A500 external 3.5" FDD Replacement?

[Wiffleplop]

Back when the A500 was new, and I had a full head of hair, I bought an external 3.5" FDD for my machine, which I later used while I was in the games graphics design business, until one day it just stopped working. I think it was when I pulled out a disk when the drive was still chewing on it, but given the time in between, I really couldn't say for certain.

It's been languishing in my parents' loft until last night when I went on a hunt for Amiga related stuff, so I retrieved it (and some other fun stuff), and today I've opened it up to see if it can be made to work again. The drive inside is an NEC unit marked FD1035, and is of immense proportions compared to my space A1200 FDD. I've removed it with a view to putting in the modern FDD, but although the pin-outs are all standard FDD, it looks like the unit will need to be moved up within the metal shield to align with the slot. I can cope with that once I've measured up, but I'm also curious to see whether there's any mileage in repairing the old unit, which physically seems to be in remarkably good condition (after a visual inspection for blown components), considering where it has been.

If not, I'd also be interested to know whether there's a point on the modern FDD that I could solder the drive activity light that was attached to the NEC unit by a 2-pin white connector, so I could go for outward authenticity.

Here's a stock pic (render?) of the drive I'm on about:

[Wiffleplop]

Well that's interesting - I think I've just found the problem. There's a tiny little web of clear plastic with connectors that run from the head to a PCB patch-board where they change to wires for the journey onto the controller. The outermost trace is ripped away from the patch-board, as you might be able to see in the accompanying photo:

I'm gonna take a guess that it's not repairable, and would need a replacement head at the very least. Anyone disagree?

[ajk]

The image is just a bit out of focus there, is the trace ripped off the board but still attached to the flex cable, or is the flex cable itself broken? It might be repairable with some miniature soldering work, but hard to say

[Wiffleplop]

The trace and the flex cable is ripped at just the outer cable. Is this sort of tiny soldering even possible? :S

Incidentally, the candidate for the replacement unit is a Chinon FZ-354. I'm going to test it loose in the chassis to see if it's compatible before I make any decision. I've looked around for intact NEC drives, or spares, but as you can imagine, they're pretty much non-existent.

[Wiffleplop]

I hardly believe it myself, but I managed to solder the wire directly to the broken trace, but on installation, nothing happens, Although the drive did once show up as df1:????? For a brief moment.

I swapped the NEC drive out for the Chinon and the same happened, although the insertion routine was much snappier. Not sure where to go from here really

[brett71]

Just my $0.02 worth, but instead of trying to search in vain for a like-for-like replacement, I'd recommend just going to Amibay or eBay and see if someone's selling a used external drive. They do come up now and again. I'm not sure which site it was one, but I saw a couple of ads, one was selling a single Master 3A-1 external floppy and another ad was selling a pair of Master 3A-1's.

[jbenam]

Originally Posted by Wiffleplop

The trace and the flex cable is ripped at just the outer cable. Is this sort of tiny soldering even possible? :S

It is definitely doable, if a bit difficult

Originally Posted by Wiffleplop

I hardly believe it myself, but I managed to solder the wire directly to the broken trace, but on installation, nothing happens, Although the drive did once show up as df1:????? For a brief moment.

I swapped the NEC drive out for the Chinon and the same happened, although the insertion routine was much snappier. Not sure where to go from here really

You need to expose the underlying track by scraping with a blade. Otherwise you will just "solder" on the plastic and it won't work

Be very careful when doing that, otherwise you'll probably do an even bigger damage (not that it won't matter much, as the drive is dead anyway)!

[Wiffleplop]

I'm starting to wonder why there's no drive noises though... I wouldn't have thought that the lack of electrickery to one trace on the read/write heads would turn the drive into a dead'un, and would have expected to hear some drive sounds such as the stepping of the heads or the motor, but there's nothing. I wonder if I'd have more luck putting another DSDD NEC drive into the box, or should I just shelve it? The other option would be to gut the drive and use it as a retro-housing for a more modern drive. It's a shame to waste £250 completely