Recent content by stepleton

I doubt it. While I don't know for sure, there's likely no way to remove the arm from the shaft of that motor without disassembling the drive down to its mechanical elements. If you had the equipment to replace this motor completely (including the glove box or clean room), you would very likely...

I think don't power-cycle the Lisa itself --- just turn the Lisa on and reset it several times via the Reset button on the back. If I'm not mistaken, then each reset will hopefully get the Widget to try to swing the heads again. I'm worried that a lot of powering up and powering down could do...

Hmm... 5+ times isn't the same as a campaign of a bunch of resets and arm movement attempts right after the other, but it's more than nothing at all. I guess if I were you, I'd try one good session of more concentrated activity, and if that's not moving things along, moving on to something else...

But to your point in the message: if a Widget isn't making progress after a few dozen resets like this, I'd assume some other problem or a mechanism so sticky that the patented stepleton resets-n-prayers method ain't gonna cut it :)

Sorry to hear about this @ried , and thanks for trying. The objective is not just to turn the spindle, though, it's to get the arm swinging. The working theory is that gummed up lubrication is making the arm mechanism stiff and hard the move. If you can repeatedly trigger a power-on...

Can third or fourth the recommendation. Needle-nose pliers to tug that pin right out of there :)

More to know about the servo: Roughly and abstractly speaking, a "servo" is a device that moves to a specific place by measuring where it is and moving itself until it gets where you tell it to go. The Widget's servo is an electronic, mechanical, and optical assembly that moves the drive heads...

There is nothing too sophisticated that you can do through NeoWidEx or BLU until the Widget decides it's ready to talk to you. The Widget has several subsystems, but the ones that are important today are the "controller" and the "servo". The servo is what swings the heads and the controller is...

Good. This is what it looks like when a Widget is waking up, in my experience. Keep at it.

This is a setback, but it may not be a very big deal. The connector is an eight-pin connector for a flat-flex ribbon with what looks like only two conductors. It's possible that you still have up to three pins for each of them: the drive may still work as well as ever in this condition. Do you...

52 is an "I/O board COPS error", and I'm not sure why an expansion card should cause that kind of trouble. How soon does it come up --- right during the power-on tests? Does it happen during the I/O board test or later when the expansion cards are under test? By pinpointing when it happens, it...

Hmm about the Widget --- so after repeated resets, or startups and shutdowns, the heads don't seem to advance any further than they did originally? Don't forget the white ground wire that comes off of the CRT socket. It's easy to forget. (Ask me how I know.)

That's longer than I've ever run a Widget continually :) I think my record is probably an afternoon or so. It would be interesting to see if a few resets during that interval start to get the heads to be a bit more limber. You may not need all of that time...

Happily 341-0289-D is only a ROM; you could make a new one. There are other, real unobtainium chips on your Widget. If I had to choose one Widget chip to fry, I'd probably choose the ROM you mis-installed. In my best estimation: Error 81 is because the drive isn't ready. This is because it...

If the arm is moving at all, which it is, then the brake is disengaged. I'm pretty confident that the brake is no longer a factor here. My advice: be patient. In the same way that you've exercised the spindle so it moves freely again, it's time for the arm to wake up in a similar way. Rather...