank Jan getting back to me I will update you soon ,
Kind regards michele
Thankyou so much for the video! I was working on my drive along with you :)
I have the same drive and cleaned everything properly like shown in this video but did not replace the caps. I still get read errors with most disks. Can a faulty cap cause these read errors? Thanks
Love your methodical approach to problems Jan ! Great stuff ! :o)
You do? He seemed to have foreknowledge that the caps were bad because it was a common problem. I can understand that. Methodical procedure demands that the caps be tested 1st to be sure. Would have been nice to see exactly with proof is all I'm saying.
Classic problem, nice one Jan! one more drive resurrected.
Thanks Vincent! :)
Good idea to fill the isopropyl alcohol into a spray bottle. Thanks for the inspiration, Jan. Will do this asap. :)
Yes! I use it all the time. It's much easier to handle than pouring it out of a larger bottle. Thanks. :)
I have an A500Plus with one of these drives. After recap it is as if it does not get any power. Any idea what I should troubleshoot for? It was my first Amiga since 1993, and it has not been preowned. I know the floppy drive used to work before i shelved the machine back in 1997 or something. Hope you can give me some tips.
i have FB-354 for an older A500....i replaced the caps...but it did not change the initial problem that nothing happens when i power on the Amiga. i am pretty sure the power to the drive is ok since another drive seems to get power. This one gives no reaction or ticking standby sound. Any suggestion what to troubleshoot? i get the kickstart 1.2 screen...
I liked Nibble Copy which is I think 4 bits instead of a byte that has 8 bits. You could backup floppies from all other computer systems. And the extra track 81. 😇
I even had the original X-Copy hardware dongle back in the day which allowed for even "deeper" nibble copies. Virtually no copy protection could stop me. ;)
Jan Beta Yes, especially MSX disks unable to backup with Dos or Msx, but Nibble always worked.
+GaryKildall Didn't try MSX disks but I remember copying Atari ST stuff without problems. ;)
Jan Beta Nibble copy did indeed copy the unbreakable. With MS Dos no back up could be created but Nibble from Amiga did. Had a disk for MSX worth 25 dollar today, could only be back upped with Amiga Nibble. Was a speech sampler disk with most sophisticated MSX copy protection.
Thanks for this! Really good intro into repairing these. Going to try everything bar the cap replacement and see how we go! Don't suppose you've repaired an A570 before? I have one but it's not loading the caddy.
Hi, great vid and fixed 2 drives plus working on a 3rd drive using your method 👍
Nice! Always good to hear that my videos are useful for keeping the old hardware alive. :)
Your doing a great job of keeping them alive, keep up the great work 👍
Jan, what were the symptoms? I have the same drive, it is clicking OK, but when i insert disk head does not move. Workbench pops " not a dos disk". Per visual inspection capacitors seems OK. Any ideas?
I've had my share of bad floppy disk drives, those being 720k drives in old PS/2 systems which often didn't work at all.
Yes, I remember having issues with PC drives as well. I recently had a modern USB 1.44MB one die, too (and couldn't quite figure out why yet).
Hey Jan. I have a couple of questions.. :) When I clean drive heads, I have been using benzine. It has worked pretty well overall, but is it too strong for that purpose? Thinking of getting some isopropyl instead. And that little handy spray pump.. Did you get that online? If so, could you perhaps throw a link my way?
Thanks as always, for your helpful videos! :)
+Casual Commodore I would not recommend benzine because it really is a bit strong for that purpose. It might dissolve some of the glue or plastics nearby if it gets there. Isopropanol doesn't hurt plastics much at all if you don't soak it. It's also the industry standard for cleaning read/write heads since forever, so it's most likely a good choice. ;) Make sure to get 99.9% which is the cleanest type you can get. 70% works fine but can leave stains sometimes so it's not quite as good for delicate stuff like this.
The little spray pump is actually an empty deodorant bottle I kept. All the bottles I saw for sale were made of plastic and this one is glass so I prefer it. :)
Haven't seen 99.9%. But I can get some 99%. I guess that will do fine. Thanks for the info, Jan!
+Casual Commodore You're welcome! The 99% should be fine, I guess. ;)
Thanks for the video, I'm trying to fix my A500. If I put a disk in, sometimes it works but most of the time it doesn't unless I manually spin the wheel with my finger. It will then work until the motor stops, and I have to spin it again. Have you ever seen anything like it?
Thank you very much! Same problem with my A1200 disk drive! :-)
I wonder if you can use tooth floss to clean that motor spindle instead of a cotton bud, to be able to get into the grooves of the spidle when cleaning it?
Thank you for this video its helped me fix my drive, now i can load games again :)
Hello jan and thanks for the video..this is the same internal drive i amusing in one of my amiga500s and it has weird issue...it will not function upon first turning on the amiga but it works perfectly when i reboot...i get the usual clicking sound upon starting but nothing works until i reboot the amiga.....any ideas please...?.....danke.
What problem will the drive typically have when those capacitors are bad? What exact problem did this drive have based on those (specifically spindle, stepper, etc.)?
As far as I know, the caps in the drives are usually connected to the motors, so the failure mode is the motors not running at the correct speed. Which results in disks not being recognized/read errors and other random behavior. Difficult to tell and very much depending on the drive model and how bad the capacitors are. I had the drive in my A1200 failing recently, it behaved like it should but it didn't read disks at all. Turns out it was the one little cap that's on the PCB.
@@JanBeta: Thanks. But a lot of times we can run a DC motor without any capacitor, and given a certain voltage it stays at that speed. Why does this setup need any capacitors to help that?
Hi Jan,
vielleicht kannst Du mir helfen.
Habe ein Amiga erworben, aber mir fehlt eine Workbench Diskette und auch sonst zickt das Laufwerk etwas.
Bin ziemlich neu in dem Thema, aber auch kein Elektriker und traue mich da nicht ran.
Vielleicht können wir mal reden?
Gruß
Florian
I have same Chinon (China quality?) drive that is busted. It makes loud noises when the head moves and reads disks badly. Randomly it sometimes loads disk a bit and sometimes it won't even begin to load it. Mostly it gives guru meditation. Another Chinon I have runs fine on that machine. I tried to clean reading head with alcohol and added some grease to that corkscrew thingy but it didn't help. Would replacing those few caps help or is it too far gone?
I made a video of it. Comments are welcomed :) -> ruclips.net/video/dIYP0K7UX_w/видео.html
what is the name of the black plastic switch that reveals the presence of the disk protection. Technical term please
Hi Jan love your videos. I'm having a problem and can't pin down what's going on. I can't get any floppy work on my A500. I have a Chinon FB-354 that is completely dead in my A500. I put new caps in it and still get no activity at all. I hooked it up to a regular pc just to double check for any signs of life and I do get activity from it. So I figured it must be the A500 board but before I went poking around on it I converted a Mitsumi D359M3D and a Samsung SFD-321B to work on the A500. I get activity out of of them but neither will load anything on the A500 and the other thing that has me puzzled is that I get no signs of life at all out of the Chinon when it's hooked to the A500 but I do when it's hooked to a pc. In short I get activity on all 3 on pc but only the 2 converted ones on the A500 but they won't load anything. Do you have any ideas on what to check next ???
Did you check the power supply? Maybe the converted drives give some signs of life because they operate the motor from different voltages. I had an A500 where the drive didn't work and the only fault was a bad connection on the 12V line in the power jack.
What brand screwdriver is that red and yellow one? I see that same one many times in the videos I watch. Great video!
+cb meeks Thanks! It's a Wera screwdriver. Very good German brand. Recommended. ;)
I have an Amiga 500 and it refuses to boot the disks I have
It just displays the kickstart logo
I fixed a cap on the drive that had leaked and that didn't help
The guy I got it from tested it successfully a few months prior
I'm not sure what's wrong
Any suggestions?
Really appreciate this video Jan! Thanks!
Thanks! Hope it helps bringing the old drives back to life. :)
Had cleaned the heads before but didn't think to try the caps. Need to pick up the smaller one, but I have the larger ones...
I'm Curious: was the drive giving read errors before replacing the capacitors? I mean, they are someway connected to the data line or they are just involved in the motor/power circuit? I'm asking this because I got several drives that even after a good cleaning, of th head still give me read errors, but I never considered replacing caps since I've always thinked as a unusual and unuseful practice on a disk drive.. so please illuminate me... what's the purpose of the recapping? :)
salvob Google for 'Wikipedia Capacitor Plague' it will learn you everything about capacitors and how it hunts old but modern technology. Wikipedia has excellent articles and sources.😎
GaryKildall thanks for your reply, I know about capaciror plague, I just like to know if the replacement was done by precaution or he had verified that the capacitors was faulty before removing and if they was involved in the data feed transmission system or just in the power circuit
salvob Can a capacitor only be tested if not part of a circuit? By which I mean the capacitor can be tested only after detaching it by soldering.
GaryKildall you can reverse test system trying to clean the head first, test, and NEXT, check if replacing the capacitors will helps.
salvob Then I would always replace caps because they are from 80's or early 90's.
I have the same problem. To format or copy I have to press the disk down slightly so it writes to the disk. If I dont press it down it says 'disk is right protected' .What should I use to clean it and do I have to remove the disk drive from the computer? Great video.
Thanks! It should be possible to spray the litte switch while the drive is in the computer if you are careful. You should use some mild "tuner spray" type of contact cleaner that does not harm plastics. Most stuff is far too aggressive and often seems to work at first and then gradually eats its way through plastic parts or even the contacts in the switches itself. I use Teslanol Oszillin T6 (which is available in Europe but near impossible to get in the USA, I think). For the USA and Canada I'd recommend getting DeOxit stuff.
Hello Jan, are you looking for a cover for this Amiga 500? I now there are new covers in different colors. And there is one old one on eBay
No, I have one complete A500 and I think that's enough for me (plus, I don't have much space). The one from this video will probably be my test board for some time. Thanks for the tip though! :)
Jan Beta, i just received my first Amiga 500. Can you do a video about hacking? I want to develop a HDD emulator and floppy emulator for it.
That's not a trivial task with an A500 as it doesn't have any native IDE or SCSI support. There are add-ons and cards available but my knowledge is pretty limited in that respect. Would be interesting to look into it but I doubt that I will be able to do a video about that anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Yeah, the Gotek indeed is a nice solution for floppy emulation at least. The HDD implementation is not that easy, I think. ;)
I now there are solutions for de floppy drive, but I like to connect the open-source community to the vintage computer community. So think like arduino FDD emulator.
Pronounced she-non ;) - something I always love to measure the caps once they are out of circuit for fun.
+SkuldChan42 Haha, so the one pronunciation I didn't try. ;) Measuring the caps would have been interesting. I guess they'd measure okay though. I'm still a fan of recapping as "preventive maintenance".
Jan Beta oh me too, but I think morbid curiosity gets the best of me which one had the most issues.
Do you know if these drives need the 12v ? I’m trying to get it to work from external floppy interface on Amiga 2000 but no activity so wondering if it’s a power issue.
Yes, the 12V rail is used for the motors on these so it's important. ;)
@@JanBeta do you know if I can supply the 12v safely off the external floppy connector on the back of the Amiga 2000? I see a 5v and a 12v on two of the pins.
That should work fine, the connector is designed to power external drives.
@@JanBeta great thanks. I could not find any info on these drives anywhere. Nor any info on the connector. Also found it odd that the EFI - External Floppy Interface only supplies 5v and claims it works with Amiga drives and PC drives. Surprised I seem to be the only one online asking about this issue. I checked the Amiga forums… I’ll give it a try tomorrow. Thanks!
@@JanBeta that worked! Thanks Jan! Btw I’ve subbed to your channel for years. Along with all the other guys on RUclips doing retro electronics. I do some things as well some vids on my channel you might like to check out. Thanks again. Time to make a 3d printed floppy enclosure!
i have the FB-354AA, looks the same. Mine was installed on an Atari SF314. My drive won't light up and won't read disks. But I can slightly hear it trying to do stuff. Power supply gets 12v and 4.94v on the other pin, not quite 5v. Does that matter? I have tried other PSU, other 1040STe, and no luck. Might be the caps i guess.
4.94V should be absolutely fine. Usually the components have 5-10% tolerances. My guess would indeed be the capacitors or something mechanical. I’ve rarely seen anything else break on these drives.
@@JanBeta thanks for the reply. I have a drive i pulled with loose solder joints . They are where the smaller connector are. Maybe the same is happenening with this Chinon so i will check that too. I will order the caps ASAP. Also, do you know where i could start with my 520STm that boots to only a black screen?
Hello can tell us which are the capacitors please?
Thanks for sharing mate really helped.
Bless You.
You should rather use Teflon grease or so-called white grease (lithium grease).
Yes, got myself some white lithium now for these things.
Lithium grease is much better, because it doesn't attract dust. It is so-called dry-grease. On the other hand a silicone grease is one of the most dust-attracting.
Großartig. Auch meine Laufwerke hatten nach und nach versagt.
Ja, die entwickeln leider gerne alle möglichen Fehler. Vor allem mechanisch, sehr oft hilft schon reinigen und neu schmieren.
I never knew that there was Giana Sisters for Amiga!
woah the giana sisters looks way better than the c64 version. I didn't know there was an amiga version (or a version on any other system).
The Amiga version is pretty obscure because Nintendo threatened to sue Rainbow Arts over the obvious Super Mario "references". The C64 version was out for a couple of months I believe while the Amiga version was taken out of stores right after it was released. Original versions are pretty much unobtainium. ;)
@@JanBeta yeah I only had the super mario brothers version of it on C64 which is where someone hacked in actual mario graphics into it. I always thought it was a mario game. I never realized it was supposed to be different until much later.
it helpt me fix my amiga drive, thanx :-)
Oh, nice, glad to help!
Judging by the blackness of the original lubricant it probably wasn't silicone originally, but graphite grease instead. It is commonly used for mechanical mechanisms but is electrically conductive so you need to be careful where it is used in electronics applications. In a mechanism like this where it is not exposed to high heat or excessive amounts of dust or liquid, it should effectively last forever. The silicone should work fine, but I thought you might be curious to know.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_lubricant#Graphite
+Jeremy Levi Ah, didn't know that graphite was used in these drives at all. Would have thought it's impractical due to the conductivity. Interesting point.Thanks for sharing. :)
It really depends on the grade of graphite grease. For example, the kind made for lubricating locks that comes in a little puffer tube is a very fine powder (it looks like tiny flakes of grey-silver metal), but if you puff it out onto your finger it smears easily into a uniform layer, feels very frictionless, and isn't gritty at all.
Usually I see white grease on most of them too, I think that's probably the most common. Its just the odd time I've seen other types used.
Thank you so much🙏🏻
Usually nothing terrible goes wrong with them, does it?
They are quite robust, especially compared to the 5 1/4 drives. Most are easily fixed, I think. Even clumsy Jan only managed to completely kill one of these (I ripped it apart to hastily and broke some traces on the PCB)... Most are quite easily fixed, I think. ;)
Oh you haven't seen me at work obviously :)
The Highlander Haha, no I haven't. Can't be that bad. Maybe it's time to make some repair videos? ;)
I did a few. The one where I applied heat sinks to my c64c was met with much criticism :)
Oh, didn't realize you did that. I have to watch it and comment then. ;)
Thank you, very interesting! Subscribed.
Oh, glad you like it. Welcome aboard!
Great job! =D
+GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods Thanks! :)
Thanks for sharig mate!
And another soul saved! Great work, why don't you build a simple case out of wood?
Thanks! Building a wood case is a nice idea. Maybe I'll try something like that for another video. This drive went to an A1010 external case in the follow up video. :)
YAY!
Of course, I enjoyed and learned from you. Odd, when I searched "T6 Oszillin Kontakt- und Tunerspray" on eBay.ca the first item was a poster of anime girls in bikinis.
+MindFlareRetro Haha, thanks. The bikini girls poster will probably not do very well for cleaning contacts. If I ever find a place that sells Oszillin internationally, I'll let you know.
Ok. Thanks.
Mh. Had a look around on various sites and it seems to be only available in Europe. I had better luck searching for "Teslanol" which is the brand name but still couldn't find it anywhere near you. It seems to be very similar to "Deoxit" spray though (which is what I initially wanted to buy bc I saw people using it on RUclips but couldn't find it here).
Deoxit is supposed to be excellent. I can get it locally, but it's very expensive. About $24 CAD for a small can.
MindFlareRetro Oh, that's a fair bit more expensive than Teslanol (I think I paid around 8€ for 200ml). From what I've seen in videos, it has the same effect Deoxit has. And also doesn't destroy anything (and I used it on everything from old amps to connectors in my car).
Habe es schon gereinigt und auch schon den Lesekopf des floppy Drive gereinigt. Hat nichts geholfen. Muss es wohl fetten und den Lesekopf starker reinigen. Wenn das nicht hilft werde ich den Lesekopf aus einem ausbauen und in meins einbauen dann wird es vielleicht funktionieren.ich hoffe du kannst mir helfen. Grüße aus Deutschland Germany Germany
My eject buttons iffy can you just swap buttons
Do you have experience with the Atari ST variant Chinon F-354 EAT drive? Like this one.
www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=24789
Mh, no, I haven't tinkered with ST stuff at all yet (sadly). I guess it should be very similar to the Amiga version of the drive?
Of the 6 Amiga floppies that I ever tried to clean with IPA exactly none worked afterwards, no matter how careful I was :( All are dead forever.
Hello!
These 6 driives accumulated in the decades from genuine Amiga times until today.
So the first two where from an AMiga 2000, the 2nd pair was used on the Amiga 1200 and the thrid pair was to be used on the Amiga 600 I own now.
All these drives started to have read/write errors and within some minutes could not read anthing at all, so it seemded rather clear, they where dirty. So I cleaned the head and they wouldn't even recognize a floppy anymore.
The Amiga 600 that I currentlly have, actually had CIA problems. but the drives worked there, too, despire the CIA having two iterrupted lines (because of mainboard corrosion caused bay capacitors). But I fixed that and the drives still aren't working anymore :(
I never used x-copy.
Q-tips ARE cotton swabs.
Yup.
@@JanBeta: Right. But the reason I said that is because you said something that made it sound like you thought they were separate things: "Q-tips or cotton swabs."