Very thorough disassembly on the Chinon FZ-354. My problem is that the 12mm² copper plate that sits below the lower head had dropped off. Access is only by actually removing the entire head assembly. Doing this would mean realignment, a very difficult task without the right tools. The 12mm² copper plate serves to screen any electrical noise from entering the heads. However, the lower head sits extremely close to the cast alloy body. Perhaps the cast alloy body also serves as a screen for the lower head in the absence of the plate. Without that plate attached (glued), the drive still reads/writes perfectly, so I'm hoping I won't need to re-glue the plate. Time and use will tell. After 30 years I unpacked my A1200, and apart from this, everything works nicely, and no leaky caps either, although I will perform a recap soon. Cheers
You might want to skip this video if you've already seen some of my other floppy drive repairs. I thought it might be interesting for people to see how many of these drives actually can be brought back to life with little work. In total I've got 9 Amiga drives working 100% using the techniques shown and talked about in this video. If you've got an Amiga FDD that is not working, don't bin it - there's every chance you can get it working again. Also worth noting I have yet to come across an Amiga drive that cannot be brought back to life. I've had 100% success rate with these drives!
GadgetUK164 thanks for your time and effort, i used your video to help with my a500 cleaning. I've just finished the internal drive , still have the mother board and keyboard left before reassembly. I'm excited to see how it works
Just had to pop a comment on here to thank you so much for the insight into the third drive - I'm restoring an A1200 with this drive and couldn't work out what was happening with it, and you helped massively! One fixed drive now. Great video :)
Very good, i have just serviced same panasonic drive. Works, Caps looked fine but upon removal i saw they HAD leaked, cleaned/ repaired damage under mask, waiting on ceramic caps. Working on my Chinon 354 now, thanks for the vids they help a lot. Drives are from a 600 and 1200 i am fully upgrading. I have a 500plus here which i am fully rebuilding onto a 500plusplus board, but components are in short supply.
Thanks for the Video, I've re-capped alot of monitors and mainboards. Not sure why I didnt think to re-cap a FD. My A1200 FZ354 was not reading any disks. I replaced the 3 electrolytic caps, demagnetized and cleaned the heads, lubed and it's reading all the disks now. Keep it up!
Was just searching for one of the drives that you took apart to see how I could do the same just to give it a good clean up before putting it in a freshly cleaned and recapped 600. Great work on the drive repairs, and it is amazing how just a,little dirt makes such a difference on something that is very sensitive to the littlest bit of dirt or dust. Hope you are well, as this is a year or so after this video. Keep up the good videos.
Great video, its been a while since your last one. There can't be many of these drives about, your doing the right thing saving them from the retro graveyard.
Glad to see you're back. Sorry to hear about your health issues. Hopefully, you are on the mend. I had the calculator out during the RAM expansion segment and it looks like you are spot on with the 512MB additional RAM -- look forward to a follow-up. Curious, what are you up to with the EPROMS seen in the background at 9:45? I just ordered a TL866CS programmer; I'm hoping to make some DIY C64 diagnostic cartridges.
Thanks =D I think you meant 512Kb (don't worry, that's the sort of typo I do!) - The EPROMs in that video are for fixing Atari 2600 carts! I need to get some 74 logic chips first (invertors) before I can complete that. If you have any questions about EPROMs just drop me a message =D
Whoa, yes, 512Kb -- brain fart. Thanks for the offer, I will definitely drop you a message with EPROM questions that I will surely have -- just have to wait for the good old shipment from China with the programmer. After taking my C64 out of mothballs and adopting one that my colleague was going to toss out I have been collecting Commodore hardware/software/accessories over the past six moths from people that just don't want them anymore, and it's turned into quite a project with a lot of stuff to bring back to life. I hope to start refurbishing what I can very soon and start posting videos. My expertise is not at your level, but hopefully, you can tune in and provide some input and guidance.
I look forward to your videos =D My level of expertise is not that of bwack, retrogamemodz, arcadeuk or many other channels I watch! We are all learning at the end of the day!!!
Yes, I really enjoy those channels, but don't sell yourself short, I've learned a lot from your videos. bwack and I have chatted quite a bit over the past few months -- bought one of his Savers last year; it's a fantastic little device. Cainers Commodore Capers is another great channel -- just wish he had time to produce more videos -- you hear that, Caners? ;) Always be learning! Thanks again.
Yeah the Amiga 600 drive you looked at. I did an alignment on my A600 drive years back and it's the 4 white clip things that are connected to the disk cradle part. hahaha. If that makes sense. Not sure what they are called but they shown on the disk drive about 25:30 into your video. I remember taking them off but then on reassembly took me ages to realise their exact orientation on the cradle.
Nasty lookin drives you started with.Thanks for another informative video. Still hoping for a video on the tools/consumable you use and recommend. Best wishes and hope things get better soon.
I've attempted a clean on my A1200 Drive as Disks were crashing after 20 seconds. So much dust found but disks are the same. Not sure what else is wrong with it. Might buy a new drive. The design I got is the fourth drive in this Video.
Another cracking video. I was going to rgb my cd32 as well but the s-video is that good I didn’t bother. Just bought an s-video scart lead. Jobs a good’en.
Amiga reads both sides of each track into memory then pulls out the data from whatever sector it needs. All read/write operations o the Amiga are RAW data the Amiga reads an entire track into buffer memory then finds the sector it needs data from and then dumps the track from memory when it needs to read again.Entire track is written to disk when data on a track has changed.
Have you done any repairs on A1000 drives? Mine doesn’t seem to be reading disks and I’ve already cleaned the heads with IPA. The drive looks very clean inside.
You should consider swapping out any electrolytic capacitors too! I've cleaned A2000 and early 500 drives that use the same mech. Clean the metal tape that winds the head back and forward too (assuming it is the same mech). Blow air into the track zero sensor too.
Great video I have a JU-253-033P that I've cleaned and lubricated but it won't work. I insert disc and it tries to read it but just goes back to the hand with disc logo on screen. Re-cap I guess?
Have you cleaned the heads? Also if its a Panasonic, check the SMD electrolytics on there - sometimes Panasonic drives have two PCBs, each containing separate SMD electrolytic capacitors. You can see an example on this other video:- ruclips.net/video/ACie8XY7mcg/видео.html
Well I checked this out: eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71999 But at least the cap that is visible in front on mine is not and SMD whereas on his model it is. Mine is an 033P his 043P.
Really nice video! One suggestion - please add the drive model numbers to the name of the video. I have been looking all over the net for a video on the FZ-354, and this video is one of the few that covers this particular model. With the title as it is currently, searching for "FZ-354" does not show this video as a result. Thanks!
Is there any thing you can tell about the quality of these brands and model of these diskette drives, how high the failure rate is? Which brand / model have the biggest chance to survice, or either hadnt much problems at all?
@@GadgetUK164 I see also a lot of chinon drives around that are repaired and still working to day. Didnt know teac was the worst (yes i have this one in my 500+ system.)
My drive fails to read track 0. I noticed the top head (I mean the metallic box about 5mm big) can wobble/rock back and forth on the underside of the arm that holds it (the arm that moves up and down to press the head against the disk). The bottom head is absolutely fixed relative to the bottom arm, it does not wobble at all. So is it normal for the top head to wobble? I think @Matthew Richards asked the same question, but I think you took it to mean the whole arm.
The top heads are more flexible in movement than the bottom ones. The bottom one is mounted to a rail so cannot move anywhere near as much as the top one.
Hi, do you have a schematic or service manual for the A500 Chinon floppy drives? I killed mine plugging the power in the wrong way around. I think its a Rev2. Hope you have something, Thank you.
Does anyone have documentation for these specialized integrated circuits and 68060 processors? Where can I download documentation for these chips? Does anyone have any information on this?! Because I would love to see how they built it back then.
Regards Agnus - the nearest thing is the datasheet for the original Agnus - retro-commodore.eu/files/downloads/amigamanuals-xiik.net/Hardware/Specifications%20Agnus%20-%20Manual-ENG%20.pdf Probably prior to becoming the Fat Agnus - not sure, I haven't looked. So you would need to look at the clock gen stuff on the early 2000 schematics or 1000 schematics to work out the rest. Alternatively, look at MiSTer source code for the Amiga core(s) - as I am sure someone has probably created it in VHDL or something already. Stephen Leary (TerribleFire) did also create a version of the Agnus, and I believe handed over to Renee Cousins (Buffee - Amiga Project team). In terms of other ICs, its a similar story - look for datasheets, try and reverse engineer. Also look for emulator source and VHDL from any FPGA implementations (MiSTer). Many of the FDD ICs have very little information on them and often custom to certain drive models etc.
The floppy drive from an A1200 I just bought thinks that it always has a floppy inside, yet when I do have a diskette inside it recognizes it and reads ok. However, when I take out the diskette it then thinks that there is a diskette and there is no way after that to enter a new diskette and read from it, only after a reset. I can't locate where the sensor is located, do you have a layout or some clue to offer?
There are switches at the front left hand side of the drive. 2 little black or white pins that get pressed down when the disk is loaded. Spray some contact cleaner into those switches. Pause at 24:51 - you can see them there near the corrosion. One of those switches is for 'disk change' the other is for the 'write protect'.
GadgetUK164 Yes, I found them, 2 blue pins in my floppy in a black switch. I sprayed some IPA while pressing the switches, pressed some more times and the switch worked again. Thank you !! :-)
Hi there, i'm trying to fix an Amiga 500 drive and i'm having problems, i can't seem to find any info. When you put any disk into the drive, it just says "not a DOS disk" I've cleaned the drive several times but no luck. Do you by chance know what causes this error?
The "not a DOS disk" basically means its having trouble reading the data correctly. It could be that one or two of the electrolytics needs replacing, the heads are still perhaps dirty (did you clean both heads with IPA and a cotton bud?) - also consider the plastx cleaning I demonstrated in the 1541-II video I did the other week. You could also try demagentising the heads with a tape head demagnetiser. Finally, the heads could be out of alignment - not something easily remedied without a scope and an original test disk.
Thanks!! I cleaned the heads again and got a read for a few seconds so cleaned them twice more and fingers crossed the drive seems to be working perfectly now :-)
Hehe, yes - the Vampire 2 will increase the value of Amiga 500 / 500+ I think. I would get one now before flocks of people start buying them and pushing prices up! =D
Hey, did you by any chance write down values for 3 capacitors in FZ-354 Amiga drive uF, Voltage, temp? I have exact the same one, I would like to recap it. It works fine, but for futureproofing.
I didn't =/ You would need to take it to bits to work out the sizes - the critical part with these is they are miniture caps - the height is important in places I think.
Do you mean its completely dead? ie. do you see the heads move at all? Have you checked the voltages going into the power connector on the drive, to make sure there's +12 and +5v?
Technically all Amiga drives will work with the 500 - but the drives from 2000 / 3000 / 600 / 1200 may have different facia / mount standoffs or button position. There are a LOT of different models of drive for the Amiga. It's a case of looking up the part number of a drive you see on eBay and google it.
Did not help me. Have 2 dodgy Amiga floppies (one internal, other - external). Still return errors or make rereads. Notably worse than a hacked SONY PC floppy. Is there any way to ensure better maintenance?
Hey mate. I got one of these chinion drives for Amiga 500. Should the head (the one on the top) move? Like it can rock backwards and forwards? Thanks for your reply on the other video . It was a capacitor with the sound problem I had :)
It should only move up and down to accommodate the disk going into the drive. If the top head can be pulled forwards or backwards (separating its profile from being directly above the lower head), then someone might have unscrewed the alignment screws. The only way you would likely get it back into alignment is with a scope and a proper head alignment disk. Great news on your audio problem - well done =D
I think Matthew Richards was asking about the top *head* only (the tiny silver box on the underside of the arm), not the entire top arm. I have the same thing, the arm is fixed by the screws but the head itself wobbles, and my drive will not read so I'd also like to know ;-)
watched couple of your vids, apart from the practical value, they're super satisfying and almost therapeutical 😅 thanks! I'll try to revive my dead a600 FDD tonight ;)
GadgetUK164 I've managed to revive it by good cleanup and slight readjustment of the sensor (it was the one mounted at the angle) weirdly it wouldn't work in original position, but works flawlessly after just a slight adjustment, so thank you again for all the tips, you certainly saved me some money! :)
Hi! I just got out my old Amiga 600 and it worked for a day, then I put in a floppy which I think was a little dusty and now it's stuck on the "insert floppy" animation. I saw on eBay that working Amiga 600s tend to go for around £100. Is that accurate ? Is it worth me opening up and repairing? P.s where are you based? You sound local. Writing from Manchester
Yes, Amiga 600's sell for around £100 - note, they nearly all suffer from leaked SMD capacitors. If those aren't dealt with the electrolyte will corrode the PCB connections. Yes, based in the North West =D
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods thanks for the reply. Basically, if the problem can't be solved by cleaning with cotton buds and lubricating, etc. I won't be able to solve it. If you could tell me how de-magnetising or how to deal with SMD capacitadores, that would be handy (or link me to the relevant previous videos you mentioned in another comment!) Thanks!
I think it's most likely to be the capacitors in the drive tbh, but the SMD caps on the A600 motherboard will also be leaking. You could send the system to Amiga Kit in the UK if you wanted someone else to repair it, but it would likely cost as much to repair as you would get selling it. Chances are, as is it would sell for around £70 to £100 as is on eBay. Regards de-magnetising the heads, check out my first 1541 disk drive repair there, I used one on that and briefly showed the process.
Thanks! I do make a lot of mistakes so don't take everything I say as fact =D This channel really is about me getting back into electronics after 20 years and the experiences I've had building up my own collection. Everything I've bought and own now has been repaired, I don't think I've bought a working system. But my collection has pretty much come to the end now so videos might slow down a little.
Hey there i'm struggling with drive repair also, great video helped me a lot but now i have a drive (FB-354 Rev B) which resists working. Most times it shows as DF1:???? (second drive in my A2000), got another drive working as DF1 to rule out A2000. Drive was cleaned, recapped, lubricated. Sometimes (rare) it reads a disk, but with many many sector errors. Could demagnetizing help? Just curious to buy a demagnetizer. Also i made one big mistake before, i had a bad disk in the drive, which made a weird noise, i think it grinded on one of the drive's heads.
The fact it shows as DF1 instead of DF0 indicates a fault on the drive select. If its internal I would suspect a faulty CIA chip on the Amiga. You could swap the two CIA chips around to see if the behaviour changes.
Ok, then i will get hold of a demagnetizer and try my luck. But few hours ago i tried again with another disk and that also grinded. But not always. I'm assuming now, that the upper head ist too low and grinding on the disk. The disk got acutal marks at the position, the head was. But that's out of my skill to adjust the head to get more distance to the actual disk. More science is needed :) And thanks for your time, it is much appreciated :)
Finally i got it working again, not flawlessly but i'm making progress! It was in fact a misaligned upper head. I think that got a good smash from a bad disk and was a little bit bent or something. I removed the copper shielding on top of the head and so i had access to the mount. I bent it very carefully and used an old disk to get the noise down. Then i used a good Disk and voila, it worked. Still need to make me an X-Copy disk to test the drive, btu progress is progress is good :)
I've tried to fix my floppy by watching your vid but still sits doing nothing, on powering on the amiga it spins up the head moves a bit then stops, if i eject the disk and reinsert it does nothing I think it could be the disk detection switch on the frone left of the drive. was wondering have you got any working drives for sale.
Depends on the oil but tbh it makes very little difference. I've got drives here that have had oil in there for 20 years and they still work perfectly, plastic hasn't disintegrated or anything! Lithium or silicone based grease is what's recommended though. Grease does probably provide better lubrication vs wear though I would guess. Bottom line is it's one of those things that makes very little difference in this particular scenario.
The problem you have is that plastic parts were made from different recipes and manufacturers would swap as price changes demanded. General purpose lubricants are not just the synthetic or mineral oil / grease but it is a cocktail of chemicals, this is why plastics have specific lubricants for their use, the main reason being that degradation can happen over time and the damage can be destructive in ways like the plastic melting and parts deform to chemicals breaking down the plastic so it become brittle and weak and can break. Whilst you may not have seen any issues over the time span you have used a light oil like the one you demonstrated, the parts in question require something a bit more substantial and thicker and appropriate to plastic, some forms of lubrication are not grease based but a spray lubricant like some types of silicone spray, you can get silicone greas like the stuff I got for lubrication of some old CD/DVD Rom drives that have issues with the draw, the re-lubrication of the gears and runners helped solve the problem. I had tried to use a light mineral grease, it caused the plastics to grind, so it took plenty of cleaning and silicone grease to solve the problem. Quote: "Chemistry. Typically, lubricants based on silicone, PFAE (perflourinated), most synthetic hydrocarbons (SHC or PAO), or mineral oils work well with plastics. Lubricants based on esters or polyglycols are generally not compatible with plastics, although there are exceptions depending on the type of plastic. Incompatible lubricants cause plastics to lose dimensional stability or structural integrity, or become discoloured." Taken off an Engineering site. So its not the actual grease itself, its the type of chemicals in the grease / oils that determine if your putting your plastics at risk. You will IMHO doing yourself a big favour by sourcing some lubricants for different plastic types, then you can avoid any potential damage to your hardware.
Very thorough disassembly on the Chinon FZ-354. My problem is that the 12mm² copper plate that sits below the lower head had dropped off. Access is only by actually removing the entire head assembly. Doing this would mean realignment, a very difficult task without the right tools.
The 12mm² copper plate serves to screen any electrical noise from entering the heads. However, the lower head sits extremely close to the cast alloy body. Perhaps the cast alloy body also serves as a screen for the lower head in the absence of the plate.
Without that plate attached (glued), the drive still reads/writes perfectly, so I'm hoping I won't need to re-glue the plate. Time and use will tell. After 30 years I unpacked my A1200, and apart from this, everything works nicely, and no leaky caps either, although I will perform a recap soon. Cheers
1991 Cracked by Skidrow - yeah
You might want to skip this video if you've already seen some of my other floppy drive repairs. I thought it might be interesting for people to see how many of these drives actually can be brought back to life with little work. In total I've got 9 Amiga drives working 100% using the techniques shown and talked about in this video. If you've got an Amiga FDD that is not working, don't bin it - there's every chance you can get it working again.
Also worth noting I have yet to come across an Amiga drive that cannot be brought back to life. I've had 100% success rate with these drives!
GadgetUK164 thanks for your time and effort, i used your video to help with my a500 cleaning. I've just finished the internal drive , still have the mother board and keyboard left before reassembly. I'm excited to see how it works
Just had to pop a comment on here to thank you so much for the insight into the third drive - I'm restoring an A1200 with this drive and couldn't work out what was happening with it, and you helped massively! One fixed drive now. Great video :)
0 sensor problem?
Very good, i have just serviced same panasonic drive. Works, Caps looked fine but upon removal i saw they HAD leaked, cleaned/ repaired damage under mask, waiting on ceramic caps.
Working on my Chinon 354 now, thanks for the vids they help a lot. Drives are from a 600 and 1200 i am fully upgrading.
I have a 500plus here which i am fully rebuilding onto a 500plusplus board, but components are in short supply.
Good stuff, helped me get my gotek working as DF1. Thanks!
Thanks for the Video, I've re-capped alot of monitors and mainboards. Not sure why I didnt think to re-cap a FD. My A1200 FZ354 was not reading any disks. I replaced the 3 electrolytic caps, demagnetized and cleaned the heads, lubed and it's reading all the disks now. Keep it up!
No worries =D Glad you fixed it!!! =D
Great to see you back uploading again! Hope you're feeling better. Long live the 100% success rate!
Thanks =D
Was just searching for one of the drives that you took apart to see how I could do the same just to give it a good clean up before putting it in a freshly cleaned and recapped 600. Great work on the drive repairs, and it is amazing how just a,little dirt makes such a difference on something that is very sensitive to the littlest bit of dirt or dust. Hope you are well, as this is a year or so after this video. Keep up the good videos.
Thanks =D
Great video, its been a while since your last one. There can't be many of these drives about, your doing the right thing saving them from the retro graveyard.
Thanks =D Yes, it was a while since the last one but I've caught up over the last 24 hours (just about).
Good to see you again on the tube, GadgetUK.
Thanks =D BTW - Did you get my email back about the saver boards? My old virgin email address no longer works! (@virgin.net)
Thanks yes. I've been a bit busy. Will reply it.
No worries, just wanted to check due to that problem with my email account.
Sorry to hear things have been shit. Glad to see you back as your videos are very informative. Hope things turn out OK!
Thanks =D
After powering up my FZ-354 is:
- not clicking
- constantly spinning the disc motor
- heads are not moving after inserting a disk
Constantly spinning may indicate a logic failure (main IC on there) - unless you have it connected upside down (that can kill the drive).
Glad to see you're back. Sorry to hear about your health issues. Hopefully, you are on the mend. I had the calculator out during the RAM expansion segment and it looks like you are spot on with the 512MB additional RAM -- look forward to a follow-up.
Curious, what are you up to with the EPROMS seen in the background at 9:45? I just ordered a TL866CS programmer; I'm hoping to make some DIY C64 diagnostic cartridges.
Thanks =D I think you meant 512Kb (don't worry, that's the sort of typo I do!) - The EPROMs in that video are for fixing Atari 2600 carts! I need to get some 74 logic chips first (invertors) before I can complete that. If you have any questions about EPROMs just drop me a message =D
Whoa, yes, 512Kb -- brain fart. Thanks for the offer, I will definitely drop you a message with EPROM questions that I will surely have -- just have to wait for the good old shipment from China with the programmer.
After taking my C64 out of mothballs and adopting one that my colleague was going to toss out I have been collecting Commodore hardware/software/accessories over the past six moths from people that just don't want them anymore, and it's turned into quite a project with a lot of stuff to bring back to life. I hope to start refurbishing what I can very soon and start posting videos. My expertise is not at your level, but hopefully, you can tune in and provide some input and guidance.
I look forward to your videos =D My level of expertise is not that of bwack, retrogamemodz, arcadeuk or many other channels I watch! We are all learning at the end of the day!!!
Yes, I really enjoy those channels, but don't sell yourself short, I've learned a lot from your videos. bwack and I have chatted quite a bit over the past few months -- bought one of his Savers last year; it's a fantastic little device. Cainers Commodore Capers is another great channel -- just wish he had time to produce more videos -- you hear that, Caners? ;) Always be learning! Thanks again.
Yes - I love Cainers Commodore Capers too =D
Thanks a lot - cleaning the track 0 sensor did do the trick in my case. Saved me a lot of time as I tried this first.
Great to see you back. Another excellent video.
and not them 4 white clips on the newer drives! Was an absolute PAIN to work out the first time I opened one of them drives lol
Thanks =D
I don't think I've seen that model? Are you talking about an Amiga drive?
Yeah the Amiga 600 drive you looked at. I did an alignment on my A600 drive years back and it's the 4 white clip things that are connected to the disk cradle part. hahaha. If that makes sense. Not sure what they are called but they shown on the disk drive about 25:30 into your video. I remember taking them off but then on reassembly took me ages to realise their exact orientation on the cradle.
Great to see another video, Sorry to here your not doing too well. Your vids always give me loads of inspiration. Keep up the good work pal (:
Thanks =D Really appreciate the comments =D
Bit of an upload binge there Gadge! good stuff.
Hope you get well soon.
Thanks =D
Brilliant.
You helped me again.
Just repaired my a500 plus disk drive.
Cheers :)
That's great =D
Keep up the good work.. You're kind of reminding me that I haven't uploaded anything repair wise for months... it's easy to let it slip!
Thanks! =D Yes, please get some videos up! =D Not enough repair videos getting uploaded on YT recently!
Nasty lookin drives you started with.Thanks for another informative video. Still hoping for a video on the tools/consumable you use and recommend. Best wishes and hope things get better soon.
I've attempted a clean on my A1200 Drive as Disks were crashing after 20 seconds. So much dust found but disks are the same. Not sure what else is wrong with it. Might buy a new drive.
The design I got is the fourth drive in this Video.
It could be the same fault I had where some of the capacitors need replacing. I can take a look at it for you if you want?
@@GadgetUK164 I bought a new one but if you want to have a look at the current one, that would be fab. Where can I receive your information?
I've PM'd you on Twitter!
Another cracking video. I was going to rgb my cd32 as well but the s-video is that good I didn’t bother. Just bought an s-video scart lead. Jobs a good’en.
Thanks! Wrong video lol =D
Ha ha, i have no idea how I've done that!
:o) I did the same thing on someone elses channel last week lol
Amiga reads both sides of each track into memory then pulls out the data from whatever sector it needs. All read/write operations o the Amiga are RAW data the Amiga reads an entire track into buffer memory then finds the sector it needs data from and then dumps the track from memory when it needs to read again.Entire track is written to disk when data on a track has changed.
Thanks for the info - very useful and interesting =D
Congratz once again my friend!
Thanks =D
22:36 FZ-354
Nice one my evening viewing is sorted.
Haha =D
What a statistics. All drives working. Not bad :D
Hehe, yes - not bad! I kind of keep hoping that one will have something really wrong with it but they never do other than maybe a bad cap.
Have you done any repairs on A1000 drives? Mine doesn’t seem to be reading disks and I’ve already cleaned the heads with IPA. The drive looks very clean inside.
You should consider swapping out any electrolytic capacitors too! I've cleaned A2000 and early 500 drives that use the same mech. Clean the metal tape that winds the head back and forward too (assuming it is the same mech). Blow air into the track zero sensor too.
Great video I have a JU-253-033P that I've cleaned and lubricated but it won't work. I insert disc and it tries to read it but just goes back to the hand with disc logo on screen. Re-cap I guess?
Have you cleaned the heads? Also if its a Panasonic, check the SMD electrolytics on there - sometimes Panasonic drives have two PCBs, each containing separate SMD electrolytic capacitors. You can see an example on this other video:- ruclips.net/video/ACie8XY7mcg/видео.html
Thanks for the quick reply, yes I did clean the heads with no result. How do I know which ones to replace?
Well I checked this out:
eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71999
But at least the cap that is visible in front on mine is not and SMD whereas on his model it is. Mine is an 033P his 043P.
Can you upload some photos of your PCB? Generally there will only be 2 or 3 electrolytic capacitors on there, and I would swap all 3.
Really nice video! One suggestion - please add the drive model numbers to the name of the video. I have been looking all over the net for a video on the FZ-354, and this video is one of the few that covers this particular model. With the title as it is currently, searching for "FZ-354" does not show this video as a result. Thanks!
Thanks =D Brilliant idea!
Is there any thing you can tell about the quality of these brands and model of these diskette drives, how high the failure rate is?
Which brand / model have the biggest chance to survice, or either hadnt much problems at all?
The Panasonic and Sony drives used in the Amiga are the best. Teac having some of the worst drives imho.
@@GadgetUK164 I see also a lot of chinon drives around that are repaired and still working to day. Didnt know teac was the worst (yes i have this one in my 500+ system.)
Yeah, Chinon are OK too. They all suffer from the same problems though - needing a general service.
My drive fails to read track 0. I noticed the top head (I mean the metallic box about 5mm big) can wobble/rock back and forth on the underside of the arm that holds it (the arm that moves up and down to press the head against the disk). The bottom head is absolutely fixed relative to the bottom arm, it does not wobble at all. So is it normal for the top head to wobble?
I think @Matthew Richards asked the same question, but I think you took it to mean the whole arm.
The top heads are more flexible in movement than the bottom ones. The bottom one is mounted to a rail so cannot move anywhere near as much as the top one.
Hi, do you have a schematic or service manual for the A500 Chinon floppy drives? I killed mine plugging the power in the wrong way around. I think its a Rev2. Hope you have something, Thank you.
I've never seen schematics for many of these old floppy drives! =/
Just bought an A1200 not reading anything from any drive (internal External and Hdd? Any idears?
Does it throw up the "Kickstart - Stick a disk in screen"?
Does anyone have documentation for these specialized integrated circuits and 68060 processors? Where can I download documentation for these chips? Does anyone have any information on this?! Because I would love to see how they built it back then.
Regards Agnus - the nearest thing is the datasheet for the original Agnus - retro-commodore.eu/files/downloads/amigamanuals-xiik.net/Hardware/Specifications%20Agnus%20-%20Manual-ENG%20.pdf
Probably prior to becoming the Fat Agnus - not sure, I haven't looked. So you would need to look at the clock gen stuff on the early 2000 schematics or 1000 schematics to work out the rest. Alternatively, look at MiSTer source code for the Amiga core(s) - as I am sure someone has probably created it in VHDL or something already. Stephen Leary (TerribleFire) did also create a version of the Agnus, and I believe handed over to Renee Cousins (Buffee - Amiga Project team).
In terms of other ICs, its a similar story - look for datasheets, try and reverse engineer. Also look for emulator source and VHDL from any FPGA implementations (MiSTer). Many of the FDD ICs have very little information on them and often custom to certain drive models etc.
The floppy drive from an A1200 I just bought thinks that it always has a floppy inside, yet when I do have a diskette inside it recognizes it and reads ok. However, when I take out the diskette it then thinks that there is a diskette and there is no way after that to enter a new diskette and read from it, only after a reset. I can't locate where the sensor is located, do you have a layout or some clue to offer?
There are switches at the front left hand side of the drive. 2 little black or white pins that get pressed down when the disk is loaded. Spray some contact cleaner into those switches. Pause at 24:51 - you can see them there near the corrosion. One of those switches is for 'disk change' the other is for the 'write protect'.
GadgetUK164 Yes, I found them, 2 blue pins in my floppy in a black switch. I sprayed some IPA while pressing the switches, pressed some more times and the switch worked again. Thank you !! :-)
Gadgetuk164 can you possibly tell me if the eject buttons are the same on the FB-354 and FZ-354? Thanks ☺
Honestly I have no idea - I dont have those 2 drives to hand to compare!
Hi there, i'm trying to fix an Amiga 500 drive and i'm having problems, i can't seem to find any info. When you put any disk into the drive, it just says "not a DOS disk" I've cleaned the drive several times but no luck. Do you by chance know what causes this error?
The "not a DOS disk" basically means its having trouble reading the data correctly. It could be that one or two of the electrolytics needs replacing, the heads are still perhaps dirty (did you clean both heads with IPA and a cotton bud?) - also consider the plastx cleaning I demonstrated in the 1541-II video I did the other week. You could also try demagentising the heads with a tape head demagnetiser. Finally, the heads could be out of alignment - not something easily remedied without a scope and an original test disk.
Thanks!! I cleaned the heads again and got a read for a few seconds so cleaned them twice more and fingers crossed the drive seems to be working perfectly now :-)
I hope I will get my Amiga 500 Plus soon and I hope it will be working, I need one when the Vampire 2 for the A500 will come out. ;-)
Hehe, yes - the Vampire 2 will increase the value of Amiga 500 / 500+ I think. I would get one now before flocks of people start buying them and pushing prices up! =D
Hey, did you by any chance write down values for 3 capacitors in FZ-354 Amiga drive uF, Voltage, temp? I have exact the same one, I would like to recap it. It works fine, but for futureproofing.
I didn't =/ You would need to take it to bits to work out the sizes - the critical part with these is they are miniture caps - the height is important in places I think.
Might use tantalum as replacement if they are so problematic.
Don't forget to clean the top head too. Amiga drives are double-sided, unlike the 1541.
Yes, thanks - obvious but I didn't actually mention it in this video =D
I am not getting any power on my floppy drive what should I look at for the problem?
Do you mean its completely dead? ie. do you see the heads move at all? Have you checked the voltages going into the power connector on the drive, to make sure there's +12 and +5v?
Hi mate how can you tell if your floppy Drive is the correct one for a A500
Technically all Amiga drives will work with the 500 - but the drives from 2000 / 3000 / 600 / 1200 may have different facia / mount standoffs or button position. There are a LOT of different models of drive for the Amiga. It's a case of looking up the part number of a drive you see on eBay and google it.
great work
Many thanks =D
hope all I we'll man thanks for the videos
Thanks =D
Did not help me.
Have 2 dodgy Amiga floppies (one internal, other - external). Still return errors or make rereads. Notably worse than a hacked SONY PC floppy. Is there any way to ensure better maintenance?
Take a look at my other Amiga FDD repair videos - there's a more recent one where I worked on a very difficult drive.
have you any amiga floppy drives gadget
None for sale sorry!
Hey mate. I got one of these chinion drives for Amiga 500. Should the head (the one on the top) move? Like it can rock backwards and forwards?
Thanks for your reply on the other video . It was a capacitor with the sound problem I had :)
It should only move up and down to accommodate the disk going into the drive. If the top head can be pulled forwards or backwards (separating its profile from being directly above the lower head), then someone might have unscrewed the alignment screws. The only way you would likely get it back into alignment is with a scope and a proper head alignment disk. Great news on your audio problem - well done =D
I think Matthew Richards was asking about the top *head* only (the tiny silver box on the underside of the arm), not the entire top arm. I have the same thing, the arm is fixed by the screws but the head itself wobbles, and my drive will not read so I'd also like to know ;-)
watched couple of your vids, apart from the practical value, they're super satisfying and almost therapeutical 😅 thanks!
I'll try to revive my dead a600 FDD tonight ;)
Thanks, much appreciated =D It's always nice to get positive feedback - that motivates me to do more videos!
PS: Let me know how you get on with the a600 FDD!
GadgetUK164 I've managed to revive it by good cleanup and slight readjustment of the sensor (it was the one mounted at the angle) weirdly it wouldn't work in original position, but works flawlessly after just a slight adjustment, so thank you again for all the tips, you certainly saved me some money! :)
Great job =D
Hi! I just got out my old Amiga 600 and it worked for a day, then I put in a floppy which I think was a little dusty and now it's stuck on the "insert floppy" animation. I saw on eBay that working Amiga 600s tend to go for around £100. Is that accurate ? Is it worth me opening up and repairing?
P.s where are you based? You sound local. Writing from Manchester
Yes, Amiga 600's sell for around £100 - note, they nearly all suffer from leaked SMD capacitors. If those aren't dealt with the electrolyte will corrode the PCB connections. Yes, based in the North West =D
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods thanks for the reply. Basically, if the problem can't be solved by cleaning with cotton buds and lubricating, etc. I won't be able to solve it. If you could tell me how de-magnetising or how to deal with SMD capacitadores, that would be handy (or link me to the relevant previous videos you mentioned in another comment!) Thanks!
I think it's most likely to be the capacitors in the drive tbh, but the SMD caps on the A600 motherboard will also be leaking. You could send the system to Amiga Kit in the UK if you wanted someone else to repair it, but it would likely cost as much to repair as you would get selling it. Chances are, as is it would sell for around £70 to £100 as is on eBay.
Regards de-magnetising the heads, check out my first 1541 disk drive repair there, I used one on that and briefly showed the process.
with ram expansion you could just type avail into cli or shell
Thanks - I didn't know that =D
im going to sub to your channel there are some interesting topics in there :)
Thanks! I do make a lot of mistakes so don't take everything I say as fact =D This channel really is about me getting back into electronics after 20 years and the experiences I've had building up my own collection. Everything I've bought and own now has been repaired, I don't think I've bought a working system. But my collection has pretty much come to the end now so videos might slow down a little.
no worries,im not overly critical about what is said in videos anyway,i do my own repairs.but your videos are interesting,plus you seem easy going
Thanks =D
Hey there i'm struggling with drive repair also, great video helped me a lot but now i have a drive (FB-354 Rev B) which resists working. Most times it shows as DF1:???? (second drive in my A2000), got another drive working as DF1 to rule out A2000. Drive was cleaned, recapped, lubricated. Sometimes (rare) it reads a disk, but with many many sector errors. Could demagnetizing help? Just curious to buy a demagnetizer. Also i made one big mistake before, i had a bad disk in the drive, which made a weird noise, i think it grinded on one of the drive's heads.
The fact it shows as DF1 instead of DF0 indicates a fault on the drive select. If its internal I would suspect a faulty CIA chip on the Amiga. You could swap the two CIA chips around to see if the behaviour changes.
This is expected as DF1, because i set it up on my A2000 as second drive. And another drive works fine as DF1 at that A2000.
Very strange - maybe one of the motors or heads is worn? You could try de-magnetising it!
Ok, then i will get hold of a demagnetizer and try my luck. But few hours ago i tried again with another disk and that also grinded. But not always. I'm assuming now, that the upper head ist too low and grinding on the disk. The disk got acutal marks at the position, the head was. But that's out of my skill to adjust the head to get more distance to the actual disk. More science is needed :) And thanks for your time, it is much appreciated :)
Finally i got it working again, not flawlessly but i'm making progress! It was in fact a misaligned upper head. I think that got a good smash from a bad disk and was a little bit bent or something. I removed the copper shielding on top of the head and so i had access to the mount. I bent it very carefully and used an old disk to get the noise down. Then i used a good Disk and voila, it worked. Still need to make me an X-Copy disk to test the drive, btu progress is progress is good :)
I do hope you have invested in cottonbud stock :D
Brilliant vid m8 where you based .
I've tried to fix my floppy by watching your vid but still sits doing nothing, on powering on the amiga it spins up the head moves a bit then stops, if i eject the disk and reinsert it does nothing I think it could be the disk detection switch on the frone left of the drive. was wondering have you got any working drives for sale.
Ooooh... Oil..!!!! On Metal & Plastic..!!!!!! You need Silicone based grease for plastics.
Depends on the oil but tbh it makes very little difference. I've got drives here that have had oil in there for 20 years and they still work perfectly, plastic hasn't disintegrated or anything! Lithium or silicone based grease is what's recommended though. Grease does probably provide better lubrication vs wear though I would guess. Bottom line is it's one of those things that makes very little difference in this particular scenario.
The problem you have is that plastic parts were made from different recipes and manufacturers would swap as price changes demanded.
General purpose lubricants are not just the synthetic or mineral oil / grease but it is a cocktail of chemicals, this is why plastics have specific lubricants for their use, the main reason being that degradation can happen over time and the damage can be destructive in ways like the plastic melting and parts deform to chemicals breaking down the plastic so it become brittle and weak and can break.
Whilst you may not have seen any issues over the time span you have used a light oil like the one you demonstrated, the parts in question require something a bit more substantial and thicker and appropriate to plastic, some forms of lubrication are not grease based but a spray lubricant like some types of silicone spray, you can get silicone greas like the stuff I got for lubrication of some old CD/DVD Rom drives that have issues with the draw, the re-lubrication of the gears and runners helped solve the problem. I had tried to use a light mineral grease, it caused the plastics to grind, so it took plenty of cleaning and silicone grease to solve the problem.
Quote:
"Chemistry. Typically, lubricants based on silicone, PFAE (perflourinated), most synthetic hydrocarbons (SHC or PAO), or mineral oils work well with plastics. Lubricants based on esters or polyglycols are generally not compatible with plastics, although there are exceptions depending on the type of plastic.
Incompatible lubricants cause plastics to lose dimensional stability or structural integrity, or become discoloured."
Taken off an Engineering site.
So its not the actual grease itself, its the type of chemicals in the grease / oils that determine if your putting your plastics at risk.
You will IMHO doing yourself a big favour by sourcing some lubricants for different plastic types, then you can avoid any potential damage to your hardware.
@@thepvporg Yeah I use a teflon based lubricant specifically designed for machinery
Lol, maybe they were to dumb to flip the Disable switch and you flipped it to make it work!!