Sony SuperDrive Floppy Drive does not format or read

[ironborn65]

hi,
this is the week of "resurrecting floppy drives".
After cleaning, lubrication and alignment I was able to resurrect a couple of Superdrives.

This is one in particular which is driving me crazy (put not intended). The head were loose, it could not recognize floppies, so I increased the tension of the head spring by hooking it to a more distant dent.
It can properly read original floppy disks and those one formatted by known working floppy drive.
When I say "read" I mean that it can copy the entire content from the floppy to the HD, not just read the FAT.

This drive can not write or format, claiming the floppy disk is defective, but it can be formatted and read by the known working one.
I tried many disks but the story is always the same.

Any idea? Could be the capacitors?

 

[ironborn65]

I was wondering ... is someone aware of a diagnostic software for floppy drivers?
I wish to have stats about the bad blocks, I do not even know if it this is possible
PF

 

[olePigeon]

@ironborn65 I'm not aware of any alignment software for Macintosh. Apple did have some internal software for doing it (there're a couple of nifty videos of an Apple assembly floor with all the computers being tested), but nothing commercial that I'm aware of. I feel like I read an old article about actual Sony software for disk alignment, but it was only for 400K drives on the original Macintosh.

The best thing I've found so far is the Trackmate Hyperbrush software I managed to track down. However, I haven't used the software on a malfunctioning drive. So perhaps it actually can help diagnose and repair alignment outside of just running a cleaning disk. I'd be very interested to know. It does report on the rotational speed of the drive, however, so if that can potentially affect how the drive reads & writes.

 

[ironborn65]

@olePigeon thanks so much, I'll have a look.
For the alignment at the moment I set the end-of-track sensor to the most advanced position, i.e. to the front of the drive.
I insert a known working original floppy and I check to see it's mounted it ask for initialization. I have a window of a couple of seconds
It takes a while but most of the time I can find the right spot.
I wish there is a software that keeps reading the FAT instead of trying only for a couple of seconds. I do not even know if this can be done, maybe the logic is in the floppy hardware. I did not find documentation on the protocol Mac - Floppy drive.
In case it's not recognized, I eject, move the sensor a bit backward and re-insert.
In some occasions it's necessary to gently press down the head, so I understand I have to increase the force of the head spring.
It's not so easy, sometimes when mounted it can not read it all or format it.

But I'm now wondering if 30 years old floppies have a weak magnetic field that impede formatting.

I know there are plenty of option to floppy nowadays (floppyemu, SCSI2SD, serial cable, macsd...), but I like to have a fully working original Mac.

 

[ironborn65]

I found this amazing piece of device https://applesaucefdc.com/
Which is rather expensive but I'm unsure it can solve the issue of the head alignment

 

[waynestewart]

I don't think Applesauce will help you, it's designed to just make disk images

 

[olePigeon]

@waynestewart @ironborn65 Well ... the latest AppleSauce software now has both an analyzer and diagnostic suite of tools to make sure the floppy drive you're using is suitable for flux imaging. It actually might do the job.

I have a Rev 1 AppleSauce. I could hook it up and see what it does.

I'm tempted to get a Rev 2 AppleSauce since it also works with PC floppy drives as well. It's evolved into a regular Catweasel or Kyroflux now, but with superior Apple floppy support.

 

[cheesestraws]

diagnostic suite of tools to make sure the floppy drive you're using is suitable for flux imaging

Now that's a useful trick.

The "traditional/normal" means of doing head alignment involves a special floppy disc (which you can't make in a normal floppy drive) and an oscilloscope. The special floppy has analogue signals on the tracks and a leaflet to tell you what you should see on the oscilloscope for each track. The more common method these days seems to be "fiddle with it until it works". Both of these options fill me with dread, personally. If the AppleSauce is somehow able to measure head alignment (or at least tell you whether it's within tolerance), then that would be a really really nice thing.

 

[LaPorta]

@waynestewart @ironborn65 Well ... the latest AppleSauce software now has both an analyzer and diagnostic suite of tools to make sure the floppy drive you're using is suitable for flux imaging. It actually might do the job.

I have a Rev 1 AppleSauce. I could hook it up and see what it does.

I'm tempted to get a Rev 2 AppleSauce since it also works with PC floppy drives as well. It's evolved into a regular Catweasel or Kyroflux now, but with superior Apple floppy support.

I would like a AppleSauce 2 also. I saw they have upgrade kits for the 1 to make it a 2....you might want to look into that.

 

[olePigeon]

@cheesestraws @LaPorta I'm just going by the pictures. I don't want to mislead anyone. I shouldn't have said "now has" because I'm not 100% certain. It certainly appears to have.

Applesauce Client Software – applesauce

I'll fiddle with my Rev 1 and see what it's all about.

 

[olePigeon]

@ironborn65 @cheesestraws @LaPorta @waynestewart Here's a video I captured of the diagnostic tools and analyzer. I don't know how useful it would be for actually adjusting the drive, but it can at least tell you where it's gone wrong. My drive is lubricated and serviced, so no errors are reported (fortunately.)

It also has a sync sensor installed, so I think that helps a lot in its ability to diagnose a floppy drive.

 

[cheesestraws]

Bonus points to whoever developed that UI and visualisation, that's very classy.

 

[olePigeon]

I just noticed something. Is my "noise" off the charts?

 

[LaPorta]

I think that is pretty awesome. That is software in conjunction with the AppleSauce? That runs on macOS?

 

[olePigeon]

Yeah, requires the AppleSauce.