Alberta Old non-working full-height floppy drives: Offers

[bburley]

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I am open to offers on these old floppy drives.

Texas Peripherals
This drive does not appear to be working but I have no info on it.
The spindle motor is always running. The heads do move.
The door latch is nylon pins and is intact.



Qumetrak 142
This drive goes through all of the motions of trying to read a disk, but I am not set up to properly test.
My test system only has 360K for the smallest option, but this is a 180K/320K drive, and I am not that enthusiastic about going further to do a better test.
Afterwards I noticed that there are two broken wires on the top floppy-hole sensor. These wires were intact when I scanned the images.
The drive has a cardboard sleeve over the mechanism and electronics, and placing the sleeve back on the drive must have been what broke the wires.



Tandon TM100-2A
This drive is a 360K and does not appear to be working.
It goes through the motions of trying to read a disk but seems a bit noisy.
It is also missing the 150 ohm terminating resistor pack.
The door latch is the brass pin and is intact.



(no room to attach the last two images)

 

[bburley]

The last two images.

 

[jafir]

Qumetrak 142 should work as a 360K, the difference between 320 and 360 is just the format used. After DOS 2, they changed from 8 sectors per track to 9, and boom 360K.

https://minuszerodegrees.net/diskette/some_floppy_maths.htm

I’ve got an IBM PC drive “new” in the box that advertises as a 320K drive.

This drive, with a half height bezel instead, was used in the PCJr.

 

[bburley]

In that case, I don't think the Qumetrak was working even before I broke the sensor wires

 

[Chuck(G)]

That's an unusual faceplate for the Qume--the drive is a half-height unit. Bitsavers has a very complete maintenance manual on it.

 

[shirsch]

I think the Tandy TRS-80 4P uses a half-height drive with a full bezel. Might be from one of those.

 

[SomeGuy]

My Honeywell OEMed Columbia Data Products 1600 had one of those Qume drives with the full height bezel in it. My impression was that this let the drive be used in an enclosure that only had the screw mounting for a single full height drive.

But that lever is awkward as hell.

 

[hornbetw]

The TRS-80 4P has half-height drives with half-height face plates, the 4D has the half-height drives with full-height face plates.

 

[twolazy]

What do you want for the Tandon? Been looking for a full height 360k IBM branded one for my XT! Fact it tries to work.... And I can come up with something for the resistor pack.... Love a real working drive B, vs TEAC I am using now with the GoTek. Last part I need.

 

[ldkraemer]

bburley,
The TPI Floppy drives are SS/DD Floppy Drives. These were a CHEAP knockoff
of the Tandon TM-100 series produced for the TRS-80 Model 4 and described in
the Model 4 Service Manual.

Both the Tandon and TPI drives need to have the Hinge Point of the Floppy Door
verified as having installed a full length piece of Brass versus the cheap two short
White Nylon Pins. These Pins allow the Hinge part to mis-align and break the Hinge
Part. Parts are available to easily replace the short White Pins and a broken Hinge.

The Tandon TM-100 should have the two 16V 47uF Capacitors replaced, because they
will leak and eat the PCB traces from the RPM Board. I have repaired several of these
RPM Boards using hollow copper rivets.


Larry

 

[bburley]

What do you want for the Tandon?

Just send me a DM with your offer. They are only worth what someone is happy with

Thanks to @ldkraemer I have now seen the manuals for the Texas Peripherals drive. It mentions the TRS-80 Model 4 as a "Gate Array Version" computer. Now I am wondering if this Gate Array controller went with the Tandon or the Texas Peripherals drives.

 

[bburley]

Both the Tandon and TPI drives need to have the Hinge Point of the Floppy Door
verified as having installed a full length piece of Brass versus the cheap two short
White Nylon Pins. These Pins allow the Hinge part to mis-align and break the Hinge
Part. Parts are available to easily replace the short White Pins and a broken Hinge.

The Tandon TM-100 should have the two 16V 47uF Capacitors replaced, because they
will leak and eat the PCB traces from the RPM Board. I have repaired several of these
RPM Boards using hollow copper rivets.


Larry

I have seen this info. If I stop to work on everything I will be less successful in reducing my collection and making more room

 

[jafir]

Now I am wondering if this Gate Array controller went with the Tandon or the Texas Peripherals drives.

It looks like an ST506 type hard drive controller. One of the stickers says RLL so maybe it’s an RLL controller?

 

[bburley]

I should have looked closer. There is no Floppy connector on that card. I was just focused on the Tandon brand and the phrase "Gate Array Controller".

 

[twolazy]

Just send me a DM with your offer. They are only worth what someone is happy with

Sorry, I didn't notice you were in Canada. As much as I love to have it, I'll leave it for someone in Canada as well. If you are going to scrap it, I would love the faceplate.

 

[wperko]

Hi,

There seems to be lots of discussion about the drives, but IF nobody buys them, I'm happy to pay shipping them to me in Las Vegas 89108 where I can at a minimum set them up and connect to my Altair 8800c to exercise them and store them until somebody comes along looking for a specific drive or for parts. That's much better than tossing them in the trash.


.

 

[bburley]

These drives have all gone to a new home.

 

[wperko]

Hi,

Yup! I received all three drives today ... My first step is to laser cut nice wood cabinets for each to help protect them from damage. Getting them up 'n running or parting out will be down the road.

.

 

[bburley]

Good to hear
I suspect one or two might be repairable.