512k sweep/power supply help

[JRL]

Are you sure you want to? The cheapest analog board on ebay now is $80.

 

[Patnukem]

I found a kind person to send me one for a good price with a keyboard and mouse. not nearly that much. the ones on ebay are way over priced. I was waiting for a mac plus to take one out of but a brand new one is even better.

 

[JDW]

I am getting a brand new analog board (along with a mouse and keyboard)

"Brand new"?

Those do crop up on EBAY about once a year. I know because I purchased such an Apple Service part, never used before, on EBAY in the past. But they are rare. And I must say that I was simply "blessed" the day I bid on it as others clearly did not spot that auction. If they had, I certainly would have been outbid. I only paid $35 for it. But it cost me another $35 to ship to Japan.

But if you mean you are buying a "used, but good condition" analog board, you still have to beware. Because any "used" board technically could have been "abused" as well. In such a case, your situation would not be different from now, and you would still need to replace some parts. At minimum, C1 needs to be replaced on many boards.

 

[Patnukem]

no it was a sealed service part (had to take it out of the box to fit in the shipping one with the keyboard) I told him I would feel bad using it but I got such a good deal I could not say no and he said he just wanted it to go somewhere where it would get used.

 

[JRL]

After you replace the analog board, you should use your HD 20 and a 800k drive for a nice setup!

 

[Patnukem]

I have two 3rd party 800 drives and a numeric pad that I am going to put with it too. I just need to get some files on to the HD20 for making my lisa disks, the first way I tried did not work so I will have to try some others.

 

[Patnukem]

the new board showed up today and worked great. (I have to adjust the image a bit) I also had to shorten the mouse cable about 5 inched because of a break inside cause one of the axis not to work but now it works great. now I need to figure out how to get me disks made on one of my other macs.

 

[JRL]

Now tell me, who could have caused so much damage to your Lisa and 512k? Seems like the old owners were sadistic Windows fans or something.

 

[Patnukem]

well the lisa I found in a pile of free stuff one day, very lucky I may add, with some kind of sticky pop residue ALL over it, still the faint spackle of silver paint on part of it (the place I got it was used by this guy here who has a van covered with circuit boards that is probably where the Memory and Cpu boards went). the 512k was acting up and that was my fault that the analog board got stuff picked off of it. but I set it right and fixed it whats the best way to adjust the picture, is it ok to do it while it is turned on, and how should I prop it up without the case?

 

[Patnukem]

finally got the HD-20 to boot (Had to dig for some Low D disks for the 512k) I am going to be asking in the trading post about some new 400k disks for the 512k and lisa.

 

[JDW]

You'll be hard pressed to find 400k disks. But 800k are all you need. Just format them as 400k, since you only need 1 side of the disk. And the nice part is, should you every want to reformat them as 800k, it's a snap! You can also use 720k PC disks, if you can find them.

 

[Patnukem]

I figured I could use 800k disks but I was also told (in the trading post) I can use HD disks? I did not think that was possible.

 

[JDW]

You were told wrong. You cannot use HD disks.

 

[tomlee59]

JDW is correct -- using an HD disk is a bad idea. HD and DD media are just barely different enough to cause unreliable operation. Things get a bit better if the media have been bulk-erased (or otherwise made equivalent to a virgin floppy, not merely a reformatted one), but it's still best to avoid the trick altogether, except in emergencies, perhaps.

 

[Patnukem]

o you know what I have a bulk tape eraser, I was thinking of using it to see if it would revive some of my dead disks (400/800k ones) I am glad I thought the disks were different and then people told me they were not and it made it all confused.

 

[tomlee59]

o you know what I have a bulk tape eraser, I was thinking of using it to see if it would revive some of my dead disks (400/800k ones) I am glad I thought the disks were different and then people told me they were not and it made it all confused.

It can get confusing, indeed, especially since not all of the information on the web is correct. Here's a quick summary:

Mac 400K/800K floppies are the same, magnetically speaking, as PC 720K floppies. The only difference is in the formatting.

400K floppies are written on one side only. Both sides are used in 800K floppies.

Mac 1.4M floppies are the same as PC 1.4M (HD) floppies. These disks have an extra hole to identify the media as HD.

Some people used to drill/melt an extra hole in 720K/800K floppies to turn them into 1.4M floppies. Reliability is poor.

Some other people have put tape over the hole in 1.4M floppies in an effort to convert them into 720K/800K floppies. Again, reliability is poor, although using a bulk eraser prior to formatting can improve performance (sometimes markedly so). It's still best simply to use true 720K floppies. Although many stores no longer carry them, they can still be obtained from a variety of online sources, so there's no compelling reason to use unreliable "conversion" methods.

 

[Patnukem]

although I can not seem to run disk copy from the 512k I have some 400k and 800k disks that do not format I will try the bulk eraser on them and see if they are useable.