5th Generations Jukebox Five Floppy Disk Mechanized Hopper

[pcamen]

Ah, lucky you.  Well, at least mine didn't come all discombobulated.

Yea, something can probably be jury rigged if not 3d printed.  If I can design a 3D printable one, can always have it printed in metal at Shapeways once a fit is determined. 

 

[olePigeon]

Nuts.  The belt that goes from the motor to the gears is too loose.  It keeps coming off.  I'll have to find a new belt for it.

 

[pcamen]

What if you added a small tensioner wheel to press down on the belt somewhere between the two pulley wheels?  Like something from a Lego set.

 

[olePigeon]

Maybe, but I don't have any more LEGO bricks.  I'm heading out to the surplus store today.  They have a decent selection of o-rings and belts.  They just might have one.

 

[olePigeon]

Woohoo!  I was able to find a belt.  It mostly works.  However, the gears and pulleys are (were?) held on by friction onto the shafts.  They're not on permanently.  So when the carriage gets towards the end, it gets stuck and won't push any further as the belt turns.  So I'm going to need to affix the gears to the shafts somehow.  I can get it to go with a manual push.

Any suggestions?  I was thinking of using hot glue because I can remove it if it doesn't work, but I doubt it'll stick to metal.

Or maybe a dab of super glue?

 

[olePigeon]

Anyone have any suggestions on the best way to secure the plastic nylon gears to the metal shaft?  Also, I'm going to re-grease it.  Will silicon grease work, or should I use something else?  Oil?

 

[MOS8_030]

You might consider blue Loctite.

If it doesn't hold it should be able to be removed without leaving residue.

 

[olePigeon]

@MOS8_030  Excellent, thanks.  I'll grab some at the hardware store.

 

[Unknown_K]

Woohoo!  I was able to find a belt.  It mostly works.  However, the gears and pulleys are (were?) held on by friction onto the shafts.  They're not on permanently.  So when the carriage gets towards the end, it gets stuck and won't push any further as the belt turns.  So I'm going to need to affix the gears to the shafts somehow.  I can get it to go with a manual push.

Any suggestions?  I was thinking of using hot glue because I can remove it if it doesn't work, but I doubt it'll stick to metal.

Or maybe a dab of super glue?

I think the problem is the old belt aged and was too lose while the new on is probably too tight.

 

[pcamen]

I would think JB weld might do the trick.  You would have to clean any grease off the shaft though. 

 

[CC_333]

@pcamen Yeah, that could work, but it tends to be more permanent I think?

c

 

[olePigeon]

Good news!  I finally got it working reliably.  I have to replace the gear on my floppy drive, but those arrived as well.  So I just need to replace the gear so it ejects properly.  My bitty floppy drive only halfheartedly ejects, and sometimes it doesn't eject at all.  So I got some replacement gears.

I was banging my head why it didn't have enough power.  So I read through the manual in the troubleshooting sections ... you have to have 4 AA batteries installed even when using the AC adapter.  I'm not sure why, but you do.  Maybe it provides some supplemental power.  Who knows.  But once I put in 4 batteries and connected the AC adapter, it works fine.  Loaded up a stack of floppies and it cycled through them.   Just need to fix my floppy drive and I'll make a video.

I'm also keen to see if any of the adapters are the rights size to attach to an external Apple drive.  Make a completely detached system that doesn't hang off my IIci's front.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Great news, I'm glad to see it's coming along so nicely.

 

[olePigeon]

Aaaand replacement floppy gear broke.  [!]   $7 down the drain.  The top gear part cracked when I slid it onto the shaft.

 

[pcamen]

Anyone know where an STL file can be found for the gear?  I'd be happy to print a bunch.  @gnolivos I think you did a design that was available on Shapeways for a while.  Would you be willing to share it?

@olePigeon I'm guessing the replacement came in PLA?  I can print in ABS which should be more resilient. 

 

[CC_333]

Aaaand replacement floppy gear broke.  [!]   $7 down the drain.  The top gear part cracked when I slid it onto the shaft.

I have an extra drive, the sale of which has fallen through. Would you be interested?

As far as I know, the eject mechanism works fine, but no guarantees....

If you can, PM me if you're interested.

c

 

[olePigeon]

Looks to be either resin or powder printed, it's not a filament.  Just appears to be brittle.  Maybe it wasn't UV cured enough? I don't know.  I have another floppy drive, I just wanted to fix it. :/

I'm going to do a tear down and deep clean a different one.

 

[olePigeon]

SUCCESS!  I'll make a video as soon as practical.  Probably tomorrow.

I refurbished a floppy drive, so that's working well now.  I then used some 3-in-1 oil on the axels of the Floppy Hopper.  It sounded rough before, and now it's getting smooth.  Smoother every time I use it, so I think the oil is working.

I might just take the axels out completely and thoroughly clean off any old grease, then put on a fresh coat, but not before I make a video.

I got it to go through a stack of 5 or 6 floppies, inserting them, then ejecting them, dropping them into the tray and load the next one.

 

[MOS8_030]

Aaaand replacement floppy gear broke.  [!]   $7 down the drain.  The top gear part cracked when I slid it onto the shaft.

I had a couple fail that I got through Shapeways last year. They were good enough to replace them at no charge.

I notice now they're no longer selling them.

 

[jimjimx]

I saw someone in Michigan had one of these, and it looked pretty cool and interesting, but I couldn’t find a useful reason to buy it, other than “just to play with”.